USA Olympian, Chari Hawkins, on overcoming mental and physical obstacles!

Chari shares a life-altering moment from a major heptathlon competition in Gotsis, Austria, where she focused on enjoying the experience rather than stressing about performance. This mindset shift resulted in personal bests and marked the start of her mental health journey. Through candid insights, Chari discusses the importance of separating personal worth from athletic achievements and the mental strategies she adopted to manage anxiety and rekindle her love for the sport.

She went from injured to USA champion to 2024 USA OLYMPIAN! Go Chari! Overcoming many obstacles to get here. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Overcoming Mental Obstacles in Sports
• 8:53 Mental Obstacles and Physical Challenges
• 20:16 Finding Strength Through Adversity
• 24:13 Journey in Sports and Self-Discovery

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Elevate your Brand podcast, where we help online coaches learn how to elevate their brand, become the experts in their industries so they can bring in more clients and create a life they want. I am your host, chris Anderson, and if you want to make a difference in the lives of others, share this episode, go over to Apple Podcasts and follow us there to leave a positive rating and review and together we can leave a bigger positive mark on the world. We can leave a bigger positive mark on the world. All right, welcome back to another recording of Elevate your Brand. I'm Chris Sanderson, your host and excited for today's guest. You guys might know who she is if you're into sports, especially track and field, like I am Today. We have Shari Hawkins on the show today, just going to dive into her journey, overcoming mental battles, physical battles and really hurtling all those obstacles along her way to where she is today. So, shari, welcome to Elevate your Brand.

Speaker 2: 0:54

Thank you. Thank you so much. How are you? You're in Indiana.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Yeah, yeah, doing well. Sun's shining, so we can't complain when that happens here.

Speaker 2: 1:03

So how long do you guys get like a full fall season, or how long does that usually last?

Speaker 1: 1:08

yeah, it depends. We put bets on that. Do we have a week of fall weather before it's winter, or are we going to get a little extended time, hopefully a little bit extended, but we never know here, unfortunately I'm from idaho and I swear to you, it's just the most beautiful fall and everybody's yay fall fall.

Speaker 1: 1:27

And then, all of a sudden, you wake up and there's a blanket of snow and you're like I know it's like fall and spring, of course, like my favorite seasons, and fall especially, but it's like it's so short here. I feel like I'm getting shorter and shorter. Uh, so hopefully we'll have a little bit extended time. My friend one of my really close friends is from idaho, so he talks about just going back there and the beauty and everything and just indiana yeah, he moved up here.

Speaker 2: 1:52

We went to college together, like that difference, with no mountains yeah, he misses.

Speaker 1: 1:56

He talks about going back quite a bit because of that, because it's so flat here and everything. But I tell him I need I next time you go out there I need to go with you and just see what it's all about in person. So, growing up in Idaho, you're in San Diego now. How have you moved any other places in?

Speaker 2: 2:13

between I mean my, my journey. It's not like too elaborate, but pretty much so. I was born and raised in Idaho and then went to school at Utah State in Logan, Utah Pretty similar really cold in the winter, miserable, but really beautiful in the summer and the fall. So vibes and then moved from Utah to Santa Barbara, california, trained professionally there for two years. Then I moved overseas and went to school, got my master's degree in education at the university of bath and did track while I was there as well, and then now I'm currently training in San Diego, california. So it's been a little bit of back and forth, but not crazy.

Speaker 1: 2:58

How'd you like doing your master's out of the U S?

Speaker 2: 3:00

Oh my gosh, it was amazing. It was a one-year program to get your master's degree. You can't really like you can't really knock that. And then I love England so much, it was so amazing. A lot of people always say that they hate the food there. I loved the food.

Speaker 1: 3:14

It was amazing.

Speaker 2: 3:15

Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah, and honestly, I'll be completely upfront, I would. I I ran to England. I ran away to England because I was escaping my own anxiety and my own stress and all that kind of stuff, but it was huge for me because I got a lot better with track. I felt like I did need a little bit of a new environment and it was really cool too. I got to go train with college athletes again and I felt like they gave me new fresh energy, just wide-eyed that kind of thing. They were just like, yay, let's go work out. And I felt like they gave me like new fresh energy, just like wide-eyed that kind of thing. And they were just like, yay, let's go work out. And I was like, yeah, so it was really cool to be able to go away. And it was the off year, so there was no like world championship year or anything. So it was like the perfect like situation for me.

Speaker 2: 4:02

And I think, honestly, had I not gone to England, I probably wouldn't have continued training I was getting. It was getting like really bad, my anxiety, I basically I had basically told myself that if I win, like you're a good person, congratulations, and if you or not, even when, cause, in the heptathlon I didn't really focus on winning, but if you didn't like, do really well and get like the best in at least like three of the seven events, congratulations. You're a terrible person now. And if you did really good, like you're, great, but if not, like nah you're. It was just causing a lot of havoc in my mental state. Obviously that makes a lot of sense for a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Of course that would that identity tied to the results instead of you as a person, right.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Yes, exactly, and I think that's pretty common in sport. But if you really think about that, who would want to compete if the thing that was up for grabs was your value? It wasn't a trophy, it was your value as a human. That's what you were competing for, and it was just really rough. So moving to England was really nice for me, just to get like a fresh start. I came back didn't help, and, but then I had to go and do a lot of mental work myself and that's really when all of the magic really started to happen.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Yeah, and I think that's like a change of environment is so beneficial, I think, and that's really when all of the magic really started to happen. Yeah, and I think that's like a change of environment is so beneficial, I think, and people don't necessarily give it enough credit, like when you're around the same people all the time, the same location, the same environment over and over, and it's not helping you improve. Sometimes we've got to take those steps and that leap of faith to try something different and get something different, a different perspective for that really the stepping point for healing, and I think that's cool that you were able to do that. I know my wife went to London for a study abroad for a month. She loved it. She liked the food too.

Speaker 2: 5:56

Oh, I loved it. Yeah, and the thing is like going to what you said because I really liked it. It is true, it can be so refreshing to have a change of environment, change of location and just going away and getting a little bit upset. But I also want to reiterate I learned this the hard way is that it doesn't get you to stop doing the work, and I think a lot of us don't want to do the work. Can I move, please? And it turns out yes, it's very helpful to get a new environment, wipe it, have a little bit of a clean slate, but at the end of the day, that work still needs to be done.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Yeah, 100%. And before I started Elevate, I used to be an athletic trainer and so that was a lot of things that I saw going into. It is we have all these physical problems, but we're the athletes. A lot of times they're just putting band-aids on it, Just hey, let's just get by, let's not fix the issues. And then being able to talk to these high school and then college age kids about what's going on and seeing like there is so much mental healing that needs to happen or growth, and again just band-aids being put on it.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Like you said, you've got to take the action and do the work to start having that growth. And when I was in college, we hosted the NAIA, a national track event there, and it was the best time ever Just seeing all these athletes from around the world that are in college competing just at that level. And, with that being said, there is a lot more. They put a lot more weight on their shoulders at that level competing, so it increases what's already there. So if you have a lot of that mental strain or unhealed places in your mindset, it just exasperates you With that. What actions did you coming back from the UK? What actions or steps did you take to start really making those situations in your mind known and then healing them?

Speaker 2: 8:00

Yeah, I think the biggest thing was I had to be aware that it was still an issue, right, and I got taught that it was an issue the hard way. Indoor nationals in 2019, 2019 indoor nationals. There was a lot, of, a lot more pressure than I think people realize on me because of the circumstance that I was in at the time. And so I got there and I was just stressed. I was so stressed I couldn't even believe it and my body completely seized up on me. I pulled like my hamstring and I am like hyper mobile. I'm like a hyper mobile person. I do not have issues with pulled hamstrings, like never have. It was just I was. I was stressed myself out so much. I completely injured myself. And I remember my parents were there, we were in New York and I was like I'm not doing this again and I think they were you're done, what are you talking about? And I was like I gotta go to work. I gotta go to work. So my biggest thing was just I started asking questions to everybody hey, have you ever had anxiety? Hey, have you ever had anxiety? Hey, you have. I don't know, you don't know me, but have you ever had anxiety? What causes it and finally I got my answer after asking a lot of questions. Basically, somebody was talking about how it was just at the forefront of my mind and somebody was talking about how there was a person who I was like, yeah, this person like never really has anxiety and they're like, yeah, they don't. Like, they just don't see the how important their meat is. They just are like, oh, it's just a meat, and like it was just really interesting. Because I was like what do you mean? Don't put they, don't see how important it is, like it is just a meat, like in my mind and I was thinking like, oh wait, I'm legitimately putting my value as a person on my performance and I just didn't know that before you think about that, you think, oh, like now, but like I never really thought about the fact, like I'm genuinely putting my value as a human being on this. It like is riding on this performance and I just made this conscious effort to say at this comp, at this next competition, no matter what, I'm going to just have fun. And it was like the biggest.

Speaker 2: 10:09

At that point it was the biggest competition of my life. So it was in Gotsis, austria, and my like idols were all there and so I was like, oh my goodness, I had never. It was my first like big meet where I was like competing, all of these like elite, elite women, and Gotsis is also like really big for the heptathlon, so there's like thousands of people there, so it was a huge deal. But I promised myself you are working on something right now, like no matter what happens, you will just have fun, you are not going to be upset, you are not going to worry because it doesn't matter, you're just going to focus like practice. So what happened is I got my first bar in high jump and then I missed my next bar and I hadn't jumped that low since high school. So there was part of me that wanted to be like oh. But then I was like promise.

Speaker 1: 11:09

Those tests. It's funny those tests happen in our and when we're really trying to grow and get better, we always get thrown those tests. Are you really going to do that? Are you really going to stick with your growth plan?

Speaker 2: 11:19

Exactly so. They were like you promised. And so I was like so I shrugged my shoulders and I started laughing and I went over to my parents, who came all the way from Idaho to Austria, and I gave them a hug and I was like that was embarrassing. And then, and like I said, there was like a huge crowd of people and they all just started laughing, right. And the thing is, this is my first like big meet, and so this is my. This was my opportunity to make a name for myself. Like none of these girls had ever seen me compete. Like I wanted the reaction to be positive. I didn't want them to be like okay, so she's terrible high jumper, you know what I mean. And so I went over there and I had a friend there and I went over. I was like, well, that'll get you. That's not what we are usually looking for during high jump, but I guess that's that.

Speaker 2: 12:07

Afterwards, kjt came up to me, who is my wonderful friend now she's so wonderful, but like back then, she was just um, actually funny side story when, before the competition started, I went to go up to her to introduce myself and be like I'm really excited to compete against you. I just want to introduce myself. My name is Shari and I went up to there and you know what I said I went I love you. That is what I said to her. She's so sweet, oh, she's so sweet. She was like like she didn't know what to say. She, what? Oh, she sat there, she just wanted to say something nice, but she didn't know. She wasn't expecting that and neither was.

Speaker 2: 12:48

I came up to me after the high gym and she was like hey, I just wanted to let you know that was really cool, like that, your attitude's like really good. She said something like that, that, and I was like oh. And then I was like okay, cool, it's like this is what I'm going to do for the rest of the meat, like reminder, like you promised. And then chopper came haven't thrown, chop, put that bad.

Speaker 2: 13:13

I don't think ever was I throwing with my left foot on my left hand or left foot, I don't know, we'll never know, but same thing, just oh, 200 didn't go that bad, I will say, but it wasn't that great either. So it was like oh, and I really just had this attitude of like everything's going to be okay, I'm enjoying this, this is cool. And then the next day I had a personal best day too and honestly I just was like, oh, no matter what, doing good or doing bad, I was just like oh, and I realized like afterwards I was like that was the first time I ever did a pentathlon or heptathlon without an anxiety attack.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Wow.

Speaker 2: 13:53

My whole career in college, all through college, all through my professional career. My first time I didn't have a full blown lose my vision, falling under the stadium panic attack, and all I decided to do was just like enjoy it. And it was this humongous aha moment for me. So that was a really long way of saying that's how I figured out.

Speaker 1: 14:17

That was like the first step of my actual mental training journey that's awesome and, yeah, I think it gives good kind of perspective on your journey too. And the mental health journey never ends. I've been, I, yeah, I've been on mine. It never ends because we always have something different or something new come up and like for you. So you had that moment, finally no anxiety, but the me. And then what is it? Not long after that, or around the same time, you injured your ankle right yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:47

So I made. I ended up a little bit later that year. I ended up making it to world championships for the first time and it was huge for me and I'll be. This is like me being like you. You know how people are like, oh, I could have X, Y, Z, but I like hey, whatever. But I will say I'm going to be just completely honest with myself. I have never been more prepared for a competition Like you, never been more like laser focused for a competition than I was for world championships. Because the next year was the Olympics and I was like I'm so close to the Olympic standard, All I have to do is get the Olympic standard and then next year, like I'm going to the Olympics, Like I, I can do that, I'm so close already, Like I got this.

Speaker 2: 15:29

So I for it was eight weeks before the world championships I had the most ridiculous regimen. It is absolutely not sustainable. Highly 10 out of 10. Do not recommend. But I wrote down. Every single minute of my day was accounted for and all of it was very like okay, we're getting a massage twice a week, we're getting, we're doing. I had a five hour recovery regime at night and I had a two hour morning routine and and then I went to practice all day and then I went to sleep. That was my day and, like eating perfectly at the same time, every single day in between events had the exact same meal. Things could not have gone better.

Speaker 2: 16:14

And the day before I left for the competition, my coach and I were doing box jumping for long jump and I landed and my ankle turned and just snapped and I thought because of how many times it snapped and I was in full shock, like instantly I knew my body was in shock. So I was like, okay, there's a chance, my ankle's not attached to my foot right now. There's a chance, my foot's not attached to my leg right now. If I can stand up, I'm still going to go stood up. And I stood up, fine. And I was like, okay, I sprayed my ankle really bad, I'm fine, I can take this up, I can go.

Speaker 2: 16:54

And it was I think it was six, five days, six days before five or six days before the actual competition and my ankle blew up like crazy. But I just like ice, hot cold, hot cold. Like I got rid of that swelling. I ended up getting on the way to Doha, Qatar. I ended up getting a whole row to myself and I just put my foot up in the air and then every 15 minutes my alarm would go off and I would like massage my leg and everything was literally like we're doing this, we're doing this, we're doing this and I ended up doing okay for somebody with, I found out later, I completely broke my foot, like my talus, like completely shattered it, and then I pulled.

Speaker 2: 17:39

Not only I, not only pulled, I wish I pulled. I snapped not just two of the ankle tendons, all four on yeah we snapped them off my osteopath would. She'd tell me she's like you have no ligaments that takes a lot.

Speaker 1: 17:57

I do have no ligaments.

Speaker 2: 17:58

What do you mean? She's like you have no ligaments. Yeah, my whole foot was just attached on to my by my Achilles. That was the only thing still happening. Everything else was just completely gone. And I still ended up. I think I took top 12. I went in 24th, I took top 12 and it was just like this, really incredible experience. I didn't get, obviously, the score that I wanted, but it was this like mental fortitude, like I can do this.

Speaker 2: 18:22

And then I got shatteredly humbled by not making the team in 2021. And then I had to go back to work because, like you said, the mental journey never, ever ends. And it never ends, no matter how like good you get at it, no matter how hard you work, and that's actually a good thing Things end.

Speaker 2: 18:39

It's kind of like life would get boring if, all of a sudden, we were just perfectly mentally tough all the time. That's what we want to do, because the lows are low, so when the highs are high we're like, yeah, let's stay here, but after a while that would get really boring. We need the dips so that we can appreciate the highs.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Yeah, no, I think that's very well said and I think it was around that time and I can't remember now exactly when I found you and started following your journey and saw the injury and everything. I think just from again my past athletic trainer oh my goodness, like, because that takes a lot of that, takes a lot to do that to to an ankle and then your surgery and coming back from that, was there a different, you know, mental game that you had to play after surgery and getting back physically.

Speaker 2: 19:21

So, interestingly, I will be like fully honest. I didn't have any sort of mental game going out of surgery. I think I had this like just trust that I was going to make the team. Like I said, I know I can do it. I know I can do it and I'll be honest, like there was not a day, not one day, until April probably May actually, because I was going to say April 30th, but it was more like May 5th where I didn't have pain at practice and I'm talking like my coach would be like why are you doing that?

Speaker 2: 19:51

And I'm like it's a limp, it's called a limp. Why do we limp, coach? You know what I mean? Like she'd be like you're not like doing it, and I'm like, yeah, because I'm limping, and so it was a really, really sad for me, because you like look back and you're, oh, I probably cried five or six days a week minimum. So on the way home, sobbing, just read and ended up not making the team, which just made all that crying just so much better, doesn't it? No, it put me. It put me pretty bit down, um, but I will say that is how I came up with 30 days with shari in general, and so was it all worth it? Would I have? I don't know, I go back and forth, but stuff out of it for sure yeah, no.

Speaker 1: 20:46

I think it's like when people say, do you have any regrets in your past? Like, yeah, I mean there are a lot of regrets. Now would I change things Because it's got to be where we are. But yeah, I think that's really good. So, yeah, 30 days with Shara. What is all that about? For those listening.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Yeah. So basically, after not making the team, I just was, I was just done. I think the whole year was just so exhausting mentally and I was just. There was so many emotions involved and I realized that I just, I was like man, like this was not worth it. I remember being like. I remember actually my husband was just like, was it at least like fun? And I was like, no, that was the least fun I've ever had in my entire life and it was just. It was so for me. Back then I was so, um, but after I had my grieving period and I think it's absolutely okay that we all have our grieving periods.

Speaker 2: 21:37

When we're going through something mentally, let yourself feel it, let yourself be sad, it's okay. And then say to yourself it's okay that I'm sad. Yep, you know what I mean, don't like. I think it's hard when it's like that thing where you wallow in your sadness versus I'm okay with being sad, but I'm not convinced that I'm a sad person. You know what I mean. Like I'm okay with the fact that temporarily, right now, in this moment, I am sad. I'm going to allow myself to be sad, but I am not going to allow myself to be a sad person, okay.

Speaker 1: 22:09

You're just in a season. You're in fall right now. You're in a season where you have that emotion going on.

Speaker 2: 22:15

Yeah, exactly, and I think I was wallowing a bit we'll say like I wallowed and finally, after my little grieving period of wallowing, I finally had this like aha, okay, what can you do? And so I just started getting out and going on walks. Like going on a walk, maybe I would go on a little run. Okay, cool, now let me try to listen to an audio book that makes me feel good or a podcast that makes me feel good, and try to get myself back into a space where I could actually be happy again. And I really remember being like what is something that's going to make me happy? And I remember being like taking back control over my mental space right now is going to make me really happy.

Speaker 2: 23:04

So I just started writing down like every tool, because I have worked with sports psychologists before, so I had. So I've worked with so many coaches, I've worked so many sports psychologists. I have worked with sports psychologists before, so I had to. So I've worked with so many coaches, I've worked with so many sports psychologists, I've worked with myself, had so many experiences, and I just like writing down all the things that like make me stronger or have gotten me through things, and like writing them down. And then again my master's, bachelor's and master's is in. That's quite a thing to collide, huh. Those two bachelor's and master's is in.

Speaker 2: 23:30

That's quite a thing to collide, huh those two bachelor's and master's degrees are in education, and so I put it together in a curriculum and now it is what it is, which is 30 days with shari and it's basically all of the mentor training tools that not only did I use throughout my whole career, but I definitely used through getting through that crazy moment of not making the team in 2021 to in 2022, becoming the American champion, and it was my first win as a professional athlete, like on, especially like on American soil, and as like a new professional athlete. No gold medals to last. This last season in 2022, I won three gold medals, so it was my most. It was like this program, that like is now 30 years. It's the thing that has taught me how to win, to elevate my mindset and my sport.

Speaker 2: 24:23

And hey, like there were a lot of things that happened. And outdoor, I didn't make the outdoor team and we all thought I was going to make it, including like usatf. They called me the day I didn't make it. And team, and we all thought I was going to make it, including like USATF. They called me the day I didn't make it and they were like I can't believe that happened. That was shocking. You're not on the team. So sorry and it was so crazy because I was like holy moly, what just happened to me and and. But then it turned around and I got a call from world athletics the next day and they were like hey, do you want to host the championships? And I was like OK, and I remember, right before they called I was like for some reason, this is just such a freak thing. I know this is happening for a reason. And then I was able to do that and it was great, don't get me wrong. Like I'm 100 percent going for world championships this year. It's happening Like we going for world championships this year. It's happening like we're on the mission for it. But it's just so interesting to see how things can come to fruition like good and bad, and how things can happen for you instead of you and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 25:23

But this program basically it's 30 days. Um, you get 30 different lessons throughout the day, but within those lessons, because every day has like its own theme of a lesson. Let's take day one is self-accountability, because I think it's a great place to start with 30 days of taking accountability for yourself. So we start with the podcast. Podcasts are super digestible. They're like seven minutes right around that and I teach you all about why self-account accountability is important and how you can actually make self accountability happen for you, because I think that the way like it's one thing to change your mindset, but to know exactly how to start, there's a one, two, three, four, five step plan that you can put in place every single day so that if you want to make a new goal, okay, I'm going to follow the plan to actually make it happen, which I think is really important there to have action steps with it.

Speaker 2: 26:15

So, after the podcast, I give you a challenge so that you can practice it for yourself, and then, after the challenge is complete, we do a daily burn, which is just a super quick workout where I talk about all about, like day one. We talk all about self accountability and hey, I know you want to stop. I get it, your hip flexors are burning right now, but I need you to go back to self accountability and you're going to hold yourself accountable and you're going to finish this. All of the workouts are very doable. They're not like wow, you might need to be a professional athlete, anybody can do them but it's a great way to connect our mind and body and just get ourselves moving a little bit, because sometimes when we want to get activated and we want to like start going after our goal and we're getting a little bit like down ourselves, moving our body sometimes can be like a huge, huge builder of that. And then that happens for 30 days and it's based curriculum based, so that we learn pretty much like me being a teacher, we learned that one plus one is two before we can learn that two times two is four kind of a thing.

Speaker 2: 27:18

So I teach you all kinds of things like how to correctly visualize, how to do positive self talk correctly, because it's not just looking in the mirror and telling yourself you're awesome. There's actually some step processes all the way to how to get in the zone for your athletes who want to be able to compete at their best ability. There's an actual way that you can do it, so there's a lot of really fun stuff with it. Um, I'm really proud of it and I'm excited for it to get really off the ground.

Speaker 1: 27:48

For sure. No, that's awesome and it's so. I almost minored, I almost double majored in psychology with the sports psychology focus, cause I just there's so much. I just was too far along in my bachelor's to do it with the time that I wanted to get done. And but it's so true, like you can, there's so many things you can do to get your mind visual visualizations, like everything. It's not just the cool running, if you've seen it, the scene of him speaking in the mirror about himself, possibly if you haven't seen cool runnings no that's a good movie, but no, that's awesome and I would love to just kind of wind down the episode just with some a little bit lighter stuff.

Speaker 1: 28:27

I'll just find out more about you. What are some things that you go to as like a pick-me-up? Well, some people it's a bowl ice cream. What does shari do to get a little pick-me-up?

Speaker 2: 28:39

honestly, I really love dancing, weirdly like sometimes, like when I just feel like it, I'll put on like some Taylor Swift and I'll just dance around my house. I also my undergrad is in education. It's in culinary arts education, so I absolutely love cooking and so, yeah, just like finding more creative outlets. Like that's a really big one for me, because a lot of my um track and field stuff it's very like masculine energy, get things done. And I really love being able to tap into that feminine energy as well, because I think having that ebb and flow, whether you're male or female, being able to tap into both of those, that's how you're going to really capitalize on yourself as a human being.

Speaker 1: 29:20

For sure. Do you have a okay, so a recipe you could make just off the top of your head? That's like a go-to that you're really good at yeah, pretty much anything.

Speaker 2: 29:29

Now I have all my recipes pretty much memorized. I will say that one of my favorites is like a coconut curry. It's really good and it's just it's only like five ingredients. So it's like really I wouldn't say it's just, it's only five ingredients. So it's like, really, I wouldn't say it's very like an interpretation of coconut curry, because, uh, it has to be like a little bit like the healthier version, which is oh man, you know what I?

Speaker 2: 29:57

mean, um, like I definitely I go to like really authentic Indian restaurants and I taste their coconut curry and I'm like, yeah, this is a hundred times better than mine, but the one that I make is also really delicious. I really enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 30:10

That's awesome. That's really cool. Yeah, we did the hello fresh for a while the meal prep or meal subscription just because we wanted to try different recipes, cause we're not, that's just not us, and it it opened our eyes a lot of cool different culture foods that come from that. So that was neat. What's in the future for you, sharia? Are you looking at Olympics still? What's your plan going forward with track and field and then just life in general? I know you got married a couple years ago.

Speaker 2: 30:38

I think, yeah, honestly. I ask myself three questions at the end of every season, as always am I still getting better? Honestly, I think, if I genuinely feel like I reached my fullest potential you did it, shari, like that, you did so well and you genuinely reached your potential, and this is where it is I would be more than happy to hang up my spikes on that, because there's so many amazing things to do in this world that I want to get done and the people I want to reach and things I want to accomplish. That track takes up so much space in my life that I would love to like branch out, but I can't hang it up until I feel like I reached my fullest potential. So that's question number one Do you feel like, um, you can still get better? The second one is is this still genuinely enjoyable? And I almost looked into not doing track again last year because of how not fun that year was. I had to really take my time before asking those three questions because had I asked them right at the end of the season, I'd be like nope, done. We're like really think that was true. And then the third one is does this still make sense for me, because my entire family is in Utah and Idaho and I'm here in San Diego, my husband's here in San Diego, his all of his, like friends and family are back there too. Like it is quite the vice, but it's one. Like I've said before, is it's a mountain you have to climb and I'm willing to climb the mountain and he's willing to climb the mountain beside me, so it's really helpful. But, like, at some point we are going to potentially want to start a family and like those kinds of things are definitely going to get in the way of track and field, is, it turns out, you have to use your body a little bit. Yeah, um, so it's just up to the end of the season.

Speaker 2: 32:25

I've told like a lot of people want me to like, hey, I'm definitely going through the Olympics, but just because I know how you can make a world championship one year and not make an Olympic team the next year, like it's nothing is ever guaranteed. I think that if somebody said that, oh my goodness, like you're going to win world championships this year and have a full blown punch ticket to the Olympics next year already, I think I'd be like, okay, I'll do it again, but because those tickets are never punched the year before. You can never really count. You never know if you're going to get injured, and it's such a sacrifice. I want to always make sure that it makes sense for my life. Does this sacrifice make absolute sense at the moment? So I'll always ask myself those three questions. This year I asked myself those three questions Last year.

Speaker 2: 33:11

I had an absolute blast. I don't even think I scratched the surface of my potential with. It was just so crazy how things would just like line up. So you're getting decent scores but you're like oh there's so much more.

Speaker 2: 33:26

So I have so much more left, and right now, this is absolutely what makes sense for us. We're doing it for another year and then we're going to see how next year goes and we're going to ask ourselves those same questions.

Speaker 1: 33:36

That's awesome and those are good questions to ask in anything really the same, the same framework questions. So I think those are really good to to think about.

Speaker 2: 33:51

And one thing I did forget to ask what is your favorite event out of all the ones you do? That's a good question. I think it used to be like super different. I want to say high jumps, my favorite, mostly because I figured out how to manipulate the flow state within high jump now, and that's really fun. Um, hurdles is right up there with that and shop what's not far behind. So those first three events are the events where I really feel like I can come alive, and then the other ones are this year. Actually, in indoor world championships got canceled this year, unfortunately, and so I I was.

Speaker 2: 34:27

It was so funny Cause I, like, I was like, was like, oh my goodness, now I have to learn how to throw the javelin and I have to learn how to run faster than 200, and so it was just like a really funny because, like, of course, those are always the goals anyways, and so, like, those are probably the two that I'm looking forward to getting better at. Yeah, I always feel I'm right there. I feel like every year I'm always like oh, I'm right there. Maybe what I need to do is I need to switch my mindset, because I'm always saying you can't assume something's just magically going to happen. You have to do the work to make it happen, and so maybe I need to go back to the drawing board for those two and start looking at what needs to change. Oh, I'm going to do that.

Speaker 1: 35:10

There you go.

Speaker 2: 35:12

Watch me just like PR in like crazy and you'll be like you're welcome.

Speaker 1: 35:17

Brought to you by LV Media. No, just kidding. That's awesome and, shari, I appreciate you again being on and sharing all about your journey and how you overcame all the obstacles that you've been through in the last handful of years, and it was a really good episode Fun talking with you. If people want to connect you, where's the best place they can connect with you at?

Speaker 2: 35:35

Yeah, so I'm on Instagram and TikTok. I'm on also. I'm on YouTube and Twitter as well, and LinkedIn, but Instagram and TikTok are probably my the two that people like following me on the most and that both of those are going to be underscore Shari Hawkins. C, H A R I H A W K I N S. And then also, if you do want to check out the mental training program that I use myself, it's a Shari track. Oh wait, no, it's not Shari track, it's ShariHawkinscom.

Speaker 1: 36:07

Awesome, yeah, so everyone, make sure you get connected with Shari. Just again, she puts out some really amazing content just about track and field, motivation, mindset, everything, and it's worth tuning into what she's doing. So again, shari, thanks so much for being on Elevate your Brand today.

Speaker 2: 36:22

Of course. Thank you so much for having me brand today, of course.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Thank you so much for having me and thanks so much for tuning into this episode today. If you found value at all from this episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It just helps us get this show, these messages, out in front of more people. And don't forget to share this with someone who you think could benefit from listening to as well.