With the exception of Cairns Ironman, Saturday’s EOSP marks the end of yet another season.
Warmest of congratulations to fellow teammates and coaches for all the extraordinary achievements!
Saturday’s presentations triggered me to think a little bit as to “What is the TA way”?
The TA way is well articulated in this blog post. Two core values are well-being and belonging, which are widely upheld by virtually every member of the squad. Upon reading Google’s article on high performing teams, it should be clear that Google’s first key dynamic of psychological safety is practised as “well-being” and “belonging” by virtually every TA member that I know. There should be no wonder why we have had so many achievements last year as a team.
Upon asking Ollie and a few team members, what they felt TA way was, I got some really good answers, which I’ve tried to distill into the following two points:
a. Being committed to train to accomplish (realistic or ambitious) race goals.
b. Creating an atmosphere to accept, support and inspire fellow teammates to reach these goals, regardless of athletic ability, age, gender, professional or cultural background.
While this vision of the TA way is concise, clear and inspirational, I cannot help thinking that there must be so much more to this.
Teammates have overcome injuries to their limbs, shoulders, faces and most importantly to their self confidence. So many have battled other physical and psychological conditions to achieve what they have, including running the full ironman despite being able to run only 2km a week ago, getting a PB after recovering from a shoulder injury, finishing the first ironman race despite picking up two injuries during the race and preparing for an 70.3 ironman world championship after jaw and teeth reconstruction.
Some must literally be iron(wo)men after having metal implants implants.
Several have gone from struggling to finish a fun tri to comfortably doing a sprint / olympic the year after.
Add personal and professional events to the mix – the loss of a family member, being a caregiver to physically / mentally ill family members, rebuilding after bikes were stolen, battling a physical or mental illness (with my startup endeavour, I am not ashamed to admit that I suffer my moments of anxiety and depression), breakdown of personal relationships, workplace issues, adjusting to life in Australian society as an immigrant …the list is endless.
After speaking to several team members last night about the battles they fight to finish their races, I concluded that every TA member is an iron(wo)man.
Period.
It is worth noting here that World War II hero Major Richard Winters (Band of Brothers) has emphasised repeatedly in his memoirs that physical fitness is at the root of mental toughness.
By the logic of the previous two sentences, the TA way to me is to bring out the iron(wo)man in each of us together.
The TA way to me, is to build and discover the beauty and the profound strength of the human spirit to change ourselves, and serve the world in extraordinary ways – whether it is by fixing someone’s painful tooth, building a kitchen, a retirement portfolio, developing software, managing teams, being a teacher to school kids and university students or saving lives in the hospital.
Like FC Barcelona, TA is “More than a club”. It is indeed a family that embodies #livingwithpurpose to be model citizens and leaders in a world, where more love, building and healing is needed.
Next season, let’s continue uphold the TA way of well-being, education, belonging and accomplishment. Let’s continue to empower each other to show up for training and to run our races so that we live with purpose. One stroke, one pedal, one step at a time.
As one team member said yesterday, “See you all next season”.
All the best
Dilpreet
