Kathie's Coaching Podcast

215.Conquering Expectations | A Lesson in Sports Psychology

• Kathie Owen

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Navigating Expectations with Wisdom, Courage, and Love | Kathie's Coaching Podcast

In this episode of Kathie's Coaching podcast, Kathie Owen shares her motivational icebreaker speech, focusing on the theme of expectations and how they can limit us.

Drawing from her personal background in sports psychology and experiences with her father's intellectual prowess, Kathie discusses how expectations in sports and life can shape our actions and beliefs.

She introduces concepts from the book 'Inner Excellence' and emphasizes three key takeaways: wisdom, courage, and love. Kathie invites listeners to reconsider their expectations to better handle life's challenges.

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 Introduction and Overview 
  • 00:37 The Peculiar Nature of Expectations 
  • 01:14 A Personal Journey in Sports and Psychology 
  • 03:19 Discovering Sports Psychology 
  • 04:00 The Impact of 'Inner Excellence' 
  • 05:11 Three Key Takeaways on Handling Expectations 
  • 06:16 Lessons from My Father 
  • 06:50 Conclusion: Embracing Life Without Expectations

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Hey, Kathie Owen here and welcome to Kathie's Coaching podcast. Today, something a little bit different, because I'm actually presenting you today with my icebreaker motivational speech backed in sports psychology, and I got a lot of awesome feedback from my Toastmasters group, and in fact, this video today has some of that feedback inserted into it. So without further ado, let's get into the video.

Kathie:

Expectations are a funny thing, and I don't mean funny. Ha ha. I mean, funny, peculiar. I mean, we expect to win the big game or win the big speech contest, or have our favorite team win the big game. We might even expect our children to follow certain paths, but today I invite you to look at expectations differently'cause they can actually limit you. My love of sports started many, many years ago. I grew up here in the Houston area. But there's something you must know about me. I was raised by a very intelligent man. My father possesses a PhD in mathematics. Not only that, he went on to teach math at the University of Houston, go Cougs. But he didn't just teach any math. He taught graduate mathematics. Did you know that to get a PhD in math, you have to prove a theory no one else has ever proven. Yeah, my dad graded that stuff. Communication between me and my father was kind of off. I mean, me and math, we don't get along, but there was something. I remember growing up going to college football games with my father and watching the My favorite team, the Houston Astros on television. I quickly learned the strategies of the game, why players stood, where they stood, what was going on inside the game, how the athletes were performing under such immense pressure. Communication with my father was spot on. Allow me to explain the time I decided to declare my major at the University of Houston. I decided I was going to study psychology, but when I told my father being the intellect that he was inte, he said, psychology. What in the world are you going to do with that? Talk about expectations. Little did either of us know I would go on to use that degree every single day of my life. I quickly fell in love with sports psychology. I studied the athletes, how they performed under such immense pressure. I mean, there's wins, there's losses, there's injuries, there's the off season, there's training, there's practice and practice, and more practice. And then there's expectations. I mean, you have expectations of yourself. You have expectations from your coaches and expectations from the fans. They can change at any given moment. Sounds a lot like life, don't you think? In December of last year, I came across a book called Inner Excellence. An athlete was caught reading it on the sidelines during a professional playoff football game. The announcers actually ridiculed him for reading this book on the sidelines. I mean, who did he think he was reading a book during a football game? I mean, what he's supposed to be paying attention to his teammates or the strategies that were taking place. Hmm. I had to get this book. I quickly read it and devoured it, cover to cover. It's all about sports psychology, and that lights me up like a firecracker. The author of that book actually coined the title to my speech today. He coaches professional athletes. He was a professional athlete himself, and he coaches them on handling expectations like we're talking about today. And there's three things that I want you to take away from this message today and handling your expectations. First of all, there's wisdom. I mean, we need discernment to understand our limiting beliefs and what we should be expecting. I mean, should is a dirty word. And then there's courage for, it's going to take courage to actually perform at your top notch because there's gonna be days when you just don't feel like it. And that takes courage. And then there's love. The greatest of these is love For if you can even love your opponent, you will understand that those expectations actually can limit you. Let's go back to my father. For, I learned all three of these things through him. I learned to have the wisdom and understand that psychology was everything to me. I also learned to have courage and face those obstacles that are only obstacles. They're on the way to your path to success. And then of course, there's love. Love is the greatest of all. So my friends today, I invite you to drop expectations for when you do, you might just find how you can handle anything. Like I said, expectations are a funny thing.