February Pocket Rocket

AE coach, performance mentor and GB team triathlete Stevie Potter chats to us about remembering why you started

“The very first day you became an Aesthetic Entrepreneur'

Of course you all know that the BEST THING IN THE WORLD happened a few weeks back – I grabbed 14th in the World Sprint Triathlon Championships in Montreal. And I could just finish this month’s article there. But this is not a space for “bragging rights” . I want to use it to share something far more valuable.

I love racing. I really love it. All the races I do for training, the qualifying races, the international races, the local races, the park runs, everything. I love racing. I love the competitive element, the chance to have a little battle and let some steam off, the opportunity to face challenges head on and push myself to the limits of my own capability. But it has at times felt a bit tricky the past couple of years.

Getting to the pointy end of racing has proved more challenging than I’d imagined. Of course I knew the training would be hard. But mentally, suddenly it felt like there was a much bigger pressure. I wanted to perform for my country, I felt a great need to “prove my worth” , I wanted my sponsors to think I was a “worthy cause” too. When I finally got back to racing post-lockdown, what I had been doing as a hobby before, suddenly had a lot more riding on it. What would my clients think if I had a bad race? Would my sponsors ditch me if I didn’t make the cut? I struggled and finished a pretty shitty double digits somewhere down the table in my first European qualifying race of 2021. And it stuck with me. From there, races became a source of unbearable nerves and nausea and I struggled to get back to that place of enjoyment.

While I loved the feeling at the finish of bike races, I was exploding on the start line, a heady mix of caffeine and anxiety. Before I got my GB kit, I’d always focused on how much I enjoyed my sport, what it brought to me; joy, friends, positivity. Now I was focusing on numbers, finances and performance. I was looking at all the wrong things.

Fast forward a year and with a lot of work with my coach, I got to the start line of Montreal, the absolute epitome of cool, calm and collected. I was the only athlete to head into the race with zero tech. No watch, no numbers, just me. And it was GLORIOUS. No distractions. It was how racing used to be for me. I shook off all that negative pressure and I was “me” again.

As a coach, one of the things that really inspires me, is when clients call me to say “I feel like me again!” Often what’s pushed them out of that zone in the first place is all the external distractions and pressures they place on themselves – just like me and my GB race story. We all need an awareness of the nitty gritty – the numbers, the stats, the boring stuff. But we always need to remember why we started in the first place, what our passion is and why we do what we do. For me, it’s the fight, the push, the struggle and the immense rush afterward! And of course, having AE behind me (or rather stuck on my front!) is AWESOME. What a team to represent!

So if things ever feel a little bit hard and you find yourself drifting away from “yourself” , just try and think back to why you started, that very first day you became an Aesthetic Entrepreneur…

Until next month, Pocket Rocket