146: The Power of Goals, Being Supported, and Trusting the Journey with Jeremiah Brown

Clear goals and an unwavering commitment have the power to propel us forward. My guest today declared that he would win the Olympics in a sport had actually never done. Within 4 years, Jeremiah Brown went from first stroke to Olympic Medalist.

Jeremiah Brown won an Olympic silver medal as a member of the Canadian men's eight rowing team at the London 2012 Olympic Games. A former commercial banker with a big dream, he is one of few Olympians ever to have started learning his sport only four years before winning a medal at the Olympics. After the Olympics, Jeremiah worked for the Canadian Olympic Committee as National Manager of Game Plan, an athlete wellness and transition program supporting 3000 Olympic, Paralympic, and national team athletes across more than 54 sports. Jeremiah is a Canadian sport system expert, author, keynote speaker, dad, and drummer who has played with award-winning artists. He lives in Peterborough, Canada.

His book The 4 Year Olympian: From First Stroke to Olympic Medallist tells his story from barely escaping an eight-month incarceration for robbery to ten years later standing on the podium with eight other men, now a silver medallist in rowing at the London Olympics. The story of how this fiery twenty-two-year-old without a passion—"an unlit fuse"— found himself learning the sport of rowing and four years later competing at the international level is about chasing a goal with everything you've got.

For me this book is about goals. What it takes to stay the course, and sticking with it even against literally painful odds.

In this episode you'll learn

• How Jeremiah literally went from taking his first stoke to being on the Olympic National team in two years
• Picking a sport that is more in line with your natural build
• Knowing your own unique strengths
• Some of the major stumbling blocks Jeremiah had to overcome to get great at the sport fast
• Overcoming the critical voice on the way to a major goal
• Moving forward even when you feel not good enough and lonely
• The importance of being supported
• Modeling pursuing your goals for your children
• How to trust the journey
• How our goals can shape our identity and what the transition looks like after achieving a goal
• What the honeymoon phase post goal looks like
• And MORE