Competitive drive will only get you so far.
Today’s Guest: Lauren Ammon
Some people are born for music, others art. Lauren was born for sports. Her athletic career started at five when she swam her first race. Nearly 20 years later she retired as team captain from a D1 swimming program. This foundation as a successful student athlete set the tone for high achievement as an HR leader in the professional world. Though success and promotions kept coming her way, something was missing.
In November 2019, Lauren received her professional coaching certification from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). She launched her own practice dedicated to leadership development and individual coaching. Despite quick success in this space, something was still missing.
She now specializes in working with current and former athletes and all ages and levels to master the mental part of the game and perform at their highest in all of life’s competitions. Being an athlete is much more than the number of wins and losses. Athletes win by showing up every day for themselves (and their teams) and working to grow and develop in the face of adversity. It’s about mastering their minds to face their most challenging moments and reaching their full potential physically and mentally.
Lauren’s practice exists to show athletes they deserve an outlet to be heard, seen, and supported mentally and emotionally at the same level they are physically. Working with her to remove the mental blocks that keep athletes from performing at their peak, shows them their abilities and talents are rooted in what the sport allows them to accomplish and who they become vs. the awards they collect.
Leading with high energy, grit, and unwavering commitment to what she’s set her mind on, Lauren’s spark is unique and infectious. She uses this distinctive combination to connect with athletes in a way that deepens their understanding and acceptance of exactly who they’re meant to be to perform at their best every single time. Her motto, “make it happen” drives her unabashed belief that athletes already have everything they need to succeed at whatever they want, it’s simply a matter of removing the mental clutter that blocks them from seeing their full potential.
Information:
She has a long career as an athlete but started as an H5.
She has two sisters who are swimmers and she started swimming when she was 6 years old.
She always wanted to swim in college and earned a scholarship to Eastern Michigan University.
She graduated as a high school state champion in Kentucky.
She earned her master’s degree in Human Resources but it wasn’t really what she wanted so she went on to get her professional coaching certification from the number one program in the US.
She started to have a harder road in swimming when she hit puberty and started to understand more things about being competitive and not just doing it for fun.
At one point in her career she began to feel exhausted from the heavy emotions.
At one point in her life, after retiring from swimming, she realized that there was also a place for people who wanted to help athletes with their mental health.
Things we discussed:
When at the 2020 Olympics Michael Phelps came and said that competing at this level is really overwhelming and that we just want someone to talk to, we just want someone to listen to us and allow us to be vulnerable. This comment brought her to tears.
We talked about when she was on the team and at 16 years old she thought someone was holding her back from reaching her full potential and it was really her own mindset.
The concept that energy attracts energy.
Growing up with the fear of disappointing parents even though parents don’t push us.
We talked about when she retired from swimming and the thoughts she had, how she felt she had to leave this stage of her life behind.
Bridge questions:
What is the biggest mistake athletes make? Believing that performance is tied to their identity.
What is the strangest thing you have seen in your training or in your life? It was once when she was training with her sister and they passed by a car where there was a person and there was a really bad smell and they thought about calling 911 because they thought the person was dead but when they came back the person wasn’t there so they were alive.
Word or phrase that sums up your philosophy of life: You are stronger than you think, you are braver than you give yourself credit for and you are worthy of achieving everything you want in this life.
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