Imagine this said in a passionate Italian accent, complete with hand gestures
This was the response from my rowing coach, Antonio, after I had just pointed out to him that what he was asking me to do (a rowing technical change) was “really hard.” Let me paint the picture – it was a Sunday morning, about 9am. My pair partner, Jo, and I had so far rowed 20kms for the morning and still had 4kms to go. It was the 12 th and final training session of the week (of what was a 48-weeks of the year over 4 years campaign), as we prepared for the upcoming Olympic selection trials.
So, when Antonio would not let up that morning, constantly demanding that I needed to “sit up taller” in the boat, that’s when I almost broke. It sounds like a pretty tame request in hindsight. But, if you can try and consider how utterly exhausted I might have felt after having already completed 11 gut-busting training sessions that week, including 5x 2-hour intense rowing sessions, 3 x 2-hour gruelling weightlifting sessions, a 90-minute run, a 90-minute session on the rowing ergo and a 3-hour bike ride, then you may understand why I found his request “really hard.”
Antonio certainly stopped me in my tracks with his comeback though. I was probably seeking sympathy, but that’s not what I needed to hear. I needed to be reminded why I was doing all this in the first place. My goal was to win an Olympic Gold Medal! So of course it was going to require me to “do the hard thing!”
I tell this story often, complete with my best impersonation of Antonio’s accent. The moral of the story is relevant to anyone trying to do anything challenging, even those who wish to win some grant funding! Why? Because most grants are competitive processes. To be competitive, you need to make sure you follow ALL the rules and guidelines and upload ALL the necessary attachments. To win, you must give answers that prove that your project NEEDS to be done, that what you’re proposing is FEASIBLE and that you are the right people to get it done. It requires you to “do the hard thing” because winning ain’t easy!
