Part of our internship program involves each intern writing a blog about a particular topic they’ve learned or discovered. For this one, Ashley Nolley, a Sport Marketing & Management major at Indiana University, has tackled the blog:
When I was in high school, my dad showed me this video. Knowing my dad, I was expecting some funny clip of a movie we loved like “Young Frankenstein”, but instead, he showed me this video:
At 212 degrees, water boils. Not 211 degrees, but 212. That one degree makes all the difference. That little extra effort is what it takes to get you from good, to great, to the best.
My dad showed me this video because I had reached an impasse in my running career. The thing that identified me my entire life in my small town of Shelbyville, IN was beginning to back fire on me. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, the results my coaches expected, and the results my parents knew I was capable of. It became a battle within myself, a battle I then projected onto everyone else.
With a week left in my senior year of cross-country, I tried to quit in the middle of a run. I got so fed up with everything that I stopped running and quit right then and there. I walked back to the school, cried, and was told by my coach I wasn’t allowed to quit. He told me I wasn’t going to let the team or myself down this close to the end of the season. I very reluctantly agreed.
After this little incident, my dad showed me this video.
That was all it took. My winter swim season was better than awesome, and by the time spring came around, I was in the best shape of my life to compete in my last ever high school sport. I had the best track season I had ever had. And it was all because my dad showed me that video.
Since that moment, I’ve continued to turn to this video when I need inspiration. When college is getting too stressful and it doesn’t seem like I can possibly study anymore, I think of that .71 seconds that separates a gold medal winner from a fourth place finish. I think of that 1.54 seconds it took to win that million dollars at the Indianapolis 500.
Working with Nine13sports this summer, I’ve seen director Tom Hanley turn things up just one more degree to take this already stellar organization to another galaxy. Big things are coming for Nine13 soon, and it’s because this team knows how to turn up the heat.