“I don’t know where we are going, but I know exactly how I am going to get there” Renias Mhlongo

Renias Mhlongo was an African game tracker who mentored Boyd Varty the author of the book “The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life.” The quote has resonated with me personally and made me also think about its potential application in performance sport.

For a very long time in my life I think I was very process driven, wanting to be in charge and thinking I knew the answers if not to life, meaning and the universe then at least to areas of my life that I was involved in – both at home and in work. I didn’t see it then, but I do now. This came at a cost. It caused mental illness and also contributed to the collapse of my marriage.

Having recovered from depression I slowly started to see things differently. I was once asked on a podcast 7/8 years ago how I saw the future of DOCIAsport with the standard question “Where do you want to be in 5 years’ time.” My answer wasn’t thought through it just came out spontaneously as a geographical analogy. “Let’s say I’m in London and in five years’ time I want to be in Newcastle.” I said. “Previously I’d have just shot up the M1 and tried to get there in less than the target of five years. Now I see things differently. Continuing the analogy I know the general idea in my life is to travel North as that is my spiritual anchor as a Lancastrian but now I don’t mind  whether I get to Newcastle or not because if I end up in Carlisle or Alnwick it doesn’t matter. The final destination for the business will have been determined by informed decisions made along the way – based on experiences and the people I meet.”

To come back to Mr Mhlongo’s philosophy. In DOCIAsport initially I thought that I would work exclusively in performance sport because of my past work in that area. But gradually I took a less structured, less blinkered approach and have benefitted enormously building on the introductions and opportunities that have come my way.  In parallel and at the end of my marriage I knew I had to seek help and understand where I was because for the previous 30 odd years I thought I knew where I was going and then all of a sudden I was now at a crossroads. On my own. Enter my “guide” Richard Husseiny Guiding the Men Behind Sport who enabled me to see the different possible paths that lay ahead and for me to understand who this traveller (I) really was, a different person to the one that set off all those years ago. I also realised that I didn’t know where I was going so I just had to let go of the old me – like a snake shedding a skin – and start to put one foot in front of the other and trust the process to guide me. I also felt that if I did that then I’d find someone to walk with me on this last part of my journey.

In sport, athletes join their respective Talent Pathways at a very young age. They believe they know where they are going – an Olympic or Paralympic podium, winning a Grand Slam or the Premier League perhaps. They are encouraged to take that path by parents and they meet people along the pathway who confirm their belief in that final destination, that the athlete is indeed on the right path. Coaches, managers, agents as well as S&C specialists and sports psychologists who help them prepare their bodies and minds for the journey and physios and others who help them back on their feet when they stumble. All is good in their worlds – until it’s not. The journey’s over due to a career ending injury or maybe the athlete is told they won’t make it to ‘the end’ and the goal they have worked so hard to achieve for so long.

So, they too find themselves at a crossroads and at a loss for which way to turn as many don’t prepare for this unexpected transition either. Fortunately, there are lots of good Samaritans along the way who are there to help. I know because I work with some, like the mentors in the SwitchThePlay Foundation Changing lives in sport | Switch The Play and people like  Cath Bishop Cath Bishop – Speaker, Facilitator, Coach , Richard Husseiny or Rick Cotgreave Home. Rick is an outlier who describes himself as a ‘Humanistic counsellor’ and the world is a better place for having him in it. It was Rick who introduced me to Richard Mhlongo, the tracker’s, quote in a recent conversation. We spoke of not just the mind and the body which the athletes use to meet their goal but agreed that few also use their heart and their soul to help them on their journey. That’s not to say performance athletes aren’t 100% committed , or 110% as the cliché goes, They are what I mean by being more connected to their heart and soul is that they should be encouraged to do so because that leans more towards not knowing where they are going and recognising the process is not solely defined by those running the talent pathway from the start to the end (high performance). That too requires a coaching philosophy outside of technique  that isn’t too prescriptive. More athletes should  have a say too, trust their gut feel and intuition and  take more ownership and responsibility in a collaborative process.

This, I believe, ties in with the “Long Win” thinking led by Cath Bishop who sees the definition of success for performance athletes not just as “medals” but for athletes to be seen less as ‘commodities’ the resource required to get the end result of a performance pathway  and more empowered on their journey. The pursuit of medals is worthy, but it isn’t the be all and end all.

Would more athletes succeed as individuals if they were encouraged to take a more holistic approach using their whole and not just their bodies and minds? I believe they would, not only in sport but beyond in life if they ‘let go’ and trusted the process. Bill Shankly the late iconic Liverpool FC manager once said “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you it’s much more serious than that.” Performance sport is important I agree with him, but it is only sport. Those gifted with sporting talent could, with help, use their time as an athlete for so much more to set them up for life and its experiences. As I have let go of trying to control the end-to-end process of my life I feel not only better from a wellbeing perspective but also a better person for who I am and what I do. I just think in a different sporting environment more athletes could do the same and not stuck at the crossroads of transition even if, like me,   they do not know where they are going but do know exactly how they’ll get there.