Eating the Frog - Olympian Grace Jackson

Today I have a treat for you. I'm interviewing my friend, Grace Jackson, Jamaica's first Silver Medalist.

Heather-Dawn:

Grace has been my friend since childhood, we've kind of grown up together. She's been the reason why I've lost my voice in the stands on an occasion or two. But you know her best as Grace Jackson. Welcome, Grace!

Grace Jackson:

Thank you very much. 

Heather-Dawn:

My friend Grace is an Olympian. Jamaica's first silver medalist. Oh my goodness, if you had seen her just after the race, she looked like a string bean. But that had to happen because of the intensity and consistency of the training. 

Grace Jackson

Yes, at that level, you get ready. And so there was a lot of field training, a lot of hard training because the goal really was to achieve the goal. The goal was for the goal. 

Heather-Dawn:

The goal was for the goal. I love that, but you know something, people don't realize how much it takes - the number of hours, the amount of pushing of your body - to be able to be at your best and perform for the world in a minute or less.

Grace Jackson:

That's correct. It might be a minute or less. In fact, half a minute or less.

But it takes dedication and hard work.

It takes a lot of pain, understanding your body, and knowing that you have to put it through intense pain through training.

Hill training.

Sand training.

As well as, training on the track.

The combination of all those different training types is what builds the sort of GRIT that one needs to have the SUCCESS to get where you want to get to.

As you set your goals, you stop to think, "What is the highest I can really go?"

And so usually it is an Olympic medal for the sport in which I participate. The highest is an Olympic gold medal or to set a new record - or bot!. 

Heather-Dawn:

In general, we are always PROCRASTINATING when it comes to doing the HARD THINGS.

But one of the things I've always admired about athletes is that, in order to be their best selves, to be at peak performance, athletes do the reverse; they put in the hard work at the beginning.

We call this "Eating the Frog."

Nike says, "Just do it!"

In Jamaica, we say "Just make up your mind".

You know what we're encouraging?
To be DILIGENT

with putting in all the
GRUNT WORK

so that you can see
SUCCESS in the end.

Grace Jackson:

I absolutely agree. I think that by training towards a particular goal, you're not trying to achieve a goal that you will achieve in the next week or in the next month.

You usually set a goal that is so difficult that it forces you every single day to not only practice consistency but push your body beyond standards every single workout.

Whether you are afraid of the work or not, the fact is that you push.

I think that's what you refer to as consistency. Because every day when we're training at that high level, we know what Mondays are going to be like.

So the fear of Mondays comes on. But whether or not all of us fear the Monday workout, we are surely present at practice.

We go. And we deal with it.

We talk about it because we know that we have set goals, and in some cases, far beyond the weeks when you're setting those goals, which seem almost impossible to others.

But for us, we'll be working towards it.

We didn't worry about whether it was possible or not.

We set the goals and we were consistent.

Procrastination
did not exist
in our vocabulary
because

EVERY

WORKOUT

COUNTED.

If you missed a workout, you do other things to make up for it. 

Heather-Dawn:

Well, you know, I think that the word "procrastination" kills many of us on a daily basis.

Because when there's something difficult, we try as much as possible to avoid it. And sometimes, for some of us, when we can't do better, that's when we do it.

This concept of "Eating the Frog"

really means DOING THE HARD THING FIRST

and doing it consistently.

And some of the times when we don't see progress in the way we would like to see it, it's not because we don't have what is planted in us to do it, it's just that, as you have said, we're not nurturing it.

We're not pushing. We're not being consistent in learning.

And I have found that many of my team members who have the mindset to push through to get better every day, actually compete against themselves, and they are surprised to see how much they can achieve over time.

SUCCESS is not always something that you can measure the next day or the next week.

Sometimes a year in, you look back and you realize how far you've come.

Not by happenstance, not by chance, but because you've been putting in the work consistently.

You taught me so much about life by sharing your stories about your athletic world.

The truth is, you taught me the importance of discipline.

And I thought to myself if I could just get up and do the same thing that is required of me every day and push myself beyond the next time. I'll probably be excellent at what I do.

So I've come up with this phrase,

"Choose discipline over regret."

Grace Jackson:

Regret is usually at the end.

Discipline is at the beginning because it carries you through the process.

So the regret only comes when you have not chosen discipline.

You don't even know at the time that you're going to have regret.

When you're not choosing discipline,

you're choosing regret by default.

Because what really happens is that YOU'RE FOOLING YOURSELF to believe that by not being disciplined, you will still be able to achieve.

Whether it is because you feel like you have the talent or when you're ready you will... And, there are many times when you think you're ready and then you realize that you didn't do what you needed to do. Talent can only take you so far. 

Heather-Dawn:

Yes, I understand that. It's not just about talent.

It's about being a good steward or using what you have to improve upon.

Many times, I'll have a new dental assistant come into the office, and everything is new and different. I always say, get a little notebook and keep it in your pocket because you're not going to remember everything.

You know what happens over time?

Repetition and consistency allow them to move to the next step.

They remember some setups without having to look at the book. And then not only that, they layer on to that basic information, different patients' personalities and how to address them, or people who come in with disabilities or other health conditions and how to manage that.

It's building one thing on top of the other. And that is where true success comes in. Wouldn't you say, GJ?

Grace Jackson:

One of the sayings I remember is,

"Repetition is the art of learning."

And that would have had a lot to do with my life as a track and field athlete.

If I think about earlier in my life, when you're learning how to do multiplication, you learn how to add and repeat that process.

Multiplication is really a series of additions that gets you to the point that you want to be. That is transferred in its own way to what we did in training on the field.

It's a repetition of what we do weekly.

We had similar workouts over a period of time. And we would get the opportunity to test ourselves each and every week.

On the fearful days that we knew we had harder workouts, we didn't stay at home. We tell ourselves today's that day and we go towards it.

So we are working towards the starting line in the sense that we know it's difficult, we have done it before, and we know the pain, but we are taking on the challenge again.

And so that is repetition.

And repetition is in fact the art of learning.

Because the more you repeat,

the more you're able to correct it

the next time you do it.

When it gets to a stage where you're actually competing, you can put together a perfect race because you have tested all the different areas in the race where you can make an error. 

And when you get to the ultimate part, which is the competition, then you know you need to get everything together.

You would have tested that system in the various practice sessions.

Repetition is indeed the art of learning. 

Heather-Dawn:

I love that.

Let me tell you what you said that stood out so strongly to me a while ago.

You said, it's not to just REPEAT it, but to EVALUATE.

Note where the shortcomings are and make an effort to improve upon those areas by filling in the gaps.

My podcast is called The Irreplaceable Dental Assistant.

If that's what our listeners are aiming to be, then they have to stay, as I coined the term "on the grow." Always improving, always getting better.

I think this is just such a wonderful way of comparing what happens on the track to how you can be in a state of continuous improvement in life.

Being "On the Grow" means

being consistent, pushing yourself, self-evaluating,

and setting goals that are beyond what you've achieved previously

so you continue to grow.

Grace Jackson:

Look beyond the horizon.

When you're at sea and you see the horizon, it seems like you can't get there.

But when you think about it, if you're flying in a plane, you're actually going beyond that horizon.

You can see that every time you get to a point, there is another horizon there. Goal setting is very much like that. Every time you get to a place, you're doing something else. You're doing more to help you get to your ultimate goal. 

Heather-Dawn:

Absolutely. Every time I have a discussion with you, we have such great nuggets.

I'm glad you had the time to come and share.

You're all the way in Trinidad. I'm glad to see you here in Jamaica for a few days to catch up with you.

I always ended my podcast with a quote.

Do you have one that you'd like to share with the listeners?

Grace Jackson:

This is the one that I believe is the best on a daily basis in general.

"If you cannot do great things,

do small things in great ways." 

Heather-Dawn:

Oh, that is awesome. That sounds like MLK. Martin Luther King Jr.

Grace Jackson:

Yes, there are so many quotes you can take from MLK because he lived that tough life and he stayed the course and he went to the mountaintop.

There are so many good quotes, but that one has resonated with me fairly clearly, quite a bit. 

Heather-Dawn:

It is always so much fun talking to my friend Grace Jackson.

She reminded us in Jamaican vernacular to "just make up your mind."

Or as Nike says, "Just do it."

"Eat the frog. Do the hard thing first."

And always "choose discipline over regret." Or you will choose regret by default.

Pain is necessary for growth, so don't avoid it. Make up your mind and push through it.

Remember that repetition is the art of learning.  Just do it over and over again until it becomes not second but first nature.

Go beyond the horizon. Set your goals high and go.

Finally, always, if you can't do great things, do the small things in a great way.

Thank you to my Olympian friend, Grace Jackson. I have to get her back sometime soon. Because life is better when we live, learn, and grow together. Blessings! 

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 Would you like to LISTEN to this article?

This is Episode 13 of my Irreplaceable Dental Assistant podcast.

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