My Favorite TAE 2018 Moments (Part 1)
So now that Season Seven of the Transformational Author Experience is over…
I took some time to reflect on some of my favorite moments.
I’d like to share them with you… and then, I’d love to hear your favorite moments in the comments below.
This week…
Favorite TAE 2018 Moment #1
Without a doubt, hands-down… interviewing one of my childhood idols, Olympic gold medalist, Scott Hamilton.
As you may know, I was a competitive figure skater growing up.
I competed throughout New England, did local shows, and was accepted to tour with the Ice Capades at age 17.
Another highlight was being accepted as a flag bearer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1981 World Figure Skating Championships in Hartford, Connecticut.
It was at that World Championship, when I was 14 years old, that I watched with awe as Scott Hamilton won his first World gold medal for men’s figure skating.
It was such an incredible moment to see him wearing that medal around his neck it brought tears to my eyes.
Just a few years prior to that he was told he was too short, small and weak to ever be a “real” competitor on the World scene.
Well, he sure showed them, didn’t he?
And I got to witness it there live in the stands!
It was all a 14-year old figure skater could wish for…
So you could imagine my delightful surprise when Scott agreed to be interviewed by me for for TAE 2018!!!
I literally jumped for joy when he agreed. I was even a little nervous before I interviewed him (which is very rare for me).
I was so excited about the interview, my feet didn’t touch the ground for hours after it was over.
A lot of people often meet their heroes and are disappointed when they’re up close and personal. I know I’ve been disappointed by several I’ve met. Their humanness and flaws sometimes hide their true self, and than stinks in my opinion.
Well — for me, meeting Scott Hamilton on Zoom was all the more powerful because he was human with flaws… because he overcame them and continues to live a life that defies all odds.
In case you didn’t know Scott has been victorious over cancer a few times in his life, and right now is living with a brain tumor. He had it when we spoke for TAE, and you’d never know…
He just keeps shining his light and being his brilliant amazing self wherever he goes and in whatever he does.
Here were my three biggest insights from my conversation with him…
- Failure means nothing. Failure is just information. When you have this kind of attitude toward “failure” it allows you to use every set back to your advantage. Scott jokes about how he’s fallen literally thousands of times, but the important thing was he learned from his falls, got the information he needed to improve and got back up and did it again.
- With perseverance and dedication you can accomplish anything (like he did in overcoming a childhood illness, 3 bounts of cancer and being told he’d never be a “real” competitor on the world scene). Scott went on to win 4 National titles, 4 World titles and 1 Olympic Gold. He still holds the record in men’s figure skating.
- There’s incredible power in having a ‘finish first/winning’ attitude… not that you have to win gold or literally finish first, but that you have to be the best version of you that you can be.
So, tell me about your favorite TAE 2018 moments below…
Or anything else that I wrote here that you want to comment on. I look forward to hearing from you!
