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We\u2019re changing things up this week with a slightly different episode from usual, in which our host, Laura Wilkinson, answers some questions gathered from our Instagram followers. The questions cover topics including starting sports at an older age, dealing with injuries and mental blocks, epic advice that Laura\u2019s received, being an underdog versus a favorite, and having purpose. Laura kicks things off with the story of finding her way into diving at the age of fifteen after quitting gymnastics and how that eventually led to the fulfillment of her Olympics dream.

And the final question rounding out the episode asks where Laura finds purpose after having achieved so much and what keeps her going every day. Her response is that she\u2019s always been very goal-oriented and focused on pushing the envelope of what she is capable of, so she continues to find purpose and fulfillment in setting huge goals and being determined and consistent in pursuing them. But you might be surprised at what directly follows that answer.

Episode Highlights:

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• How Laura got into diving at an older age
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• Is it ever too late to start diving and compete?
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• The best advice Laura\u2019s ever received
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• Being the underdog vs. the favorite
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• Moving forward from a loss
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• Laura\u2019s favorite and least favorite dives
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• How Laura feels watching her kids play sports
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• Using injury time as an opportunity
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• Dealing with mental blocks
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• Setting goals and having purpose
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Quotes:

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• \u201cI wanted to continue learning and pushing boundaries and trying things, and I just kind of realized it was time to move on. But that dream of the Olympics was still in the back of my mind. I just recognized at that point I needed to find a new sport.\u201d
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• \u201cI\u2019m not sure if it was ever that I recognized my own potential. I just wanted this thing so badly that I was going to pursue it. Whether it was switching sports or, you know, I was just going to pursue it no matter what. I was going to find a sport that I could go to the Olympics, and I was going to find a way to the Olympic Games.\u201d
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• \u201cIf you are interested in diving and competing at any age, give it a whirl. I think, at the very least, you\u2019re going to try something new, you\u2019re going to learn something, and you\u2019re gonna have a blast.\u201d
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• \u201cSoak it in. You\u2019re at the Olympics, you\u2019re in your dream, you\u2019re getting to do all these things, just live it up. But when it\u2019s your time to dive, when it\u2019s your time to compete, that\u2019s when you just let all that go. And at that point, you\u2019re just at another diving meet against competitors you\u2019ve competed against so many times, doing dives you\u2019ve done a thousand times, you know exactly what you\u2019re doing.\u201d
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• \u201cWhen I was kicked off my high school diving team for being a waste of space, yes, obviously, it still gets under my skin today, but I am so glad I was told that because it lit a fire. And sometimes, we need that kind of fire lit under us.\u201d
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• \u201cWe want adversity, we want obstacles because that\u2019s when we rise to the occasion. So I don\u2019t think being labeled an underdog is a bad thing. I think fighting for something, it gives you that fuel\u2014it\u2019s just such a perfect description\u2014that fuel to push forward and to overcome. Because you want this thing, and you\u2019re fighting for it.\u201d
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• \u201cIt\u2019s okay to be sad, it\u2019s okay to be angry, it\u2019s okay to just lose it, and just kind of want to cry or vent or whatever, like, make sure you are allowing yourself to experience that emotion. If you are stuffing it in and trying to avoid the emotion of what happened, it will come out later in a much uglier way.\u201d
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• \u201cDon\u2019t sit in the grief for, like, forever, you know, but give yourself a few days, a few weeks, whatever the timeline is, a little bit of time to process it. Then begin to create a new game plan and analyze and work on what happened and what is going to come next.\u201d
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• \u201cMy other kids are still kind of figuring out what it is that they\u2019re going to do. One has said she is not an athlete, she is an artist, and I respect that, although she will run sprints with me, and so that\u2019s really cool, maybe one day she\u2019ll go for track. But you know, I love, I love, absolutely love watching them find the thing that lights them up the way that I feel like diving lights me up.\u201d
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• \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to get more than one opinion on what your injury is. You know, one doctor doesn\u2019t always have the answers or may not pick up everything, like, it\u2019s okay to get two or three opinions on things to make sure you\u2019re making the right choice.\u201d
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• \u201cWhen you have injuries, this is the number one thing I will tell people to do: take care of your injury and then train mentally. Everybody says sports is 90% mental, but no one trains that way. Not one. I can pretty much guarantee you that.\u201d
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• \u201cWhen you close your eyes as you start implementing all of your senses, you\u2019re not just seeing it with your eyes, you can actually feel what you\u2019re doing. You\u2019re actually firing muscles, like, from the neurons in your brain, you\u2019re starting to react with the right muscles that are going to be doing all of these skills. You\u2019ll be blown away by what you can do if you do this consistently in that time.\u201d
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• \u201cA lot of times, the issue is not starting in the pool or in the gym. Sometimes, the issue is starting at home or in your personal life. We have this way of carrying stress and anxiety, and it begins to burden us so badly that it comes out in our sport, looking like mental blocks and things like that, or this ultimate fear that is overwhelming. And it\u2019s actually not coming from your sport.\u201d
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• \u201cA lot of times, our sport, even if you\u2019re a sprinter, the whole process is a marathon, not a sprint. So have that long-term vision and hang on to that.\u201d
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• \u201cI\u2019m very, very goal-oriented. And so, even when I\u2019ve done really awesome things, I\u2019ve always wanted more. I\u2019ve always strived for more, like, my whole goal wasn\u2019t\u2026 I mean, I wanted to win the Olympics, but I also wanted to find out what I was capable of, how good can I be, how hard of dives can I do and do them really, really well, for like nines and tens.\u201d
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• \u201cI love training as much as I love competing. Competing is exciting and it\u2019s fun. But the hunt to get there is almost better. Like sometimes, when you get to the meet, you\u2019re like, man, I kind of wish it wasn\u2019t here because I love that process. And that hunt. And that work. There\u2019s just something so fulfilling about that to me.\u201d
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• \u201cMy purpose doesn\u2019t just lie in having goals. And it\u2019s not just in what I\u2019m doing. I know that I have worth and value because God created me, and he told me that. And, you know, for me, diving has always been a beautiful way to feel really connected with God. Because that is a gift I know he gave me, and when I do it with everything that I am, it feels like worship. And it feels beautiful and completely fulfilling to me.\u201d
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• \u201cI\u2019m still learning how to not just juggle all these things, but how to, you know, shift my priorities to where diving isn\u2019t my number one priority, my family is, and then diving will come after that. And learning that I don\u2019t have to be so intense all the time, but I can actually just fully embrace it and enjoy every step of the way.\u201d
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