Lessons Learned: Figure Skating Edition

If you're anything like me, you've been completely wrapped up in the Olympics for the last few weeks. I love watching it all, but I especially love watching all the figure skating. I mean, who doesn't, right? Who doesn't love beautiful people glide around in sparkly outfits?

And then I started really paying attention to these skaters and what they were doing, and I realized we could really learn a lot from them? "Alyssa, that's silly" you might be saying to yourself. Nope. Figure skating is full of life lessons. Just full of them. I'll prove it to you.

There are always going to be people judging you. Always. It's inevitable. So take a deep breath, and leave it all out there on the ice - er, whatever your "ice" is. Is it a big presentation at work? Are you meeting your significant other's family? Just do your best, and the results will follow.

Trust people. No matter what. Throughout the Olympics, I've been entranced by figure skating. I finally figured out that one of the main reasons I find it so fascinating is because during pair skating, the girls fall backwards, without looking, right into their partners arms. They have to trust that their partner is going to be there to catch them.

If your situation isn't working for you, create a new situation. In 2010, when Tatiana Volosozhar's original skating partner retired, she had trouble finding a good replacement partner in her home country. Instead of giving up and retiring, she made the move to Russia to skate with Maxim Trankov.
Of course, changing your situation is much easier said than done, but if you know something isn't working for you, for whatever reason, take the steps to make some changes.

When you fall, you gotta get back up. Did you see Jeremy Abbott's epic fall during the men's short program last week? You could tell he was in a huge amount of pain after he hit that wall. Most people would have skated off in shame, myself included. But Jeremy took a few seconds to compose himself, and then finished his program.
Sometimes, we fall. It could be a little stumble that no one even notices, or it could be a huge wipeout that a billion people see. Either way, you have to take a second, brush yourself off, and get back to it. No matter what.

Sometimes, you just need to throw on a sparkly dress, forget about everyone else, and just do your thang. Look at these beautiful women:

Do you think they care what anyone thinks? Nope. They don't. They're too busy being awesome. And that's what we should do. Be awesome, do what you love, and forget everything else.