Written by Craig Burns
I’m pumped to share with you the chat I had with Australia’s fastest female sprinter, Melissa Breen. I caught up with Mel in Canberra before she headed overseas on her way to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, her 2nd Olympic Games having debuted at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Mel is the female Australian record holder for the 100m sprint with a time of 11.11 seconds and she has been dominating the female sprint scene in athletics for a good 6 or so years.
For a chick who’s the best in Australia at the 100m sprint, Melissa Breen is a quietly confident young lady.
Mel is very unique in the way in which she lives her life and even pokes fun at herself saying that she’s more like a 30 something-year-old than a 20 something-year-old. It was so great to chat to Mel and meet her wonderful cat Cleo and there were a few things Mel talked about that I particularly loved.
I’m a massive believer in challenging yourself. If you are interested in expanding yourself, then what you first must do is challenge yourself. Mel talks about changing coaches at the age of 16 and moving from a squad where she was the oldest athlete to a squad where she became, as she said ‘the young pup’, and for her, it was a daunting experience but the challenge helped her build character and grow. As an athlete, it was the adversity that she needed to grow and start to become the athlete that she is today.
Mel then talks about fear and she says that fear is often or mostly about the unknown. For her fear can manifest itself in many forms but it is usually caused by not knowing what the outcome will be of what she is aiming for. Mel wants to break the 11-second mark which means she wants to run 10.99 or quicker. Mel has dreams about it, she believes that she can do it, she trusts the process that she can do it, but because it is such a big game and a big challenge, there is this feeling that comes along with the challenge because it is just so unknown as to how, when or where that will happen.
Failure is simply not meeting the expectations or the goals that were planned.
And lastly, and I love this part of the interview, Mel talks about failure. She says that failure happens a lot and people shouldn’t be scared of it. She admits she fails a lot but re-frames failure to be not meeting the expectations or the goals that were planned, and true failure is when you give up or stop trying.
Press Play and Listen to the DSUF Podcast with Melissa Breen below
This podcast is also available to listen to on Soundcloud, Stitcher, TuneIn and iTunes. Just head over to www.dsuf.net to find the links.
Written by Craig Burns (September 2016) Instagram: @craigzillaburns
Facebook: facebook.com/craigburnsofficial Twitter: craigzillaburns
Website: www.craigburns.com.au and www.dsuf.net
