It is our utmost pleasure to have Singapore’s national Jiu-Jitsu athlete and world champion, Constance Lien, over for a very real podcast session with the Huddleverse team on the topic of mental health.
A story so awe-inspiring, touchingly impactful, and incredibly powerful – it almost begs belief to hear it straight from the down-to-earth athlete herself.
Placing aside all her triumphs as a national athlete for just a moment, to me, she already embodies every single definition of the word champion in my book. To continually fight and overcome the devastating setbacks that has been relentlessly thrown unto her whilst growing up in a vastly complex environment… truly astonishes me to no end.
I personally believe that majority of people cannot really fathom what it takes to be a world-class athlete. To better yourself every single day. To continually push and go beyond your mental and physical limits as a human. To make the impossible, possible. This takes incredible guts, as well as an unimaginable amount of sacrifices to reach the level that these athletes are on. And the best part of it all is that the average person does not see nor experience what goes on behind-the-scenes in the lives of these pro athletes.
To borrow a quote from eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, “I trained 4 years to run 9 seconds and people give up when they don’t see results in 2 months.”
As a society, we have evolved to be so predisposed to focus on the negatives. We are so quick to judge others without seeing the entirety of the picture. We let the media sway our judgement so easily that we have become so limited in forming rational perspectives. Truth to be told, can any of us really say that we are perfect? That we do not err and make mistakes from time to time?
I believe it is important to learn to take a step back, honestly introspect ourselves, and try to put ourselves in others’ shoes to see from their angle before casting the first stone. Let’s remember that athletes – just like all of us – are humans too.
To end this off, I would like to give my deepest thanks to Constance for being so open, vulnerable, and fully trusting of the Huddleverse team to share your personal stories of highs, lows, adversities, mental health struggles, the life of being a professional athlete, and so many more. You are truly an inspirational athlete and human-being, mental health advocate, and a champion in every sense of these words. You are indeed a bright spark of light in a society that can be so unforgiving in this day and age, and that we are really grateful to have had you over with us.
– Viaano Spruyt
Founder, Huddleverse
? Check out our latest podcast episode with Constance here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwgL9DZ0OE8https://lnkd.in/gaXHsBeT
