Do What Makes You Feel Most Alive: Best of Kurt Dickson, EP 146

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Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo. Hosts Kelly Palace and Maria Parker are world record setting masters athletes, authors, and performance coaches that are committed to connecting you with champions and experts from swimming and to other inspiring people and topics. And now this week's Micropod.

Okay, Maria. So Kurt Dixon, amazing, deep interview. It like this is such a powerful interview. I I think you and I are both still are we're reeling from being inspired and thinking about things we normally don't think about. Yeah. Just what a what an honest and just an amazing champion. And we've figured out what drives him, right? I mean, that's really amazing. MM's besides MMs.

Yes. That was refreshing. That was refreshing to hear that he ate. Um first, I think one of the themes, especially throughout the the beginning of the interview, was just that he really believes that his consistency is what is what has helped him stay fast and and stay um, you know, doing these amazing things in the water. He he um he swims six days a week. But he doesn't swim hard six days a week. He swims six days a week, you know, no matter what. And he, you know, he talked about the days where you know leading up to uh to meets where he doesn't go as hard, but he and that's hard for a guy who's works a different schedule almost every day. You know, he he finds a place to do it. So I was really that I just I just love that, you know, we we have to rest. And as older athletes, you know, we have to we you know, we have to lay off a little bit. The consistency part though is what we can easily pull from our maturity. So I love that as a master's athlete. I love that as a yeah, we're just gonna be consistent.

Yeah, like the the and that came under the question of, you know, how are you staying fast? Right. And he says, you know, I just keep showing up. Yes. I love that. The other um, you know, why? Like why we we love as coaches why someone's doing something. That is that is like the number one thing that we all should ask ourselves when we do anything, right? You know, why am I doing this? What am I getting out of this? Right. And I loved that he said it makes him feel alive, yeah, and it gives his life meaning. I mean, this that that for me, if you can find something that makes you feel alive and gives yourself meaning. And I have the same, I I know that he said that. And if you watched his facial expressions, maybe you're just listening to this on audio. But um, I I have the same uh in internal struggle where I think, why do I get so much joy uh swimming in a box, looking at a black line and going back and forth? Why does it matter what my time is? That's so it just seems so silly in the grand scheme of the world, but I I love that he gives himself permission to say this makes me feel alive and it gives my life meaning. And I totally relate to that. And I know a lot of athletes that are listening do too. And so, hey, give yourself permission.

Yeah, I I truly love that too. And and also completely identified with that this morning. I got up and thought, I don't feel good, you know, and I didn't want to get on the bike, but I did, and I was like, Yeah, that's the medicine that gets me through every day in part. Yeah, so your second um the second one I just loved is he kind of talked about about talent versus distance. I I'm not sure what the real takeaway on this is, but I've noticed it myself. Like if you if you've got a lot of talent, you can big, you know, on the bike produce big power numbers or whatever, you know, you can do big things, but as you age, you know, those those are blunted. And but what you but you can always go further. And so, you know, he he again very self-deprecating, used a lot of humor, and he was very funny. Um, but I loved how he said, Yeah, you know, if if if once you run out of the talent, and you can just always go a little bit longer, and it's that's certainly what he's done.

So yeah, for sure. And I I I think that that there is a takeaway there, and it I don't think it has to be just for for older athletes, that and that is that sometimes you just outwork people, you know. You you there's somebody that you may be going up against, somebody that's more talented, but you just outwork them. And I totally relate to, you know, just I swim the mile because there's not a lot, there's not as many people in it because it's a little harder to do. So I do, I love that one. Yeah, I love that. Uh, my second one was oh, we love to hear how people deal with performance anxiety. We all have it, whether it's in the pool or doing a triathlon or in life. And, you know, he just his job as an ER doctor, when he said, you know, we asked him, you know, how how do you deal with performance anxiety? And he said, you know, I have people bringing me dying babies, and I just got goosebumps, you know, like in other words, I really know what's important. This is I know what's important, and this is you know, this is not pressure. Should swimming a meat, being in pain is not pressure when I put it in the grand scheme of the world. And I and I love that, and that's always a good tool for performance anxiety. Okay, how important you know, why are we freaking out who's really watching this? You know, maybe a handful of people.

So yeah, how yeah, yeah, that's that's that's really true. And it was beautifully put. He said he used to have in performance anxiety, but now that you know he's had a lifetime of dealing with true, horrible, you know, things in the ER, he he he understands better what's what's really important. Well, my last takeaway was maybe one of the most important things I've heard in terms of dealing with obstacles. He um he talked about uh uh some really tough things he's been through, especially lately, the last couple of years. And um, and he and he observed that that he could break these, how he thought about these down into kind of three different areas areas, the spiritual, like, you know, how should he think about it from a spiritual level, you know, should he, you know, about forgiveness and so forth. And then the intellectual, how you deal with it with an intellectual level, because he was saying, you know, uh thinking about somebody who'd hurt him was just eating him up, you know, and he was, and so he had to learn to like, okay, I gotta, you know, not not just forgive, but I gotta like remove myself from these, you know, these thoughts or these people. And then, and finally, and this one is I think I related to you the best, the primitive level. And that's where you just go and you make yourself suffer in the pool or on the bike, and and and and that's cathartic that brings out all the poisons. And so I just I just love that. You know, when you're overcoming obstacles, you can think of it, there are there's spiritual components, there's intellectual components, and then there's this primitive physical body components. And I know that in the past, when I've really been hurting, you know, getting, you know, out there running or getting on the bike or somewhere doing anything hard physically really did seem to to help. So I thought that was excellent. You should definitely listen to the full interview and get to that last part. That last question you asked was beautiful. And your third takeaway.

Well, definitely when he was giving that answer, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so Maria. Like, this is just Maria and primal, you know, just getting down to that primal um section. So my last takeaway, we're gonna end on a uh kind of a funny note. The whole interview was very, very full of humor. You know, Kurt has just got a lot of humor going on. Um and I it was I asked him if his body composition had changed, you know, because we're all getting, you know, when you get over 50, your body composition does change almost no matter how consistent you are with your workouts, you almost have to go above being consistent and to do something to not have your body change. And as someone who he he said something about his stomach being extra flotation, I totally get that. And no matter how much I'm training, I still it it's reassuring for us to know that you can still perform at a high level when your body does change and not let it freak you out, you know, not say, okay, well, now that I've gained, you know, 10 extra pounds. I mean, he literally said he weighed 180 in college and he's 220 now. Yeah.

So he's gonna be like, he said 155 in college.

Oh, 155. Well, it's a lot different. But I I think that was just such a fun takeaway that hey, this guy eats MMs, he's got a little extra flotation around his middle, and he's still out there just crushing it. So um, yeah. So that was my last takeaway.

Yeah, it's great. He was he was he was terrific.

It was so great. It's gonna be fun to see how he does at Nationals this week.

Yep.

Yep. All right, love you, Maria. Love you too, bye-bye. Bye.

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