Speaker 1: Good a team. Welcome to another installment the You project.
Speaker 1: Yesterday had the amazing Tammy van Wissa, who regaled us
Speaker 1: with stories of swimming all over the world and ducking
Speaker 1: fucking logs and snakes and having ongoing battles with infections
Speaker 1: in the Murray River and swimming the English Channel multiple times,
Speaker 1: and it was a great chat. We're back now. We're
Speaker 1: just finishing the conversation, So welcome back, Tam.
Speaker 2: Oh so good to see you again. Into be Beck.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh it's like it's like we only stopped chatting minutes ago. Really,
Speaker 1: I know, it.
Speaker 2: Really does feel like that.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. All right, so let's continue the chat.
Speaker 1: So we got all the swimming stuff. What do you
Speaker 1: do now? Like, what does life look like? By the way,
Speaker 1: happy birthday? So what is So your birthday is the
Speaker 1: twenty third as we're recording this, of course it's still
Speaker 1: the twenty second. I was being silly everyone, but this
Speaker 1: is part two. And can I be really rude and
Speaker 1: say that you're fifty five tomorrow? Is that right?
Speaker 2: No? Fifty six fifty six?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. I don't even think about the numbers anymore.
Speaker 3: I actually have to do check, Oh what year was like?
Speaker 3: What an't others at sixty eight?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay, yes, I'll be fifty six tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Yes, apart from your incredibly different hair, I'm not even
Speaker 1: saying this to make you feel good. You look about
Speaker 1: five years older than when we used to hang out
Speaker 1: together and train together and work together. You look so different,
Speaker 1: so similar, I should say, like, you don't like I
Speaker 1: look at me compared to them. I look my grand
Speaker 1: like my granddad do not? I do?
Speaker 2: So you you don't, No, you don't. Don't miss silly.
Speaker 3: I think we're all we're all super critical of ourselves,
Speaker 3: aren't we Like it's just that's normal. But I think
Speaker 3: the same of me. I look at myself and go,
Speaker 3: oh gosh, holy is.
Speaker 1: But you've got no fucking wringles anyway. So what do
Speaker 1: you do now? What's the what's the story? How do
Speaker 1: you feel in your days? Now?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: So I have just been through a very, very challenging
Speaker 3: couple of years. So I'm in a rebuild phase at
Speaker 3: the moment, so to put you in the picture. So
Speaker 3: rewinding the clock back to twenty twenty two and the
Speaker 3: way that that unfolded, My mother passed away very early
Speaker 3: on in twenty twenty two. She'd had dementia Alzheimer's for
Speaker 3: seven years, and so I'd actually been caring for her
Speaker 3: and it got to a point where she was in
Speaker 3: an age care facility and so it was very very
Speaker 3: difficult look a blessing in disguise because she didn't know
Speaker 3: who I was for the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: So that was a very tricky situation.
Speaker 3: So that happened, and then six months later I was
Speaker 3: diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaker 2: So that sort of really was a big shock for.
Speaker 3: Me, like there was a bit of the universe throwing
Speaker 3: me a bit of a curve ball that I never
Speaker 3: saw coming.
Speaker 2: And it's funny the way things happened.
Speaker 3: But i'd actually been to like this really awesome conference
Speaker 3: where there was a number of speakers and there was
Speaker 3: a woman who spoke and name's Kate Gail, and she
Speaker 3: spoke about her breast cancer journey, and you know, basically
Speaker 3: it was a really great wake up call because she
Speaker 3: called us all to action and said, don't forget do
Speaker 3: your checks, get your mammograms.
Speaker 2: And of course we just come out of COVID.
Speaker 3: I hadn't had a mammogram, and you know, it wasn't
Speaker 3: in front of mind by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 3: so that that actually made me do a self check.
Speaker 3: And so I went to the GP, and sure enough,
Speaker 3: within the space of a week, I was having biopsies
Speaker 3: and thrown into this world of hearing all these.
Speaker 2: New medical terms and.
Speaker 3: Being told that I'd need surgery and so making decisions
Speaker 3: about stectomies and implants.
Speaker 2: And all sorts of things.
Speaker 3: I am after the shop war off, I guess, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm kind of pretty lucky because, you know, the mindset
Speaker 3: that I'd gained from, you know, the years of marathon assuming.
Speaker 3: I've always tried to keep sort of an optimistic mindset.
Speaker 3: So I sort of thought to myself when she was
Speaker 3: explaining the options, I decided to get immediate implants put in,
Speaker 3: and I just went, this is okay, I'm going to
Speaker 3: get new boobs. I'm going to be but Kennie ready
Speaker 3: for a change.
Speaker 2: So went through all of that, had the operation, and.
Speaker 1: I I just asked, did you have a double mistectomy
Speaker 1: or I did? I did?
Speaker 3: I decided to have a double I only had the
Speaker 3: lump was found in my left breast. I decided that
Speaker 3: just you know, for down the tracks returned.
Speaker 1: Better to be sure than sorry, you've taken both off.
Speaker 2: I don't care.
Speaker 3: You know, it's fine. I'm not too concerned. So so
Speaker 3: that's what I went for. And as I said, and
Speaker 3: I had immediate implants put in, so I just thought, wow,
Speaker 3: I'm going to get the brand new boobs.
Speaker 2: I'm down to my knees anymore. That's that's got to
Speaker 2: be a good thing, because.
Speaker 1: There's a visual nobody needs.
Speaker 3: But thank you, exactly exactly, So anyhow, but yeah, but
Speaker 3: look the surgery, you know, it was a big surgery,
Speaker 3: and yeah, and there was a few complications and things
Speaker 3: went wrong, and I ended up having to go back
Speaker 3: in for three more surgeries. I actually got an infection
Speaker 3: and the skin around the sutures became necrotic and one
Speaker 3: of the implants had to be taken out. I had
Speaker 3: set to semia. They literally raced me into theater. My
Speaker 3: drainage tube turned in a milky white color, so that
Speaker 3: indicated set to seemia. So there was no option but
Speaker 3: to take one of the implants out.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so it was just it was a.
Speaker 3: Horrendous, horrendous experience, made worse because my oncologist had said
Speaker 3: to me that from the very first surgery that I
Speaker 3: needed to start my chemotherapy regime twelve weeks from the
Speaker 3: original surgery, because if you don't, it's eighty five percent
Speaker 3: less effective.
Speaker 2: So I was on this.
Speaker 3: I was back, you know, and of course you can't
Speaker 3: start chemo until your body is fully rid of infection.
Speaker 2: You have to be healthy.
Speaker 3: And I was on iv anties antibiotics every eight hours
Speaker 3: for nearly.
Speaker 2: A couple of months. It was that bad.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so I finally managed to get healthy enough
Speaker 3: to get out of hospital. It was like a couple
Speaker 3: of days before Christmas twenty twenty two, and then I
Speaker 3: started my chemotherapy a couple of weeks later.
Speaker 2: So that was in twenty last year. January last year.
Speaker 3: Started chemotherapy D four rounds, so spaced three weeks apart.
Speaker 2: And yeah, again, you know, just to.
Speaker 3: Such a foreign, surreal situation to find yourself in, to
Speaker 3: be going into an oncology ward, and the just so
Speaker 3: frightening to know that they're about to put this really
Speaker 3: destructive chemical in your body that's going to get rid
Speaker 3: of all the bad stuff, but it's also going to
Speaker 3: get rid of all the good stuff.
Speaker 2: So I actually had to take steroids like.
Speaker 3: Leading in so you take the Why God, I know
Speaker 3: why they're banned now. I was buzzing. I was just
Speaker 3: bouncing off the walls taking my steroids. It was like
Speaker 3: a weird experience too. So it's all these new things
Speaker 3: that are happening. And I tried what they call cold
Speaker 3: cap therapy, which is you wear this like cold cap
Speaker 3: prior to starting your chemos It's part of your treatment
Speaker 3: and apparently it's supposed to help save your hair so
Speaker 3: you have less like less likely to lose your hair.
Speaker 3: So I did that and they warned me against it
Speaker 3: because they said, no, look, a lot of people have
Speaker 3: trouble coping with it because it's really cold.
Speaker 2: When you put it on your.
Speaker 3: Head, you get headaches and you might need some panetiles
Speaker 3: and stuff. So I'm sitting there in the first session
Speaker 3: they've got the cap on. It's quite ironic because it's
Speaker 3: like a swimming cap and they're pumping the cold water
Speaker 3: through and they're like, how do you feel?
Speaker 2: Are you okay? And I'm like, does it get any colder?
Speaker 2: Is this it? Like?
Speaker 1: It's like did they not know who they were talking?
Speaker 1: Did you go bitch? Please?
Speaker 4: This is a fucking warm like, yeah, that's hilarious. They
Speaker 4: have no idea. I had no idea, So that was
Speaker 4: very funny. But look I tried that and it didn't work.
Speaker 4: My hair started to fall out after my second chemo session.
Speaker 3: And I have to tell you that I sat like
Speaker 3: in misery for a couple of days over that because
Speaker 3: it was like I worke up one morning and I
Speaker 3: just had I saw all that like clumps on the pillow,
Speaker 3: and you just start to touch your hair and it
Speaker 3: just comes out. And it's funny how we get so
Speaker 3: attached to her hair, well women, we get.
Speaker 2: Very attached to her head. So I was cryed. I
Speaker 2: was so upset.
Speaker 3: And then I finally kind of you know, got myself
Speaker 3: out of that, you know, really down part. Just I
Speaker 3: said to my daughter, will you cut my hair? So
Speaker 3: we got the clippers out and we just shaved it
Speaker 3: all off, and.
Speaker 2: It was funny how I felt so much better after.
Speaker 3: I guess taking back control of the situation barely changed
Speaker 3: my mindset again. So yeah, then I was a bit like,
Speaker 3: you know, who cares lost my hair? I'm going to this,
Speaker 3: but I thought, you know what, I've lost my hair.
Speaker 3: It means two things, especially the treatments working. Secondly, I'm
Speaker 3: getting closer.
Speaker 2: To the finish line of all of these.
Speaker 1: So yes, and.
Speaker 2: Throughout I tried to So I tried.
Speaker 3: To still swim, get down to the pool and exercise
Speaker 3: and walk and do a few things. It was again,
Speaker 3: you know, different experiences, because the first time I got
Speaker 3: down to the pool, I had a goal in min
Speaker 3: I'm going to sim two k's. I got in and
Speaker 3: I did two laps and I thought I was going
Speaker 3: to collapse.
Speaker 2: I was so exhausted. Yes, but there was the stubborn.
Speaker 3: Part of me that said, there's no way I'm getting
Speaker 3: out of this pool until I've done two k's. So
Speaker 3: I did another couple of laps, rested, another couple of laps, rested,
Speaker 3: and then sort of came back again and I was
Speaker 3: able to get a bit of momentum up. So I
Speaker 3: did my two k's and got out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So its just yeah, it was an interesting experience, and
Speaker 3: of course, yeah it was good. I didn't have to
Speaker 3: wear a cap for the first time in life. I
Speaker 3: was so streamlined.
Speaker 1: That's funny. Lower drag cow efficient. That's the upside to
Speaker 1: chemo is a lot less dragged through.
Speaker 3: The water absolutely, and you know I got changed so
Speaker 3: quickly because I didn't have to go in the shower
Speaker 3: and do the shampoo and the conditioner and the whole thing.
Speaker 3: So bam ready at a heartbeat. So lots of positive things.
Speaker 3: So again, you know, my whole journey was about trying
Speaker 3: to you know, through Look, I'm not going to lie,
Speaker 3: and so that I was like, you know, missed positive
Speaker 3: the whole way through. But I was just trying to
Speaker 3: always look for, you know, that little bit of light,
Speaker 3: that little bit of fun, something, something that was positive
Speaker 3: out of a bad situation.
Speaker 2: So I got through the chemotherapy.
Speaker 3: I went through a marriage breakdown in the middle of
Speaker 3: the chemo therapy as well. So that was when when
Speaker 3: was that That would have been February last year, right, yeah,
Speaker 3: through March, yeah, very much last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah right.
Speaker 2: And then of course I finished my.
Speaker 3: Chemo and then had to decide whether to proceed with
Speaker 3: radiation because my my cancer was the stage to be
Speaker 3: they call it, which which meant early early detection, which
Speaker 3: is really good. So you know, to all the listeners
Speaker 3: out there, please go on have your checks because the
Speaker 3: sooner they catch it, the better the prognosisis at the
Speaker 3: end of the day. So I was very fortunate there.
Speaker 3: But so you know, I had to talk to the
Speaker 3: doctors and the oncologists to see whether it was worth
Speaker 3: proceeding with radiation, and I decided to do it. You know,
Speaker 3: I wanted to tick every box, and everybody's different, but
Speaker 3: I wanted.
Speaker 2: To tick every box.
Speaker 3: So then it was another So I had to go
Speaker 3: through twenty five radiation treatments and that was yeah, every day,
Speaker 3: five days a week. Yeah, So yeah, it was sort
Speaker 3: of an interesting experience. And because it was on my
Speaker 3: left side. So they get you to hold your breath
Speaker 3: while they shoot the beams three and it's like a
Speaker 3: probably goes through about thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: They do a few different zaps. So of course I.
Speaker 3: Made the challenge, I've got to hold my breath for
Speaker 3: the whole thirty seconds, and I did, and they actually
Speaker 3: said to me at the end of the treatment that
Speaker 3: I was one of the few people that actually held
Speaker 3: their breath for the whole time, because normally.
Speaker 2: That to stop in the middle of it. So it
Speaker 2: was interesting.
Speaker 3: Again the swimming, I just found there were so many benefits,
Speaker 3: residual benefits from all the crazy long distance. It was
Speaker 3: that got me through the cancer treatment as well. So
Speaker 3: you finished like June last year. And so my hair,
Speaker 3: as you mentioned before, is now growing back dark. I was,
Speaker 3: you know, I wasn't full blonde. I was light brown
Speaker 3: and I used to have blonde highlights put through. But
Speaker 3: now I'm like really dark and I've got super like megacurls.
Speaker 1: Like like you look like a different I mean other
Speaker 1: than your face, but your hair. When I knew you,
Speaker 1: your hair was very light and it was almost like
Speaker 1: we could see you from one hundred meters away with
Speaker 1: your hair. Your shock of your shock of blonde ish hair.
Speaker 1: And now can you've got like you look like a fuckingpooit,
Speaker 1: like like a spoodle? Can you say golliwog these days?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I don't think you're aloud to say that,
Speaker 1: but you do you look do you know who? You
Speaker 1: look like? You remind me of Annie, you know, like
Speaker 1: there's short, curly yes. So okay, So a couple of things.
Speaker 1: My first question is, like I've known you for a
Speaker 1: long time. We haven't caught up a long time, but
Speaker 1: you and I spent quite a bit of time together,
Speaker 1: like in the gym, but also training and hanging out
Speaker 1: a little bit. And I'm not saying this because we're
Speaker 1: on a podcast and it's convenient, but if somebody said
Speaker 1: to me and I had time to think about it,
Speaker 1: you know, with all the athletes I've worked with and
Speaker 1: you know, corporates and the general public, thousands of people,
Speaker 1: and of tens of thousands of people, and all the
Speaker 1: trainers that worked for me, and like, you are, without
Speaker 1: doubt in the top five people that I've ever known
Speaker 1: for positivity, like and not not in a you know,
Speaker 1: like you've got your head in the sand and you're
Speaker 1: pretending there are no problems, but you are genuinely like
Speaker 1: like a tip positive. Is that who you are? Is
Speaker 1: that innate or is that something that you work to
Speaker 1: be or a bit of both.
Speaker 2: I think it's a bit of both.
Speaker 3: I think it really is a bit of both, because
Speaker 3: you know, as I said, I especially in the last
Speaker 3: couple of years, you know, is really I've been beaten
Speaker 3: down a lot, and I've found myself. I've learned again
Speaker 3: lots of lessons, mostly about how important it is to
Speaker 3: have a great, a great support network. And it was
Speaker 3: so and I guess you know, for me, probably the
Speaker 3: biggest change too, was learning about my own well being
Speaker 3: and self care and to take time out because you know,
Speaker 3: when you're an athlete, you feel guilty about not doing things,
Speaker 3: like you're so driven that you're always like, this is
Speaker 3: much a do list. I'm going to get why has
Speaker 3: that done today? So yeah, I'm happy to admit that's
Speaker 3: one of my faults. I'm, you know, always wanting to
Speaker 3: achieve a lot. So I really had to take my
Speaker 3: foot off the pedal. And do you know what if
Speaker 3: I only get out of bed and have a shower.
Speaker 2: Today and that's okay, then that's okay if that's on
Speaker 2: my bike.
Speaker 3: I had to listen to my body as well, and
Speaker 3: whilst you know, it's good to push it, like I
Speaker 3: said in the pool, you know, look I felt like
Speaker 3: I could keep going, so I did.
Speaker 2: I just gave myself that recovery.
Speaker 3: But you know, I really had to just slow down
Speaker 3: and I reconnected a lot in nature too. I found
Speaker 3: going for walks and going to the beach like this
Speaker 3: was my big recharge. I think, you know, nature's like
Speaker 3: our battery recharger and we need to just plug in
Speaker 3: and walking. I went down to lawn, I got away
Speaker 3: and I had like a week down at lawn and
Speaker 3: just walked on the beach, swam in the ocean, and
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how much that just replenished.
Speaker 2: So I did learn a lot through it. But look,
Speaker 2: I worked to stay positive. I really do.
Speaker 3: I honestly, I think probably part of my upbringing because
Speaker 3: my parents were very positive people. They taught me about gratitude.
Speaker 3: They helped a lot of people, so, you know, they
Speaker 3: fostered a Vietnamese family. We lived in Springvale, and so
Speaker 3: you know, they helped the a Vietnamese family, both people that
Speaker 3: have come out, so they you know that we were
Speaker 3: forever helping people. They were always help people. And again,
Speaker 3: you know, hearing my dad talk about the war and
Speaker 3: how he grew up. Always used to say to us,
Speaker 3: if you've got a roof over your head and food
Speaker 3: on the table, you are super lucky.
Speaker 2: You are blessed, you know. So I think sometimes we get.
Speaker 3: Really caught up in the things we have, and so
Speaker 3: I kind of try and always bring myself back to that, like, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 3: happiness doesn't have to be about living in a big
Speaker 3: house and you know, having all the things.
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's what you make it.
Speaker 3: It's really your world is in here, and so you
Speaker 3: create what you want. So I think it's you know,
Speaker 3: it's been a really good I guess I've been lucky.
Speaker 3: The environment I've grown up in has really helped shape
Speaker 3: my mindset as well.
Speaker 2: But I do work on it. I do work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well it's it's a credit to you
Speaker 1: and you're like your energy is infectious. A couple of
Speaker 1: things before we head to all the finish line. So
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've spoken to a bunch
Speaker 1: of athletes about over the years is who they are
Speaker 1: beyond their sport, and this sense of loss that happens
Speaker 1: when people stop doing the thing that they're good at
Speaker 1: and known for and held in high regard for, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like what you do becomes who you are.
Speaker 1: It becomes your identity, your sense of self, self worth
Speaker 1: and all of that for a lot of athletes anyway,
Speaker 1: and when that stops a lot of athletes kind of
Speaker 1: don't know who they are because if I'm not doing that,
Speaker 1: and if I'm not that guy or that girl, if
Speaker 1: I'm not winning, if I'm not whatever, if I'm not competing,
Speaker 1: if I'm not breaking records, or I'm not playing Grand
Speaker 1: Finals or whatever it is. I don't know who I am.
Speaker 1: Was there any of that for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 3: It is very tricky to make the transition, especially when, yeah,
Speaker 3: that is your identity, that's how people introduce you, that's
Speaker 3: help people see you. So breaking away from that and
Speaker 3: trying to find your value elsewhere it's really really difficult.
Speaker 3: And as I mentioned before, I think it's done a
Speaker 3: lot better now because athletes are prepared while they're still
Speaker 3: in their athletic career. You know, they're transitioned a lot better.
Speaker 3: But back back in my day, there was nothing, so
Speaker 3: you kind of discover all of that yourself. So again,
Speaker 3: you know, I was super lucky. A lot of my stems,
Speaker 3: like the Maury was about raising awareness about the water quality,
Speaker 3: so I did transition into doing quite a bit of
Speaker 3: environmental work there with the federal government. So I actually
Speaker 3: met with the Prime Minister after I finished the Murray
Speaker 3: swim and spoke about, you know, what I'd experienced firsthand.
Speaker 3: So there was a few things going on that help
Speaker 3: me transition there that was still related back to my swimming.
Speaker 3: So but it was I guess, and an easy and
Speaker 3: easing into it. And also that the speaking, and I
Speaker 3: did a bit of swim coaching as well, because I
Speaker 3: have a swim school.
Speaker 2: So I love I just love helping people.
Speaker 3: I just you know, I love being able to pass
Speaker 3: on what I've learned, the knowledge that I've garnered, and
Speaker 3: you know, whether that be about mindset or the physical
Speaker 3: part about swimming, is really lovely to help people. I think,
Speaker 3: you know that really that really fills my bucket. So yeah,
Speaker 3: so that's made it easier. But yeah, look, it is.
Speaker 3: It is a tricky thing to do, and I think
Speaker 3: because it's just it's your whole life, for say, man,
Speaker 3: like that's all you're doing in your training, that's all
Speaker 3: you are.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you.
Speaker 1: Do you still have a swim school now?
Speaker 2: I do. Yes, Paul's had a swim land in Mary Warren.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, cool, what about this kind of like that,
Speaker 1: like right now more than ever understandably, you know, we
Speaker 1: try to protect to our kids, make sure they're safe mentally, emotionally,
Speaker 1: physically safe of course, but I guess sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: like I always say, life doesn't give a fuck about
Speaker 1: your feelings right now, if you're ten or twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty or forty, life still doesn't care about your feelings.
Speaker 1: Mum and Dad might, but life doesn't. Right, So we
Speaker 1: know that bad things happen to good, good people. And
Speaker 1: what's that balanced tend between looking after them but letting
Speaker 1: them experience a level of discomfort slash pain because you know,
Speaker 1: becoming an elite swimmer is painful, Like it is not fun,
Speaker 1: like the training, the competition. It is physically painful. How
Speaker 1: do you I mean, do you ever think about that?
Speaker 1: Because it you know, even with me, I have to
Speaker 1: really be careful about what I say because some people like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're fucking brutal. I'm like, you think I'm brutal, Wait
Speaker 1: till life kicks you in the dick, right, yeah, wait
Speaker 1: till you guess breast cancer? Like tell me then if
Speaker 1: I'm brutal, I'm not brutal compared to cancer. I'm just
Speaker 1: fucking trying to pull back the curtain on what's probably
Speaker 1: going to happen. How do you navigate that? Or it's
Speaker 1: not something you think about?
Speaker 2: So I actually do think about it. But this is
Speaker 2: going to sound really weird.
Speaker 3: But the pain and the hard work was like I
Speaker 3: loved that, Like I actually really enjoyed that I thrived
Speaker 3: in that, Like that's something that I miss, to be
Speaker 3: honest with you, like being able to push yourself to
Speaker 3: that level. And I think it was because of I
Speaker 3: was in a squad environment and I think with really
Speaker 3: good people again just made me understand what a great
Speaker 3: team we had at that time and the people that
Speaker 3: I had around me, because I think in our last
Speaker 3: journey with everything, you know, it's partially about your environment.
Speaker 2: So it's the you know, it's your support people.
Speaker 3: What they say that you're the sum of your five
Speaker 3: closest friends, you know, and that's that's so true looking back,
Speaker 3: Like my best friends are still from those days, like
Speaker 3: from squat days, because we went through hell together, but
Speaker 3: we would push each other and we would laugh about
Speaker 3: it afterwards.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, so I think.
Speaker 3: That that's sadly missing today because we have become you know,
Speaker 3: this wrapping cotton wool society.
Speaker 2: And I even think.
Speaker 3: About my parents, like, you know, when I first got
Speaker 3: my driver's license, you know, you know, I'd be off
Speaker 3: driving around and didn't have mobile phones.
Speaker 2: They couldn't keep track of us.
Speaker 3: And now you know, keeping tabs on, doing tracking devices
Speaker 3: and everything. It's such a different mindset. It really has changed.
Speaker 3: So I think life's always about a balance. There are
Speaker 3: lots of good things about technology, but you know, getting
Speaker 3: back to that old learning that you've got a lot
Speaker 3: learn to love pain and discomfort.
Speaker 2: You've just got to learn.
Speaker 3: To find that place where you sit with it and
Speaker 3: no that that's where the growth happens, and that's where
Speaker 3: you get your greatest satisfaction, because honestly, it's not about
Speaker 3: when I look back on all my assumes, it's not
Speaker 3: about getting to the finish line that's super important to me.
Speaker 3: It's about all the things I had to do to
Speaker 3: get to the finish line, the kind of person that
Speaker 3: I had to become to get to the finish line,
Speaker 3: what I had to push through, you know, and the
Speaker 3: help that I received from my team that got me
Speaker 3: that little bit further as well, that helped me get
Speaker 3: that mindset to push through. So that's where the value is. Honestly,
Speaker 3: there's value in that, and I think that's something that's missing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do too. I mean, it's I get it.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, when we've got kids who
Speaker 1: are playing sport, but oh we're not scoring because we
Speaker 1: don't want anyone to feel like a loser, I'm like,
Speaker 1: are you fucking kidding me. What's going to happen when
Speaker 1: your kid gets out of this little synthetic bubble and
Speaker 1: they step out into the world where there are winners
Speaker 1: and losers every day, and there is pain and there
Speaker 1: is pleasure, and there are peaks and drafts, and there
Speaker 1: are people who want to undermine you, sabotage you, fuck
Speaker 1: you over. You know that's not going away. So let's
Speaker 1: let's not put them in, you know, the bubble wrap
Speaker 1: until they're thirty. Let's not. Let's let's expose them to
Speaker 1: a bit of reality so that they might develop some
Speaker 1: resilience and some awareness and some you know, let's not
Speaker 1: throw them under the bus. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: let them score the fucking football match for God's sake.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, no, that's just ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I agree with you. It is.
Speaker 3: It is about gradually exposing them. You know, I do
Speaker 3: understand the other side of the coin. But you know,
Speaker 3: there's ways that you can expose them gradually to things
Speaker 3: and let them fail and let them experience that, because
Speaker 3: they are life lessons and it's only going to get
Speaker 3: harder down the tracks. As you said, you know, if
Speaker 3: life hasn't knocked you down yet don't worry. It's coming,
Speaker 3: you know for all of us. Somewhere along the truck.
Speaker 3: You know, there's you're going to lose someone. You know,
Speaker 3: you're probably going to go through a health crisis. There
Speaker 3: are things that are going to happen in your life
Speaker 3: that are going to knock you for six And whether
Speaker 3: you've got the tools to deal with that, well, you
Speaker 3: know that all depends on how much resilience you have
Speaker 3: and how much you've been exposed to it.
Speaker 2: And if you can start by being exposed.
Speaker 3: It's exactly like training, you know, it's about exposing you
Speaker 3: in small doses.
Speaker 2: You know, push the.
Speaker 3: Envelope a little bit today, will push it a little
Speaker 3: bit more tomorrow, and a little bit more the next day.
Speaker 2: That's how you build up the resilience. That's how you
Speaker 2: build muscle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you get strong? You work again though resistance.
Speaker 1: How do you build skill competence? How do you perform
Speaker 1: under pressure? Well, you perform under pressure in training. And
Speaker 1: then when the game comes, all the race comes. How
Speaker 1: you just quickly our last one? How are you now?
Speaker 1: How's your body? How's your health? How's your energy?
Speaker 2: My body's good? My energy is good. I mean it's not.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it's at one hundred percent. But again
Speaker 2: I'm I'm learning.
Speaker 3: About how to manage my body differently now post surgery
Speaker 3: because I've still got a health wise, cancer wise, I'm good.
Speaker 3: I actually have to have a blood test in the
Speaker 3: next couple of days. I have six monthly checkups. But
Speaker 3: I'm in a mission, so that's a good thing. Long term,
Speaker 3: there's a few small hurdles to overcome, just you know,
Speaker 3: as a result of the surgery. So I'm still working
Speaker 3: on strengthening up different chest muscles and trying to explore
Speaker 3: whether I can swim properly again. So I can swim,
Speaker 3: but it's just different, changing movement. Yeah, So I'm working
Speaker 3: on that. So that's my next adventure is getting back
Speaker 3: in that order and seeing what I can do. Got
Speaker 3: a few different limitations, but you know, I'm working at
Speaker 3: how to work around those and get myself back to
Speaker 3: that good place again and be fully functioning.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, Tam, You're awesome. You're an inspiration. I love
Speaker 1: that I have you in my life. Although we don't
Speaker 1: catch up, I appreciate you sharing some of you with
Speaker 1: my audience. And let's go and have a coffee, shall we?
Speaker 2: I love that. That'd be amazing. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: Let's do that, Tammy van Wissa. How do you want
Speaker 1: to point anyone towards anything like your web site or
Speaker 1: books or speaking. How do people connect with you? Follow you?
Speaker 1: How do they do that?
Speaker 3: Well, they can do that on this amazing technology called Instagram.
Speaker 3: And I do actually have the very it's dinosaur now
Speaker 3: the website I've got Tammy Vanwisa dot com, so that's
Speaker 3: probably the best place to go and land if you
Speaker 3: want to learn more about my speaking or get in
Speaker 3: contact with me.
Speaker 2: So that'd be fantastic.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that pleasure. If you want to get
Speaker 1: your team pumped and inspired and focused from the best,
Speaker 1: just hit her up. Hit her up. I'm the second best,
Speaker 1: but she's the best. She's the goat.
Speaker 2: Thanks Tammy, Thanks Grego