Are You Really Challenging Yourself? Here's Why You Should Be w/ Sonya Looney

No matter who you are, I'm guessing you run into challenges of varying degrees on a weekly, if not daily basis. Often, what separates the true successes from the rest of the pack, however, is their ability to find motivation and purpose in those challenging situations, and come out stronger on the other side.  About Sonya Looney The first word that comes to mind when I think about Sonya Looney is "badass". Sonya is one of the worlds best endurance mountain bikers, a motivational speaker, fellow podcast host and so much more. Sonya helps inspire people to tap into your own best self while conquering some of the most challenging terrain and longest distances in mountain bike racing. Spurred by her curiosity and love of adventure, Sonya travels the globe tackling some of the world's top endurance mountain bike races, some of which she is the first woman to ever compete in. She believes that your driving factor needs to be more than winning, its a chance to better yourself and inspire others. By encouraging people to have the courage to show up in your life and go on an adventure, Sonya hopes to inspire you to be the best you you can be. When was the last time you truly challenged yourself? Let me know your thoughts in the comments on the episode page! On Today's Episode Learning how to celebrate your own success How to continue to replicate the feeling of being challenged The story of Sonya's most difficult race and overcoming your fears Cultivating resilience and embracing grit Sonya's favorite aspect of podcasts and sharing her story   Quotes "I think we get stuck in the 'I'll be happy when' mentality, and its like we always want to do more and more, and then the more you do the more you realize you can do and then the more you want to do. So it's hard to ever just feel good about what you've just accomplished because you are already moved onto whatever that next thing is." (5:49) "I had never gone mountain biking before, but because I was going to spin class at the gym I thought, 'well, I might as well give this a try'. And I think that decision and that mindset is so important for being willing to explore things that you have never done before, even if you are not sure how they are going to turn out, because it could completely change the trajectory of your life." (11:34) "We get to choose what we want to do, we get to choose to try something or not, we get to choose how we show up in our lives. That has been the most powerful thing I can get out of my races. And if I can get that out of a weekend warrior race an hour away or if I have to travel across the world, I can get that from both places because it comes back down to how are you going to tell the story of what you experienced, and how are you going to translate that into a message that's going to resonate with everybody." (18:50) "I always ask myself, 'how am I going to feel tomorrow if I quit this today?' And if I can say tomorrow I know I'm going to have made the right decision, then that's the right decision. But it's really hard to make that decision." (30:40) "Don't let your gender be in your way, I never think to myself 'I'm a woman I can't do that.'" (40:57) Resources Mentioned In This Show  I'd love to see you in the Harder To Kill Club! Sonya's Website The Sonya Looney Podcast Follow Sonya on Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Snapchat | Twitter | YouTube Sonya's TED Talk Check out the full show notes here! Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest I'd really love it if you would take 1 min and leave us a rating and review on iTunes!