FYS Full Podcast

The podcast discusses the concept of the Hero's Journey and how it can be applied to sports. The guests, Peyton and Ellie, share their perspectives on how sports, specifically soccer and lacrosse, impact their lives. They talk about the positive and negative effects of sports on their self-perception and performance. The podcast also touches on the influence of sports heroes and how they can both inspire and create unrealistic expectations. The importance of maintaining a positive mindset and viewing one's life as a hero's journey is also discussed, as it can lead to greater meaning and success in sports and life. The Hero's Journey, A Mud Map for Change, Journal of Humanistic Psychology. The Hero's Journey is a detailed map of change according to author Clive Williams. The article identifies the three phases of the Hero's Journey and how individuals can use this mud map to traverse through the challenges and obstacles of change. Now how does this relate to athletics? Sports are constantly changing and impacting our lives. So navigating the Hero's Journey can help those involved in sports better overcome and understand the obstacles and challenges that are in their way. In this podcast we will be discussing the effects of sports on our lives. I'm here with co-host Molly Robinson and today we will be talking about how an individual's perspective of themselves and the sports can negatively and positively psychologically impact their lives. Based on numerous studies, it has been proven that sports have a huge psychological impact on our lives. Whether the impacts are negative or positive depends on how we view ourselves individually and our respective sports. We have some special guests with us that we will be interviewing, Peyton Tan and Ellie Falk. They will be discussing how sports negatively and positively impact their lives. First we will be interviewing Peyton Tan. Today with me I have Peyton Tan. So Peyton, how do you view yourself when it comes to soccer? Do you tend to view yourself in a positive or negative light? I think when I'm playing soccer, it depends on how I'm performing and how my team is performing. If I feel like I'm doing poorly, then I definitely look at myself as a person in a negative light, which maybe isn't the best mindset, but if I'm doing well in soccer, then I tend to have a really positive outlook on how I'm doing overall. Okay, thank you. So what are the positive and negative impacts of soccer in your life? I think like what I was saying, the negative impact of soccer is that it can make me think really poorly about myself and just make me overthink and let it affect things that it shouldn't, like relationships and how I hold myself or the confidence that I have in myself as a person. In school, if I'm not doing well in soccer, then I'm probably not going to do well in school because I'll be thinking about soccer and that's just a really negative impact. But then on the flip side, if I'm doing well in soccer, then I just feel like my world is so amazing and everything is going perfectly. So I think like sports and soccer just have a really big impact on how I see myself just based on my performance. Thank you. Okay, next question. Who are people you look up to in sports and how does their hero status influence you? I think the biggest people I look up to, one of them would be like Leo Messi because obviously he's like a little guy, you know, nobody really thinks that little guy is going to do amazing things, but he's like probably number one or two in the entire soccer world. And another one would be Tom Brady and he was the same, like he started out and nobody thought that he was going to be anything great, but he like really worked hard and somebody believed in him and it just changed his whole career and he became like an amazing player. So I think these people influence me by like showing me that even though I'm maybe like smaller or like not your average athlete, like I can still work hard to achieve my goals as long as like one person believes in me, then I know like I can achieve what I want to achieve. Great. How does a positive view of yourself impact soccer? I definitely noticed that if I'm thinking better about myself, then I'll play better in soccer. But if I'm thinking negatively about myself, then I will focus on those negative things and really get into my head and it'll really like affect my performance a lot. So like before games, I try to get myself in a good positive mindset, like talking to my friends will help, just like making sure that I feel good about myself and like confident in myself so that I can play well. Great. And last question here. How can your sports heroes positively impact your life? They're just like role models or not even role models, like examples, like they show me that and like they can do it so I can do it too. And I think that's like really important for me because sometimes like in my just daily life, I don't have someone to always look up to, but I have like these great examples that you know, like just like the extreme examples, but they still like show you that like you can achieve what you want to achieve and that gives you hope. Second part of this question, how do you think they negatively impact your life? I think when you look at them and you see like, oh, he made it big, like he was just this like random person, but he made it big. Then you can also look at yourself and be like, well, why aren't I doing that well? Like they can also be a little bit of like a factor showing you like what you're not as much as they show you what you can be. It's also like, well, there's something about them that they have that you don't and that you can compare yourself in a negative way. So just, you know, both sides. Thank you so much, Peyton. Our last guest here with us today is Ellie Falk. How do you view yourself when it comes to playing lacrosse? Do you tend to view yourself in a positive or negative light? I tend to view myself like negative because I'm like extremely hard on myself, like especially in sports, but like I try to be like, go happy, go lucky. What are the positive and negative impacts of sports in your life psychologically? I feel like the positive are like, it just like makes me have like a breath of like fresh air. Like I go outside, I clear my mind when I'm playing lacrosse. I don't think about anything else. Like I don't think about school, but also if I do bad, like I feel like it impacts me negatively. Completely agree. Who are the people you look up to in sports? How does their hero status impact you? I feel like I definitely look up to our seniors on the team a lot, especially upperclassmen. I really look up to this girl named Lula on our team, and I feel like I want to copy everything she does. She helps me get better. That's great. Do you have any famous sports heroes that you look up to? No. No. All right. How can having a positive view of yourself in lacrosse impact your performance? I feel like I really struggle with confidence while playing lacrosse, and if I viewed myself in like a positive light, I can make it like I'm not so hard on myself, and I play better when I'm in a positive mood. Yeah. All right. Last question here, Ellie. How do your heroes positively impact your performance, if at all? How can they negatively impact you? I definitely feel like the positive, it just gives me like a good view, and just like it helps me stay light and fluffy, and then negatively, I feel like they're just like too good, and I'm like I'm not going to be like that. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much, Ellie. Great insight from our guest here today. Now, let's dive into the research behind our podcast. The highlight, With a Thousand Faces, Sports and Yearning of a Hero and Myth. An article written by Clayton M. Gahan discusses the importance of our sports heroes in our lives. Gahan comments on how young athletes tend to view their sports hero as sort of a mythological figure. They are these gods that are just so great. This kind of perspective can diminish athletes' view of oneself and make them seem lesser than their heroes. This is not to say that having sports heroes doesn't help push young athletes to achieve their goals and be the best that they can be, which is what we discuss with our guests here on our podcast. Sometimes having heroes can be a great motivator and pushes you to strive for your goals and accomplishments. Simultaneously, it can diminish dreams because it makes it seem like your goals are out of the reach. Sports heroes have a multiple psychological effect on athletes, good and bad. Transitioning from the impact of our sports heroes is the importance of seeing yourself as a hero, which brings us to seeing your life story as a hero's journey increases meaning in life. A psychological journal that gives us the facts and numbers of why it's important to maintain positive thinking and seeing our lives as a hero's journey to increase the meaning in our lives. According to the journal and one of the figures, specifically Table 2 on page 7, we can categorize ourselves into different characteristics of the narrative that most directly fits each individual. By doing this, you can then relate your narrative more closely to themes following the hero's journey outline. In doing so, you create a bigger purpose in your life. Now, how does this relate to college athletes, though? Well, by fitting yourself into a narrative, you can identify with other things that align with you, including your sports. By finding where you fit in your journey, you better find your identity and a greater purpose. This sense of purpose creates more meaning in your life, positively impacting all aspects, including sports. With a more positive mindset and outlook, athletes are able to better perform and achieve greater successes. Thank you so much for listening into our podcast today.