Angela Dunn

As a long time female athlete I’ve experienced low points in my sport coupled with the crippling fear that I will never be “good enough,” and this fear that I would never be good enough wasn’t just isolated to my identity as an athlete; it infiltrated all aspects of my life. Failure is a relative term because we all define it differently, but once upon a time I defined failure as not winning, not running a PR every time I raced, not running faster or farther than the other girls I trained with, and not receiving extrinsic rewards. If I had a way to talk to my teenage self I would not impart years worth of running experience on her, I would reassure her that she is failing—failing to see how her eventual persistence was actually her succeeding.

Over the last few years I’ve learned a lot about who I am as an athlete and a coach and I’ve concluded that I never want any athlete I work with to feel like they are failing. I’ve learned that failure is only temporary. We can choose to sink into failure’s defeat or we can choose to find the power within ourselves to persist and succeed. I’ve realized that I have never truly experienced failure. In order to truly experience failure a person must give up. I’ve never given up on anything. However, a few years ago I’d have said otherwise. I was once a young girl who felt defeat because her athletic ability slipped away, not due to lack of training but due to lack of confidence and self-esteem. I was once a young woman with high hopes, big dreams, and the desire to change the world, but who took the easy way out and settled for mediocrity. I believed that I had failed and that I was not capable of success until I had an epiphany and I realized that it wasn’t too late! I quickly learned that when you take action you can erase failure. This epiphany snapped me out of the “I am failing” mindset that I had and pushed me to do all of the things I thought I’d never be able to do.

I revisited my personal failures by following my instincts and letting my passions and interests guide me. I had one fundamental belief: taking action toward my goals was going to create success and erase my perceived failures. I stopped settling for mediocrity by creating GOALden Peak Performance. Helping people realize their potential and adopt an “I am succeeding” mindset will never be settling. I am doing what I love to do and if I ever feel like failure is creeping up behind me, I do not stop and I do not slow down, I just run!