Hi, I’m Jill Williams, founder and president of MettlEdge, avid stillness advocate, and creator of The MettlEdge Mind: Coaching your high-octane brain to take control of your time, tension, tone, talents, tasks, teamwork, and emotional turbulence to shape a strong sense of self, purpose, and belonging.

The MettlEdge Podcast exists to help women shaped by college sports shape their own strong sense of self, purpose, and belonging--what we call their MettlEdge.

To be shaped by college sports means you carry with you a mentality that says whatever you are doing, you can work hard enough at it to improve your performance in that area. You will put in the work to do all the things with excellence for the win. So, you often do everything—to get the win.

The thing is, you were not made to do everything. Doing everything is leaving many women in coaching and former athletes are burned out, discouraged, and alone.

Many silently struggle when they get snagged.

I see you, then I see what you do. It’s not that I don’t see your accomplishments, it’s that I see beyond them to see you. I am committed to helping you find deep rest without resting from doing more. You were made to do more, but beautiful friend, you weren’t made to do it all!

This podcast helps you in the sense that it gives you space to grow through personal reflection with a focus on you being empowered to take authentic and sustainable action.

I do this by hosting series of episodes that explore topics within three key categories: proactive mindset formation, persevering faith, and prioritization frameworks.

Each episode within each series is a conversation that builds on the previous episode in the series. Each episode consists of three parts: focus, fuel, and fight.

The focus part of each conversation is a time where I'll be sharing relevant content for your personal reflection.

The fuel part is a time where I'll be sharing related strategies for you to consider how you might want to refine your approach to things, if at all.

The fight part is the time in the conversation where I'll be asking you about how you will respond. What step will you take to fight for the change you want to shape within yourself?

I’m not going to tell you what to do.

That is something I believe you are capable of discovering for yourself.

(Focus Questions) How does this sound to you? What are you thinking right now?

 

Here's the thing. MettleEdge exists to facilitate, to promote, to multiply discovery thinking in people. It exists to drive people to take authentic and sustainable action in alignment with their own values and beliefs and skillsets and abilities and hopes and dreams. It exists to tell people to use their emotional response in concert with their cognitive response to make a fully informed, whole person choice.

Shaping your own MettlEdge requires you to be willing to think, feel, and act with purpose.

I have learned that the more we feel without taking action, the more we end up getting stuck, and the more we numb ourselves to what we feel.

It is a recipe for stagnation. C.S. Lewis has a quote about this from The Screwtape Letters, and I understand it to be true from personal experience. I bet you do too.

To that end, I am very interested in encouraging people to feel, think, and act. Not just feel. Not just think. And not just act. I am very interested in encouraging people to not numb their feelings. To not dumb-down their thinking. And to not lose their commitment to taking action.  

A big reason MettlEdge is named as it is named is due to the mental strength, resilience, and acknowledgement of limits necessary for humans to grow.

Humans who grow conquer chaos and thrive with serenity in motion. The thing is, a lot of us struggle to grow because we grow when we individuate and relate within the context of our humanity. (Gersick & Kram)

In other words, we grow up when we develop or distinguish ourselves as a unique individual in the context of positive relationship with other unique individuals. It’s not easy. It’s much easier to get caught up in chaos and good intentioned productivity than to slow down and think and feel before you act and to take the time to meaningfully relate with others.

But we often choose chaos in motion over serenity in motion. We block out what we feel. We shut down our thoughts. And we put on a performance that becomes more important than the human in the show.

People, well-meaning, kind, and capable people like you and me, choose this superhuman approach all the time. It usually ends up poorly, if the measure of success is the state of the sense of self, purpose, and belonging of the individual.

But we tend to reject such measures, to ignore them, to dismiss them, choosing instead to measure success by indiscriminate, superhuman measures of accomplishment, possessions, and positions of power.  

For those of you who are tired of being measured, assessed, and valued by what you do and what you have accumulated and who want to shape a strong sense of self, purpose, and belonging within, rehumanizing your measures of success, that is my aim in this podcast.

My purpose is to give you space to feel, think, take action, and grow.

(Fuel Questions) What do you think about all of this? What does success mean to you? How do your measures of success impact your sense of self, purpose, and belonging? What about the idea of using your emotions in concert with your rational thinking to make more whole-human decisions? In what ways do you already do this? In what ways do you want to do it more?

Our formal mission statement says the following:

“MettlEdge exists to gather together the posse of women shaped by college sports and show them how chaos and rest can coexist in their lives as serenity in motion by igniting within them a strong sense of who they are and what they are here to accomplish so they grow inside and out and endure in excellence making the positive difference they were made to make in the world and leading future generations of female athletes to do the same.

It's a resource I wish I would have had in my 20s, 30s, and 40s.

I hope it is a resource that blesses you, whatever age you may be. Even if you were not a college athlete, you know if you are a high performing woman. If this resonate in you, you are posse. Stay. We are glad you are here.

(Fight Questions) How are you going to choose to fight to conquer chaos and thrive in the grind with serenity in motion? After all, that is the title of this podcast episode. What is the step you want to take today, this week, this month to grow up your strong sense of self, purpose, and belonging?

I can offer a couple of ideas…😊 I’d love for you to join our Substack community, MettlEdge. You can download the Substack app, join MettlEdge, and begin to receive periodic newsletters, listen to my podcasts, and catch me when I go live.

Soon I will begin to take your questions. I’ll answer one at the end of each podcast episode.

Our first podcast series is on Proactive Mindset Formation: The process of cultivating a mental outlook that focuses on taking initiative and anticipating future challenges or opportunities, rather than simply reacting to events as they occur. This kind of mindset encourages individuals to be forward-thinking, solution-oriented, and responsible for their own actions and outcomes.

The series is called “The Six Parts of a Proactive Mind” and through each conversation, I will introduce the six parts of what I call The MettlEdge Mind.

Don’t forget to join our Substack community, MettlEdge. You can download the Substack app, join MettlEdge, and begin to receive periodic newsletters, listen to my podcasts, and catch me when I go live.

Also, you can go to my website, mettledge.com, and check out available 1:1 coaching opportunities.  

Finally, if you are ready to grow and want to hear more about my 6-month MettlEdge Mind Cohort, go to the website and schedule a free consult to learn more.

I pray this podcast has been a blessing to you!

Let’s go!

 

Sources: Gersick, C. J. G., & Kram, K. (n.d.). (PDF) high-achieving women at MidlifeAn exploratory study. Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247737335_High-Achieving_Women_at_MidlifeAn_Exploratory_Study