“Drawerize”

August felt like a movie. One moment the one-to-one traveling was wearing us down, the next we were having the best time while witnessing Leandro achieve the best result of his career. Funny side note: we rebooked our flight home from New York five times before finally touching down in Switzerland on September 4th. Technically, my September started in the US too.

However, I basically jumped straight into vacation after coming home. But before that, I had a couple of meetings to take care of. There were two reasons for that:

First: Mental reset. I don’t switch off well when I have unfinished tasks hanging over me. For me to really unwind mentally, I need that to-do list crossed off—or at least written down somewhere safe—so I don’t keep replaying in my head during vacation, “What was that again I wanted to check after the holiday?”

Second: Clearing. After such an event or experience—whatever you call it—there are so(oooo) many takeaways. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to those; I don’t want to miss a single detail that could help us evolve, even if it’s something for later. I reflected a lot on my own and with Thiemo before holding meetings with team members involved. For me, that requires preparation, because I want to bring across my ideas or thoughts very clearly (believe me, when I’m reflecting it can be a rollercoaster of thoughts until I get to the essential takeaway). Also, each person listens and communicates differently—I can’t talk in the same way to the fitness coach as I talk to Leandro or Thiemo or whoever. Essentially, before those meetings, I’m trying to be very clear about three things: What is the core of the talk? How do I bring it across effectively? And what action points do I want to come from here (if there are any)? It’s not just about saying my message and leaving it at that.

So, as you see, it’s not just about going home and saying, “That was nice” (even though it was, lol) and jumping straight into the next weeks. It’s about bringing everyone together so we can step forward in the same direction—with more clarity and more experience.

That was some insight into a post-Grand Slam experience. The rest of the month was quite calm. Practices were limited (due to Leandro’s injury), I spent some time working on Beyond Sports projects, and I finally caught up on some quality time with my closest people after being away most of the summer.

That’s it for this episode—shorter and less dramatic than New York, but still part of the same bigger picture. I hope you all had a good late summer yourselves. Next time, I think I’ll go for a more humorous blog—I’ve been way too reflective and serious on here lately. When did I become so unfunny?!