Aug. 24, 2022

ADHD and Sports: Discovering Greatness with JT Tsui

ADHD and Sports: Discovering Greatness with JT Tsui

Sports and greatness should go hand in hand, right?

But what if you're an athlete with ADHD who believes the unsupported noise of the world around you?

My guest J.T Tsui, Sports Director for Ontario Football and Author of the best selling book ‘You Are Greatness’, answers my tough questions on how athletes with ADHD can begin to believe in their true greatness.

 

About Our Guest:

JT is a driven, passionate and service-oriented Coaching Professional with over 20+ years of leadership and management experience in education, athletics and business. JT delivers consistently strong results for his clients by creating equitable, diverse and inclusive environments so all team members can be in a position to reach their potential and succeed.

  

Guest Social Media links

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/_jt_tsui

Website: https://jttsui.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_jt_tsui/

Twitter: @_jt_tsui

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jttsui/

 

 

Your Host:

Hi, I’m Ashleigh Tolliver, and this podcast is a road map to Parenting That Kid. As a mother of twins with ADHD symptoms, I know what it means to parent a child who does not fit into the ‘box’ modern society has put children into. My mission is to help other parents of “that kid” feel less alone, more confident and more equipped by asking the tough questions to the professionals, gathering tools and resources and connecting with other moms who are wrestling with the same struggles.

If recording my journey as I seek a clear starting point, community and effort to normalize a life with children who are at times highly emotional, unregulated, unfocused, or the opposite- hyper focused, supports at least one parent, then my time is not wasted. And if it doesn’t, well, there’s documented proof that moms deserve a glass of wine.

Cheers

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Transcript
Ashleigh Tolliver:

Welcome to Parenting That Kid. My name is Ashley Tolliver. As a mom of twins, one being a highly sensitive child who responds to the world in a non traditional and sometimes challenging way. I understand the desire to find the golden answer. Maybe there is no golden answer. But there are resources, tips and tricks we can all use to help us make this uniquely normal parenting journey a little more fun. This podcast is a roadmap to parenting that kid for myself and other parents. If recording my journey as I seek a clear starting point, community and effort to normalize what sometimes feels abnormal, supports at least one parent, then my time is not wasted. And hey, if it doesn't, well, there's documented proof that moms deserve a glass of wine. Cheers.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Today's guest on parenting that kid is JT Tsui, the sports director for Ontario football and the author of the best selling book your greatness. While sports athletics sounds like it would go hand in hand with greatness. It doesn't always for a child who has ADHD, they might struggle to believe in their greatness. And that's why I brought JT on JTS book you our greatness provides practical ways that you find your greatness. And once we parents find those tools, we have to put them into practice with our own children. Because you and I both know our children have greatness in them. It's just up to us to give them the tools to believe it themselves.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

All right. So JT Tsui, thank you so much for joining me today. I am really thrilled. Like I said, I have some questions that I as a parent want to know. And so I feel other parents are gonna want another answer as well. But I would love for you to introduce yourself to my guests so that they have an idea of what they're about to jump into and listen to. Yeah,

J.T. Tsui:

thank you so much, Ashley, for providing the opportunity to be here and hold some space with you. And it just really just feel blessed. Thank you very much again. My name is JT Tsui. And my mission is to show other people what's possible when they go all in and truly bet on themselves. And you know, there's lots of different ways in how I do that, right. Most importantly, I have a beautiful family, my wife, Alicia, who I've been married to for almost 13 years now, Lucky 13. I got two young kids 11 and a half and nine. And the really cool thing in the last few years since my wife and I both left the safe and comfortable world of teaching, it's just been able to really experience life with our kids in a different way to take the road less traveled. And it's been really amazing, because we've been able to bring more of their uniqueness, more of what makes them sort of their proverbial special snowflake to the surface, which has been really cool to watch. Beyond that, I'm currently serving as a coach and consultant and speaking, also serving as director of sport with football, Ontario, which would be similar to kind of like a state, right, like, kind of like if you're looking at a state in Texas, like the football. So yeah, so lots of different avenues. But again, just going back to my mission, which is just to show others what's possible. That's so

Ashleigh Tolliver:

amazing. And that sounds really packed. I'm moving on. But also. So that's wonderful. Yeah, so as I mentioned, I spoke with an elite athlete recently, and I wanted to speak to somebody who is on the the outside, but not the athletes themselves in the action. But I wanted to speak to somebody who works with athletes, in particular, somebody who works with athletes who might have had other experiences in life, and you just so happen also teacher, you probably come across a child or two who might have ADHD or a whole other list of neurodivergent differences. Then you have this book, and I have been stalking your book, I've been stalking it online, listening to your little Instagram interviews and all these things. I think your book is really amazing. And I think, multiple types of people and adults. But yeah, we take that in ourselves and then share that with our own children. So yeah, so it's not specific to neurodivergent. But I think it's finding the greatness of who everybody is, everybody has that. And that's I tell my daughter, your ADHD is your superpower. And, and I think we have to just keep saying that we have to train her brain to truly believe that there are moments in time where that doesn't feel like that to her. And so when I was speaking with you and reading all of your information, I really wanted to get your perspective on coaching and being around. You're now in the athletic and the adults young adult life, but of being around that as the outsider supporting those who are in the action and your experience with that. And then a few other points that I feel will make mothers comfortable. Like for children. So is there a way that you could speak to that and as a whole and then we'll narrow it down?

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah. I definitely so why don't I give you some context? So part of why I wrote the word great. This was it was inspired after a conversation with a coaching client, who also happened to be a former teaching and coaching colleague, and he asked me, What's your truth? And it was really, it kind of like stopped me like dead in my tracks, because usually I'm the one I'm like, I have a curious mind, I'm constantly asking questions, and probably you can start to see why that's why I kind of found the coaching education because I've experienced, and I came back to this fundamental truth that everyone has a seed of greatness inside of though, we may not always see it, we may not always be aware of it, but it's there. Right? It's like planting a carrot seed in the ground, and you may not see the physical carrot, but it's there. And from that, just that simple truth, that simple idea has just sort of framed, you know, my life, because I think for my own lived experience, there have been moments in our life where we forget that truth, right? We just feel like the way our current results in life, you know, we just don't, or we or we believe we're not worthy, right, or we forget that truth. So I just wanted to help others understand that. And from that sort of birth, this idea that going back to my mission is I just want people to I just want to acknowledge people, I want to praise people, I want to celebrate people and just remind them of those things. Because I'm a believer that the biggest human need is people just want to feel seen, want to feel heard, want to feel appreciated. And we live in a world right now, where if you don't fit a mold and certain aspects of life, then you feel like an outsider. Yeah, so So I just wanted to help people sort of just remind them that regardless of what's happened up to this point, you know, you are deserving of greatness, you are worthy of greatness. And you are greatness.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Oh, that's so wonderful. And that speaks so innate in me as a mom to my child who doesn't feel that way all the time, right? When you've got something that you're struggling with, you don't feel that in that moment, and you have to really support that that really you are and you just have to shine and see that and you will and so hard on your level to see that. So I love that that message and I think book, the parent could start believing that about themselves. Wow. Yeah. onto their child. And that would be a whole different world. That would be amazing.

J.T. Tsui:

Absolutely.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

So to find greatness, because I think we do, like I said, it's kind of my I told my daughter, it's your hidden superpower that people don't know. But it's pretty cool. Because the way you think is not how I think, I feel like raising that though, when the child is so deep into not believing that and that they're not getting the enjoyment out of life that you really would love them to have. I feel like that can be a really big challenge. And I also see that academically, I see that socially, I see that and the athletic ability of my kids, one of them, the one that really highlights what typical ADHD would look like. And I don't, and I wonder how, from your perspective, as a coach and a teacher, how do you really foster that to start making shift with them? And it can be the smallest thing on a day to day basis? Or it can be a huge thing that you have to work on to take a year?

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah, no. And that? You know, that's a great question. I think that that's what we all search for as parents, right is, you know, how do we help our how do we help the young people in our lives feel happy, healthy and wealthy, because really, at the end of the day, they have to feel happy, healthy and Valby if we want them to thrive. And for me, it's, again, coming from education. The interesting thing is two of the three schools that I taught at were very academically driven and athletically driven. So very, like the standard of excellence was here. So it was a high pressure environment. And the interesting part was, I actually didn't enjoy school very much. I was actually very much the proverbial underachiever. I just never resonated with me I just felt kind of invisible kind of felt like I don't know at school just I've always been a bit of a resistor like if I don't really see why we're doing it, part of that edge comes out me goes this is this is pointless. This is silly. So So I think having like what you're doing now it's celebrating again, going back to celebrate the fact that there are different avenues of greatness. There are different avenues where people can be successful. And I think it's really acknowledging the gifts the talents and abilities of our young people and providing them with opportunities to try things out to just see it just embrace that, you know, that Nelson Mandela quote that you're gonna, you're either going to win or you're going to learn something in a process. So I think it's really Celebrating that growth mindset, and really just helping young people to understand that there is more to life than a market of zero to 100 on a test, there is more to, you know, thinking that you have to be a doctor or lawyer in terms to be successful in this life. And, and I guess just providing those opportunities and really celebrating those gifts, there's tax at the least, and given the opportunity to try some things out and fail a lot, but at least they'll learn something in the process. Right. Right.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Right. Well, I like that one. Interesting. So the academic one was just zero interest. And because it wasn't serving your greatness, or it wasn't highlighting, or Yeah, yeah. And that and I find that to be the struggle with ADHD because they do they have this hyper focus area, whatever it might be. And all the other is just Oh, for a year, and it's not fun. And, and then it feels like you don't have that greatness.

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah. And you know, it's interesting that if you actually take a look, and I think this is where kids have such a wonderful teachers, because they're so tapped into their intuition, like they just and what they do, and you have kids, what do kids do, they play, they explore, they discover, and that's how they experience the world, right? You think back to, you know, how they started to figure out what their places in the world. And truth be told in schools. It's not really, that it's not really structured that way, it's not because anything's wrong with it, it's just that's just never really been a part of schools, schools have been very much, you know, go to a certain class, sit down, sit in your seat, I have someone at the front of the class giving, giving, and it's giving you all the information, then it's regurgitating it to be on a test. And that really has been education since its inception during the Industrial Revolution, right. And it's understanding that many of these life lessons are often at least, again, my experience from myself working with others, that many of those lessons can be taught elsewhere, whether they are these kinds of conversations where we're sharing each other's lived experience, whether it's on the sports field, like you do with your kids, right view, told me there's learning how to show up on time give their best effort and attitude right on the on the soccer field. And, yeah, and just just acknowledging that you can discover or rediscover a lot of lessons about life, outside of traditional four walls of a classroom.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Yeah, well, and that brings us to athletics. So showing up on the field or showing up in a team or maybe it's an individualized sport, whatever that might be. That can be challenging for children who have ADHD or who have the have a struggle to focus or stay in line, there's, I don't think sports isn't in line. In fact, that's what makes it so amazing to watch, because everybody does their own unique ability to Yeah, it can be a huge challenge for those types of children. And it can be a huge challenge. Well, I couldn't be the child's parent them. But I can only imagine as a coach, that can be a challenge as well, ya know that this is so good for that child. And, and it's going to take the extra to be in that child's life. I don't know if you can speak to approaching a child who might not just be the gung ho, and I'm gonna listen, I'm going to do it all. And I can show up on time, and I'm gonna do every drill you asked me to do? And I'm sure there are children. Right. I mean, that's just life. But I would love to hear that from the coaching side out. Yeah, that type of child. Yeah, that's

J.T. Tsui:

a great question how one I think it would, again, come from the understanding that it's about releasing this illusion of perfection, that not every student and I think back to my own experience, it's going to just want to sit down to be compliant and just say, Yes, sir. No, ma'am. And it's just understanding that some of those skills might not everyone's been able to provide experts and not everyone is at a point where they're willing to do it, and that's okay. But then to it is finding again, it's finding that seed of grapes in the array and maybe finding this connection point to maybe just, yeah, just figure out like, you know, I'm a big believer, I'm a big relationship person. I'm sure you can probably appreciate it. And it's just fine. But yeah, tell me about your day. Yeah. What are your classes? Like? And maybe find out? Oh, yeah. Like, what's been your favorite? What's your favorite sport? What's your favorite activity? What do you like to do? And I find that once you sort of prioritize and build those bridges of trust, then it then allows you to maybe gain a greater understanding of the person. And then you can kind of find out that way. So I've always been a firm believer in building bridges of trust, right of that, you know, loving people tough. And then once you build those bridges, then you can start to talk about, Hey, these are kind of what's expected when you're, you know, on the field, right, but but I'm a big you got, you got to build that trust first. Yeah,

Ashleigh Tolliver:

absolutely. Well, and I think that's why coaches play a huge role in any athlete's life and children that of course, look up to them. I was sharing that my Sun stars a picture of a coach from I don't know how many seasons back, it was so many years that whatever that that coach did just that with him and whenever we rearrange his room, he moves that picture around with him still and, and I think this guy did spend time creating some type of relationship with him. And my son was not the easy one. It's definitely not the easy way. But it's not actually work. I still really enjoy that one. Another question I had, then it's being on a team and relationships is really hard. It's really hard for anybody, not relationships, but being on a team. It's a different type of relationship. And children with ADHD struggled with relationships, it's just one of those areas that they will have to work on. And being the individual in that as hard but being the coach who has to kind of hold that team, I feel like that's got to be a challenge and its own. And I would love to hear your ideas on that.

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah. And I love that question, right? Because again, that's where, you know, in sports, we have all these cliches, right? We talk about family, and but how do you build that that greater sense of t, that greater sense of community, family, whatever you want to say. And again, it goes back to, it's building those bridges of trust, right. And I'm, I love that, like, that's kind of where that's like my jam. That's what I'd love to do. I love seeing a group of young men and young women come together, there's just something about it, that just lights just lights me up. So give you an example. In my role of football, Ontario, as I'm in charge of the High Performance pathway, so dealing with some of the, you know, the highest of the high, right athletes, like very motivated, these are the ones that will play college and university, you know, some of them will play pro. So, so we prioritize something we call the next play McKelvey sessions, where it's all about social emotional learning skills, right, like really teaching them, quote, unquote, soft skills, which I think is, right. They're great human beings skills right there. They're teaching how to be a great teammate. And one of the things that we all I often challenge in a loving way of our athletes is the importance of taking courageous action. Right? Because again, it's not always easy, especially when you're young, you're not really calm and calm and confident in your own skin. So I'll ask, you know, a question, maybe it'll be, here's a question, share about a time you felt really grateful. And then I'll say, okay, for volunteers, who wants to take courageous action. So again, it's celebrating them using language that will empower them. And then when we do that, a really cool thing happened this year, I said, what I would like you to do is to acknowledge your team Ontario, brother or sister and acknowledge them for taking courageous action. So show them that their money, and then we all did that, or I said, drop a drop the mic, we were doing this virtually says drop a muddy sign in the chat. And it was really cool, because you're looking at I mean, these are groups of 350, across our province, right of the top athletes and coaches 12 to 17 years of age, you know, to high end coaches, and all of a sudden, you see, like, people like acknowledging each other, you see the chat, go like Uber, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo. And it was one of those where we were at a national tournament a couple of weeks back, and our players when they made a big play. All of a sudden, those lessons that we had started in January, they were acknowledging each other after a big play, and they're like, an RC became money in the chat. So and they did it. And it was a way of they were doing it to celebrate each other wasn't, it wasn't focused on the other team like that way. It was simply acknowledging each other for, hey, we're part of this family, and we're gonna acknowledge praise and celebrate each other. And to me, seeing that was like, I don't know, do you see that? And they're physically manifest eight months later, was amazing.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Oh, my gosh, okay, well, that just gave me goosebumps. I feel like that's not that's not across the board. And it should be across the board for everything in life. I just want your children don't get that a lot. And wow, that's amazing. And what my question to you next is about inclusivity. But I just wrap that up for us too. Because that, you know, it's the children who struggle can feel very much like the outsider of what's happening and they could love the sport, they can love arts, they love music, whatever it might be. But they struggle to focus stay on task to give the dedication, the time, the energy to something. They don't get to succeed and their mind what they would call succeed and that and especially if you're working with a team, it can feel like the team is really pushing you back and you're holding down and you're not helping the whole team succeed or whatever. But just sounds like just just the social emotional prior to even getting on the field or doing whatever you're doing. Waiting for before that, hopefully before that moment hits kind of feeling.

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah. And at the beauty of that, maybe I'll just preface this, right, because people are probably thinking, you know, how do you even get to that point? Well, it's interesting that again, these are this was all research driven. This was work done out of the University of Toronto, which up here in Canada is one of the premier academic research driven universities here. It's non secular. Right. So these are all based on, on practices from like, the Far East, right, and mindfulness practices. So so if anyone's asking, the other thing we did was, we did build some expectations. But we talked about like expected norms, not rules and all this stuff. Because we all know what happens when people rules, like let's use, let's use empowering language. So these expectations, so we actually did preface this idea. Part of this is to learn from other people's experience. So you have two ears, one mouth, you can learn a lot by simply listening. So we're so we are training and helping our athletes to understand the power of listening to another thing, which especially in today's day, and age was so powerful is we we acknowledge that it's okay to agree to disagree. Yeah. And I think in today's world polarizing, I think it's important that we help our young people that understand that everything in their world is being driven to just get them feed them exactly what they want to hear, like minds, which to a degree is there, but we need to be open to listening to diversity of thought, and to and coming from an objective and just, again, a willingness to listen, and maybe just just have conversations.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Wow. Yeah, that is so important. So I'm really important that people walk out of there just feeling super empowered about their own selves, whether it's politically or not. I mean, if that's an entire focus, I think, enhances so many areas of your life. That's amazing. Um, these athletes, you said they were young, right? Is that 12? Starting around the age of 12?

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah, so we had anywhere from 12 to 17. For this aspect of our high performance pathway. Yeah.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Wow. Okay, well, those are different brains, right? They're 17 year old isn't very different brains, and helping them find their path, their greatness. And all along feeling the pressure of the world saying another thing too you? Do you find that there's ways that they might need support and coping on the field or in the action in the moment to really believe what you've been working with them on? Because the other can be so loud in the world?

J.T. Tsui:

Yes. Okay, that that's, that's the game of life, right. And it's understanding it. And it's really and one of the messages that myself and our coaches, our leadership team often talk about this, this idea of the only thing you can control is your next thought, and various the power of free will. And really, it's helping again, part of these mental training sessions, these next play mentality sessions is to help actually, our athletes to train and condition their mind to be able to get laser focused on the here and now. So So part of this work is providing the mental reps and sets so that they can connect to them because we all prioritize the physical body. But we understand that what happens up here is going to show well in the physical world, right, so definitely,

Ashleigh Tolliver:

what controller are gonna work with this and forget the rest, it's not going to do what we wanted it to do. Exactly. Wow, this is amazing. Okay, that is, you again, you've given me goosebumps, because I think I was just on this support group for mothers and they were asking, should they send their child for any athletic sport, they just felt last time experience was not good. My child was not excelling or my child couldn't focus or when they were being picked on, right? There's so many things and there's this struggle to decide if f of sports really is the way to go. And I would love to hear from you.

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah. Great question. And I would just want your your community to understand this is a question I get from many parents. I mean, these are these are parents that are, you know, CEOs, they are, they are like parents from all walks of life. You know, what do I do? Like, there's so much noise out there. There's so many different sports, you know, sort of everyone's promising the world to me, what do I do? Yeah, I'm a firm believer that the first thing you have to do is like, what do you really want out of this? Like, what is the driver? What is the biggest priority for you and your child? And I remember having this conversation with a player Right. And just give you some context. They were they were debating between different pathways. And they just said, Well, what's most important? Yeah. And they said, Well, I want to close the hole. I want them to the, and they said, what was important to school? I said, Okay, I said, to do one of these pathways, one of these options fit that. Absolutely. So So why share this idea was, you have to be clear on what's important to you. Right, like, and once you get clarity on what's important to you, then you can determine if that team that coach, that organization is aligned with what's important to you, because I'm a firm believer that that's the most important thing. So I think, I think for parents, they need to be clear on what is what's they're looking for? What do they value the most? And then, then that will give them some clarity on what the best fit is for them.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Yeah, well, as you were just speaking of thinking of the local clubs, and how it's all, you know, try, there's this point of like sales to parents, you should sign your kid up here you have, you know, we're gonna make them the biggest of the next greatest or whatever, like, well, you and at 40. Other clubs have also said the same thing to me before. And, and my child wasn't treated well over there, or they were you all of these things. So this is great. And it is closing down what's going on on the outside world. And just going back into your, your truth, your beliefs, your desires for your child.

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah, yeah. And I think once you do that, you give yourself permission. Because again, it's acknowledging the fact that we all at times, and I say this myself, we sometimes get caught up in keeping up with the Joneses, right? The proverbial keeping up the Joneses, right? And we're like, Oh, should I or should I, but really, at the end of the day is, if it's near and dear to your heart, then my I'm a firm believer that, then you can never go wrong.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Yeah, yeah. Right. Because then you're happy. And what's great? Yeah. So what about if there is a child student, a young, let's just say teenage age, that type of like kinda having to pick their own path at this point? Yeah. And they've had struggles along the way, but they have this passion for whatever that might be. But, but the world has told them things throughout their, you know, 10 years, 1213 1415 years, and now that they really do want to go this way, and then their parents are allowing you, it is your life and the end, right? I mean, I can have all them. I can have all the opinions I want. But this is your life. How do you work with the young, soon to be adult who is going to make all their own choices? Who might have heard things or felt things throughout their past?

J.T. Tsui:

Back is a great question. To call in line it? No, it's a common one you. You know, again, it's understanding that there's a difference between specialized knowledge and opinion. Right. And I think it's very easy. We live in a world wherever, where many people want to give their opinion. I always come back to this idea that other people's opinions of you are none of your concern. And I firmly believe that at the end of the day, what do you want? Like, what do you really want out of life? And when we ask that question, a truly come with a curious mind and an open heart. And we allow our young people to actually give some thought, and to allow them to respond with and just listen. That that is where they can provide, they get themselves some clarity. So So again, I think, again, it comes back to this idea. Just what do you want? What do you really want and it goes back to you have to build those trusting relationships and give them a safe space to be themselves.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Yeah, and I think being an athlete, probably pretty vulnerable experience. I mean, I've been an athlete that being a top elite athlete is probably a very vulnerable experience. And it's probably isolating at times too, because you're one of the few you're one of those that are just picked off the tree and there's millions of others but there's you over here who probably has heard not the best things right, your tire life and you've heard great things about your life like this balance. So this is you know, coming back and finding your own truths and spending that time with yourself. Definitely not truth because you do close the door sometimes and just block it all out. That's really Yeah.

J.T. Tsui:

It's interesting now our surgeons say that I just think back to again, why is this a skill that many people struggle with the ability to active sit and be with themselves to, to self reflect? And the truth is these skills are rarely taught, right? It's ones where, you know, I'm, you know, I'm in this space, and I find my kids, although we see that doing it, it's sometimes keeps prompting, once it prompts me to ask them questions away, that actually gets them to stop and think, reflect. And the skills aren't always taught in schools more often than not, they're not, they're not. Right, right. People just aren't always aware of how powerful they are, where they can be. So I think just again, providing that opportunity, even if it starts today, which is asking that question once, at least, then we can, again, challenge people in a loving way to stop, to think to actually create some conscious thought and set an intention of what the past board could look like.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Yeah, well, and that's really powerful for the ADHD brain, because it is always this constant, constant constant. And it is, it is a challenge. It's a exercise to stop the brain, have a thought that goes all the way through. And then of course, implementing that, but having that moment in time. Yeah, that's a great exercise for every brain. And I think the ADHD brain really could use that. And the brain is a muscle that needs exercises like,

J.T. Tsui:

and that's the connector, right. And that's the power of exercise. Right. And again, coming from a phys, Ed, kinesiology background, the body is so accessible, right it especially for the ADHD, we understand what the challenge is that, you know, the busy, right, the busy mind. And then and I say that before our call, I went out for rent because I wanted to be focused and locked in on you. So for me, the run allowed me to cool the Jets. So I could be laser focused, so I could show up and serve you in your community. So again, exercise the body, it's a powerful way to connect to the year in the mouth.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

That's so wonderful. Wonderful. So do you have a lovely work with the older I say older as in child older, not older? Yeah. Although that actually is a conversation in itself, athlete athleticism beyond? Do you have tips, advice, even resources for high athlete students, older youth, who one might just be struggling to figure out where their path is in this journey that they're on. And I love that everybody can find their own greatness. I think the name of your book is really awesome. And I have been very vocal with that, that I just think everybody has greatness in them. And we just got to find it and dig it out and feel like it's there. And so I do love that title. But do you have some tips and resources for those age groups that are just really unsure right now? And you're right, so there's got to be a path that they feel drawn to some way or another?

J.T. Tsui:

Yeah. Well, it's funny that you asked that. And I'm inspired by a conversation that I had with a former student athlete who's who's now in a couple of weeks going on to play University football up here in Canada. And he said to me, I saw him afterwards, he says, I read your book. I said, Okay, what's up, he's like, I'd like to read this. And this is, again, a very academic like, you know, but again, for whatever reason, reading was not a habit, good for him. And from there, the book was a way because, again, part of the the inspiration right in the book was, I have limited experience in education, I understand where the gaps where the challenges are. I understand that adding more to teachers who already have enough on their plate. And these coaches like it's, they are teachers, they are guidance counselors, they are parents, they are chauffeurs, they they are tapped, especially after the last two and a half years. So I wanted to offer, again, stories from my lived experience that were tasked with those tools. So at the end of each chapter, there are three journaling prompts. So again, it was to get some clarity on, you know, what's your goal right now? To like, what is what is potential? What could action steps could you take today? What is one action, you want to set the intention to follow through this on this week? And part of it was was to just give people a framework? A playbook. Right, that they could access in like five minutes or less? Right, five, seven minutes, and just set some intention to maintain that. And so I would say the book would be a great resource.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Yeah, it's not just reading but you're actually creating your own world. I mean, there's great I feel like reading about someone it's like reading a recipe. You okay, getting a Yeah, but it's not real until you do it. And so this is both of those things and Now

J.T. Tsui:

it's a choose your own adventure, I get that bit of a rebel in me that said, I, it's 13 ideas. And part of me writing it was I just want something where it's not like a traditional novel. It's just like, Okay, what's an idea? Oh, there's a PDF here from sport. There's an idea here from my personal life, this idea from my relationship with my kids, my old father. So I just wrote it, because again, different lived experience is going to resonate with different people.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Right? Absolutely. Okay. That's wonderful. Thank you. Okay, where do people find your book?

J.T. Tsui:

So they can go right to the website? So it's WW, don't you our greatness? book.com. Or if they go to my Instagram, or Twitter, any of those, there's a link tree there. And they can have all the resources there. They can access the podcast like, yeah, there's there's a lot of tools there that they can use to just move forward and bring their greatness to the surface. Perfect.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Wow, JP, this is wonderful. Like I said, I do sounds a few times, actually questions that I had. And you struck some thoughts in me, which I always love when I get off of these and ponder for a long time. So thank you for bringing your expertise in this area. This is wonderful. And for sharing your book. I'm really, I'm excited and even more exciting. I know that at the end, there's like actionable things that you can do. I love those types of books.

J.T. Tsui:

Interesting, actually share that right actual, that's come up a couple times. One thing I often say at the end of my podcast is that knowledge is potential power. It's the consistent and focused application of great knowledge that actually creates great results. So So I just want to again, just again, that loving challenging way of reading books is great. We got to put things into practice if you want to create better results.

Ashleigh Tolliver:

Oh, yeah, I mean, well, okay, that's speaking right? The end of every practice every game, okay. Yay. Well, thank you JT, so much for sharing with my audience and for sharing with me, I really, really appreciate you coming on and giving your clients

J.T. Tsui:

you know, actually, Day to you, I received that. That's a practice I'm sort of champion myself to receive. I just want to thank you for choosing to show up. I think it's amazing that you are, you know, opening up your heart, you're opening up something that's near and dear to your heart, which is your relationship with your kids and figuring out how to create spaces where they can shift to thriving and bring out their greatness. So thank you for again, having the courage to share your that experience so that your community can learn and grow from it. So yeah,

Ashleigh Tolliver:

absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you for saying that. Yeah. All right. Well, I hope you have a wonderful day.