Ep. 44: Shelly Baskin: Military, High Jumping & Paintballs | Handling Pressure with Laughter and Gratitude

Ever found yourself laughing while learning about the rigors of being a military officer and an all-American high jumper? Well, brace yourself for an episode that’s equal parts enlightening and entertaining as we welcome the spirited Shelly Baskin. Shelly's journey from a 1700-acre ranch to the military, the sports field, and the lessons she's learned along the way, are nothing short of inspiring. She regales us with tales from her childhood, sibling rivalry, and even a hilarious paintball escapade.

Pressure is an inescapable part of life whether you are an athlete or in the military, but how do you manage it? Shelly gives us a peek into her recipe for handling pressure without crumbling. From choosing track over volleyball, handling overtraining, and navigating the world without social media, her life is a testament to the power of prioritization and avoiding unhealthy comparison. To aid this transformative journey, she shares resources that have helped her implement small, incremental changes in her life.

Drawing inspiration from her military enlistment in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, we shift gears to discuss the trials of training and the significance of keeping perspective. Can you guess who'd play Shelly and her siblings if their lives were made into a movie? Stick around to find out her laugh-inducing suggestions. As we wrap up, we express our gratitude to Shelly and you, our listeners, for supporting our mission to provide a platform for positive, uplifting content. Join us and Shelly Baskin in this laughter-filled, insightful episode of Passing the Torch.

Connect with Passing The Torch: Facebook and IG: @torchmartin

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Episode 31: Todd Henry – Choose To Be Brave

Episode 35: Brook Cupps – Shaping Leaders On and Off The Court

Episode 41: Lee Ellis – Freeing You From Bond That Make You Insecure

Transcript

Summary
Ever found yourself laughing while learning about the rigors of being a military officer and an all-American high jumper? Well, brace yourself for an episode that’s equal parts enlightening and entertaining as we welcome the spirited Shelly Baskin. Shelly's journey from a 1700-acre ranch to the military, the sports field, and the lessons she's learned along the way, are nothing short of inspiring. She regales us with tales from her childhood, sibling rivalry, and even a hilarious paintball escapade.

Pressure is an inescapable part of life whether you are an athlete or in the military, but how do you manage it? Shelly gives us a peek into her recipe for handling pressure without crumbling. From choosing track over volleyball, handling overtraining, and navigating the world without social media, her life is a testament to the power of prioritization and avoiding unhealthy comparison. To aid this transformative journey, she shares resources that have helped her implement small, incremental changes in her life.

Drawing inspiration from her military enlistment in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, we shift gears to discuss the trials of training and the significance of keeping perspective. Can you guess who'd play Shelly and her siblings if their lives were made into a movie? Stick around to find out her laugh-inducing suggestions. As we wrap up, we express our gratitude to Shelly and you, our listeners, for supporting our mission to provide a platform for positive, uplifting content. Join us and Shelly Baskin in this laughter-filled, insightful episode of Passing the Torch.

Discuss growing up on a 1700 acre ranch doing chores and the valuable lessons that you learned 02:10 Shelly Baskin Oh gosh, I mean it's funny because the first thing that comes to mind is group yard work with all my brothers, because we hated it and it was a lot of pine straw because it's a pretty big house. The house is like our farmhouse, is 10,000 square feet, so the outside of that is a lot of flower beds and we used to have to spread it at the beach. We grew up going to the beach a lot. Anyways, it taught me that complaining won't get you anywhere. With my mom at least, if anything, it could see more pine straw. I mean now I love yard work, but maybe it was like subliminal messaging to me. But I mean we shared all the chores because there was a bunch of us have three brothers, so easy to give each of us a different job. But I think it's great it might just be me that it stuck with, because I spent a lot of time with my youngest brother because we overlapped at school for a year and he was extremely messy, so obviously it didn't work for him, but I came away with some good life lessons but it was really fun. I mean having three brothers being outside like most of the time made me pretty competitive. We'd play like I mean paintball. That was awful. They would gang up on me but it probably did help my sports career. They literally would hide and all decide that I was the target. So I'd come out in the open and three people just light me up with paintballs. So that's actually a funny memory. Yeah, I mean we had a great time, it was like yard work or like we're going to vacuum and sweep and get everything clean. So when we come back we don't have to do it. And I was like this is a trap because we do it every time, like I'm not falling for this one more time. But yeah, growing up on, it's not like a traditional farm with like farm animals. We raise actually breeder deer and people come hunt the deer. And that was later in our life. Like I missed a lot of that. That was a lot of my younger brother working with my dad but, yeah, just being outside hunting together. Things that like I took, not take for granted. But then you move out of Alabama and it's like what do you mean? Your whole family would hunt together. I'm like duh, like where do you get your deer? So anyway, it was. It's really, it's really great and it's fun now still no, that's awesome.

How lessons from childhood have helped on her leadership journey
04:30 Shelly Baskin probably keeping each other accountable, just because my mom, she's a powerhouse and so is my dad, but we knew who we had to ask to get permission, and so she gives us something to do and it's not done. And I'm like, well, that wasn't you told. You told Patrick, do that. She's like I don't care who, I told it needs to get done. And I mean that's Pretty much, I would say, similar to the military, because at the end of the day, we just need to get things done. So it might not be your job and someone else might have pushed it off to you, but the commander doesn't care who's doing it a lot of time, as long as it gets done. So the quicker you come to terms with that that it's okay to inherit things that you don't want to do, getting them done does benefit everyone else. Like a rising tide, raises all ships, and that's that was true for us, because at the end of the day, we did have each other's backs. Even if someone's like really being, roasted about something, it's like, well, I'm allowed to roast him because he's my brother, but like don't even think about Getting mad if you're some outsider. So yeah, just sticking together and being okay with doing stuff you don't want to do and getting in trouble for things that are not your fault, that you don't think your fault, it really doesn't matter. At the end of the day it's just I would say, just take it in a stride. So that's what I try to do is not to get too Bombed when I'm like I didn't really think that was my fault. But is it worth saying anything like? It's usually not, so I'd say that's, that's a big takeaway.

Childhood memory that has paid dividends. Also nurturing her confidence and overall mental health
06:42 Shelly Baskin So when I started World Class Athlete Program (WCAP)  right after Graduated use off, I had to have surgery to take out some hardware in my foot because the screws were essentially coming out of the bone and the recovery from that was supposed to be pretty quick. But I also had a stress fracture that they found when, like the scan right before surgery. So I ended up being longer, blah, blah, blah. I wouldn't say I was in a slump, necessarily, but it's hard to have. You have a lot of momentum coming off like a senior season and then to immediately go into recovery mode kind of stinks. And, I'm getting back into training, probably not as fast as I should have. And my mom, my mom was like, basically, what are you doing? Like what we need to get? You need to get rolling. Like you need a coach, you need and I had a coach, but I needed someone more technical to compliment my use off, a coach, who's amazing. We're like super tight. But yeah, I mean she lit a fire under me like if you weren't advocating for yourself, who's going to advocate for you? Because you really kind of are alone during w-cap if you don't seek or take initiative for your own training. And I mean that was I wouldn't say I was a child, but when you graduate college it's not like you're some wise adult or anything. So that lesson has really stuck with me because I mean it was a little bit of a rude awakening In the sense that I'm like, oh my gosh, mom, why are you getting that at me? I just had surgery. But it's like you really can't don't be the victim ever and you have to advocate for yourself. I've had things where I'm really driving, like my assignment for intel school or just deadlines that normally when you're in a unit they take care of you, but when you're off in w-cap by yourself, geographically distance from your supervisor, a lot of that stuff falls through the cracks if you're not on it. So me just continually falling up with people and being like, hey, I don't know if you're the person you need to talk to, but I need to talk to someone that can help me do XYZ, I mean, and that's helped me Get my life together, to get to tech school, do training, get here and then first intel assignment, I was a captain, like two months in. So people are like, oh, you, something. And I'm like, oh, I'm still pretty new. So just yeah, just being your own advocate. And that's what I tell people all the time, especially like sponsoring lieutenants, or people that are like how do you like this? I'm like, if you aren't advocating for yourself, you don't give people ammo to advocate for you either. So you really have to be your own advocate and don't get too comfortable when you're kind of like Not feeling sorry for yourself. But it's easy to fall into that sometimes. Oh for sure. Um, so growing up, all three of my brothers ended up going division one, college sports, and so two older, one younger, but even from a really young age my mom was like, all of you are good at something, we're going to figure out what it is and you're going to do that in college or you're going to get a job. And we were like, ooh, sports sounds way more fun Then working, because it is a job, it's a full-time job. But yeah, it was never like I love gymnastics. When I was younger you can watch gymnastics on TV. Nobody six one. So I knew I didn't know.

Yeah, my mom's like, listen, gymnastics probably isn't going to be the ticket for you, and I'm like what? I love gymnastics. But it was never like you can't do this. It was like, why don't we focus on what you're good at? And it was always that it was never and it didn't have to be sports, it didn't have to be, it didn't have to be really anything that was like tangible if I was, if you're really good at reading and you want to work somewhere that has to do with reading, what I mean.

It was like we're going to nurture what you love rather than, oh, you're not good at this, you need to be perfect. But after, after a while, you pick a track and it's like, okay, now I'm going to pour everything into this. I know you're great, we just need to figure out what you're best at and then we're going to like fully send it. But yeah, it was always just like a re-vectoring kind of and knowing that it was going to be okay because everybody's good at something. It was always really positive competitive among brothers, obviously, but positive mostly.

Filtering which perspectives are worth listening to
11:55 Shelly Baskin So when I got to you South, I came actually for volleyball and track. So I played volleyball for two years and the sticking point for me was sophomore year. I missed qualifying for nationals by like two places or something and I had come off an injury. Freshman year I had I've broken my foot. That's when I got the hardware put in and so I'm hearing from the volleyball coach we need you. The seniors are gone. You're going to fill this big hole and the track coaches really never.

And I loved volleyball and I liked the coaches a lot, but I was like I know I could be like going back to what my mom said like I know that I could be so much better at track if I focused. So that was a hard decision to pare down just to one sport. But the best coaches I've ever had have been, I'd say, honestly, easy going because I don't really need someone to impose a lot of structure on me, because that's my personality anyway. It's like I really like structure so I can do that myself. I almost need someone to be like it's okay to chill and take some training. Doesn't happen overnight.

So I would say, find, find someone's going to give you advice that maybe you wouldn't actively seek Like people want to seek things that are similar to them, but like the one of the best high jump coach I've ever had, Gwen Mikinski she's awesome, she's coach world team. She's like super connected in the track world. She is so zen and kind of hippy and like I told her that and that's not something that I would have actively sought out I would have sought out someone that mirrors my energy, but I'd say the best advice often comes from someone that is complimentary rather than type A, type A.

Handling expectations when pressure continues to rise
14:31 Shelly Baskin It's funny because I feel a lot less pressure now than I did athletically, just because I think so much of athletics is self-imposed, especially at a certain level. It's important that you can't measure progress against other people because you have no idea what they're going through or what their timeline is or when they're aiming to peak. You go to certain meets like I used to hate tapering because I was like I'm going to lose my fitness overnight if I don't work out hard for two weeks like I'm used to. I really probably did myself a disservice, especially early on, with just overtraining, because recovery is a job like recovery and tapering that in itself is a whole strategy. So, yeah, don't look around and say, oh my gosh, they're working out this hard, I need to work out this hard. And that's one reason I totally got off social media pretty early in, like my professional track career, because I didn't want to see what other people were doing.

If I need to see a training plan Like I can seek that out, but I don't need to passively ingest things that just aren't true and it's easier for me to just say I'm just going to get rid of it because I'm not even tempted now to look it up because I don't have access to it, and it's amazing how quickly you adapt to not caring about what other people are doing if you're not seeing it, because I think we passively just taken so much stimuli and you just aren't aware of, like that translating to your mindset.

So that helps me a lot. And just taking my own training plan and then same thing at work, it's like, at the end of the day, what really matters and what matters is I'm taking care of the big things that I know are impacting a lot of people. So maybe I can't get to everything, because you're just never going to get to everything at work and most people just aren't going to. So be okay with prioritizing things and knowing certain things are going to slip and you can re-attack those later, but it's like you have to prioritize, otherwise you'll run yourself straight into the ground, which I did do early on, in track for sure, and that's probably why I was injured early on and then I was like this isn't sustainable.

Recommended books, podcasts, or any resource for anyone looking to make small incremental changes that eventually have big payoffs
17:22 Shelly Baskin That's a good question. And now at least really quick with social media, like I do have. I have a LinkedIn. I honestly just use it because I like to read the articles and I have Instagram now on Facebook. But I try and look at it like in my. I want to keep up with people that are like. A lot of my friends are having children now and it's like and I realize it's hard for people to keep in touch so I want to see it. But the way I ingest it so differently, it's like I'm going to share this photo because I love it or am I going to share this photo because I want other people to see it and I want feedback on it, because that to me, is not the way I want to use it.

But the athletic realm definitely shaped that for me because I just realized it can be so detrimental and I know it's not a hot take. I mean, a lot of people feel that way. But anyway, as far as incremental resources, something I love is picking out someone that I admire At least I think I admire because you don't really know like a celebrity or whatever and I love reading biographies and stories of success, like reading boys in the boat. Have you ever read that? So it's about the Olympic rowing team during World War II, our US team, and which is like such a time of unrest. I also love World War II history that's my nerd fact.

But reading success stories like that and just seeing people have achieved success in different ways throughout the years, but there are like underlying themes that just never change and that's. I just believe in being disciplined with things that really matter to you, like for me that's working out pretty much every day. If I don't do that, my headspace is off from like the get go. So just find I'd say like find a couple things, even if it's one that you really want to make a change, and just stay committed to it. And it doesn't have to be every day and it's okay if you fall off the wagon for a few days. Like don't scrap the whole effort because you feel so much better just getting back on it rather than just quit, like if that's bringing a healthy lunch or working out or like walking your dog, because it will make a difference over time. So I just feel like people don't always stick with something long enough to see that it can make a difference. Yeah, it's like I like to think of it in six months. If I look back, that day I missed will be a blip in time, Whereas if I miss or even if I miss three days, it's still a blip. But if I miss a day and then I quit and then I pick it up two months later, it's like it could have just been three days, but instead I made it a month of failure. So it doesn't, it doesn't matter if you fall off. It's like just keep putting in the work and it will pay off.

Fascination with World War Two
20:21 Shelly Baskin I am like so into just the resistance movement and how it kind of ties back to. It's like people were doing tiny things, like Putting up flyers in the middle of the night, like just getting the word out, and it's like grassroots efforts like that small, incremental changes, they do make a difference. So I just like seeing the stories of people banding together and like sticking to a cause. So, yeah, I really like that aspect of it. And there's a lot of tragic things happening in the world today and that was a really horrible period in history, but there are still Good things that come from bad things. Just seeing people being together, I think it's cool.

How lessons from World War Two impact present day and her own leadership philosophy
22:20 Shelly Baskin Hindsight is 2020. I feel like when you Find yourself in a situation that you think is so stressful like this, is it? This is like, if I don't get this done, it's game over. It's like try and take a step back and In a month and I still going to feel this way in six months Am I going to look back and feel this way? And if the answer is yes, then what you're doing? You need to figure it out, because it obviously matters. But if you're, if you're like in a month, this is probably going to be, like I said, a blip in time, then simmer down, because I mean, I'm guilty of this.

Everyone gets caught up in what they're doing and what's important right now is like the only thing that matters to me. But when you have ten things going on, you really can't afford to look at problems that way. So I just think it helps, puts, puts things in perspective when you, when you, just zoom out. So that's what that's what I try and do because, like I said, during training, it's so hard to do that sometimes because you're so focused on Several workouts a day, what you're eating, what time do you need to go to sleep. It's like just check-ins all throughout the day and then, before it, it's like oh, pre-season's over. I mean, it's around the corner. I don't even remember what I've been doing because I'm so sucked in. So, yeah, just trying to be present, but also keep some perspective that what you're doing, if it doesn't go exactly how you envision, it's probably going to be fine.

World class talent that people might not know
24:16 Shelly Baskin Probably knowing a lot about dogs, it's so random a specific breed or just in general. Yes, greyhounds, I have two gray hounds. I love animals. Their names are Poppy and Rafa. So Rafa is named after Rafa on a doll because I love tennis F a. So Rafa and Poppy. I'm really passionate about animals. I would love to, I would love to to work with like greyhound rescues in the future and I did when I lived in Colorado. My first greyhound was a previous racer, so I'm all into that. I, yeah, I really love, love animals. So that's like super big passion of mine outside of athletics and Everything else we just uh well, it's been a year, but we adopted a dog.

If there was a GIANT BILLBOARD that he could place anywhere in the world with his message on it for the world to see, where would the billboard be and what would the message say?
30:28 Shelly Baskin Where would I place it? Probably going from. This is because this is like my favorite place to be Well, one of them driving from, because my family has some land in Wyoming and my youngest brother's out there. He, when I was in Colorado we'd go back and forth a lot, but I just think that's beautiful and there's not much out there. So I'd put it out there because I'm like people will definitely see it Maybe not a ton of people, but people would see it and it would probably say have a great day. Or just like smile, or like enjoy, enjoy this place. Just because that's just how I feel. I'm just like let's just have a good time and make things better. That was not a succinct message, but that's the theme.

Books and People mentioned: 
Gwen Mikinski
Jamiel Trimble
Book The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Quotes:
“Remember to Smile.”- Nelson Mandela