When 22-year-old professional footballer Keyen Lage received a phone call informing him he would be playing for the Kansas City Chiefs during the 2016 NFL season, it was one of the happiest days of his life. The fulfillment of a lifelong dream turned into a nightmare when less than 24 hours later, a precautionary MRI scan on his neck revealed that he would very likely end up paralyzed if he continued to play football.
The man who had dedicated his life to football would never play again. Lage hit rock bottom, but showing the same grit and tenacity he displayed on the pitch, he turned things around and found success as a high-performance coach for high achievers. We caught up with Lage for a chat about his remarkable journey.
Q: Hello Keyen, for any athlete, let alone a professional one, the news that they can never participate in their chosen sport again must be a devastating one. How did you overcome such a blow at such a young age?
A: It was tricky; that’s for sure. Just as I had reached my lifelong goal it was cruelly snatched away from me. Yet being stuck in such a negative situation gave me a golden opportunity to reflect on my life and how I could improve it. I decided I would cycle to the library every day for a month and do nothing but read. One day I stumbled across a book called the ‘Biology of Belief’ by Bruce Lipton, and it pretty much changed my life.
Q: It’s interesting that a man who was dedicated so much to the physical side of things would have his life changed by a book. Can you elaborate?
A: Sure. The thing with Lipton’s book is it helped me understand for the first time the true meaning of health and balance. Before that point, my whole life had been a never-ending cycle of achievement and then feeling empty because I felt I needed to achieve something else. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a fine thing to have ambition and perform, but I was consistently using my success, my status, my accolades, and my reputation as a means of permitting myself to feel okay. In other words, if I wasn’t achieving, I felt like something was missing and unfulfilled, and this is a very self-destructive and exhausting way of life. Lipton’s book taught me to become the most genuinely authentic version of myself in order to live the most fulfilling life possible. I have since strived to use the lessons I’ve learned to help other high-achievers do the same.
Q: A lot of people would take the attitude that high-achievers, by their very definition, do not need help, but you beg to differ?
A: Absolutely! Look at it this way. No one has any sympathy for the millionaire who has a high-powered job, is living in the mansion, and is married to a beautiful woman. But ask yourself why? These people are just as human as the rest of us, and carry the same emotional baggage we all do. It’s just that in the eyes of the world they’re perceived as people who do not need help because they have their act together. But take it from me, their internal issues are real and can lead to chaos if not addressed.
Q: So exactly how do you help them resolve their problems?
A: It’s pretty simple, I help connect them with their true self, the one we are all guilty of ignoring at one time or another.
Ambition and achievement can often come at the expense of the relationship you have with yourself. It’s all about balance and finally realizing that true happiness and fulfillment cannot be found externally, they can only come from within. And want to know the best part? Connecting with our inner self leads to greater amounts of success/impact in the long run. More than you would get with “hustling” your life away.
(Syndicated press content)
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