hi everybody hi I’m Dina Roger Smith and
I am motivated by a fear of failure
okay motivated probably isn’t a strong
enough word to express how I feel it’s
more like an allergy to me an itching
nagging feeling deep inside me that
gives me an inability to be complacent
with anything
it’s the feeling that had me waking up
in the middle of the night just so I
didn’t fail my degree there’s someone
I’m sure you will kind of know how that
felt
and also it’s kind of what had me
defying all odds in representing my
country and meddling in the World
Championships this summer in London just
five months after breaking my foot now
so often in the world of sport we’re
asked what motivates you a hunger for
success or a fear of failure and if you
kind of stick your hand up for the
second one you get those side eyes and
people look at you like and you are
motivated by the wrong thing honey but
but and they always assume that if you
fear failure you don’t have the courage
to set high dreams you don’t have the
courage to chase your dreams that a fear
failure comes burdened with the inner
with the inhibitory factor that inhibits
courage tenacity and growth but of
course I’d like to counter that loathing
failure does not always come with the
debilitating element of not embarking on
your dreams and in fact I’d like to
argue that a healthy fear of failure
never does understanding that failure is
of course inevitable in life and of
course it’s essential for growth and
also set in those high and seemingly
unattainable dreams has the power to
motivate you to achieve things that
people didn’t think we’re possible and
in my case when the odds were stacked
away against you so I’d like to take you
back to when I was 8 years old and I
decided to become an Olympian
I remember watching care homes and the
Athens Olympics when a double golden I
was like right that is absolutely
incredible but in the true spirit of an
eight-year-old that wasn’t what maybe
want to be an Olympian it was the fact
that kind of when she got on the podium
they gave her what I thought was a crown
but of course we all know how I know and
it was obviously paying homage to the
ancient Greek tradition of like the
wreaths but as an 8 rod I was like look
that’s what I want to do mom on a podium
she’s got a crown she is a princess of
Olympic proportion that is what I want
to do and
you can probably imagine my dismay four
years later when I watched the Beijing
Olympics four years into trying to
become an Olympian in something and they
didn’t have crowns I was like what’s
going on well she was like that’s
because it was in Athens and I was that
oh yeah of course thinking oh well I’ve
tried for four years now I might as well
just stick with it but at that point I
was kind of this child that I loved
sport I’d kind of just tried everything
I was complacent the same places but I
was happy with just improving every
single day and it doesn’t necessarily I
wasn’t as so always the fast in my
training group the fastest in my County
the country and certainly not the world
but I was just happy with improving as a
child that’s just what I wanted to do I
was used to swim it’s do diving and of
course I used to do athletics and kind
of coming up to 2012 I’d be I was a
junior international and I got the
opportunity to kick Harry at the London
Olympics which was of course an
unforgettable experience and I remember
first when we got handed our duty sheets
I was disappointed that I missed the
Sunday where it would be the men’s 100
meter final because obviously I wanted
to see Usain Bolt and I got the Saturday
that the day before and I remember
thinking oh I want to see Usain Bolt
what’s the lifetime experience but I got
given this Saturday why don’t they make
my life like this but it turned out to
be Super Saturday of course with Greg
Jessa Moke achieving the absolute
unbelievable and getting three gold
medals for Great Britain in the space of
maybe I don’t know should probably know
the exact timings but in that session
and what really resonated with me was
yes these people had achieved their
dreams they hadn’t failed in what they
were trying to do but what was more
apparent was that when I looked around I
saw that people that didn’t know them
they didn’t know maybe everything about
them they were crying they were
genuinely so proud of them they might
not know that like for months at a time
mo has to leave his family and go and
train at altitude to make sure he can
perform to the best of his ability they
didn’t necessarily understand that Jess
Ennis didn’t go to the Beijing Olympics
because she broke her foot very very
close to the actual game so she missed
out and it and London was her first
Olympics they didn’t know that they
didn’t see them wake up at 5:00 a.m. to
go to training they didn’t see all the
times they didn’t hit their goals they
were crying and they weren’t the
shoulder to cry on
but these people they were touched by
their achievements and that for me
resonated I thought how incredible is
that you’ve been given a talent or
you’ve worked so hard to cultivate this
talent and by just not failing at your
expectations not failing at your goals
you can kind of light up these people’s
lives I mean remember when you go around
talking about where everybody knew where
they were on Super Saturday they thought
that was absolutely incredible and
that’s what inspired me and that’s what
motivated me to really take my athletics
to the next level and I knew at that
point that in 2017 five years after
London 2012 there was going to be
another opportunity for athletes to from
Great Britain to compete in front of a
home crowd at the World Athletics
Championships and obviously I was kicked
herring at the Olympics out that ship
itself for me but for athletes a World
Championships in your hometown is the
closest thing you’re ever going to get
to a home Olympic so I told myself right
that night in London 2012 was like right
next time this becomes opportunity for a
Championships in London I have to be
there and that motivation took me from
being a girl that was very happy to make
junior teams just about scraping in in
the second wave of selection to becoming
the year after European junior champion
the world’s youngest relay medallist
then world junior champion then British
record holder over 100 and 200 meters
and then somehow becoming the world’s
fastest teenager ever over 200 meters so
you can imagine they expect the personal
expectation and the public expectation
growing miss me myself I was getting
excited for my career prospects I was
getting excited the prospect of what
became looking highly likely and
obviously did become like me becoming an
Olympian going to Rio and getting a
bronze medal with the relay team which
is obviously so special but also looking
to kind of do my country proud in front
of the whole nation in London 2017 so
you can imagine I’ve been dreaming and
this has been my motivation day and day
out throughout my training sessions for
four to five years and then five months
beforehand in the lapse of concentration
I fractured my foot I hit my foot on the
underside of a bench when I was doing a
plyometric jump and I fractured my
navicular clean straight in half
obviously I would require surgery and
I’m sure at the real society science you
guys know that if you especially as a
sprinter a power sport any foot in your
foot any bone in your foot that you
don’t want to break it’s the navicular
and I was
wasted probably having a year out
certainly I was told certainly not
making the Athletics Championships
highly unlikely they said you’re gonna
make the ethics championships and just
failure that was what was going through
my mind at that point failure I had this
dream for four to five years and
suddenly in a lapse of concentration
everything that I’d worked for
everything that I kind of dreamt about
was just taken away and they said maybe
you might be able to physically run you
might have like the strength to run by
time August comes in five months but you
definitely won’t be in any shape to
sprint never mind being world class
never mind being able to represent great
bit and will compete with the best in
the world and when they say that failure
I remember people just being like I just
remember thinking failure failure I’ve
been dreaming this I’ve been thinking
about it’s been my motivation how can I
not go I just didn’t understand the fact
that I wasn’t going to be there not
because I was silly I didn’t understand
the situation I was in I very much
understood what was going on with my
foot but I wasn’t going to let anybody
kind of tell me what I was going to
happen in five months time
five months time when I’ve been dreaming
about something for five years I was not
going to allow myself to fail I promise
to myself that I was going to exhaust
all possibility I was going to work as
hard as I could to not fail at something
that I’d said and if I did still fail
because obviously fail it isn’t it isn’t
it at all sometimes then I could hand on
heart just say look it was a big ask but
at least I tried but so because I was
trying from then on I was crazy to so
many people here was I 21 year old women
kind of going against what everybody was
telling me in deciding valiantly that I
was going to be in the world of that
exchange ifs at that point I was so
grateful to have more obviously my
friends and my family but for incredibly
intelligent and bright and talented
people or my coach my boat my track
coach my strength and conditioning coach
and my two physios who probably were the
only people when I was still in crutches
still hazy from the anesthetic also
trying to write my dissertation because
that was just a hectic time of year and
I know it wasn’t much fun and I said by
the way I am going to be a nun that I’m
going to want a medal and they didn’t
try and dissuade me they didn’t try and
tell me what are you thinking they just
looked at me they said Dina you love to
make our lives difficult but okay
and training for the water police
championships alongside trying to
complete history degree at Kings it was
mentally and physically exhausting there
was times when I take my kind of
physical ability for granted you know
when you just jump over puddles you run
for a bus and you don’t think about it
so the time when I had to walking was a
challenge I had to retrain myself to
walk to jog to sprint and I had to tell
myself how to hop around in a circle
again which sounds so ridiculous but my
brain and my car from my foot just
weren’t connecting and ten weeks before
the world of FedEx Championships I
sprinted for the first time just ten
weeks and I was so unbelievably happy
eight weeks before the Athletics
Championships I put on spikes which is
obviously essential to any sprinter and
and that was two weeks before the trials
and I remember going into the trials and
I ran it was in lots of pain I’ve
definitely wasn’t fit I ran half a
second down on what I would normally run
which is obviously huge and athletics
terms but it was a start I wasn’t
running quickly but it was a start the
conditions for me to go to London is I
had to show some sort of form so by
running after a fraction of it clear in
surgery hey I should form so so those
electors have faith in me and they
selected me for the Athletics
Championships and then focus from then
on was not just being healthy it was not
just running painlessly but it was being
world-class it was being as close to my
best as possible so many people have
told me oh my god is so good that you’re
running if it’s so positive it’s great
but I wasn’t in the business of just
being positive I don’t go into
Championships to just make up the
numbers if I’m there I want to be the
best that I can be and London was no
different so I remember training and
doing the most horribly disgusting
training sessions in the weeks leading
up to London normally with when I’d had
the luxury of 10 to 11 months to Train
we kind of chilling out doing a few more
blocks running ten meters now and again
but now I was running two fifties one
50s one 60s with 45 seconds recovery it
was gross but yeah it was my coach
probably see this and be like but it was
very strong but I remember when I walked
into the stadium that day when it was my
heat I was just wholeheartedly grateful
to be there obviously I’m always
grateful when I put on my vests but
after knowing that it was so close
being taken away from me I was so
grateful so then I went obviously I had
to throw that out because I’ve got a job
to do I went and won my heat I qualified
for the final and at that point I’d
surpassed my own personal expectations
because well of course I want to go
their own medal but realistically being
there making the final was absolutely
amazing
and then somehow just using the crowd
and just really digging deep inside me
and saying to myself that I’m gonna go
for this I managed to run half a second
faster than I had all year first and I
ran the Rio Olympics I know this is
crazy
but and I came fourth by eight
hundredths of a second I was so close to
getting a medal individually obviously
we went on to win a silver medal in the
relay which was absolutely incredible
but individually I was so close
and I think I was within 15 hundredths
of winning the entire Championships
obviously there’s several girls there
somewhat saying uh-oh but you did get
why me and but that’s quite rare
considering the journey went on five
months earlier I broke my foot couldn’t
run before ten weeks and all the other
girls have been training for ten to
eleven months that was quite rare and
that’s what I’d kind of like to leave
you with the fact is that my fear of
failure my deep-rooted fear of failure
gave me an inability to be complacent
I wouldn’t settle for other people’s
limits and I don’t settle for other
people’s limits because I’m sure all in
this room you people have told you you
can’t do things but then you’ve got and
proved them wrong I love a challenge we
should all love challenges and therefore
we should we should fear not being able
to achieve the dreams that we want
simply because it makes us work harder
it makes us efficient it makes it made
every single part of my rehabilitation
done was done perfectly it was done
through the timings that I needed
because every single now I’d say every
single now in the head if I wanted to be
in the best shape I could be in London
so I’d like to leave you with a final
thought understand that of course
failure is inevitable in life and of
course it is essential for growth and
you need it but also use a healthy fear
of it to motivate you to achieve things
that you didn’t even think we’re
possible
don’t settle for other people’s limits
simply because they don’t know you they
don’t know what you have inside you they
don’t know kind of what drives you every
day or why you’re doing it but just make
sure you make you go out there and give
everything
or because everything becomes possible
once it’s done so thank you
[Applause]
I am motivated by a fear of failure
okay motivated probably isn’t a strong
enough word to express how I feel it’s
more like an allergy to me an itching
nagging feeling deep inside me that
gives me an inability to be complacent
with anything
it’s the feeling that had me waking up
in the middle of the night just so I
didn’t fail my degree there’s someone
I’m sure you will kind of know how that
felt
and also it’s kind of what had me
defying all odds in representing my
country and meddling in the World
Championships this summer in London just
five months after breaking my foot now
so often in the world of sport we’re
asked what motivates you a hunger for
success or a fear of failure and if you
kind of stick your hand up for the
second one you get those side eyes and
people look at you like and you are
motivated by the wrong thing honey but
but and they always assume that if you
fear failure you don’t have the courage
to set high dreams you don’t have the
courage to chase your dreams that a fear
failure comes burdened with the inner
with the inhibitory factor that inhibits
courage tenacity and growth but of
course I’d like to counter that loathing
failure does not always come with the
debilitating element of not embarking on
your dreams and in fact I’d like to
argue that a healthy fear of failure
never does understanding that failure is
of course inevitable in life and of
course it’s essential for growth and
also set in those high and seemingly
unattainable dreams has the power to
motivate you to achieve things that
people didn’t think we’re possible and
in my case when the odds were stacked
away against you so I’d like to take you
back to when I was 8 years old and I
decided to become an Olympian
I remember watching care homes and the
Athens Olympics when a double golden I
was like right that is absolutely
incredible but in the true spirit of an
eight-year-old that wasn’t what maybe
want to be an Olympian it was the fact
that kind of when she got on the podium
they gave her what I thought was a crown
but of course we all know how I know and
it was obviously paying homage to the
ancient Greek tradition of like the
wreaths but as an 8 rod I was like look
that’s what I want to do mom on a podium
she’s got a crown she is a princess of
Olympic proportion that is what I want
to do and
you can probably imagine my dismay four
years later when I watched the Beijing
Olympics four years into trying to
become an Olympian in something and they
didn’t have crowns I was like what’s
going on well she was like that’s
because it was in Athens and I was that
oh yeah of course thinking oh well I’ve
tried for four years now I might as well
just stick with it but at that point I
was kind of this child that I loved
sport I’d kind of just tried everything
I was complacent the same places but I
was happy with just improving every
single day and it doesn’t necessarily I
wasn’t as so always the fast in my
training group the fastest in my County
the country and certainly not the world
but I was just happy with improving as a
child that’s just what I wanted to do I
was used to swim it’s do diving and of
course I used to do athletics and kind
of coming up to 2012 I’d be I was a
junior international and I got the
opportunity to kick Harry at the London
Olympics which was of course an
unforgettable experience and I remember
first when we got handed our duty sheets
I was disappointed that I missed the
Sunday where it would be the men’s 100
meter final because obviously I wanted
to see Usain Bolt and I got the Saturday
that the day before and I remember
thinking oh I want to see Usain Bolt
what’s the lifetime experience but I got
given this Saturday why don’t they make
my life like this but it turned out to
be Super Saturday of course with Greg
Jessa Moke achieving the absolute
unbelievable and getting three gold
medals for Great Britain in the space of
maybe I don’t know should probably know
the exact timings but in that session
and what really resonated with me was
yes these people had achieved their
dreams they hadn’t failed in what they
were trying to do but what was more
apparent was that when I looked around I
saw that people that didn’t know them
they didn’t know maybe everything about
them they were crying they were
genuinely so proud of them they might
not know that like for months at a time
mo has to leave his family and go and
train at altitude to make sure he can
perform to the best of his ability they
didn’t necessarily understand that Jess
Ennis didn’t go to the Beijing Olympics
because she broke her foot very very
close to the actual game so she missed
out and it and London was her first
Olympics they didn’t know that they
didn’t see them wake up at 5:00 a.m. to
go to training they didn’t see all the
times they didn’t hit their goals they
were crying and they weren’t the
shoulder to cry on
but these people they were touched by
their achievements and that for me
resonated I thought how incredible is
that you’ve been given a talent or
you’ve worked so hard to cultivate this
talent and by just not failing at your
expectations not failing at your goals
you can kind of light up these people’s
lives I mean remember when you go around
talking about where everybody knew where
they were on Super Saturday they thought
that was absolutely incredible and
that’s what inspired me and that’s what
motivated me to really take my athletics
to the next level and I knew at that
point that in 2017 five years after
London 2012 there was going to be
another opportunity for athletes to from
Great Britain to compete in front of a
home crowd at the World Athletics
Championships and obviously I was kicked
herring at the Olympics out that ship
itself for me but for athletes a World
Championships in your hometown is the
closest thing you’re ever going to get
to a home Olympic so I told myself right
that night in London 2012 was like right
next time this becomes opportunity for a
Championships in London I have to be
there and that motivation took me from
being a girl that was very happy to make
junior teams just about scraping in in
the second wave of selection to becoming
the year after European junior champion
the world’s youngest relay medallist
then world junior champion then British
record holder over 100 and 200 meters
and then somehow becoming the world’s
fastest teenager ever over 200 meters so
you can imagine they expect the personal
expectation and the public expectation
growing miss me myself I was getting
excited for my career prospects I was
getting excited the prospect of what
became looking highly likely and
obviously did become like me becoming an
Olympian going to Rio and getting a
bronze medal with the relay team which
is obviously so special but also looking
to kind of do my country proud in front
of the whole nation in London 2017 so
you can imagine I’ve been dreaming and
this has been my motivation day and day
out throughout my training sessions for
four to five years and then five months
beforehand in the lapse of concentration
I fractured my foot I hit my foot on the
underside of a bench when I was doing a
plyometric jump and I fractured my
navicular clean straight in half
obviously I would require surgery and
I’m sure at the real society science you
guys know that if you especially as a
sprinter a power sport any foot in your
foot any bone in your foot that you
don’t want to break it’s the navicular
and I was
wasted probably having a year out
certainly I was told certainly not
making the Athletics Championships
highly unlikely they said you’re gonna
make the ethics championships and just
failure that was what was going through
my mind at that point failure I had this
dream for four to five years and
suddenly in a lapse of concentration
everything that I’d worked for
everything that I kind of dreamt about
was just taken away and they said maybe
you might be able to physically run you
might have like the strength to run by
time August comes in five months but you
definitely won’t be in any shape to
sprint never mind being world class
never mind being able to represent great
bit and will compete with the best in
the world and when they say that failure
I remember people just being like I just
remember thinking failure failure I’ve
been dreaming this I’ve been thinking
about it’s been my motivation how can I
not go I just didn’t understand the fact
that I wasn’t going to be there not
because I was silly I didn’t understand
the situation I was in I very much
understood what was going on with my
foot but I wasn’t going to let anybody
kind of tell me what I was going to
happen in five months time
five months time when I’ve been dreaming
about something for five years I was not
going to allow myself to fail I promise
to myself that I was going to exhaust
all possibility I was going to work as
hard as I could to not fail at something
that I’d said and if I did still fail
because obviously fail it isn’t it isn’t
it at all sometimes then I could hand on
heart just say look it was a big ask but
at least I tried but so because I was
trying from then on I was crazy to so
many people here was I 21 year old women
kind of going against what everybody was
telling me in deciding valiantly that I
was going to be in the world of that
exchange ifs at that point I was so
grateful to have more obviously my
friends and my family but for incredibly
intelligent and bright and talented
people or my coach my boat my track
coach my strength and conditioning coach
and my two physios who probably were the
only people when I was still in crutches
still hazy from the anesthetic also
trying to write my dissertation because
that was just a hectic time of year and
I know it wasn’t much fun and I said by
the way I am going to be a nun that I’m
going to want a medal and they didn’t
try and dissuade me they didn’t try and
tell me what are you thinking they just
looked at me they said Dina you love to
make our lives difficult but okay
and training for the water police
championships alongside trying to
complete history degree at Kings it was
mentally and physically exhausting there
was times when I take my kind of
physical ability for granted you know
when you just jump over puddles you run
for a bus and you don’t think about it
so the time when I had to walking was a
challenge I had to retrain myself to
walk to jog to sprint and I had to tell
myself how to hop around in a circle
again which sounds so ridiculous but my
brain and my car from my foot just
weren’t connecting and ten weeks before
the world of FedEx Championships I
sprinted for the first time just ten
weeks and I was so unbelievably happy
eight weeks before the Athletics
Championships I put on spikes which is
obviously essential to any sprinter and
and that was two weeks before the trials
and I remember going into the trials and
I ran it was in lots of pain I’ve
definitely wasn’t fit I ran half a
second down on what I would normally run
which is obviously huge and athletics
terms but it was a start I wasn’t
running quickly but it was a start the
conditions for me to go to London is I
had to show some sort of form so by
running after a fraction of it clear in
surgery hey I should form so so those
electors have faith in me and they
selected me for the Athletics
Championships and then focus from then
on was not just being healthy it was not
just running painlessly but it was being
world-class it was being as close to my
best as possible so many people have
told me oh my god is so good that you’re
running if it’s so positive it’s great
but I wasn’t in the business of just
being positive I don’t go into
Championships to just make up the
numbers if I’m there I want to be the
best that I can be and London was no
different so I remember training and
doing the most horribly disgusting
training sessions in the weeks leading
up to London normally with when I’d had
the luxury of 10 to 11 months to Train
we kind of chilling out doing a few more
blocks running ten meters now and again
but now I was running two fifties one
50s one 60s with 45 seconds recovery it
was gross but yeah it was my coach
probably see this and be like but it was
very strong but I remember when I walked
into the stadium that day when it was my
heat I was just wholeheartedly grateful
to be there obviously I’m always
grateful when I put on my vests but
after knowing that it was so close
being taken away from me I was so
grateful so then I went obviously I had
to throw that out because I’ve got a job
to do I went and won my heat I qualified
for the final and at that point I’d
surpassed my own personal expectations
because well of course I want to go
their own medal but realistically being
there making the final was absolutely
amazing
and then somehow just using the crowd
and just really digging deep inside me
and saying to myself that I’m gonna go
for this I managed to run half a second
faster than I had all year first and I
ran the Rio Olympics I know this is
crazy
but and I came fourth by eight
hundredths of a second I was so close to
getting a medal individually obviously
we went on to win a silver medal in the
relay which was absolutely incredible
but individually I was so close
and I think I was within 15 hundredths
of winning the entire Championships
obviously there’s several girls there
somewhat saying uh-oh but you did get
why me and but that’s quite rare
considering the journey went on five
months earlier I broke my foot couldn’t
run before ten weeks and all the other
girls have been training for ten to
eleven months that was quite rare and
that’s what I’d kind of like to leave
you with the fact is that my fear of
failure my deep-rooted fear of failure
gave me an inability to be complacent
I wouldn’t settle for other people’s
limits and I don’t settle for other
people’s limits because I’m sure all in
this room you people have told you you
can’t do things but then you’ve got and
proved them wrong I love a challenge we
should all love challenges and therefore
we should we should fear not being able
to achieve the dreams that we want
simply because it makes us work harder
it makes us efficient it makes it made
every single part of my rehabilitation
done was done perfectly it was done
through the timings that I needed
because every single now I’d say every
single now in the head if I wanted to be
in the best shape I could be in London
so I’d like to leave you with a final
thought understand that of course
failure is inevitable in life and of
course it is essential for growth and
you need it but also use a healthy fear
of it to motivate you to achieve things
that you didn’t even think we’re
possible
don’t settle for other people’s limits
simply because they don’t know you they
don’t know what you have inside you they
don’t know kind of what drives you every
day or why you’re doing it but just make
sure you make you go out there and give
everything
or because everything becomes possible
once it’s done so thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: