In honor of the release of Kelly Ripa’s memoir, Live Wire, I decided to share this story.
Our values and behaviors are anchored in our beliefs. Belief prompts action. I am not speaking of religious beliefs but more simply the things we hold to be true about life. For instance, I believe that everyone I meet is a teacher. This belief prompts me to frame interactions that are challenging as having a lesson to offer. It opens me to learning in non-traditional ways.
When we look at high performing cultures and teams, we often see groups of people with a shared set of beliefs. These teams believe in the way they train, play, communicate and interact. These beliefs often permeate the organization that surrounds the team. Think about Barcelona football during the Pep Guardiola era, there was an unwavering belief in how they played and approached the game of football. Because they believed it, they lived into it.
Everyone has their own set of beliefs that shape their lives. Beliefs are ingrained within us at an early age. Often we don't notice their existence or influence. But if you were to examine your life to unearth the beliefs that led to your best performances and experiences, what would you discover? What did you hold to be true about life that made you make the decisions you made? Can you pinpoint the origin story of your belief? We never know which experience will instill a particular belief or which belief will shape the course of our lives. Of my own sport experience, I wonder two things - first, what beliefs prompted me to pursue and sustain the path that I did, and second, where did those beliefs come from?
What if I told you that the answer to both of those questions lives in Kelly Ripa’s House. I’ve never met Kelly Ripa, but she changed my life, and I consider her childhood home in Berlin, New Jersey a sacred relic from my past. The house stands on Broad Avenue, a quiet, wide street that links the busy White Horse Pike with the Berlin Park. When I conjure up an image of that house from childhood, all I see is a large bay window with forest green shutters overlooking a pristine green front lawn.
In the summer before sixth grade, I went on my first run. I ran through the streets of Berlin for twenty minutes before I got tired and started walking. As I walked down Broad Ave, I caught a glimpse of Kelly Ripa's House. Kelly Ripa was Berlin’s only celebrity, a soap opera star (at the time) who played Hayley Vaughn on ABC’s All My Children. It was mind-blowing to me that someone from this place was on TV. Berlin was the most boring, unremarkable town ever, barely worth a pit stop on the road between Philly and Atlantic City until they built the Wawa on Route 73. I made it my mission to watch Kelly defy the odds of her humble beginnings every weekday at 1pm that summer.
When I saw her house, a thought crossed my mind, “What would Kelly Ripa do if she got tired on a run? Would she give up? Would she walk? Did she become a soap opera star by taking the easy way out when things got hard?” I wanted to be like Kelly Ripa. I wanted to prove that remarkable feats could begin in unremarkable places like Berlin and be done by otherwise unremarkable people like me.
That's when a belief started to form within me. I told myself a story about Kelly Ripa's success and what was possible for people like me. I told myself that Kelly Ripa worked damn hard for her success. That she believed in her talents, pursued the path less traveled, followed her passion, trusted her instinct, and coveted every opportunity she got. When things got hard, Kelly Ripa didn’t quit, she kept going, and if I kept going I could be like Kelly Ripa. In all honesty, I'm not anything like Kelly Ripa. I'm not funny, or famous, or blond, or tiny, or an actress or rich or on TV. The point though is that Kelly Ripa's House became a talisman of possibility. I told myself this story over and over again, every time I ran past that house until it was ingrained within me. I believed that if I worked hard enough, if I kept running, if I kept going, I could be like Kelly Ripa. I could get out of Berlin and explore a world full of possibility.
Over the next twenty years, through high school, during breaks from college, after Olympics, I kept running past Kelly Ripa’s House. Each time I saw that pristine lawn and bay window, I'd reaffirm that long held belief that if I kept going when it got hard more was always possible. When I came home from my first Olympics in Beijing, I ran past Kelly Ripa’s House and knew that if I kept going I’d make it to London and Rio, too. After Rio, when I came home and went for a run, I did something different. I turned on Broad Ave, and as I approached Kelly Ripa’s house I decided to walk. Though the house had changed over the years, the belief within me never did. I whispered a quiet thank you to Kelly Ripa's House. Thank you for making me believe that I could do more than I thought was possible if I simply kept going.
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