Particle Data Platform
The High Performance Podcast

What Do You Do The Day After You Win? (ft. Yaya Touré, Ben Ainslie & Ian Thorpe)

5/13/202632 min

Everyone talks about what it takes to win. Nobody talks about what comes the morning after. In this episode, Jake and Damian go deep into the HPP archive to explore one of the most uncomfortable truths in high performance: why the moment of victory so often leaves elite performers feeling empty, lost, and at a total loss for what comes next.

Featuring conversations with Yaya Touré on the strange emptiness of retirement, Ben Ainslie on the post-Olympic blues that hit 24 hours after winning gold, Ian Thorpe on walking away from a sport that stopped feeling like his own, Héctor Bellerín on why your value should burn like a candle - steady, never spiking - and Billy Monger on finding purpose after having it stripped away entirely.

Jake and Damian also get into the psychology of why we delay our happiness, what self-determination theory tells us about intrinsic motivation, and why the people who handle the end of peak achievement best are the ones who were never only defined by it.

The question isn't really 'what do you do the day after you win?' It's 'who are you when the goal is gone?'

Postcode Lottery 👉 Discover how Postcode Lottery players are Powering Hope Together. Click here to find out more: https://highpfrmc.com/ut-postcode-au 

Better Help 👉 Join Jake in Saying It Louder with 10% off Betterhelp Therapy. Click here: https://highpfrmc.com/hpp-betterhelp-au 

AG1 👉 head to drinkag1.com/highperformance to save £20 on your first month, plus a free welcome kit, Vitamin D3 + K2 and five travel packs.

XTB 👉 To find out more and make your money work, use code HPP at: https://highpfrmc.com/XTB-hpp-au

Listen to the full episodes:

Yaya Touré https://pod.fo/e/3f55a1

Ben Ainslie https://pod.fo/e/661e6

Ian Thorpe https://pod.fo/e/d9a3a

Héctor Bellerín https://pod.fo/e/d3369

Billy Monger https://pod.fo/e/a8d2c

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clips

Yaya admits retirement emptiness
Gold medal, 24 hours later
Bellerín’s candle metaphor
Hard life, good person
Billy Monger’s mindset reset
Happiness that lasts longer

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Jake Humphrey· Host0:00

    [upbeat music] Hi there. You're listening to High Performance with myself, Jake Humphrey, and Damian Hughes. How are you?

  2. Damian Hughes· Host0:06

    I'm good, mate. How are you? You all right?

  3. Jake Humphrey· Host0:07

    Very well, thank you very much. So today we're gonna talk about what happens the day after you win, 'cause I actually think that so much of the conversation we have on this show is about equipping yourself to get the win.

  4. Damian Hughes· Host0:18

    Yeah.

  5. Jake Humphrey· Host0:18

    All too often, people don't talk about the day after the win, but there's actually so... a really uncomfortable truth here that I think we need to discuss, and this isn't just about gold medal winners or people on the top of podiums or people exiting businesses. This is an everyday conversation for, for, for average people like you and I that are just getting on with our lives, assuming that we're either gonna be really happy- Yeah ... when a certain thing happens, or even worse, telling ourselves we can't be happy until that amazing thing happens in our lives. Because so often people have told us on this show that when they do achieve incredible things, there just isn't that moment of joy. That day after tends to be lower rather than higher.

  6. Damian Hughes· Host0:58

    Yeah.

  7. Jake Humphrey· Host0:59

    And I still... You know what? I still can't really work out what's [laughs] going on here after seven years of having these conversations.

  8. Damian Hughes· Host1:04

    Well, do... Like, do you remember when we both came off the call when we spoke with Carl Frampton, the, uh, the boxer?

  9. Jake Humphrey· Host1:10

    Yes, and you immediately said there's problems there.

  10. Damian Hughes· Host1:13

    Yeah.

  11. Jake Humphrey· Host1:13

    Yeah.

  12. Damian Hughes· Host1:14

    And, and, and, and I'm glad that he seems to have navigated his way through it, but he was talking about, "I need to win a third world title, and then my career will be complete. Then I can walk away happy."

  13. Jake Humphrey· Host1:23

    Yeah.

  14. Damian Hughes· Host1:23

    "Then I'll know that I've fulfilled my mission." And we were like, "No, you've already won two world titles. You've, you've inspired

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click "Accept All" to consent, or "Decline non-essential" to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.