What Happens When You Try What You're Bad At | Challenge Accepted

Early Childhood Shaped Risk-Taking Comfort and Self-Trust Essential for Athletic Success and Career Transitions

Alana Meyers Taylor’s childhood laid the foundation for her resilience, risk-taking, and adaptability. Despite being shy and uncomfortable around other children, she displayed remarkable confidence and fearlessness in solo, high-risk activities such as skateboarding down Georgia hills without a helmet. She describes her physical self-trust as near invincibility, a trait that carried into adulthood and her bobsled career, where overcoming fear is a prerequisite for success. Her parents maintained a hands-off approach, giving her independence within established boundaries—so long as she stayed within the neighborhood and came home by curfew, her activities were largely her own. This freedom to explore and face challenges independently fostered intuitive risk assessment and independence.

Multiple sports in her youth helped Alana develop body awareness and adaptability. Activities from playground games to organized sports exposed her to a range of skills and ways her body could move, later giving her an advantage when transitioning to new athletic pursuits.

Novice Approach More Valuable for Long-Term Athletic Success Than Early Specialization

Alana experienced early doubts from coaches when she began softball at eight or nine, an age already considered late for the sport. However, with effort and her parents’ support—her father, a professional athlete, demonstrated what hard work looked like—she progressed from novice to elite. Setting records at George Washington University and achieving team MVP status all four years, she embodied the value of dedication over early specialization.

This novice approach continued into her bobsledding career. An All-American softball star, Alana struggled initially with bobsled technique: her instincts as a softball player conflicted with the mechanics required in the sled, which are more aligned with track and field skills. Surrounded by silver medalist teammates, she adopted a strategy of learning from their expertise, giving herself time and patience to adapt. Whereas lifelong specialists can struggle to unlearn old habits, Alana’s experience tolerating discomfort and embracing incremental progress became her competitive advantage.

Early Talent vs. Learner's Mindset Impacts Resilience and Adaptability to Opportunities

Alana and Becky Kennedy discuss how early specialization and identity as “the best” can limit resilience. Many youth Olympians plateau in their professional careers because they never had to learn how to overcome obstacles or adapt. In contrast, multi-sport athletes develop useful flexibility and a readiness to be beginners, which makes them more resilient and able to seize new opportunities.

Alana recounts the pivotal moment when her dream of becoming an Olympic softball player collapsed. A disastrous softball Olympic tryout and the removal of softball from the Olympic Games ended her longstanding plan. Devastated, she drew on support from her father, who encouraged her to keep training and maintain faith that new opportunities would arise. For months, Alana trained without a clear goal, taking time to reconnect with family, pursue further schooling in phlebo ...

Failure in Softball Forced a Reckoning on Achievement and Success

Before the Olympic Trials, Elana Meyers Taylor’s entire sense of self is built around her goal of becoming a professional softball player and an Olympic coach. She enters George Washington University intending to play softball, win a medal, and then coach the sport for her whole life. When the path to an Olympic softball career closes, she finds herself defenseless and uncertain, explaining that her identity as a softball player “had to basically die.” This loss makes her realize that she must redefine herself outside of sports. Stepping into the unknown of bobsled, she recognizes she can’t put her identity only in the outcome. She begins to see that her intensity, work ethic, and love of challenge—the underlying qualities that made her successful in sports—are versatile. These traits can be channeled into many pursuits, allowing her to develop a more resilient sense of self not solely tied to a single role or achievement.

Parenthood With Disabled Children Redefined Achievement From Medals to Effort

Becoming a parent to two sons, both of whom are deaf and with her eldest also having Down syndrome, dramatically reshapes her perspective on success and achievement. Meyers Taylor describes how medical appointments repeatedly emphasize what her children have not yet accomplished—each form focusing on milestones missed. This experience is painful and forces her to rethink what it means to achieve. Achievement, she realizes, is not about matching timelines or ticking off conventional milestones, but about progress and effort.

She draws a parallel to her athletic journey: as an athlete, achievements are conventionally measured by medals, yet she knows how difficult and uncertain it is to win an Olympic medal. This understanding leads her to redefine her Olympic goal from “win a medal” to “be proud of the effort.” She adopts the same philosophy in parenting. If she is proud of how she parents her children, that constitutes success, regardless of their eventual accomplishments by outside standards. By focusing on process and effort instead of outcomes, she insulates herself from emotional devastation after losses and sustains motivation, enabling her to compete in five consecutive Olympics ...

The "challenge accepted" mindset reframes difficult situations as opportunities to create interesting stories, rather than moments defined by their outcomes. Olympian Elana Meyers Taylor explains that when faced with an opportunity or challenge, there are essentially two options: do it and gain a story, or don’t and have no story at all. She says, “The worst case scenario, you get a good story out of it or you don't even try. And sometimes just doing it is worth the story.”

"Challenge Accepted" Turns Failures Into Worthwhile Stories Regardless of Outcome

Two Options: Do It and Get a Story, or Don't and Have None

Meyers Taylor emphasizes that moving forward—even if uncertain—guarantees a story to remember. She recalls difficult personal experiences, such as recovering from the birth of her second son while training for the Olympics and parenting two deaf children. Instead of seeing these as high-risk failure scenarios, she decided to see them as potential stories: “Why don't we see what happens? Nobody's done this. We just take it on and see what can happen.” She acknowledges that the worst that could have happened was not making the Olympic team—after four previous appearances. But either way, she knew she would have “a good story about me traveling around the world with two kids who are deaf and trying to figure this out.”

Pursuing Challenges For Story Value Reduces Fear of Failure

This perspective reduces the fear of failure. Meyers Taylor says, “You might as well accept the challenge and take it on.” She underscores that just attempting is “worth the story." This approach makes it easier to try new challenges, unhindered by concerns about the outcome.

Sharing Stories of Struggle and Failure Connects Parent and Child, Normalizing Effort and Persistence

"Don't Do That" Lacks Impact; Sharing Failures Shows Real Experience and Vulnerability

Storytelling is how humans connect. Meyers Taylor notes that sharing personal stories with children is far more impactful than issuing generic warnings. Rather than a simple “don’t do that,” a story about a parent’s own mishap or lesson shows vulnerability, builds connection, and communicates that the parent has also faced challenges.

Humans Share Stories: Families That Discuss Attempts, Missteps, and Learning Foster Normalcy In Risk-Taking and Challenge-Seeking

Sharing successes and failures at the dinner table normalizes effort, risk-taking, and persistence. Becky Kennedy imagines dinner conversations where every family member brings tales of things tried, failed, and learned—funny or ridiculous stories that celebrate effort, not just success. This turns risk-taking into a family value and makes future adventures feel more approachable. “Looking at the next adventure when they're out of their house is, oh, no matter what, this is going to be a good story to bring to my dinner table. It's so freeing.”

Alana Showed Her Children That Their Mother Could Fail At Challenges, Modeling T ...

Elana Meyers Taylor provides a candid reflection on how motherhood has profoundly changed her perspective—both as an elite athlete and as a parent to children with disabilities—prompting her to redefine the meaning of achievement, resilience, and family values.

Motherhood Complicated Alana's Athletic Identity, Anchoring Her Beyond Competition

Becoming a mother brought Elana a new outlook on what defines her. After having her first son, she realized that children do not care whether a parent races or how well that parent performs. Their indifference to her results helped her understand that her identity was not tied to a single sport. Parenting imposed a shift in focus: she had to manage not only the demands of elite training but also daily realities such as school schedules, therapies, and figuring out activities for her two children. This unpredictability and complexity could not be controlled or measured the way athletic training could. Within this change, Elana’s resilience grew, rooted not in outcomes like medals or race wins, but in recognizing a worth that was independent of performance.

Parenting Children With Disabilities Redefines Achievement to Prioritize Process, Presence, and Effort Over Success

Elana explains how raising children with disabilities, including a son with Down syndrome and two deaf children, forced her to let go of milestone-driven definitions of achievement. Medical professionals and systems constantly asked her to check off lists at each appointment, often highlighting what her child had not accomplished, like not yet walking or talking. This stood in contrast to the athlete’s world, where achievement is typically measured by medals and visible milestones. Instead of letting others define success, Elana found pride in daily adaptation, the work she put into parenting, and being present with her children. The process and daily choices became more important than crossing off traditional accomplishments.

This more compassionate, process-oriented approach also fundamentally shaped her sense of self and self-care. She noted the unique challenge of looking after herself while being responsible for her children’s needs, recognizing that self-care as a parent means recalibrating daily expectations and accepting that effort and presence hold intrinsic value.

Resilience, Risk-Taking, a Beginner's Mindset, and Challenge-Seeking Are Modeled and Intentionally Practiced Family Values Passed To Her Sons

Within her family, Elana intentionally models and encourages values such as resilience, risk-taking, embracing challenges, and maintaining a beginner’s mindset. Inspired by her own paren ...

Alana Was Inspired by Vanessa Flowers' 2002 Gold, Showing the Power of Representation

First African American Bobsled Gold Inspires Alana

Elana Meyers Taylor describes how Vanessa Flowers’ historic gold medal in 2002 as the first African American to win Olympic gold in bobsled inspired her own journey. Flowers was not only a trailblazer in her sport but also a relatable figure for Meyers Taylor, growing up on the same stretch of highway. Seeing Flowers succeed made Meyers Taylor believe she could achieve similar goals.

Despite Flowers' Breakthrough, Alana Found Herself In an Isolating, Predominantly White Sport

When Meyers Taylor entered bobsledding, she quickly realized how rare representation still was. Flowers had been “one of one,” and the sport remained overwhelmingly white. Meyers Taylor recalls meeting teammates from rural American towns who had never met a Black person before, finding herself in situations where she was the only person of color and feeling the heavy burden of being the sole representative of her race.

"Alana Redefined 'White as Snow': Diversifying Bobsled"

Despite these challenges, Meyers Taylor embraced a leadership role in diversifying a sport “as white as the snow.” Her presence and achievements helped redefine the demographic boundaries of bobsledding, showing others from marginalized backgrounds that there was a place for them, too.

Alana Used Her Platform to Make Bobsledding and Winter Sports More Inclusive for Marginalized Athletes

Prioritizing Diversity In Bobsled: Ensuring Representation and Talent Inclusion

Meyers Taylor is a strong proponent of prioritizing diversity and representation in bobsledding. She believes that to access the best talent in the U.S., inclusion and attraction of people from all backgrounds are essential. She works to ensure that those who look like her—and other people of color—feel comfortable and welcomed in the sport, making it accessible to everyone.

Her Role as the "First" Black Person Many Rural Competitors Met Came With the Burden of Representation, yet She Saw These Interactions As Chances to Change Minds and Broaden Understanding

Meyers Taylor frequently found herself as the first Black person her teammates had ever interacted with, particularly those from very rural communities. Though this position carried a significant burden as she sometimes felt she represented all Black people in those moments, she chose to treat these encounters as opportunities. By finding shared values in sport and showing kindness, she hoped to broaden her teammates’ perspectives, change stereotypes, and pave the way for future athletes of color.

Alana's Medals and Visibility Helped Transform the Sport's Demographics and Culture

Through her visibility and medal-winning performances, Meyers Taylor has influenced others to join bobsledding. Her advocacy and success have fostered growth in the sport’s diversity and inclusivity, creating an environment where people of color increasingly feel invited and valued.

Belief in Sport's Power to Transform Lives, Build Diverse Connections, and Introduce People To Themse ...