“What motivates you?”
I was asked this question a few years back and I didn’t really know how to answer it. It wasn’t as much asked in an athletic way but more in a generalised life approaching way. I have never been one to reflect much on things, with a childhood experience to be forgotten rather than to be remembered. I have always bulldozed my way through life, aiming high and finding ways to achieve my goals no matter what. Very self-centred in a way but going through life as child with minimal to no support it had become my survival mechanism. As I found from a young age that I could only rely on myself, I figured I could control my own life by focussing on moving forward. And it worked for me. My theory was that reflecting back on bad experiences would only make you sad, and I didn’t see the point in that. This resulted in me being that person who would run through the door whilst being yelled at “We need to talk about this…”
When you want to become better at something however, whether this is in a job, improving a relationship or becoming better at a sport, there is the need to reflect, to learn from mistakes made and move forward. There is a fine line between reflecting enough to improve but not too much so you get stuck in the mind frame of “what ifs” which will affect confidence and self-growth. Over the last few years I learned to reflect, became a lot more self-aware, learned how my actions affected others, why I did the things in the way I did them and got more of an understanding to what motivates me.
I have always gravitated towards people who have a passion, I find it very inspiring, someone who is determined to achieve a goal. People who are prepared to work hard, who see failure as a motivation to try harder rather than to give up. I have found that those people are not necessarily the most talented, fastest or smartest people in the World. But they have an inner strength, people who don’t take no for an answer, even more so, when they get told they can’t do something it will make them more driven to achieve it. I recognise their inspiration and I find their energy addictive. They might have a disease to conquer, a life changing experience they had to adjust to, a dark past they escaped. People who managed to turn something negative into something positive and use their shortcomings as a weapon, turn their weakness into a strength. Those people made me aspire to live my life in a similar way, to not ever give up.
As a result of this I personally enjoy the sports which reward mental toughness more than sheer speed, sports like adventure races, Mountain bike races, XTERRA Offroad triathlons, long distance racing etc. An XTERRA Offroad triathlon was the first triathlon I ever did and I haven’t really looked back since. The spirit of XTERRA is one that fits me perfectly and I find its athletes and courses inspiring. Racing Mountain bikes is good training for Xterra races and so I found racing those two disciplines something I highly enjoy. It always involves an adventure in the most beautiful parts of the world with really cool likeminded people. And there is always a story to be told at the end of the day…
Nienke Oostra crosses the line in the Philippines
People who know me consider me as a competitive person, I suppose you have to be at some level when racing. I find though, that I have had the best races when I concentrated purely on myself and not worrying about the competition. Racing my own race, against my own demons and failures, racing to the best of my ability and coming out in front. I don’t race or train to beat people, I look up at girls who are strong and admire them and want to be as fast as them, not necessarily to beat them. I use the competition to measure my own performance to guide me in what I need to do training wise to get better or level the plane field. Sure I dream of winning big races and in order to do that I have to beat the best but beating other competitors is not what drives me to train hard each day.
I am a veterinarian in my day to day life and I work with equine athletes, what I find inspirational in my job is very similar to what inspires me in sports. I love the stories. The champions who have been told they would never make it to the race track, yet someone managed to prove that theory wrong. The misunderstood, who with a bit of guidance manage to shine and win big races. I love working on horses who others have given up on, or working with trainers who have a drive to succeed. I am a dreamer through and through and although a lot of my aspirations and dreams might disappear into thin air… the chase in itself is worth the journey.
Last year I teamed up with a coach, Olympic Cyclist Matt Randall who doesn’t shy away from big goals and I found my match. It showed me the importance of the mental input a coach can have as much as the physical input. It wasn’t all a bed of roses at the start, I had to work very hard and remember many emails about, in my eyes failed training sessions whilst I tried my hardest, thinking I just wasn’t good enough. But Matt never got negative, instead he gave me an insight into other female athletes, shared stories about the best athletes having bad days and made me believe. With believe results followed, with the results bigger dreams started to develop.
Nienke Oostra smiling at the end of the 2013 Capital Punishment
In this time and age a lot of videos go around on social media about following your dream, and there is one very inspirational one which asks the question “what would you do if money was no object”. What would I do? I would swim, bike and run and repeat that many many times, I would travel the world and race XTERRA triathlon and Mountain bike races, I would stop trying to juggle 60-70hr work weeks with 15-18hr training weeks and I would give it my all to try measure up with the best in the world. During this process I would like to be a role model for young people and show them that the only limitations put on your life are the ones you let put on yourself. I would like to become one of the stories I myself am inspired by.
So what stops me? Only I stop me.
With a pro license granted by the Dutch triathlon federation and the XTERRA Race Director, it’s time for a change. Since moving to Sydney in August in 2010 I have never felt more supported, I have never met so many genuine loyal people, after roaming all over the world since the age of 10 I have never felt more at home in a place. Sydney holds my heart. My life here in Australia, the belief of my coach and many of my friends all over have given me the confidence to put my veterinary career on the back burner for a while and pursue my dream to be an elite athlete. It’s not going to be easy, financially I will still have to earn money somehow and I still have a big gap to bridge to the top end XTERRA athletes and pro mountainbikers. But I am not after easy and when I think about the possibility of becoming a professional athlete my heart starts to sing. Being in my thirties it’s basically a situation of now or never before I am too old and too crippled to get off the couch. Besides that I can always fall back on my Veterinary career. Even if I fail to reach the top at least I can say I gave it my all. This is my dream to dream. I will not die wondering.
So what motivates me to push myself all the time? It is as simple as this: Whatever life has thrown at me or will throw at me in the future, I refuse to be a victim of circumstances I have no control over, and I will try execute the things I can control to the best of my ability. It makes me feel free and gives me the ability to dream. And when I have the freedom to dream I am happy. In my job I always say “happy horses are fast horses” I hope I will be able to practice what I preach!
Through life I have been very lucky to have met the right people at the right time who have reached out to me and offered me opportunities. I will eternally be in debt those people and for someone who doesn’t stay still for a very long time, I carry them with me in my heart wherever life will take me.
“Its Impossible said Pride, its risky said Experience. Its pointless said reason. Give it a try whispered the heart”