How Alysa Liu Personified “Joy in the Journey”
I’m clearly not the only one obsessed with this young woman’s 2026 Olympic journey.
We were obviously all STARVING for proof that there is another path to pursuing excellence… a better path…than the self-serious, grunty, grindy, suffer, scream, and sacrifice…way…
In my own pursuit of excellence, I’ve been trying to widen my gaze, soften my approach, and get to the root of why I was hustling in for first place…that’s a blog post for another time.
Part of me feared that if I wasn’t going to keep my dukes up, I should just get out of the ring.
But she has been a shining example for me and so many others that we excel when /becuase we soften, play, and treat challenges and mistakes like a game, not a threat, and truly find joy in the journey.
Here are my biggest takeaways from watching her move on a huge world stage in the last 2 weeks:
(PS Lots of folks have talked about her agency and ownership, which I also LOVE! But I don’t feel the need to add much to that conversation; this post is about the way she shows up to her work and progress journey!…ya know my usual BS)
Success = Survival
Alysa Liu doesn’t NEED to skate. Her level-up happened AFTER she experienced life without skating…and thrived!
She didn’t return because she “couldn’t live without it” or “didn’t know who she was without it.” (A story we romanticize far too often…) She paused and figured out exactly who she was without it. And returned more grounded than she ever could have been had she not walked away and widened her gaze for a while.
She returned because she realized skating (not winning) made her life fuller.
Skating didn’t make her life worth living; it enhanced her experience of living.
Btw…she left because she was done (for a while) not because she “failed” (she placed 6th in the last Olympics for Christ's sake!!)
She didn’t return to prove, win, redeem, or dominate. She returned only for love, joy, and art. With a want, not a need.
And THAT is what made her undeniable!
2. Failure = Death…in fact, it probably doesn’t even exist.
“Every minute you’re out there, you’re only gaining something.” -Alysa Liu
I’ve been thinking about “failure” a lot recently. We’re taught we shouldn’t fear it, and we should fail hard and fast, “the best teacher, failure is” (Yoda)….Don’t get me wrong, I love the sentiment! But we skip over WHY we fear failure…
Zoom in: ”Fear of failure”...really means you’re afraid that if you fail, you’ll die?? Lol That’s dramatic … but kinda, right? Or at least we fear that if we fail, we’ll never recover.
But when we enter the rink knowing that no matter what happens, we will recover and be okay…we can let go!! We can enjoy, stay present, and express…(and literally change the world like Alysa is doing as we speak!)
Being okay with “failure” allowed her to walk away AND allowed her to return with the joy we see in her.
I fully believe if she fell flat on her face or placed dead last, she still would have left as secure in herself as she did winning gold.
3. You can respect the hell out of the competition and craft… without identifying with it.
You can take the craft/art/skill seriously without taking yourself seriously.
I sometimes find myself toggling between “omg I care so much I could cry!!!” and throwing my hands up and saying “Ugh, who f*ckin cares anyway!” Sometimes within literal seconds of eachother.
Or to quell our nerves, I’ll fake a nonchalant face so if failure happens, it feels less embarrassing. “Don’t pity me, I didn’t actually care that much anyway.”
If you’re going to make it to the Olympics, you have to care DEEPLY.
The difference is she cares about SKATING, not winning.
4. ‘Work Hard—Play Hard ‘ is a ven diagram…not two opposing sides of a scale.
We were liiiiiieeedddd to…..Hustle and grind hold us the hell back. Passion, play, and joy, launch us forward.
I see this with my voice students all the time…and I have to remind myself constantly…
If you find play within your work, you will progress MUCH faster than if you stay serious and protect your pride at all costs.
Play is THE key ingredient if you want to ACTUALLY find joy in the journey (we can take that phrase off the inspirational cat poster, as Brené Brown says, and put it in action)
Anyone pursuing excellence started doing so because they originally found it FUN! When we begin, we know the mess-ups are part of it, and when we overcome them, it is the BEST feeling.
But when we move up, mistakes have larger consequences (or at least that’s how we perceive them)
We forget that they are still inevitable, no matter what level we find ourselves in.
When mistakes and obstacles threaten our livelihood, they are more likely to happen again and again. We tense up, we brace, and it takes longer to redirect and correct.
What if we fight to make moving through the mess-ups remain FUN, no matter how high up the ladder we go?
If we look at mistakes and obstacles like a game to be playfully won instead of a threat to annihilate, we’ll probably move through them sooner, with less misery.
Excellence (and life in general) exists mostly in some kind of messy middle. Let’s embrace our inner child, enjoy the mess and play in the mud puddles.
My favorite script when I mess up is to say “How Fascinating!” (Benjamin Zander; The Art of Possibility)
Curiosity and play are a faster path to mastery than discipline and grind.
So let’s redefine what “hard work” is…shall we?
From now on, when it’s time to do some hard work, I’m not going to picture the sweaty, grunty, angry man in the Nike commercials. Or the hero’s “rock bottom before the final rise.”
Instead, I’m going to picture my 9-year-old self learning the choreography to Annie’s “You’re Never Fully Dressed without a Smile” for the first time: Focused, playful, excited, eager, expressive…nothing else in the world I’d rather be doing.
It’s hard (challenging/rewarding) work.
Not hard (miserable) work.
5. Your audience can TELL when you’re sharing from a place of joy, love, passion, and not fear and self-protection.
This is a big one for me….My practice-room game is pretty good…it’s when I put it in front of people I clam up!!
But I watched her skate before I heard anything about her story, and within 10 seconds I went “whoa who is THAT?!”
Maybe it’s just the actor in me, but holy cow, the expression in her whole body felt like it radiated out of her heart and soul!! The skill and the athleticism go without saying, but her artistry and the way she made me FEEL soared above any other skater. I have to imagine that energy affected her scores.
I’ll be channeling her in my next audition, that’s for sure!
6. “All in” doesn’t have to mean “all or nothing…at any cost.”
If we’re just pursuing excellence to say we achieved the highest possible title… at the highest possible cost…what are we really bragging about when we get there…?: How much have our lives sucked up until this moment of “arrival”?
No thanks. Not anymore.
I’m crossing “total sacrifice” the hell off my recipe card for “Greatness.” That ingredient just makes it more bitter. And I’m nothing if not a sweet tooth.
7. There’s actually no need for humility…
When you move with joy and love, we already see your gratitude radiating around you.
…there’s no need to feign humility. Alysa took total pride and ownership in her accomplishments and celebrated them, “That’s what I’m f*ckin’ talking about!!!”
without even a drop of “I beat everyone else! In your face!” Which brings me to……
8. A high tide raises all boats
She took pride not only in herself and her amazing work, but also in her fellow competitor’s work! When final scores were set, she ran to…not her coaches… to …to the silver medalist…her competitor…her fellow skater!
Because they BOTH WON!! HOW AMAZING!! No one understands the love of the game as much as her fellow Olympic skaters. What a joyous occasion they can both share and experience TOGETHER! (uhoh I’m crying again)
9. When you feel joy in the work, not the win, pressure has no power.
Pressure gets to us because we want to make all our hard work and sacrifice “worth it.”
But joy is the BEST f*chin’ reward!!! Isn’t capital J Joy all any of us really want??
Joy is more within our control than we think! We can have it now! We can have it in the hard part. We can have it in the win, the loss, the mundane and boring…and in the practice,
Denying ourselves joy until we’ve earned it with a win makes us chummy bait for the “pressure” shark.
Don’t let it smell you, and it’ll swim right on by.
…
Who knows what is actually going on inside this young woman’s head, but she is modeling such an important story, and I’m forever grateful to her for crafting such a positive example.
I’m sad that she has been the only one (that I’m aware of…lol I’m not a sports girlie) brave enough to experiment with and model this new way for the entire world to see.
But Golly, I’m glad she has. It is refreshing and inspiring.
Onward to joyful greatness, my progress superstars!