Being comfortable is the enemy of success, there must be friction for growth.
Trent Oeltjen is one of Australia's most decorated athletes and Major League Baseball players, with a career that saw him play for numerous professional clubs including the Arizona Diamondbacks & Los Angeles Dodgers.
Trent was part of the 2004 Athens Olympic Silver medal-winning team which saw them knock off the star-studded Japanese team twice in the tournament.
Current Work:
Post his playing career, Trent founded Legacy Sports an elite, wellness-first, high-performance program that holistically develops the complete athlete both on and off the field whilst preparing them to embrace all that their careers and lives at the top of their game require. The Legacy Sports program has been designed by Trent and a team of world-class, sports physiologists and psychologists, nutritionists and wellness experts to help cut to the core of what it really takes to reach your true potential and continue to grow.
Seeking to push himself - and inspire others to achieve their personal goals - he took up long-distance running in 2019 going from 5km to multiple ultramarathon achievements at the 80k, 100K, and beyond marks within 6 months. From an early age, Trent battled adversity and setbacks including being the youngest person to have complete elbow reconstruction ("Tommy John") surgery at the age of 15. This continued even though his pro career, being one of only a few players to ever make the major leagues, get sent down to the minors, come back, get sent down, then come back again. The grit and resilience necessary to always smile, persevere and find a pathway forward is at the centre of Trent's life and work with others.
Trent is now taking his love of working with people to see their dreams come true, whilst sharing his journey to run the legendary "Six Stars" marathons all in one year. From there, the sky's the limit but everything he does is to earn the right to be a mentor and help inspire others to achieve their goals, whatever they are.
Awards, Achievements & Recognition:
2001 Signed Minnesota Twins
2004 Athens Olympics - Silver medal
2006 - MLB Futures All-star Game
2007 World Cup - All-star, batting champion
2008 World Baseball Classic - Mexico
2009 MLB Debut - Most hits since expansion era in 1961 across first 5 games
2010 MLB LA Dodgers
2011 First Australian to hit inside the park Home Run
2013 Signed Anaheim Angels
2014 Signed Arizona Diamondbacks
2016 World Cup - Named most popular player
2017 World Baseball Classic - Japan
2020 80km Bondi to Manly solo second-fastest all-time 7 hrs 54 min 2020 100km Bondi to Barrenjoey Ultramarathon 13 hrs
2020 Sydney to Melbourne 1000km Landonstrong quarantine ride
2021 UTA 50 Ultramarathon Blue mountains
2021 Huntington Beach Marathon
Talking Points
Growth is in the Friction with Trent Oeltjen
We all go through tough times. Climbing the mountains of life then, all of a sudden, finding ourselves right back down in the valley. Life can seem like an endless test of resilience and how much we're really willing to endure. Growth is in the Friction with Trent Oeltjen
Yet that's what adversity and suffering are: the breeding grounds of growth that take you to the next level and the ultimate test of how badly you really want it. Only under extreme pressure are the world's most precious gems formed. Once we shift to look at ourselves like that gem, we realise we need the pressure and suffering for our best selves to shine through.
Being comfortable is the enemy of success, there must be friction for growth. The sooner in life that we can come to the realisation - failure, pain, struggle - are the stepping stones to success and thriving our entire life shifts.
Key Takeaways:
1. Who you surround yourself with, you become - breakthrough limiting beliefs
2. Growth is in the friction - what does friction mean to you
3. Life is a state of mind - change your perception, change your life
High Performance Redefined
Everyone talks about high performance but what is it? High Performance Redefined
It's time we redefined and demystified what high performance actually is. Outcomes come from growth, it's the process of constantly challenging yourself to perform at the highest level. It's about working the process not the outcome. It's about commitment to the ultimate goal, delayed gratification, passion, grit, reinvention. It's a result of having all the mental-emotional tools so that once the mind-body connection is aligned we can finally reveal that perfect swing, perfect performance, perfect you at the absolute highest level with everything on the line that separates the best of the best.
High performance is not an external esoteric sort after thing it's accessible to each and every one of us now, in every arena of our life, not only on the field or in the board room.
True high performance is chipping away at all the excess that's actually holding us back from stepping up and into our true unlimited potential.
Key Takeaways:
1. Unlock your & your teams' true potential
2. Perfection is the enemy of progress
3. Embrace change
Run Through That Wall
The future can be a scary place to some because it's the unknown.Run Through That Wall
It can also be a place of unlimited possibilities. The future always is and always will be a blank canvas of opportunity. Reinvention and true growth are in the letting go of what was, releasing the past, refusing to just survive and taking that leap into the realm of thriving through change and turbulent times.
We're all born with the ability to run through walls but it's your choice whether or not to do so; for on the other side of that wall is the real you. It's also your choice - when you find yourself face to face with that wall or challenge - to keep on going or to turn back - to decide whether it's to large or steep, or if it's really there at all. When we move to bigger arenas of creation, taking the brakes of our self-created limitations and really dive into the true essence, we're all limitless in what we're capable of. All of a sudden we can start to see and shift into a future that pulls us in a direction of extreme growth as it's such a shift that forces us to raise the bar on our current state of consciousness and reality to start moving into this all-new possibility. Again, it's all a blank canvas so, at the end of the day, we're all the designers - the artists - of our own lives and it simply comes back to imagination. This is the only difference between people's lives.
Key Takeaways:
1. The only limits in life are the ones we put on ourselves
2. Learn to overcome challenges and see yourself - and others - through new eyes
3. Life is about thriving. Passion and commitment are key to living an extraordinary life
Trent was the first person to tell me to be myself. If I never heard that, I would not be where I am today. His communication, smile and growth mindset is second to none and feeds into all t ... keep reading Oregon State University
