Life Lessons, Learned the Hard Way

Written by Rose Wetzel on . Posted in American Ninja Warrior, Obstacle Course Racing, Running, Running with Rosie Blog

This year taught me important life lessons: believe in yourself, be patient and persistent, forgive, empower yourself, and above all, never give up on yourself and your goals.

How did I learn them? The hard way of course…

One year ago today, I almost gave up.

After a distressing phone call from a long-time sponsor (a beet juice company) telling me they weren’t going to support me anymore because they “didn’t know how to market me” or that I, as I interpreted it, “wasn’t good enough anymore, since becoming a mom,” I realized they didn’t believe in me. They didn’t believe that I still had potential or fire, that anyone would still bother paying attention to who I represented and what I had to say.

I let anxiety get the best of me, turning that week into my worst Christmas ever. I stressed over every penny. We didn’t get a Christmas tree or gifts; Santa didn’t come for Taylor, which made me feel like a bad mom, a failure.

I felt the wolves of depression gnawing at my heels again, trying to pull me back into the woods, after I had finally clawed my way out of the depths of postpartum depression six months prior.

Amidst doubt and frustration, I also felt mad. The people at the beet juice company knew I was my family’s sole income earner while Tim stayed at home with Taylor, searching for a good post-cancer career after our move to Colorado, yet they’d waited weeks before getting back to me about plans for the following year, giving me no heads-up things would suddenly change after 5 years of working together. I felt angry because I knew they had been off enjoying a company holiday party without the courtesy of letting me know I was getting canned while I still had time to find another sponsor before the end of the year.

With no holiday plans or travel, I worked out HARD that week, taking my frustration out on wind sprints and ball slams.

But then despite doing nearly nothing to celebrate, a bit of Christmas magic must’ve found its way into my sad, angry heart, and I suddenly realized the only person who has to believe in me….is me.

So I chose to believe in myself, and that was all that mattered.

The good news? American Ninja Warrior, CLIF Bar (a loyal longtime sponsor), and, eventually, two awesome new sponsors, PurePower, and MitoQ, all chose to believe in me, too, and had no problem finding ways to market this mama, from a feature during prime-time NBC to a full-page print article in the New Zealand Herald.

As for fire, I used it to fuel my training, which propelled me to a podium spot at the first big Spartan Series two months later and secure a fourth place in the Series Championship standings. They say “holding onto resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die,” so I let go of all anger and resentment, and choosing to focus on gratitude instead – for Tim and our playful toddler, for health, for sunsets, for hope. They say “when one door closes, another one opens”… Today, exactly one year later, I am happy and grateful to report that I just had the exact opposite experience: the fantastic CMO of MitoQ just wrote to tell me that everyone there values my partnership, and they are requesting to expand it next year! If I hadn’t been fired by the beet juice company, which had expanded into supplements, I wouldn’t have been able to partner with MitoQ, and I would not have this fantastic offer before me, which will allow me to train better next year. And even though at the time it was a tough pill to swallow, I’m also grateful for the lessons I learned, making me a stronger, softer, more grateful and resilient person.