Lauren Sisler on Learning from Tragedy

Lauren Sisler is an Emmy Award winning sports broadcaster, a former collegiate gymnast, an ESPN sideline reporter, an author, and a keynote speaker. While those accolades are super impressive and certainly her resume is impressive, this conversation gets into some of the challenges Lauren has faced personally. She lost both of her parents with their hidden battle with prescription drug addiction within hours of each other. I’m going to let her share what that was like for her. This conversation is as much about that watershed moment and tragedy as it is about her talent and her success. She’s vulnerable in this conversation; she’s willing to share her full self with all of us, and that’s what really makes this a really unique conversation. I think you’re going to find Lauren to be joyful, she is upbeat, but she is also not going to sugarcoat some of the things that she has struggled with and some of the challenges she’s faced in her life. And so, this is a conversation about joy, about adversity, about emotion and how we handle emotion and our relationship with our emotions, so it covers the full range of the life experience.

Lauren had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“That was one of the hardest things for me: the milestones that had been missed over the years” (10:00).

“I had this indescribable love for my parents. And that love has continued to grow since they passed” (10:40).

“I feel very fortunate for 18 years of my life to have parents that loved so deeply, unconditional love” (15:00).

“I want to be so transparent with my son because I do believe that transparency and vulnerability is huge” (16:25).

“Lessons can be learned in the way that we navigate life, navigate our experiences” (17:35).

“While I can take some things from my parents, it doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing” (18:10).

“Time is fleeting. Time is non-refundable” (21:50).

“I’ve been given this gift of perspective and realizing that, literally, we have this moment in time, and we have to lean into it and grab it and embrace it” (23:10).

“Now those milestones aren’t so much of [my parents] not being here, it’s celebrating all the memories of them and also the new memories that have been created since they’ve left us” (24:35).

“No matter how hard you work to make someone happy, it’s not your responsibility to determine what the end result will be and their response to it” (27:35).

“The healing process and everything we go through is not linear” (31:45).

“I will make it my job to make sure [my son] understands what addiction is and how it can literally get its claws inside of you and never let go” (36:05).

“The shackles of shame were so tight around my wrist” (40:00).

“My parents aren’t defined by how they died, but by how they lived their lives” (40:20).

“I could not face the truth of what was inside those toxicology reports. I was so fearful of what I would see and what I would learn” (41:40).

“We are going to continue to experience loss, we are going to continue to experience those struggles” (43:15).

“Shame is 1000% going to be woven throughout your life” (44:40).

“Fall in love with your story” (45:20).

“Instead of running from adversity, you attack it” (46:55).

“When I started leaning in, I found purpose in what I do” (47:50).

“A lot of times, I was so afraid to speak about how I really felt” (54:50).

“We sometimes have to be more of advocates for ourselves” (57:20).

Additionally, you can find Lauren’s website here where you can find out everything you need to know about her, her new book, and sign up for her newsletter. You can also connect with her on all social media platforms @laurensisler.

Thank you so much to Lauren for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.