Athletic Determination & Discipline

Sometimes you meet remarkable people, just once in a while you can be fortunate enough to sit and bathe in inspiration from unlikely sources and every now and then you find yourself talking to a person who you thought could not be more different from you, only you realise the same thread runs through both of you and it makes you similar in a very surprising way.

I met one such woman who ticks every one of those boxes, British Olympic Athlete Jo Fenn. When I went home that night I felt renewed, full of strength because just knowing that someone understands the dedication it takes for me daily with something like the UK Hip Hop Summit, because she is as dedicated to what she does, yet we both live and work in polar opposite lives is amazing. Jo said we're both athletes, as strange as it seemed.

She told me that it's down to discipline, her view is that we in hip hop are all a varying type of athlete, we train ourselves over the years to think outside the box, to get up at 7 in the morning and still be working at 1am and get up and do it all over again, to face challenges within ourselves and from those around us that just look unsurpassable and then we break through because its the only thing we know how to do well. That's our discipline, that's what it takes to reach the highest echelons of sport, music, movies...of anything.

Jo is an extraordinary young woman, intelligent and giving, warm and open and such a fighter that nothing she says is without strength and conviction but in the most gentle way. As person and I expect because she's an athlete she has the type of respect for life that I hardly ever come across.

Her mind is sharp and shaped from fresh air and challenges. She's a perfectionist, but is also extremely down to earth especially when you hear her talk about East London and how she can't wait to see it grow with the Olympics, the kids and the community centres and the learning that will come from it. Made me see the 2012 London Olympics in a whole new way.

That's where the difference lies, to look outside of your own view of life, from the view you think is the best and for a moment see it from anothers eyes.

Take a moment to see what someone else sees, it's worth every second, I promise.