We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shauna Harrison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shauna below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Shauna with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
As wild as it sounds, my work ethic goes all the way back to 5 yr old me that decided she wanted to go to Stanford. I kind of pulled it out of thin air after seeing a Stanford sweatshirt and hearing that it was a hard school to get into. From that point forward, it was my North Star. Any time I was asked what I wanted to be when I got older, all I ever said was that I wanted to go to Stanford. Anyone who ever heard me say this mentioned how challenging it would be to get in and I took that as a challenge. Watch me, I thought. I cared about every homework assignment. I always did the extra credit. Even when it wasn’t offered, I asked for it. I remember asking for extra work, extra dittos (I’m THAT old!), extra homework packets. Always studied. Always worked for the highest grade. Always wanted to be the one who worked the hardest. Now, the older, wiser me knows work smarter, not harder, but I am incredibly grateful that I learned the work ethic at such a young age. It has translated from school to movement to everything.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I do a lot of different things, but my common denominator is movement. I teach classes (fitness/yoga), I am a columnist focusing on movement for SELF Magazine, I teach a course about the intersection of Wellness & Public Health for Johns Hopkins University in the summer, I’m working on getting a book published that is a bit of my personal story and how movement has been my anchor, I volunteer with Eat.Learn.Play in Oakland to help build playgrounds for local schools, and honestly whatever else comes up!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Honestly, a lot of what I said about work ethic applies here. Learning how to work hard is paramount; understanding and respecting the breadth of that process is another level. It is a process. There are ups and downs, obstacles, triumphs, falls, bumps, bruises, repetition, and really boring and mundane times. You’ve got to ride the entire wave.
Doing the work for you. Not for the gram, not for your competitors, not for anyone but you. If the motivation isn’t intrinsic, if it isn’t deep within your soul, if you aren’t accountable to you when no one else knows or cares, it is easy to get lost in other people’s opinions. External praise can easily become external doubt, pressure, hate, etc. You are in charge of the internal. You create your own value, you keep you accountable to you.
Don’t forget to rest. Rest your body, rest your mind. This, too, is part of the process and the part that we tend to forget until we are forced to do it.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Aside from put a roof over my head, provide me with food and a loving home (which is already A LOT!) they really just let me be me. I think part of it was that I was just a very driven kid who wanted nothing more than to do well in school and go to a great college. I was involved in all kinds of activities, had my own way of doing things, made myself work really hard, and they just let me be me. They didn’t try to force me to do anything, they didn’t try to change who I was, they gave me a lot of room to make my own path. I didn’t have a lot of rules growning up, but I also never took advantage or disrespected this freedom. This really formed how I go about doing most things. I always find my own way, always take a different path, always do what makes sense for me. I am super grateful for this!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shaunaharrison.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shauna_harrison
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shauna
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunaharrison/
Image Credits
First image with red pants / last image standing with colorful background- Kirsten Noelle @kirstennoellew
Image with star pants, black top / image of back bend over double yellow lines – Jane Hu @plainjane
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