Snapshot · The Mel Robbins Podcast
In 2016, Shelly-Ann fractured the sesamoid bones under her big toe — critical for block power — yet still competed at the Rio Olympics and won bronze.
Where this was said
At 50:20 · chapter starts 49:00
With Mel holding the 2019 World Championship gold medal, Shelly-Ann unpacks her philosophy of failure — beginning with the admission that she has lost a lot, and she is proud of her expertise in it [1] — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce "Shelly-Ann fractured the sesamoid bones under her big toe before the 2016 Rio Olympics — the exact bones responsible for the explosive powe…" 50:00 . Failure, she explains, introduces you to parts of yourself that success actively conceals: the approach that needs to change, the muscle you haven't developed yet, the gap between what you did and what the moment required. Some of her greatest victories came directly after defeats. She then narrates the sesamoid injury crisis of 2016: unable to put her foot in her spike, out of practice for weeks before the Rio Olympics, still chasing the historic feat of three consecutive Olympic golds. Rather than quitting, she found another way — pool training, heavier gym work, careful rehab, working around the injury rather than through it. She took bronze in Rio. Then came back with two world titles and the Laureus Award in the following years. Failure told her how. She never quit.
Shelly-Ann fractured the sesamoid bones under her big toe before the 2016 Rio Olympics — the exact bones responsible for the explosive power sprinters need in the blocks. She couldn't train normally for weeks. Instead of quitting, she found another way: pool work, gym, rehab. She won bronze. Then came back and won the world title in 2019 and 2022.
At age 35 in the 2022 season, Shelly-Ann ran 10.60 seconds or faster in the 100 meters six or seven times — an extraordinary level of consistency.
Spencer Greenberg and Jeremy Stevenson analyzed almost 500 self-improvement techniques and found they all reduce to just 12 underlying psychological drivers.
Cold exposure has good short-term alertness benefits but the evidence base for long-term health benefits is much weaker than popularly believed.
In a randomized study of 20 habit-formation techniques run on hundreds of people, almost none of the techniques produced statistically meaningful results.
People given a tiny-habit fallback option (e.g. 10 squats instead of gym) were actually MORE successful at completing the full habit, not less.
The most effective habit-formation technique was 'habit reflection' — recalling a past successful habit, writing down what helped, then applying those lessons to a new habit.
A study found that simply scheduling enjoyable activities was as effective as standard cognitive behavioral therapy for depression, leading to its own therapy called behavioral activation.
The 'worry time' technique — deferring all worries to a designated time of day — helps people realize they have more control over worry than they thought and reveals it is less useful than it feels.
A study found that participants told to try to stay awake while in bed fell asleep faster than participants told to try to sleep — illustrating the paradox of direct effort.
Spencer Greenberg reduced his severe social anxiety dramatically in roughly 6 months through a structured exposure therapy hierarchy, culminating in asking strangers for hugs.
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