Kelly Crowley Coaching
I'm Kelly Crowley,
Soul-oriented performance coach. I spent decades wrestling with the words, "I can't."
Hard work and focus carried me to peak accomplishments. I was the Valedictorian of my college class. I won four Paralympic medals. In two sports. I went pro as a cyclist. And still, it felt like something was missing.
I was seeking fulfillment and pursuing achievement.
If you're like me, once upon a time, you believed in your ability to be someone or do something. And then culture or parents or school coached you to shrink your dreams down to something predicable, practical, and certain. "Be realistic," they said.
I want you to dream big. I want you to believe in your vision and trust yourself. It might look hard to live your dream, but what if you discover it's easy? Whatever the outcome, you'll love how it feels to just be you. I promise. Here's how I know this path.
01
Innate Knowing
I've always been an athlete. When I was seven and a half, I wanted to be an Olympian like Mary Lou Retton. That was the year I was effectively kicked out of gymnastics because of my weird arm - three fingers, no functional elbow.
I loved moving my body. Football. Kickball. Tennis. Swimming. Volleyball. Baseball (not softball). Basketball. I was obsessed with sports. I didn't know much about myself. But I did know for sure that I was an athlete.
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What do you day dream about? What ideas about your current or future life give you shivers and tingles of excitement?
02
Hope & Abandonment
I pursued my dream of being a professional athlete, sharing with absolutely no one what I wanted. Until one day, I took the bold risk of telling a friend I was going to swim in college because I had an urge to pursue my gold medal ambitions. It sounded absurd! Even though the facts said otherwise. I had an offer from a college coach to be part of his program and I was the captain of my high school swim team. My friend meant well when he gently cautioned me about my choice. But it was all I needed to abandon myself. My inner athlete was benched for six years.
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In what parts of your life does your head tell your heart to stop being so crazy? When do you hear the words, Be realistic! How would it feel if you could let your heart lead? What might be different?
03
The Revelation
In the winter of 2000, I was an insomniac grad student, subsisting on coffee, junk food and beer. I was up at 3am, watching tv and stressing about what to do after graduation. Nothing felt like the right path.
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Are you at or near the end of a road? Has something in your life dramatically changed? Are there too many or not the right options on your doorstep?
Flicking through channels, I noticed a swim meet. Probably a replay of the Olympics, I thought. I kept moving through the channels. After a moment, I flicked back.
It turned out to be coverage of the Sydney Paralympic Games. The universe reveals things always when the time is just right.
What opportunities did you give up on finding? What would you do, "if only" you had the opportunity?
04
The Pursuit
I spent the next ten years pursuing perfection. I won national championships and set world records in swimming. I switched sports and became a professional cyclist, chasing upgrade points relentlessly. I won four Paralympic medals, in two different sports.
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It was harrowing. I pushed my body and my relationships up to and beyond the breaking point.
Why? Because I had a very important goal! I'm pro at achieving goals. I also had no template for achievement or success that also allowed me any sort of out - to slow down, to stop, to quit, to fail. I wasn't allowed to pause long enough to consider whether I was in alignment with my purpose.
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Does it feel sometimes like your priorities are upside-down, like you want to stop but you can't? Do you feel like you're achieving your goals but you feel empty and dissatisfied at the same time?
05
Soul Surrender
And then I was going to fail. Publicly. It felt like I was going to die. The insomnia came back. My mind spent all night spinning trying to solve an un-solvable problem. I'd made decisions I couldn't un-do. I needed time travel!
That was the beginning of a ten year journey into myself. It started simply enough: a private yoga class that I almost left before eight minutes were up. The result turned out to be profound. The day I dared to try something radically new, I also felt something: peace.
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When I transformed the inside, my external reality morphed. Instantly. It didn't take years. Or months. Or even a full week to feel what I had been seeking for decades: whole, safe, at peace with whatever the outcome of my next race was.
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I learned it is impossible to fail when we are tuned to our true purpose. Purpose is not a job or some external deliverable, goal, or prize.
Our purpose is the way we show up. Patient. Calm. Confident. Grounded. Aligned. Expressed. We can feel joy and pleasure, even when things are ugly and hard. Even in the face of devastating loss and change, there always comes a moment of lightness, renewed laughter, relief.
How do you want to feel at the end of the day? The week? The month? This lifetime?
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If you're ready to consistently realize success and become a soul-oriented achiever, I'm here to help. You don't need to leave your current life, you need to be your life. And share in community with others who are doing the same. ​