When you step into the call God gives you, it becomes His work. You do not have to work it out. You do not have to figure it out. Let Him manifest the Holy Spirit, because it is the ease of the Spirit that will carry you.Former world title contender Aliitasi Leasuasu lived this reality. Logic dictates you need twenty or thirty professional fights before getting a chance at a world title. God gave her a main event title shot after only six.Reaching that level required a brutal breaking of her pride. After winning her first professional fight, Aliitasi walked into her second bout riding high on her own confidence. She stepped into the ring against an international fighter and took a severe beating. That profound humbling stripped away her magical thinking. It forced a massive mindset shift, teaching her that trusting God does not excuse you from intense physical discipline and spiritual maturity.Walking in faith did not make the path easy. Aliitasi opens up about the profound struggle of mentoring young people as a youth pastor while privately feeling stripped away and wandering in the wilderness. She discusses the danger of separating the physical from the spiritual, reminding listeners that you cannot take a bad day of training into the ring and you certainly cannot lean on your own understanding.This conversation captures the whole picture of her extraordinary life. It explores the absolute necessity of choosing a crowd that relates to your future rather than what is behind you. Aliitasi details the supernatural provision of moving to Australia with a single suitcase and how surrendering her dreams completely led to a main event world title shot when logic dictated she needed twenty more fights to even be considered.Tune in to absorb the hard lessons Aliitasi learned about pride so you can step into your sport with a grounded mindset.

Carrying your family, your culture, and your heritage onto the field with you each week can feel impossibly heavy.

You carry your family name on your jersey, the expectations of your coaches in your mind, and the story of where you've come from on your shoulders.

That is a massive load for any young athlete to balance.

Ethan Jurgeneit knows exactly what this pressure feels like. He represented his First Nations and German roots while playing rugby at the highest levels. He proudly held the Six Nations flag before the international anthems played and carried the historical weight of his people into every game.

But somewhere in the middle of it all, Ethan discovered that true freedom on the field requires laying your legacy down and choosing to play exclusively for an audience of one.

Your culture is meant to anchor you, not weigh you down. Hit play to hear exactly how Ethan surrendered his expectations, and changed the reason he steps onto the field.

Carrying a hockey stick is a massive burden when you are also pretending to be someone you are not.

In this episode of No Striving, Brad sits down with premier hockey player Eliana Heard. She knows exactly what it feels like to step into a top level environment and feel completely scared out of her shoes. For a long time, Eliana chose the quiet route. She softened her edges and hid her faith. She believed that fitting in and gaining the applause of her teammates required her to bury her authentic self. The fear of being looked down upon was incredibly heavy.

But conformity is an exhausting burden for a young athlete to carry.

Eliana shares the exact turning point when she decided to stop conforming to the patterns of the world and start owning her true identity. She reveals the messy, entirely real process of figuring out who you are when the uniform comes off. Listeners will hear how she navigates harsh coaching feedback, the natural trap of comparison, and the intense pressure of tournament party culture.

More importantly, she explains what she’s learnt about the quiet power of authenticity. Teammates are naturally drawn to people who are simply not afraid to be themselves. Eliana proves that you do not need the constant affirmation of the squad to solidify your spot. You just need to be secure in yourself. You have to lead yourself before you can ever lead others.

Join Across Athlete Development for a deeply honest conversation about faith, pressure, and the courage it takes to bring your authentic self to the turf.