Lisa Forrest first became a household name when she burst onto the international swimming scene in 1978 as a 14 year old and she captained the Australian swimming team to the 1980 Moscow Olympics. After retiring from the sport, she has become a well-respected commentator of sport, she was the first woman to host her own national sports program. Not content to stay in the sports ‘box’ she again broke new ground moving into general reporting via The Midday Show with Ray Martin. She has since hosted television shows such as Everybody on ABC TV and Evenings on 702 ABC Sydney 702 as well as performing as an actor. Glide: Taking the Panic out of Modern Living is her latest book.
Today, Lisa’s on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions. Read on!
Lisa Forrest
To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Sydney and lucky enough to be raised on the northern beaches where I went to school at Cromer Public and Cromer High schools.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was 12, I wanted to swim for Australia at the 1980 Olympic Games – because I loved to swim and race.
When I was 18, I wanted to be a sports reporter – because they followed us (the Australian swim team) around the world but didn’t have to do the training, so it seemed like the perfect job!
When I was 30, I wanted to be an actor and author – because I’d recently returned home after living in New York for a few years where I studied acting and went to writing classes and I was very keen to put what I’d learned into practice!
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
That I’d never get married or have children.
4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin, influenced my life as much as my writing. Sybylla’s craving for independence and a creative life spoke to me deeply.
Apart from that book, it was more the total effect of moving to New York, in 1990, when I was 25 to study acting that influenced my development as a writer.
For the next few years I performed three times a week on stage in class – learning the words of great playwrights as well as studying my character’s reason for saying each line was a beautiful way to learn about storytelling.
And one of my teachers, Uta Hagen, used to set for homework the texts the visual artists like Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Kandinsky and Van Gogh’s Letters. Those artists attention to detail, the use of colour and texture to create mood and character was very inspiring. And, of course I could take myself to the MOMA and the Met every week to see the paintings I was reading about.
It was also a time that I moved from pub music to clubbing – house music is very uplifting, positive music with lyrics that promote liberation through creativity and individuality. I began to make notes in my journal about a story I would write (if I was a writer) about a young teenage prodigy who didn’t live up to her own expectations and whether she could consider herself a success. In 2000, my first novel, Making the Most of It, was published.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
Because I have always loved to read. I was a shy, teary child so on Fridays, if I’d gone to school without crying that week, Mum would buy me a Little Golden Book. I started swimming for Australia in 1978, when I was 14, and I managed my chronic homesickness by writing long letters home. By then I knew I wanted to write a book like the ones I loved to read, but the general consensus seemed to be that sports people weren’t very smart or creative. So, I became a sports reporter first, then general reporter until I finally built up the courage to write a book. Also, the recipients of my letters always complimented me on how well I wrote, whereas I didn’t receive any compliments for my early attempts at drawing!
6. Please tell us about your latest book!
Glide: Taking the Panic out of Modern Living is the story of the time-out I took, back in 2013, to find the source of a persistent, goading voice in my head, that been around since I was a teenager swimming for Australia, that I eventually called Ms Never Enough.
My discoveries shocked me. Until then, I believed that all I’d achieved had been the result of a favourite motto my coach wrote on the blackboard: when the going gets tough, the tough get going. But a couple of unrelated but serendipitous events early in my time-out helped me to see that the get-tough lessons from my years in elite sport were actually the problem. They set me up for decades of recurring illness, burnout and anxiety, and are the source of many of the mental health problems we as a society face today.
Even more surprising was the antidote. I was forced to acknowledge that ‘when the going gets tough’ was not the only way I knew to manage a challenge. From 8-14, when I was a shy teary kid, I’d been led by adults who practised a form of wise kindness – otherwise known as compassion. When I was very young, thanks to compassion, I discovered over and over again that my tears and my fears underestimated me. I’d just forgotten those early lessons in the effort to prove myself tough enough.
So, Glide really details my way back to the wisdom I’d learned very early in life, backed up by the recent evidence-based research in the fields of high-performance coaching and contemplative neuroscience.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
I hope that by the end of Glide, I’ll have convinced readers that the practices of mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion are the super-powers we need to manage the challenges of the 21st century.
8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I’ve been through many phases where I admired Australian authors, then South American authors, American playwrights, short story writers and, of course, individuals like Elizabeth Gilbert who is able to inhabit both literary and personal growth genres with her brilliance. All depending on where I am in life. But I haven’t written fiction in a while so lately, I’ve been reading fiction again. At the moment I’m admiring the work of Turkish-British author, Elif Shafak. Currently I’m reading, 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
The most ambitious goal I have right now is to be as calm, steady and helpful as I can be for my son, who is studying for his HSC amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and my husband who has 50 staff that he is trying to keep employed. I also mentor another HSC student who lives in much more difficult circumstances than most 17-year olds and I really enjoy helping her. I teach mindfulness-based stress reduction which is very satisfying in terms of providing very practical skills for high-stress living. And I would like to start a podcast called ‘Glide – taking the panic out of modern living’, because I miss interviewing. I’ll keep journaling because writing helps me to order my thoughts and I really ache when I’m not putting pen to paper, but I have no books planned for now. I think that to stay calm and compassionate in 2020 is ambitious enough!
10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
Write because you love it. And if you’re going to write a book, write the book that you really want to read.
Thank you for playing!
—Glide: Taking the Panic out of Modern Living by Lisa Forrest is out now.
Glide
Taking the Panic out of Modern Living
A unique and insightful story that will inspire readers to quiet their critical voices and take the panic out of modern living.
Glide is the story of what happened when serial-achiever Lisa Forrest (Olympian, TV and radio broadcaster, author, actor, wife, mother) took time out to answer a question that had been weighing her down for years: Why, no matter what she achieved, was she never enough for herself? Lisa discovered that the get-tough lessons from her years in elite sport...
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