Changing Lanes: How Penny Heyns made the sink-or-swim transition to a new career

Ruda Landman talks with Olympic Swimmer Penny Heyns about life after the Olympics and how she managed her mid-career crisis.

You have spent the first half of your working life trying to attain success in your ‘dream job’. You have put in extra hours at the office, climbing the corporate ladder and achieving what you believed would make you happy: promotions, more money and recognition. But now you suddenly no longer look forward to going to work.

You dread Mondays and your colleagues have noticed a sudden change in your behaviour and attitude towards your work. You long to pursue your dream of becoming a pilot or landscaper or even an Opera singer.

This is known as a mid – career crisis*.

Penny Heyns, a South African Olympic record holder, and the only woman who has ever won the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the Olympics, recently shared her own experience of a mid-career crisis with Ruda Landman. The conversation happed during a video interview on BrightRock’s Change Exchange – a dynamic online platform that taps into the emotions behind consumers’ biggest life changes.

Heyns says that she found her “calling” early in life. She learnt how to swim around the age of two or three, joining the school team at seven and swimming at club level from the age of 12.
“As my story goes, it’s not because I loved swimming per se – it’s more the fact of recognising that I have talent and feeling a responsibility to really develop it to its fullest. It became apparent that swimming was the strongest of all the various sports that I did and so I guess I went from there,” she says.

But Heyns’s early success also led to an early career crisis. She says she first thought of retiring at age 17 and then again at 19, before she went on to win at the Olympics. “I believe we are given talent and what we do with it really determines our destiny, because often we think that when you have a desire for something that means that’s what you are supposed to do. In my career, I found that quite often it’s the opposite; you may not have the desire. That’s why whatever you do in life you must always have a deeper foundation for why you’re doing it.”

For Heyns, the decision to finally retire came to a head in 1998, with the final decision made in 2000. “I reached a stage in 1998 where I absolutely hated swimming … I would go to the pool and get physically ill and that was just before the Commonwealth trials. Once I had decided and again, very prayerfully, to go to Canada and continue my career, I had then decided it would be until 2000. My decision to retire had nothing to do with my performance; I just felt in my gut it was time to explore other career options. My coach at the time told me that things were changing in the swimming world cup circuit. He said, ‘There’ll be money now; you’ll be a little more professional. Don’t you want to continue?’ And I just felt that, in fact, it was the time to retire.”

If Penny’s experience is anything to go by, making drastic changes in haste is not the answer. It takes time to discover what we truly want to change and to identify the behaviours and expectations that are holding us back. Most career transitions may take years and rarely follow a linear path, as we take two steps forward and one step back. But you might be surprised where you end up.

After retiring from swimming Heyns tried her hand at property and various other business ventures, but to her this just didn’t seem like a good fit. It wasn’t until 2010 when she was approached for a coaching position that for the first time she felt in her gut feel that this is the profession for her.

“When I swam I went on a gut feel, I knew what I had to do and now again with coaching, I know what to do,” said Heyns. “I kind of found out I’m a teacher at heart. And I love to motivate others. You can be as tired and as down and whatever and suddenly somehow on the day when you’ve got to deal with teaching people and helping people, there’s a new energy that comes. So I am loving what I’m doing. I think probably more so than even in my swimming career. I feel more at ease and comfortable in my own skin and feel like I’m in the right place in my life right now. I suppose it also comes with age.”

Heyns's full conversation with Ruda is available on the Change Exchange, and in it she shares valuable insights about her upbringing and life. View it here.

*Mid-career crisis a point in the middle of someone’s career when they have to decide what to do in the future.