Dillon has the chance to talk with parents, as well as encourages them to allow children to have fun, and never be very negatively competitive at a young age. He’s an advocate for native health and wellness and also works for the All Pueblo Council of Governors as a committee member, along with his expert work and that is motivational speaking, workshops, education, and health consulting based mostly on Native American running traditions and leading-edge athletic practices.
Here’s a brief of the interview of Dillon, check out the complete interview in the video!
Hi guys this is Mohid Moosani from ScreenBinge.com and today we have Dillon Shije with us today!
Dillon Shije: Hi my name is Dillon Shije from Zia Pueblo, thanks Mohid for inviting me.
You’re most welcome! Guys Dillon is a lifelong runner, a professional athlete and he’s a motivational speaker as well. So, we’re going to ask him about all these things and he’s also involved in integrative physiotheraphy…. so, I’m going to ask a lot of questions from him about that!
Dillon Shije: I’m excited to talk about my journey with running and being a professional athlete…also I have dual degrees in integrative physiology and history. So, yeah I’m glad to be here and I’m happy for discussion.
So mainly for me it’s running. I ran cross-country and track in college also yeah as a post-collegiate professional runner I grew up running on the in purple reservation here in New Mexico, right?
I’ve pretty much been a runner at a young age up until now, so that’s pretty much what I do. Also besides running I’m working in leadership roles. I’m currently working at the National Congress of American Indian as a fellowship and serve on the committee as a health policy advisor for the all public council governors here in New Mexico. So, doing a lot of things in leadership right now as well.
That must be a lot of responsibility! How do you manage your running along with your work?
Dillon Shije: Yeah, definitely have to manage my time and make sure that I have time for working out and also my job as well. So, yeah that happens when you have a passion and a job. You have to carry both things parallel.
Moving forward, what got you in to motivational speaking?
Dillon Shije: So, for me, I’m one of the very few indigenous athletes, native American athletes to run professionally. So, in this type of environment, you don’t really see too many indigenous athletes. My goal is always to motivate youth and within the indigenous communities to inspire them to reach their goals.
If it’s going to be in this sport as far as running or if it’s to also succeed on the educational level or a professional level on whatever it may be. So my whole goal is to uplift our youth and to ensure that their impact is going to be good for their community and moving forward… yeah so, it’s pretty much a responsibility of mine to ensure that a lot of the youth and their families succeed and have the most impact.
Do you have sessions at universities and colleges or do you run a personal motivational blog/Vlog or something of that sort where people can come in and attend the motivational session?
Dillon Shije: So, I run my own impact consulting agency called the Native Runner…that’s where I kind of work through all my connections with… uh so I do like I said motivational speaking for those entities that wish to consult with me.
Also, I do individual coaching, so any type of athlete either be in high school or at the next level professional, I’m willing to help coach them as well. So, yeah, I do pretty much at any level and whoever really wants to have that type of consulting that’s pretty much where I go through my impact consulting agency.
what do you think is the main cause of someone becoming demotivated? Is it like too much pressure? Stress? Or is it something to do with how a person is raised as a child?
Dillon Shije: I feel with others that with the lack of support can really hinder their performance and wanting to progress forward um because for me I see a lot of high school athletes that are really talented but just don’t have that support and are unable to maintain it at a collegiate level or professional level.
So, to me it’s just not having the necessary resources to help these individuals succeed at the next level and for indigenous communities there are some challenges with getting resources either it be like let’s say mental health resources or just some type of outside resource that can help influence them in a positive way.
And that’s where kind of I try to step in but you know I’m only one person so it’s hard to target everybody but also I try to target as much as I can through my Instagram. It’s also called the Native Runner and I try to educate others and motivate others to either pursue whatever direction they want to go with. Either it be running, soccer, their education…
That’s how I try to make my impact through my social media and right now that’s pretty much the only way just because of the current health crisis that we’re in. So, yeah, I use my platform to change but at the same time it kind of allows you to address a larger audience.