Former soccer player Luke Tyburski speaking at Panthers Bathurst

Luke Tyburski grew up with one dream, to become a professional soccer player, and unlike many, he can say he was successful in achieving that.

However, it's been the journey since ending his soccer career that has shaped who he is today and his new purpose in life.

While Mr Tyburski is still very well-known in the world of sport for his involvement in ultra-endurance competitions, he also travels the world as a motivational speaker and performance coach.

He will be giving a talk at Bathurst Panthers on Saturday, April 22, for the first time in his hometown.

"I've been very privileged to speak on five continents and 15 countries all around the world, but never in Bathurst," he said.

"I'm a massive advocate for athletes looking at themselves as an athlete for a period of time, but while they're an athlete they can also work on themselves as humans.

"My main goal now is to help others be the best they can be in life."

Growing up, all Mr Tyburski wanted to do was play soccer. And he did, very well.

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Starting off playing for different teams in Bathurst, Mr Tyburski moved to Sydney at the age of 16 to play for a professional team.

He played in the highest league in Australia in the junior level before soccer took him to America, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

While able to live out his childhood dream of playing soccer professionally around the world, one of Mr Tyburski's standout memories is playing for the Bathurst '75 under 18s team in the State League competition, at only 15 years old.

He said being picked at such a young age to play in one of Football NSW's premier competitions was a huge confidence boost and really cemented his determination to continue to play soccer.

"At the time I was coached by a Bathurst soccer legend Joe Judge and he picked me as a 15-year-old kid in an under 18s team that was full of some very good players," Mr Tyburski said.

"That was a massive standout moment for me because someone had really seen something in me and it lit a fire inside of me and I was like 'wow, maybe I can play this game.'

"So that was it, I was going to be a professional soccer player whether anyone liked it or not, and I got that opportunity and I lived my boyhood dream playing professionally around the world which was pretty cool."

However, what Mr Tyburski was not prepared for, was life after living out his dream, which came around at the young age of 28 after having to retire due to injuries.

With his life so set around soccer, Mr Tyburski didn't know who he was without the sport in his life.

This loss of identity led him down a dark path and to some very unhealthy habits.

"I was 28 when I retired and was battling with some mental health issues; with depression, insomnia, binge eating and twice I wanted to take my own life, so it was pretty dark there for a while," Mr Tyburski said.

"So I threw myself into the world of ultra-endurance sports; running across the Sahara Desert was my first ever running race.

"I was running away from life, figuratively and literally I was just running away from life. I had a huge loss of identity when I retired from soccer."

After seven years of excessive exercising, Mr Tyburski said his body shut down and he really had to take a step back and look at himself.

Seeking professional help and working really hard on gaining tools to help him deal with what he was going through got Mr Tyburski out of a really dark place, but it took time and a lot of effort.

He said going back to what triggered the downward spiral of his mental health was a very important factor in the healing process.

And it is all of these experiences that Mr Tyburski shares in his motivational talks and also the book he wrote; Chasing Extreme.

"There were definitely periods where I was just shutting myself off from the world, I was a very good actor, no one knew what was going on," he said.

"I had no identity after retiring from soccer, it was a case of; I'm not Luke the soccer player anymore, I'm Luke. And I struggled with that for such a long time.

"That was my whole vehicle for sharing my story and also trying to inspire people to look inwards to ask themselves; Am I happy? Can I achieve more?"

Mr Tyburski is looking forward to speaking for the first time in Bathurst and not only sharing his story but hopefully giving audience members the tools they need if they ever face identity issues.

He also talks about the crazy challenges he's competed in and the lessons they've taught him.

From cycling over 400 kilometres just to learn to surf in the United Kingdom, to a 2000-kilometre triathlon from Morocco to Monaco, Mr Tyburski has done and learnt a lot.

"I talk about my adventures, I talk about what it's like to be a professional athlete and having that loss of identity which people who aren't athletes can still have," he said.

"Whether they get made redundant from work, or they change careers or maybe they move from one job to another, there's so many things where you can have that loss of identity and so I talk about that.

"These are all the things that I help my audiences look within to find so they can use the tools I provide on stage to go and have some immediate takeaways in their own lives."

Mr Tyburski said two things that he encourages people to do is to be curious and be playful.

He said being curious and discovering new things helps people improve on themselves.

Being playful and having fun often leads to great ideas and solving problems that are being faced.

"So being playful alongside being curious I have found has opened up so many doors for me," Mr Tyburski said.

"It's created opportunities and helped me see opportunities and then I've been able to take them at the same time."

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