I, Tiger

You gotta go a little Rocky Balboa sometimes. Training is not always glamorous. Punches land. Occasionally one must deal with the fact that on some days, we fire on less than eight cylinders. There are events in which we place added emphasis, red letter meets, our A races or key workouts that, for reasons mysterious and obscure, we do not perform up to our expectations. Sometimes losing is better than winning. Redemption is a beautiful word. 

Yet we disappoint ourselves. We want more. We had hoped for better. We then become discouraged, frustrated and lethargic. In extreme cases we wallow in sorrow, toss in the towel and quit. What's the use?

I know this to be true because I have experienced it first hand. I have been there. I have downgraded my self worth because I failed to meet an unrealistic result. Or perhaps because I failed to see the long term forest from the short term trees. Maybe our societal values and contemporary attitudes on winning cause us to label everything less than first place as losing. If you aren't the champion you must be a loser. 

That is so wrong. So very off-base. Disingenuous and borderline criminal actually. 

If I run my best race (more on the IF to follow) and finish with a result less than I had hoped, I should do a few things:

1) Examine my training techniques,

2) Examine my commitment,

3) Learn the lessons, apply them to my training, and,

4) Go back and test them again.

With perhaps the fifth element of transcendence being the most important,

5) See this as a path, a process and allow the magic to mix with the sacred to gracefully orchestrate a higher frequency of power and success. In other words, DON'T GIVE UP.

You have not failed at all, you have simply created additional challenge in your personal quest for growth and excellence. And THAT is exactly how we succeed, by overcoming those challenges. NOT by deriding ourselves because the distance too long, the hill too steep, the foe too ferocious or our times too slow. 

Examine. Experience. Endure. Get back at it, smarter and with more presence than ever before. Be involved with every moment of training. Take responsibility for your effort. Give your best. Do not be concerned with the outcome as recorded in the results page but concerned with the level of your commitment to training and your ability to access your optimal self awareness as measured by power. Do that and you will never be disappointed again. 

I guarantee if you get to 85% of that, the music will sound a lot like Eye of the Tiger.