Not the result I wanted but a result none the less.
Training for something and competing are two different things. It’s a different intensity, a different mindset, there is nervousness, competitiveness, thoughts of ego and what ifs, embarrassment. All these things play on a loop in your mind.
When you’re in the thick of it, it’s a combination of the feeling of exhaustion but the drive to do more. The drive to do better, be better.
Every time I compete, the morning of, I think ‘why do I do this? Why put myself through it, it’s not going to change your life’, but I am always reminded of this passage by Theodore Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Why compete or be competitive? A feeling I guess, an unknowing, to realise you’re still here, still fighting, still looking for more out of your own life.
Get out there, test yourself, try new things, sometimes you win, sometimes you’ll lose but one thing is you will be better for it.
I just love seeing people giving it a go when most only talk about it. Be that a fight, a match, a marathon, in the gym whatever it is.
People giving it a go deserve all the respect.
So, my message today, ever in doubt, go for it. Otherwise, you can only live with the regret and feeling of not ‘giving it a go’. Don’t worry about the thoughts of others, their thoughts only cease to exist especially when they are not in the arena, they have no understanding about what you do, why you do it who you are.
