I know someone who is a triathlete. He is working toward an iron man something or other, and I helped him set up a blog. He’s hitting his stride with it, and I find myself reading it now for more than a daily update of how many miles he ran more than me that day. Some of what he says actually speaks to me.
He wrote something that has been hanging out in the back of my head for the past day or two.
Since I am not a strong swimmer, I look for motivation in the pool. Undoubtedly, whenever I am in the pool there is someone training who is an accomplished swimmer, stroking perfectly and knocking out laps like Michael Phelps. Usually I try to emulate that swimmer, sometimes going so far as to watch them underwater to see if I can pick up any tips on what to do better. But this morning, I opted not to look to my right, to the guy wearing the speedo, knocking out laps twice as fast as I can. Nope. This morning I looked to my left. I looked to the slightly overweight Asian lady knocking laps out SLOWER than me. Yep, I was in need of a boost. So rather than focusing to my right, I kept my eyes to my left. At every turn of a lap, I was peeking left. And I was opening up a can of whup ass on the Asian lady! I was lapping her! Today was not a day to look right to learn something from Phelps, it was a day to simply enjoy the water. And for me, there is no better enjoyment than allowing myself to relish in the competitive advantage I had by looking to my left. I didn’t care that the can of whup ass in my head was there due to an overweight, older-than-me Asian lady. Nope, just a great day swimming.
Are you the type of person that will run faster if there is someone in front of you, or if there is someone behind you creeping up and your superior advantage spurs you on to bury her further. Me? I have no idea. Shouldn’t I know that about myself?
Remember my blind shrink? For those of you who didn’t read the post about me trying to see myself more clearly by going to a blind shrink, I saw a blind shrink for a long time. One of the things he told me was that I wasn’t afraid of failure, I was afraid of success. I marinate in that now and then. Afraid of failure so you don’t try? Afraid of success so you don’t try? Either way, you don’t try, so what difference does it make? I think it does make a difference. I’m not sure what difference it makes yet, but that’s part of life’s journey.
If you always look right, can you never just go to bed feeling fabulous? Do you never really measure up? I really think that Mr. Triathlete has the right idea. Look right sometimes and left others. A mix of this and that is the answer. Moderation. A little fear of failure and a little fear of success might just be the ticket. Look to the right and look to the left, depending on your confidence level for the day.
I decided after reading his post that once a week, once a month, once a whatever, I’m going to look left. I’ll get back to you on whether or not it works.
