WAYNE'S WORDS
December 22, 2004
Topic: South of Where We Were

 

Hey I know how Woodstock feels.
You have a goal.
You try your best, people are cheering for you, you start out great, but then...........you crash and burn, you fail.
What Woodstock needs to do is think about what went wrong and fix it on his next flight.
One thing we learn as a teacher is you don't learn without failure. The more you fail the more likely you're trying and the more likely you'll succeed.
Failure is simply the wrong way to do something.
After a while you learn not to do things the wrong way and start doing them the right way.
Maybe Woodstock isn't flapping his wings the right way or keeping his tail feathers at the right angle for an endurance event, like flying south.
The more he practices and maybe gets a good flying coach, the better he'll get.
With patience and time and hard work, he'll be flying south and enjoying the warm weather.
Fear of failure is probably the number one reason people don't try something new.
If it's something we haven't done before, we're going to fail at it until we start learning how to do it the right way, and then, with practice, hard work, consistency and patients we'll get it, we'll be successful.
The thing to remember about doing something new or challenging, you are successful by simply trying.
I made up a saying one time: 50% of being successful is simply showing up, not really, I heard it from a guy at the Y, but, it's still make a lot of sense.
A lot of the times the hardest part of working out is simply showing up at the gym/pool/road/trail.
Once you're there and warmed up the rest is almost automatic.
Sometimes when I'm running I just think one step at a time, then one hill at a time, then one mile at a time and finally one workout at a time.
Even after a shitty workout, whether swimming, biking, running, lifting or whatever, I, at the very least, am a little better off then I was before.
When you step/swim up to the line to start a race, you are already 50% successful.
Success comes in small minute increments, that are hard to notice.
But, take those small successes and put together over time and they usually result in a big success.
I also like Snoopy's attitude.
Woodstock probably feels like a failure, but hooray for Snoop Dog.
He understands that Woodstock has made progress, he's been successful.
It might take a while, but Woodstock will eventually go south, he just has to keep trying.
I think that's what we do for each other as training partners and as friends. We keep encouraging our buddies after they have failed. It's very easy to be there for someone after they've succeeded.
But the time someone really needs us, needs our support and words of encouragement, is when they fail.
Failure is part of learning and growing and getting better.
Don't be afraid of failure, let it be part of what you do. Understand that it's going to happen, learn from it and keep trying.
Also understand that how you define success and failure changes with time. As we get better our definitions of failure and success will change.
Be there for others, be their Snoopy, and encourage them to keep trying, after they have succeeded and more importantly after they have failed.

Until next time,
Train smart, live right.

Wayne
whuckshold@yahoo.com