The Joy of Failure - Part I

Naturally, everyone wants to be #1. But more often than not, this is not going to happen. As I've mentioned before, winning is not about beating others but rather about not losing to yourself. You control whether you win or lose.

While I never won a single race this season, I still could have been victorious. Yet, I defeated myself in so many ways. Even when I thought I'd figured it out, my performances proved that I was way off the mark. They say that life is 10% about how you act and 90% about how you react. With that said, you can allow yourself to err or fail. What's most important is how you come back from a mistake or poor performance. This season I allowed myself to be a failure. I did not rebound well from poor performances. One poor performance does not make you a failure, it makes you human. A series of poor performances, on the other hand, is inexcusable.

Out of all the negativity and frustration, I was finally and I mean FINALLY able to find the joy in failure. Unfortunately, I discovered it after my season was over; I should say - I didn't allow myself to discover it until my season was over! While I will expect to have future seasons to utilize this knowledge, life is short and time can not afford to be wasted. Make mistakes and learn from them quickly.

When I finally began to escape this funk and see how severely my mentality was hindering my performance, I began to see the benefits that failure could offer me. With the right attitude failure can spark motivation and reinforce the desire to improve. Success does not always have this affect; it can create complacency, a sense of entitlement, or overconfidence. Failure reminds you to keep seeking out information, to try new approaches, methods or philosophies and keep an open mind. To rebound from failure you must be kind to yourself. It is a skill that requires practice and refining.

While my first international racing season is ultimately complete, I have a solid month of time left here at the Olympic Training Center, and a lot left to prove to myself. In my remaining time here, I will get back to the basics - strengthening my foundation and slowly building myself back up from there.