I've come a long way since college in how I deal with disappointing performances. There was a time back in my younger years where my friends and family would tremble in fear if they had to be around me after I had performed poorly. I was the type of person that took competition seriously and always expected the most out of myself, so when I didn't live up to my expectations it made me angry. I then thought it was my responsibility to make everyone around me suffer through my emotions until an appropriate amount of time had passed and I had thoroughly milked the disappointment for all it was worth.
Well, luckily, I've grown up. To an extent. I do have such a better perspective on how to view competitions and I have come to realize that living in the past does absolutely nothing for your future. Sometimes you simply have a bad day. It's a fact of life. Other times you screw up and the best you can do is learn from it in order for it to make you better in the future. But when you sulk, throw a fit, and make yourself a living hell to be around, all you do is make yourself and those around you miserable for no reason.
Like I said, I've grown up a lot. What used to be two days of sulking, is now down to about 20 minutes. I accept that it wasn't my day, I try to objectively analyzed what happened to the best of my ability, and then I put it behind me. But what I have not grown out of is my dislike of chatting about disappointing performances. I hate it. To this day, if someone asks "How'd it go?" , when it didn't go well, they will get a rolling of the eyes, a mumbling under my breath, and a quick change of subject. I expect those close to me to learn that cue and quickly move on. If you'd like to avoid that awkwardness, my suggestion is to investigate beforehand whether or not I would be pleased with my performance and decide after that to ask how it went at your own risk. The only reason I want to discuss it at all is if it's with someone who can actually help me figure out some things. But just to sit and chit chat about why I sucked that day? Not my thing.
So if you were planning on asking me how my opening weekend went, don't bother. I am giving you the proverbial eye roll and muttering under my breath. I'm not mad about it, I'm no longer obsessing about it, but one thing is for sure--I don't want to talk about it. :)
7 comments:
So what you're saying is.... I shouldn't have asked you the other night how it went and instead of just telling me "Eh, I don't feel like talking about it.", you've now wrote an entire blog about how you wished I woulda just shut up.
GOT IT!
haha
Well, you could always be the kicker for the Baltimore Ravens....who blew the game tying kick to go to the Superbowl on national TV with millions of people watching!
I'd say use it as a learning experience but sometimes there is nothing to learn other than you should not be peaking now anyway and what you jumped is just fine for Janary 23'rd.
Try singing the Jumbaco song, you'll feel better. :)!
Ok, Ok!! I get it.... mom.
“I drive an automatic, but sometimes I put my car in D3 when I'm going up a hill and pretend I drive a manual. That's as close as it'll get.”
Ms. Glenn. Oh, Ms. Glenn. This gave me Life. I laughed so hard. Why can I just picture it?
Oh, and … how’d it go?
@brit...right!
@bgoja...i'll try that!
@mom...it's only taken you how many years to catch on?
@daniel...glad you find me amusing! ;)
The relationship between athlete and coach is hard one. For to be a good coach we must truly care about our athletes every part of life. And many times athletes don't want to tell their coaches what is happening.
Early in my athletic career. I allowed some friends over and they got into a drunken fight, I tried to break it up, and suffered a sprained ankle in the process. The next day was a very important event which I was featured in. I was unable to perform that next day. My dad came to watch that specific event as it was finally an event close to him and I was featured!
My fault. And something I will forever regret and have to live with!
My point being, ...........
I suggest you suspend your Twitter, Facebook, My so Fabulous life blog postings, because you don't want to allow others to f*ck up your entire dreams just by allowing them in your life! Me included!
Dad never got to see that event, and never be proud of me!
BGOJA
The reason I told you this story is because when you need to find inspiration in your jumping, sometimes you have to put yourself into a deep, dark part of your life. The story I told you above is and always will be that for me. To have F* up so magnificently and have lost the chance to show my dad how great I was in person is the type of emotion I'd like you to find when the moment comes for you to pull out something really big. When faced with extreme, extreme emotion that is driven deep down into your soul's pain, then you can do amazing things. No, it's not enough just to think about the person, you must feel the pain, you must put your mind into a place where you are there at the moment. The human body is amazing and can do amazing things when challenged. Some times it needs a little boost. The moment is not in front of us but the hurt, the pain, the emotion is real to us, and can help us achieve things we never thought or hoped we were capable of. Hope this helps in my sharing of something extremely painful to me. This is what mental coaches do. xoxo!
BG
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