The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place… and I don´t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life. But ain’t about how hard you hit… It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward… how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done.
Although this quote comes from a fictional movie, it couldn’t speaker truer to this topic. Unfortunately, as part of your training you’re naturally going to face failure. You train, you grind, you sink your teeth into your dreams – but sometimes you’re just going to fall short.
Recently I have made my first strides in chasing my goals. Competing against nearly 1000 other athletes in 5 qualifiers I fell just short of making the cut to the final event. Am I disappointed? Sure. Am I devastated? Absolutely not. Am I going to quit? #%^* no.
To me disappointment drives dedication. It would have been an exciting accomplishment to make it into the final event, but not making it isn’t a setback. It means I keep my nose to the grind, to get faster, stronger, and more explosive for the next time.
The key is to take failure as an opportunity, not a loss. If you quit – that will stay with you forever.
