Stubborn

Sometimes people say that I was born the athlete I am today - suggesting that my ability to show up physically and mentally on game day is an innate attribute.  It is so hard for me not to argue when someone says that because of how hard I've worked to develop my physical and mental attributes throughout my life (since first watching the Olympics at age 5, I've been learning the art of the game face).

I was not born with the ability to compete well, nor am I a physical freak of nature.  I'm a little knock kneed, and my arms aren't the same length.  I've messed up literally hundreds of times in competition, only to experience the devastation that a poor performance brings, over and over again.

The only thing I may have been born with is stubbornness.  I may not reach my goal, but I will not give up on getting better.  I do not want to waste my life, and I do not let failure define my future. I want to be better tomorrow than I am today, so today I make choices which will influence my tomorrow.

Every time I fail on big and small stages (even when I miss lifts in practice), I look at the events leading up to the failure and try to evaluate what I could have done differently to reach a different outcome.  The next time I face that challenge I try not to make the same mistakes again.  I'm constantly thinking through my strategy for the upcoming day, month, and year to try to plan ways that this year will be better than the last - how I'll be thinner, stronger, healthier, happier and more successful than I was the year before.

I was not born with it.  Neither were you.  But I have a good set of tools.  Today, I choose to use them.  Do you?