Before I get to write this post about my topic that I had in mind let me just say that I wish I could post more often but our new forum is taking up all my time. Ok not really but the answers to post questions take a little longer as they have to be complete so that someone that reads them a year from now can also utilize the information.
See I was sitting here thinking about what to write and I just had too many topics. One could be part three of my athletic bio. But I can save that one for later. I could write about my Boulder triathlon camp, but I have a camper that wrote a nice story on the camp that will be on xtri.com soon. So I am going to go with a separate topic which is more of a psychological topic. It is about self-steem.
Self-esteem is really synonymous with self-worth. It includes a person's subjective appraisal of himself or herself. This basically means that our little heads dictate our self-steem. If we feel good about who we are and what we do then we feel happier. If we do not, then we do not feel so happy and many people get down and depressed. Now I am not going to post here about the entire subject. Literature on this subject is abundant so I am just writing here about my experience and how it relates to working out and triathletes who I am sure it is about 99% of you reading this.
This topic has come to mind because as a coach I often find athletes that have a skewed view of what success is and unless they feel successful then they will have a hard time enjoying their results of their achievements. In addition I think that too much emphasis is placed on results. The reason that this happens is really cultural. Too much attention is placed on those that sometime achieve extraordinary things. Because of all the attention they get, they become the yardstick to which success of failure is measured against. It takes a clear view of reality and perhaps a coach (me) to try to point out that success is measured in many ways.
When we let athletics dictate our self worth and our self-steem we are really gambling hard. Athletic success is sometimes out of our control and it does not last forever. So whether you finish first, tenth or last it really does not change who you are. I believe that we all need a balanced life. When I was younger and single I always looked at how my financial, athletic and love life were going. I hardly ever had all three going well. If they were all going well I went and banged my head against the wall. This way I knew something was now not going well, my head hurt. Ok I am kidding about that but that is what I felt like doing. The most likely scenario was that I had two going well and one really stinky. But that made sense; it is really hard to have it all. The key is to have balanced life, this way your self-steem does not rely on one thing and as such you never feel like a total failure just because you had a bad race. When too much value is placed on a competitive result it actually creates too much pressure and it affects your performance. Once you are relieved of this pressure you are now free to perform. This sport is fun, competing is fun, it is a hobby and a game to be played. But for sure it does not make who you are.
Almost every year I tell someone that the result of the race is for the most part already dictated by the training and that there was not much that could be done. Just let the result happen and relax, I often say. Once the race is over, most of us would have the same amount of money in the bank. Once the race is over most of us still have to go to work earning the same paycheck. After the race our kids will still love us no matter what. How we do does not matter in the big picture and it does not make us a better person. If you are a bad person you will still be bad even if you win. Victory is fleeting once you do it and the race is over, you have to do it all over again. But you still remain the same. There will always be new champions.
Finally another mistake we sometimes make is to judge someone by their result. Just like in any facet of life, there are very nice fast people and very nice back of the pack people. Get to know someone at a more personal level end learn who they are. Do not judge them by how much they beat you by or how much you beat them by. We tend to idolize or sometime be jealous of those who are faster. What a mistake.
Athletics and more so triathlon can be hard on the body. I have been around this sport for a long time now and I have seen so many suffer triathlon career ending injuries or get burned out. Keeping a balanced approach to the sport is not only good for your head but also for your body. You just never know what is going to happen. But you will still be you.