Who's your biggest competition?
I read a tweet today from Jamie Nicholls .Well, when I say a tweet, he posted an image of a post presumably done elsewhere as there was no way it was getting past the tweet character limit. The final sentence really did sum it all up... "In other words, go big or go home and live outside of your comfort zone!". Now I partially agree with that sentiment because if you always stay inside your comfort zone then you'll never grow outside of it and move into new territories where you gain new experiences and abilities. But sometimes you need your comfort zone to take stock and have a base to launch out from.
I was looking for a motivational meme for this blog entry and chanced upon this which I think is really suitable. But as much as you are your own competition, you are also your biggest cheerleader also. That voice in your head makes you capable of great things, or just kills the belief in yourself. So the greatest battle you can have is the one that is within you. Yes, you are fighting with yourself, the proverbial angel and demon on opposing shoulders are self believe and damning condemnation respectively. "But wait a minute Dave" i hear you say, "we have friends that tell us encouraging things when we're down / afraid / unsure (delete as appropriate)". Yes, I agree with you, hey, thats why they are our friends. They're the ones we lean on when things get tough and vice versa. However while they can be our biggest cheerleaders 24 x 7, if you're lucky enough to have an on demand "big me up" service at your disposal but in the end they're just providing the stimulus. Its you that needs to listen to it and act on it.
Back in June 2015 I took part in the Sanofi Surrey Classic. A near 100 mile sportive (thats a bike ride to the rest of us). You can see the route here with some statistics my phone recorded.
I'll be the first person to admit that at that particular time I wasn't in a very good place. Sure, I'd done some training with the longest route being about 65 miles. But the day started off in the worst possible fashion where I'd missed my alarm so it was a mad dash to the start and by the time I'd gotten there, the riders literally had just set off. Fortunately the organisers still let me take part. The hectic morning really didn't set me up for that sort of undertaking, but also 10 - 15 miles in, at my first hill climb that's when the voice(s) in my head started to put the mental boot in "You don't belong here Dave", "What do you think you're doing Dave", "This is too much for you". Yeah I'll admit that in another universe I would have jacked it all in right there and then. Conceding defeat to an invisible crowd. They say that pride is one of the seven deadly sins but it was the one that kept me going at that stage. Facing a 100 mile bike ride was too much, but breaking it down into manageable chunks made it attainable. 4 checkpoints 20 miles apart (and the eventual finish line). Which got me this:
So there are times when we do need to get out of our comfort zone. It builds us up when we achieve things we haven't achieved before. I heard someone say "I'd rather my sons aim high and miss than aim low and hit". If you can aim high and hit then great, fantastic job! Go even bigger next time. But if you don't hit, work out why you didn't and you've not failed at all. I just ask that you dont give up at the first possible sign of failure. We all have that something within us that keeps us going be it pride, sheer stubbornness or because you may actually not want to let down those that believe in you even though you may find the faith wavering in yourself
I was looking for a motivational meme for this blog entry and chanced upon this which I think is really suitable. But as much as you are your own competition, you are also your biggest cheerleader also. That voice in your head makes you capable of great things, or just kills the belief in yourself. So the greatest battle you can have is the one that is within you. Yes, you are fighting with yourself, the proverbial angel and demon on opposing shoulders are self believe and damning condemnation respectively. "But wait a minute Dave" i hear you say, "we have friends that tell us encouraging things when we're down / afraid / unsure (delete as appropriate)". Yes, I agree with you, hey, thats why they are our friends. They're the ones we lean on when things get tough and vice versa. However while they can be our biggest cheerleaders 24 x 7, if you're lucky enough to have an on demand "big me up" service at your disposal but in the end they're just providing the stimulus. Its you that needs to listen to it and act on it.
I'll be the first person to admit that at that particular time I wasn't in a very good place. Sure, I'd done some training with the longest route being about 65 miles. But the day started off in the worst possible fashion where I'd missed my alarm so it was a mad dash to the start and by the time I'd gotten there, the riders literally had just set off. Fortunately the organisers still let me take part. The hectic morning really didn't set me up for that sort of undertaking, but also 10 - 15 miles in, at my first hill climb that's when the voice(s) in my head started to put the mental boot in "You don't belong here Dave", "What do you think you're doing Dave", "This is too much for you". Yeah I'll admit that in another universe I would have jacked it all in right there and then. Conceding defeat to an invisible crowd. They say that pride is one of the seven deadly sins but it was the one that kept me going at that stage. Facing a 100 mile bike ride was too much, but breaking it down into manageable chunks made it attainable. 4 checkpoints 20 miles apart (and the eventual finish line). Which got me this:
So there are times when we do need to get out of our comfort zone. It builds us up when we achieve things we haven't achieved before. I heard someone say "I'd rather my sons aim high and miss than aim low and hit". If you can aim high and hit then great, fantastic job! Go even bigger next time. But if you don't hit, work out why you didn't and you've not failed at all. I just ask that you dont give up at the first possible sign of failure. We all have that something within us that keeps us going be it pride, sheer stubbornness or because you may actually not want to let down those that believe in you even though you may find the faith wavering in yourself
We sometimes do find ourselves looking for small victories when we've had too many defeats because we've aimed too high and you know what, that's OK too from time to time, but don't stagnate there because you're not testing yourself, you're not pushing yourself. We need to fail sometimes so we can better ourselves so we can succeed later on. Failure in my opinion is something that we all need to experience on varying levels because it teaches resolve, problem solving and to quote the ole adage "its character building".
My next challenge is in April when I have the charity snowboarding session at the snowcentre. It'll be a hard slog but I know I'll get it done, because I've done it before. After that is the one I'm nervous about, the Prudential RideLondon 100 miles, at the end of July. Yes I've done the distance before but its been over 3 years since I actually got on my road bike so I'm a little nervous about it.
"To an ant, a molehill is an absolute mountain but we look down on it because its beneath us" - Dave Bage, 2018
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