Champion thinking...

I’m going to sound a little oxymoronic here, in that I’m going negative on negativity.

I realized something about the profound “illness” of negative thought in last couple of days. Listening to a couple of folks gripe about everything and have little to say that was positive about life, it seemed like I was watching George Costanza on Seinfeld…

Often I think I’m missing the boat. I have never been much of a complainer, and I try to catch myself before I get too into a “negative” state in any conversation. Don’t get me wrong, I still get there, and I am not on a constant supply of happy, rose-coloured pills that keep me in a haze of perpetual sunshine… I have my ups and downs like lots of people.

But I also just decided a long time ago that staying in the downs really didn’t do anything for me. Having a pessimistic view of life and people really just makes me feel miserable inside, and thus I become miserable myself.

Negativity is an illness… Why do I say this? Because it spreads to others if they don’t take action to fight it. It’s a habit… Positivity is a habit too… Two people can look at the same experience and have two totally different reactions – one sees it as terrible, the other sees it as opportunity.

I am vigilant against allowing negative “vibes” to permeate in my life. I try to listen, and be understanding, and such, but I try very hard not to get swept up in the moment and find myself feeling hopeless about something. When it’s really bad, I try to dig even deeper and find something I can take that is good.

Why the vigilanti-ism? Because it saps my energy. Someone’s negativity has the power to bring me down with it, and I have to guard against that as much as possible. Now that I’m training for Ironman and trying to be a competitive athlete (competitive being with myself), I can’t spend my energy focused on the ills and wrongs of life. If I believe it’s hopeless, then why bother? I need to remain positive and hopeful in order to feel like there is purpose and meaning to what I do.

And the bottom line is that constant negativity is just not attractive. It just makes someone less desirable to be around, and takes away a person’s beauty. I believe every person has a beauty to reveal, and negative attitudes just mask that. I’ve known many a very attractive woman who just lost it with her negative view. It’s plain unattractive and tends to manifest itself in being negative to the other person (i.e. me).

In Ironman, or any big goal with a lot of obstacles to overcome, you simply can’t be negative and be successful. I don’t think so, at least. You have to believe in yourself. You have to be positive. Being positive and evaluating your training from a positive critical eye, you are more likely to want to improve. If you just say “I suck” all the time, then you convince yourself that, well, in fact, you do “suck”.
Lisa Bentley asked the question of us this weekend: “If all of this was taken away tomorrow, how would you feel then? If you couldn’t run, bike, or swim? If you didn’t have your family?”

“How many people would love to be in your shoes?”

“How many cancer kids would love to live to be 20 years old, while you worry about turning 45/50/55/70 and how your run splits are getting slower?”

Yeah, it’s all perspective. There are plenty of reasons for pessimism in this world, and I just choose to be unaffected by those reasons, and try instead to find ways to make change where I can. I can’t fix the whole world but I can do something small that will make it better, and that’s what I do. And I am happy about my small contribution. I know if I raise $2,500 I pay for one kid to attend a camp for cancer-afflicted children for a summer. Do I make a difference? For one kid I do. I am not curing the illness, but for one summer I’m letting a kid be a kid. If I raise $5,000 I help two kids. THAT’s what life is about, having moments and having happiness.

I am addicted to the show “Extreme Home Makeover”… It’s my little guilty pleasure. In this show a team of Disney-raised contractors (they’re all bubbly) help out a family in need by rebuilding their home. It’s so simple, but if you see the joy in a family that has lost everything in a hurricane, or fire, or whatever, you realize how important it is to help people one at a time.

“It probably won’t work”, “Nothing I do makes a difference”, “It’s hopeless”, are just not worth my time… I’m becoming blind to “reality check” repercussions, because they don’t really do much to serve me. Maybe I sometimes am in my own world, my world that can’t hear why things “won’t work”… I just try to keep my thoughts on what I want to happen or what I feel can happen.

This all relates to Ironman. Things are not always great, but I don’t want to be defeated by what’s wrong. Flat tires, crashes, etc. are part of Ironman, and somebody can throw tacks on the road and create a pretty tense situation. But, you know what? I’m not going to let tacks on the road ruin 12 months of training, $10,000 of money I’ve spent, and my dream. I’m not going to let a $7 tire ruin my day. We found out that Steve King won’t be doing the race announcing at Ironman this year… I love Steve King and hearing his voice at Ironman is a definite highlight. But it’s a highlight because of everything you have to do to get there. And the fact that he’s not going to be announcing my name at the finish is not going to affect my race day in the slightest. Why? Because why should I let it? Why should my experience be even the slightest bit affected negatively, all my training, all the effort I’ve put in, because of that?

And, from what I hear anyway, he’ll be at the top of Richter’s or somewhere doing his own thing. Might that even be better? Having him there when we need that voice the most? Just a thought…

If I’m wrong someday, so be it…

I race because of how it makes me feel and because of the joy I get in preparing and training. I have learned through this year that the tough parts are even more special, because they force me to be even better… Anybody can feel good when the going’s good, but it takes a true champion to be good when it’s tough out there.

Yes, I’m Pollyanna in ways, aloof in others, and disinterested in surrounding myself with pessimism. That’s why I hang out with many of the triathlete’s. They see possibility, they talk like we’re all about to go to the Olympics… It’s special. And, at the end of the day, our names are remembered by a few, memorialized in a race result, and forgotten by many.

No matter what happens, it’s important to realize that I (and we) have so much going for us, and so much to be grateful and proud of in ourselves. I even have a list I made. I’m not being egotistical, but I figure since most of us spend our time telling ourselves how bad things are, I’d do the opposite and say how good I am. Don’t worry, I won’t share the list (that might be egotistical). But I will use it before every big thing I do, as a reminder that, no matter what, at the end of the day, all the things I am proud of the most about myself will still exist and won’t change, regardless of my bike split…

“Nobody can be YOU as efficiently AS you.” – Lisa Bentley (Ironman Camp for Ironcops 2006)