I have heard over and over again that failing is one of the keys to greatness. I didn't do as well as I wanted to today. Yeah I know, I was in the game...did more than those that didn't compete...but let's face it, no one wants to be at the bottom. I am not used to being at the bottom...I've always excelled at everything I've done.
Today I learned that if you are always on top, you're doing something very wrong. There is no point in doing things that we already know we are good at over and over again (other than for enjoyment of course). If we really want to grow, we have to do the things we suck at and we absolutely have to fail. I never understood that more than I do tonight.
If I was at the bottom of 1,000 more competitions, I would probably feel pretty crappy at first, but then I would realize that THIS is where greatness is achieved. Not at the top, but at the bottom. The true test of who we are is whether or not we are willing to show up again after we fail.
I gave some SERIOUS thought to hanging up my Innov-8's and just competing against myself from here on out. No need to feel like this ever again I told myself...but then a special someone helped me realize that the weak are the ones who accept failure and the truly strong are those who show up again and again to fight it. I am choosing to be strong and I am choosing to be at the bottom for as long as it takes.
A familiar and fitting quote:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."- Theodore Roosevelt
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