I get knocked down, I get up again.....

I've been reading about different athletes and the trials in life they have faced, trying to glean a little kernel of their secret to success. The desire to succeed, the long training, the focus and strict nutrition, I already knew all that.  And then it hit me.

They are RESILIENT.  A big word to use ( so you sound more intelligent) but it means...

If something goes wrong or they fail, they pick themselves up and go at it again. They don't give up.   If they get a 'No' they don't crumble and give up, they search for the way that leads to 'yes'.  They have the courage to come back.

I wonder how the Australian swim team felt when they didn't live up to their own and Australia's expectation? I know I'd feel pretty damn gutted. They failed.  But the team took the time to sit and look back on where they went wrong, what they could improve or how best to boost their chances of success in the future.  They could have just given up.....and been losers for ever.  Or they can be resilient, and get back into it and possibly change the future for themselves

 When that brick wall of failure comes looming up, stopping me from doing  or achieving what I was wanting to do, I have a couple of choices. 

I can sit and sook about it.  I can stamp and rage and scream " IT'S NOT FAIR" like a 2 year old.  Or I can figure out how to either demolish the wall or get around it.

Mistakes are what we learn by. Doing weights, I've been tinkering with my nutrition, trying to get the right amount of calories for muscle growth and not fat growth. Some weeks I've nailed it, some weeks I'm lost up the creek without a paddle OR a map. When I see a weight gain higher than I thought as opposed to the small gains I have been planning for, I could panic, shriek "I've been SO GOOD What's the point???" and self medicate with a family bag of maltesers...after all I've already gained weight, haven't I? I'll just stop exercising too since it clearly isn't working and now because I'm miserable, I'll just add my maltesers to this tub of icecream and watch Biggest Loser re runs. ( Dramatic response I know, but I refer you to my post on catastrophic thinking)

OR....

I could go back through my food diary.  See what I have been doing.  Find out I haven't been drinking enough water and eating a little more than I realised to compensate.. Make a plan and take steps to fix that....and continue on my way, healthy, calm and happy.

One way...is the way of resilience, the way of bouncing back when things don't go the way I want.

The other.....is way to defeatism. True failure.  Because when I stop trying and give up, only then do I fail.

 
 I'm getting back up and back in the saddle. Because I REFUSE to be a failure. I REFUSE to give up. I REFUSE to settle for what I have now. I'm not done yet.