Michael Phelps is an insane swimmer. Us mere mortals and weekend warrior athletes, especially myself, can’t even imagine the level of competition & discipline needed to reach this place. He recently released an ad for Under Armour. It’s really good. The tagline at the end is powerful:
It’s what you do in the dark…that puts you in the light.
Sometimes this mindset really works and gives you a sense of what you are doing and how to accomplish it all. This pic of my gym was taken just after 6am one day, still dark with the sun barely starting to show. It was a really pretty morning. It feels great to accomplish that much before the sun even comes up. I do know for sure that what I’m doing in the “dark” of the winter will make me better this summer in the light of the bright, hot, blinding, suffocating NC summer sun. Of course the dark & light reference can mean a lot of things – definitely not just the sun/moon/orbit of time we all share. I’m learning a lot about myself through triathlon. It’s been emotional in a positive but also heavy way.
A short while ago, my tri hero Meredith wrote a blog post that resonated with me in a deep way. She recently lost her grandmother and was (is) grieving. She wrote a post about pain.. a prickly, relate-able, piercing post about emotional pain. I could have written it. Not today, but on other days when it’s really tough to connect the dots and juggle everything that life throws at you. She referenced the demons in her head, and how they fight one another in battles for power and influence. I could feel every bit of angst and ache in that post. I don’t know Meredith (Swim Bike Mom) personally but I feel she could be my spirit animal…we seem to have a lot in common and I can relate to what she’s talking about in almost everything she writes. Her post is below & I think it can be connected to this dark/light idea. How you get through the dark days is just as important as how you celebrate the good ones.
http://www.swimbikemom.com/2016/02/what-hurts.html
Some days Rule Yourself might mean giving yourself a break, or doing an extra workout, or letting the kids fight their own fights without assistance, or putting yourself first, learning something new, walking away, not embracing the conflict, defending yourself or sticking up for yourself… “Rule Yourself” is simplistic in theory but probably much more complex in action. Not everyone can commit 6-8hrs a day to a goal like a pro athlete. But we can all keep that mindset of focusing on what’s important & needed each day with the understanding that it’s always a moving target.
CHANDRA GREEN 