A Day in the Athlete’s Life – With Many Forgettable Ones

Striving for Success Entails Learning the Lessons of Sport

Rarely do do-overs occur in sports, perhaps when a game gets rained out before the fifth inning, but that can be good or bad. On the longest hitting streak in my major league baseball career, I singled early in the game for 16 straight, only to have the game wiped out by rain. I don’t have to tell you that was for the bad or the rest of that story.

Three lessons every athlete learns, most sooner than later, and they bring some surprising comfort to me at this stage of marathon training. As often happens in sports, each lesson leads to another.

One, self-doubt comes with the territory and, for most, always appears. I have always had a ton of self-doubt, from little league through college and the major leagues. Confidence was never my thing.  Of course, playing without it is not fun, but the athlete learns to deal with everything. So, I used it as motivation. I turned a lack of self-assuredness into a plus by outworking others and hustling my way to the show.

The second lesson - some days are just not your day. I bring this up because my latest run, the longest of training, was 20 miles, and “it was not my day.” Very disappointing this close to the big day. To make a long story short, I had to walk early and often. It did nothing to lessen the self-doubt that I could go six point two miles beyond that in a couple of weeks.

The third lesson comes from the first two - one must forget the disappointments, deal with them, and move on.

The silver lining is knowing from experience that one’s best can come after self-doubt and bad outings. So, over the next couple of weeks, I will build the mental toughness to be ready on marathon day.

Mental toughness and hope come from:

Using self-doubt to motivate

Understanding one does not always have their A-game

Forgetting the rough outings

Believing in yourself

Knowing tomorrow is a new day

Knowing past results do not dictate the next contest.