The Difference
What is it that makes a successful athlete?
What do they have that the average doesn’t?
What is The Difference?
The answer to this question, like most in life, is much simpler than we want it to be.
The difference is that your successful athlete is willing to dig deeper than the competition.
You don’t have to be a world champion or top amateur to have “The Difference.”
Here are some facts of life for the triathlete:
You will be tired.
There will be workouts that you leave gasping for air and your muscles screaming for mercy.
You will be knackered .
There will be days when you fall into bed and are asleep before you hit the pillow.
There will be mornings that you would rather be beaten that get up and head to the pool.
There will be workouts that you loathe.
You have two choices as an athlete:
1. You can be easy on yourself and never go to the pain cave. Skip workouts when you are tired. Skip workouts when you have a minor ache. Sleep in when and just miss a workout because “you aren’t feeling it”. Don’t do the workouts that you don’t like.
2. Suck it up buttercup and do what is necessary to achieve your goals.
The athlete that makes choice 2 above can then go about working on the mental aspects of racing.
The mental abilities required to be a successful athlete:
1. You have to be able to put your ego away and stick to your plan.
2. You have to be able to push through pain.
3. You have to be able to turn off your brain and will your body to continue on.
4. You have to be able to stay focused on your goal.
5. You do have to be willing to put in the work and see it through to the end, day in and day out, week after week,month after month and season after season.
An athlete must accept that training and racing isn’t all sunshine and roses. It is more or less a briar patch that one must climb through and emerge from at the finish line on race day.
Acceptance of what is required will put you well on your way to having what it takes to be successful, having “The Difference”.
It’s all mind over matter
If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter!
