The Road To Perfection Isn't Perfect
It's ok to want to quit, just don't actually do it!
My figure tip of the month is a very sobering one. I have been competing for eheeeeem 19 years now. I say this not to impress you. (but you are impressed right?) but to impress upon you the point that I, just like you am not perfect. Sometimes the road to competition is smooth and easy and sometimes the road is disastrous, and full of upheaval. I have in the course of my training experienced the good the bad and the super ugly. Sometimes the ugliest end up being the most successful not just in the score card that is only one measure of success, but in personal growth and fulfillment.
I always teach to my clients to make the journey easy. To train and diet stress free, to take it easy and not put yourself in a pressure filled state of mind. The reality is, what I am dealing with, not only with them, but in myself as well when I get ready for a show, is that fact that in 12, 8, 6 or 2 weeks we will be on stage in a bikini doing quarter turns with people who are dissecting every muscle and hair follicle... and remember it is because we are asking them to.
Those of you who are superstitious may think the less challenges you have and the more "in flow" you are that means the journey will be easy and you will "win" your show. Some of you have the opposite belief, the more you struggle and suffer that means you will "win" your show. The truth of the matter is the person with the best body according to a panel of judges on a specific day will be the person who "wins". but what is winning really?
In my experience winning is finishing the game. Many people think now that I am a "Pro" that I am somehow elevated on to another level. This has been something that I have struggled with training for my first show of 2008. In fact I think I have more people helping me now than I ever have. There are days I want to quit, there are days other pro's want to quit, and I am sure there are days that you want to quit. In fact I think I have had more days this year that I want to quit than I ever have. Does that mean I am going to come in less conditioned, not as good, out of shape etc.... of course not, you will see me on the day of the show, in all my makeup and glory, easily and effortlessly strutting my stuff onstage and marveling at how did I do it and how did I get there. In fact think about this, when you get onstage at your next show, there will be people in the audience thinking the same thing about you.
My point being we can all pretend that things are going well, that things are easy, sometimes they are. But when they are not we need to pull as many resources together as we can. We need to get our shit together and do it no matter what it takes, the underlying principle being simply this... Believe in yourself!!!!!! Do not quit! It is ok to want to quit, to lay your head down and sometimes cry, then you wipe your face off and go do some cardio. That is the way of a champion. Anyone can train when they feel like it. A true champion trains and sticks to their diet, when sometimes they cannot even see the light of day, knowing that at some point, it will all work out in the end.
So grab your closest friends you can confide in, your water bottle, and push on soldier. Finish what you started, that is what champions are made of!
