Relentless...

The word... "Relentless"...

Hmmmm why do I like that word? At a lecture the other night by Dr. Steve Norris on "How to Parent your Superstar" he talked about the word "relentless". It struck a chord with me. Alpine Canada has it in their motto... "The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence" or something like that. Dr. Norris talked about Steve Nash and what he did when he missed a free throw losing his team a championship game. (I'm not a basketball fan... I don't know the team of the game.) What did Steve Nash do when he came home back to Victoria? He went to the gym at U of Vic upon arriving home after a long flight and threw 500 free throws till the wee hours of the morning. He went home, slept a bit, came back to the gym and threw another 500 free throws. He had lunch, and yup... you guessed it... went back and threw ANOTHER 500 free throws.

His pursuit of excellence was "relentless". Here is a man who is one of the best in the world, and he didn't sit on his accolades and accept the fate of the team. He relentlessly went to work to find the error... where did he go wrong?

We triathletes are not so different really, in our pursuit to be the best we can be. Sometimes our efforts bring us gold, sometimes coal, but we learn from every little experience in the pursuit of excellence.... "our" excellence. I think it's important that we define what "excellence" means to us as well. Is it time, execution, nailing nutrition, pacing the bike well, maintaining a happy face and bright shiny attitude from start to finish, placing in our age group, moving up in our age group, not panicking in the swim, remembering to eat on the bike, celebrating the accomplishments of others when we are disappointed in our own, running the whole run, remembering where our bike is in transition, making it home for our kids birthday party and still getting our training in.... the possibilities are endless.

So... find your own definition of success and remember it will change from race to race, day to day, sometimes moment to moment. Be relentless in your pursuit to accomplish what it is you seek, and be the first to say "I did a GREAT job and I am proud of myself"... then move on to the next check mark. As long as we keep learning, accept failure as a part of the journey to success, and acknowledge that we cannot know everything, we will relentlessly learn and improve. I hope to look at life that way until mine is over.

Something to think about anyway:) Thanks for reading.