How to start this article? A tough one to write as it is forcing me to review how I felt recently watching the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games from the sidelines. I did not qualify for them as planned, and instead reflected with a burning fire in my stomach as I watched the others race. “Don’t I deserve to be here?” “What was my missing piece at our trials 5 months earlier?” “Am I on the right track to resolving it?”
Hard but necessary questions to ask when demanding excellence of yourself in anything.
With less than one year until the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, selection trials are underway, and I want to be sure I am campaigning for the Olympics properly. Recently I have been recalling what someone once asked me… “How do you campaign for the Olympics?”
For this, one could give a closet full of answers based on other experiences, books read, or an inspirational quote. But what really is the answer? Will it work for me? In this case, the question was rhetorical as this person was trying to give me advice. Their answer stuck with me. It was clear, asked you to take action, and to me seemed the correct way to achieve many goals in life.
“Put in the hours. Overlook nothing. Dominate the details.”
But don’t all high performance athletes [and many professionals] do that, I asked myself? Yes, and as my sports psychologist would say, all top performing high performance athletes possess the same three qualities:
“Grit. Resilience. Sacrifice.”
So what really separates all of us?
Timing, luck, and other uncontrollable factors can play their role but at the end of the day I am learning that a clear and confident mind matched with learning from your mistakes will win over time.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
– Henry Ford
Burned into me from the sidelines, I have taken my mistakes from our Pan Am Games trials and am using them as fuel for the final push towards Rio 2016.
Yes, I am asking myself to be the best in my craft, and yes, that is a big ask, but it is something I have wanted for a very long time. Others have reminded me that this has the potential to be one of the best years of my life if I do it right, regardless of outcome. I now know that the only way a journey could possibly be a failure is if you did not do enough when given the chance. I am learning from my mistakes and using them as fuel for future success. Life lessons learned on the Road to Rio. Still going for it.
What IF you could?
Claire Merry
Canadian Sailing Team
IF Sponsored Athlete
Innovative Fitness Toronto
Toronto Ritz-Carlton
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