According to the first noble truth of Buddhism, “life involves suffering.” Living in a consumer-driven society, many remedies are offered up: Cars, drugs, holidays, food, and entertainment are just some of the many ways we try to reduce the ’suffering’.
Many lessons lie in experiencing pain and suffering - so perhaps it is worth exploring how we can work through these tough times rather than escape from them.
When it comes to endurance racing, like triathlons, at some point in time, you are going to be in a race and you are going to want to quit. My advice is don’t. You can harden your mental strength and learn a lot along the way.
I never understood how a professional elite athlete can quit a race without good reason (like a crash on the bike or medical condition). But in 2008 when I competed in the China Ironman 70.3 race, it was a blistering hot day of over 35C. Many people did not finish, amateurs and professionals alike. I wonder how much they could have learned about themselves if they had sat down for five minutes, gathered their thoughts and moved on to finish at a slower pace.
That race was the hottest I have ever felt in my life, so the joy of actually finishing was amazing. And importantly, the fact that I got through that race means that other races seems ‘easier’ to complete.
In a recent race, one team-mate dropped out after just 200 meters of the swim race (that in the first minute or two of the race). Given he had been feeling bad with food poisoning leading up to the race, but to get to the start line and drop out so early does not improve his mind game.
How can you better prepare yourself for the challenges ahead? When it comes to getting through a tough spot, you need to set very short-term, small targets. Instead of looking at your annual targets, ask yourself what do I need to do to get through today, tomorrow, this week? In my twenties, I was a partner in a business suffering very tight cash flow, and the only way we got through it was to focus a day at a time on what needed to happen. Every night, we would take a walk to the park and talk through the day and what small steps we had taken to move things forward.
Be ready to push yourself mentally to strengthen yourself for future challenges. Always put your health first, but see how you can stop, regroup and take the next step forward. Take it a step at a time, a day at a time. Enjoy the journey!