Failure is a multifaceted word in this day & age. Generally regarded as a bad thing, failure often defines our situation at a low point – not accomplishing a goal, or not accomplishing a task. However we’re encouraged to exercise to a point of failure in order to build muscle, drawing illustration to ‘learning from our failures’ as they can certainly be education, if nothing else. The question becomes ‘is failure bad?‘ more than it is ‘have I failed?‘
Being the self-deprecating mammals that we are, we tend to more efficiently assign the label “failure” to our ourselves – to our own souls – while defending our questionable decision-making to the bitter end.
That being the case – what is the prerequisite for being a failure? How does the number of failed accomplishments are required before we; ourselves, are considered failures? I’m being facetious of course, as the number of personal failings doesn’t factor in at all, especially when you can list a great number of accomplished and upstanding individuals – ALL of which can tell you their misgivings – who are textbook successes – These people include such household names as Michael Jordan, Martha Stewart, and The Beastie Boys.
Failures are lessons; important ones that are learned in the trenches and low points and pave the road for the triumphs of those who see their goals through. One instance I think of frequently these days as I prepare to release another album into the world, is the story of making an album 15 years ago. The Fat Dave Crimewave “This Is Rock & Roll” was (and is) great, and I stand by it. However, it’s the most poorly promoted album I’ve ever released and a lot of hard lessons came out of it. Lessons about planning, leadership, foresight… the songs and band were excellent, and the recording is phenomenal – but our primary goal was to make an amazing record. When it was done, the goals were never reset, so we treaded water for a bit and eventually imploded. Now – It’s also worth noting that we learn from our successes. That same album taught me a lot about writing and recording at a level I’d not previously reached.
This brings to mind the triathlon course we ran last month. If you’ve been following along for a bit then you know that Lu and I recently completed a triathlon course of our own design. It was a goal we had and it was a goal we conquered, but we learned a lot. We learned how we like to train, how to build a training plan and follow it, and how to get definable results. We learned about heartrate training and stamina. We beat our time goals and built our confidence. We learned how to navigate post-event fatigue and recovery, and we learned that we NEED to get back in the game with a new challenge – which has brought on new lessons and research about hydration requirements, calorie replacement, and other required knowledge for long-distance running.
In essence… just go easy on yourself. Relax your mind and take up the task at hand. Beating yourself up isn’t necessary – the road to your personal successes will beat you up bad enough without your mind’s help! Gradual increases are key… whatever you’re doing, you can push for 10% more next week, then 10% more than that the following week. This will keep you on task and help you not to psyche yourself out.
Anything that is humanly possible can be done by you… Eventually.
Speaking of which, training this week has been good. Last Saturday’s run kicked the stuffing out of me. We ran 18.23km which was definitely overly ambitious, and I spent the rest of the day fatigued – In other words, we went to the point of ‘failure’ but we missed ZERO training days as a result, and that alone is a win.
It’s important to remember that there really are no training days – there are training weeks, and if we batter ourselves too hard to work the next day’s program then we’re setting ourselves at a disadvantage.
I’ll be careful with today’s long run, as my band Confusionaires are performing at the Highlandia Festival tonight in the Highlands neighborhood in Edmonton. We’re on at 8:30pm so come on down!
The Conscious Pilgrim 