Looking back on the last two weeks, the first was one of the toughest weeks of sliding I have ever gone through. I prepared all summer for the season and was physically prepared, but my problems came in the form of sled setup and sliding errors. I slid very fast in initial training, but raced very poorly. For a few days I was really down on myself. During the next week I set a plan to fix all of the issues I had in team trials. I systematically attacked each weakness that led to the poor result and by the end of the second week, had one of the most productive sliding weeks of my life. Its only when we are truly challenged at the edge of our limitations that progress is made and sometimes it takes having your face pushed in the mud to realize what needs work.
I observe many results focused individuals in the athletic world that surrounds me. There is a sense of hyper-focus on medals within this community. People attach attach their identity to their results which makes the highs higher and the lows lower. While it is tempting to forget about a poor result, there is a proper response to failure. I have always loved failure. If failure is responded to properly it is yourbest friend. It will teach you more than you would ever learn during success. While results have to be the gauge by which we measure ourselves, I believe there is more to the story. As we head down this road of self improvement, we improve ourselves in ways unseen even to ourselves, and even unrelated to the task at hand. The challenges of today are molding us for a tomorrow we may not fully understand what that picture looks like. In this way the process is more important than the result.
Ill look to continue this process based momentum next week in Lake Placid, before I leave for Intercontinental Cup tour in Europe on Novemeber 21st.
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