Competition and Motivation – I Am Out There, And I Am Training

I am out there, and I am training.

Do you remember that?

You got it from your soccer coach. When you didn’t want to do drills your coach would tell tell you:

He is out there, and he is doing drills.
He is out there, and he is running sprints.
He is out there, and he is training.

It was supposed to motivate our team, remind us that this was a competition – that it wasn’t about just being good, it was about being better than the rest of them and beating the other teams.

And that it wasn’t just about trying hard – it was about trying harder and pushing yourself, because there are other people out there pushing just as hard and who wanted to win just as badly.

That lesson has really stuck with me.

Many times when I’ve wanted to give up I think about that: how there is SOMEBODY else out there who in the exact same situation would push harder and push through and not give in.

And if they could do it, why not me? And so in my moments of struggle and my moments of near defeat, those moments where I feel like I can’t even take one more step: I block everything else from my mind and carry on.

I am out there. And I am training.

Are you out there? Are you training? Click here now to post this to Twitter or share this on Facebook and tell the world.

This post was originally written in Sid’s private journal, though cleaned up a bit for grammar etc.