When You Don't Turn Up...

Life, like sport, can be cruel and unfair.
C’est la vie.

Sometimes the cruelty can be self-inflicted. Teams, or performers, often think that all they have to do was turn up to succeed. But that’s far from the truth, isn’t it?

We all know that on any given day a level of performance can be anything from poor to spectacularly good. And that is what usually determines the outcome of the event.

Whatever the level of the performance, we have to be there to conduct it. In other words, we have to turn up.

 Many people, dismayed by the possible outcome of failure, avoid the imagined catastrophe by creating, consciously or unconsciously, some vague reason to not turn up. They can then be absolved of what could be seen as a potential  embarrassment.

It’s a bit of a copout, and not recommended as a strategy for self development. While avoiding the pain of defeat or failure, such an action also denies the experience of loss, disappointment, and the knowledge that these feelings are not terminal.

People who do this don’t know what they’re missing.

Performance, at any level, is a day-to-day event. There are many factors which contribute to, or take away from, performance. Because we can’t control all the factors, we need to make sure that we influence as many of them as possible that will help our aims. 

And of course, we have to be there. We have to turn up. 

After that, it’s down to the moment of the day, the state we’re in, and how we use what resources and abilities we have.

But above all other things, we have to be there.

I’m sure that like myself, you’ve all experienced times when you approached an event in apprehension rather than expectation, but once the event started, we became involved in it,  committed, and found ourselves performing way above what we had expected. It works the other way too.

But that’s life.

That’s what living is about, dealing with the doubt, the uncertainty, and in spite of these feelings, digging in and using the courage that put us in that position in the first place.

Then we can learn, and grow, and continue to exploit whatever it is we consider our potential to be.
PS...Half Hour Friday is at 9 am on Friday, 30th. 
We'll do a very quick recap on the previous pieces, and then an exercise in the skill of Practical Meditation
If you'd like the attend, just Write 'RSVP' and hit the 'REPLY' tab to this email.

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