Wow, Matt, this one covered so much valuable ground on Clutch, Fear and then—thud—hit me square in the chest as a parent and a pediatrician because despite coaching parents along the same lines you write about so well here (ie, don’t berate kids for failing, praise them for it) I myself still fail at that daily with my own two. So thank you for these writings and inspiration.
Running the Dream made me realize that we all have a chance to dream big if we just decide to do so and do the work—even for me, an ordinary guy at 71 years of age.
To be honest brother I see it from some what similar lense.
Talking about WSER- Roche blew up and called it off at mile 62 along with Riley Brady, Rod Farvard took the DNF decision at mile 90.7, Vincent Bouillard calling it off at 79.8 mile, Tara Dower calling it off at mile 73. Eszter Csillag, Heather Jackson & Mlynarczyk calling it off at mile 55. Peterman running 23:09 for what he run 15:13 back in 2022, her partner Erin Clark passing him on the course and there was some info that he almost walked 45 miles, it is against the ego of an ultra runner especially him being amongst the best. There were almost 90% people who didn't got the result they intended to. I see it from the lense that yeah these people gave it their all in the process overcoming tons of obstacles in their lives be it health wise, financially, balancing family & professional careers as well and got smacked in the face in the race. I am no different from them and putting in work does not bullet proof me from any of the short comings and guarantee me success. I see them & feel happy that these people gave their all and keep thinking what would they be thinking and after that they wrap all their emotions and move forward to their next races and give their all as time neither waits nor stops. All these athletes or be any human is a testimonial that yeah life sucks but just don't stick to that suck. All this is easier said than done and I haven't been able to apply this to my life till date but for the last 4-6 months I have changed the script that goes in my mind. Self serving bias/ self fulfilling stories won't ever help me, be it present or even future.
It is a great post written especially about the sport of ultra running. And title calling Why I like to fail publicly apt as we are the ones who have power & choice to call our shots in every walk of our lives but everyone of us gets smacked by the victim mindset we all have in us and then we keep creating self fulfilling stories just to justify our act. We can't keep the critics off, they will have their presence & when we are putting ourselves into the world in any walk of life just to achieve something that one hasn't done, we should be ready to get boatloads of critics thrown at us. It simply boils downs to Control the Controllables, what we can control is our effort, attitude and energy we are giving to any activity. If we achieve, it is good and if we don't then analyze & learn from it & start putting in the work how to better it next time. I have kept myself in the shell since I have started running June of 2020. For the past 5 years I was too afraid if will blow in the race or if it doesn't go my way and my ITRA score was a mediocre 510. This year I ran a 24 Hour Stadium Run in March in which I covered 175 Kilometres. Then I ran a 19 Kilometre trail race with 1900 metres of elevation gain and got an ITRA score of 620 for that particular race and now my overall score is 613. I didn't even taper for this race as I ran 212 Kilometres in a week leading to race & didn't prepare for this race's specificity, yeah running training was there. Earlier I was too afraid but now I am taking risks and I am not afraid to blow up. Taking risks has to be kept the forefront as if a couple of races don't go my way and i blow up, let it be. I won't care about this in a decade & all the race results are a tiny blip in this continuum of earth's timeline. I am shooting for a 750 ITRA score this year.
Wow, Matt, this one covered so much valuable ground on Clutch, Fear and then—thud—hit me square in the chest as a parent and a pediatrician because despite coaching parents along the same lines you write about so well here (ie, don’t berate kids for failing, praise them for it) I myself still fail at that daily with my own two. So thank you for these writings and inspiration.
I’m glad my essay got you thinking! Writing it got me thinking too.
Running the Dream made me realize that we all have a chance to dream big if we just decide to do so and do the work—even for me, an ordinary guy at 71 years of age.
Thanks for writing that book, Matt.
Well, that makes me feel pretty good!
To be honest brother I see it from some what similar lense.
Talking about WSER- Roche blew up and called it off at mile 62 along with Riley Brady, Rod Farvard took the DNF decision at mile 90.7, Vincent Bouillard calling it off at 79.8 mile, Tara Dower calling it off at mile 73. Eszter Csillag, Heather Jackson & Mlynarczyk calling it off at mile 55. Peterman running 23:09 for what he run 15:13 back in 2022, her partner Erin Clark passing him on the course and there was some info that he almost walked 45 miles, it is against the ego of an ultra runner especially him being amongst the best. There were almost 90% people who didn't got the result they intended to. I see it from the lense that yeah these people gave it their all in the process overcoming tons of obstacles in their lives be it health wise, financially, balancing family & professional careers as well and got smacked in the face in the race. I am no different from them and putting in work does not bullet proof me from any of the short comings and guarantee me success. I see them & feel happy that these people gave their all and keep thinking what would they be thinking and after that they wrap all their emotions and move forward to their next races and give their all as time neither waits nor stops. All these athletes or be any human is a testimonial that yeah life sucks but just don't stick to that suck. All this is easier said than done and I haven't been able to apply this to my life till date but for the last 4-6 months I have changed the script that goes in my mind. Self serving bias/ self fulfilling stories won't ever help me, be it present or even future.
It is a great post written especially about the sport of ultra running. And title calling Why I like to fail publicly apt as we are the ones who have power & choice to call our shots in every walk of our lives but everyone of us gets smacked by the victim mindset we all have in us and then we keep creating self fulfilling stories just to justify our act. We can't keep the critics off, they will have their presence & when we are putting ourselves into the world in any walk of life just to achieve something that one hasn't done, we should be ready to get boatloads of critics thrown at us. It simply boils downs to Control the Controllables, what we can control is our effort, attitude and energy we are giving to any activity. If we achieve, it is good and if we don't then analyze & learn from it & start putting in the work how to better it next time. I have kept myself in the shell since I have started running June of 2020. For the past 5 years I was too afraid if will blow in the race or if it doesn't go my way and my ITRA score was a mediocre 510. This year I ran a 24 Hour Stadium Run in March in which I covered 175 Kilometres. Then I ran a 19 Kilometre trail race with 1900 metres of elevation gain and got an ITRA score of 620 for that particular race and now my overall score is 613. I didn't even taper for this race as I ran 212 Kilometres in a week leading to race & didn't prepare for this race's specificity, yeah running training was there. Earlier I was too afraid but now I am taking risks and I am not afraid to blow up. Taking risks has to be kept the forefront as if a couple of races don't go my way and i blow up, let it be. I won't care about this in a decade & all the race results are a tiny blip in this continuum of earth's timeline. I am shooting for a 750 ITRA score this year.
Failure itself is not necessarily negative; it can be a valuable learning experience and a stepping stone to future success.
„Don‘t fear failure — Not failure, but low aim is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail."
Well said!