Do Your Best When You Focus on the Parts
I knew the result before I asked.
“Were you bib number 48?”
I nodded.
“I’m gutted for you, man! We had to disqualify you.”
The night before the race, as my wife and I were sitting on the balcony of our hotel, eating our boxed up dinner from the little Italian restaurant we had to abruptly leave because our 10-month old son had passed his witching hour, I got a text message from my coach about the race:
“Think three separate events tomorrow. One at a time. Don’t hold back!”
It was simple.
It was to the point.
All I had to do was not hold back.
And, that was exactly what I wanted to accomplish this past weekend when I dragged my little family to the opposite side of Florida for an Olympic-distance triathlon that I had signed up for. I didn’t have a specific race plan. But I did have a goal: regardless of where I was sitting within the race, I wanted to be able to say to myself afterward that I gave my best effort and didn’t let the quit mentality creep into my physical output.
Admittedly, I have a tendency to do that. Hard can get scary. So, when things get hard, it’s easy to cave in and dig through my bag of justifications. You know, those stories that we tell ourselves that make us feel better in the short-term, but deeply corrode our self-confidence because truth lies anywhere but in the bag.
After the gun went off, my coach’s advice popped into my head during each discipline.
Swim: focus on this event and do your best.
Check.
Bike: focus on this event and do your best.
Check.
Run: focus on this event and do your best.
Check.
A successful triathlon isn’t built by doing one thing well. It takes doing well in all three events. Like a triathlon, most things that we set out to do in life are multifaceted. Looking at the whole can be overwhelming. But, the whole can be made manageable by simply focusing on the parts — even when those parts get hard.
Do your best when you focus on the parts and the outcome that really matters will take care of itself.
I won the race this past weekend; however, the race results will never show that.
“I’m gutted for you, man! We had to disqualify you.”
I’d be lying if there wasn’t a twinge of disappointment. My ego would have loved to climb up the steps to the first place podium block with our 10-month old son in my arms so that I could get my award. Yes, I’d love to be able to look back on the results and compare my splits to the other competitors to see the differences in each discipline. And, sure, I’d love the proof to be out there so that others could see that I won the race.
But, in all honesty, I didn’t care too much when the race director told me I was disqualified. I was too proud of myself for the work that I had put in to each part of the whole—the outcome that really matters—to let a silly resulthold too much meaning.
And, maybe that’s all it takes: a simple mindset shift.
Whether we’re first, last, or disqualified, when we focus on doing our best with the process, how can we possibly be disappointed with the resultbecause we have the outcome that actually matters.
The effort that we put forth is something that no one can take away from us.
As my best friend, Anthony, said to me after, “Keep reminding yourself that it’s not about letting other people see how good you are — it’s about checking your fitness level and then going back and making adjustments!!!”
And that’s what it’s about in all areas of our life.
It’s not about the results that other people see.
Who cares what other people think.
Who cares about the validation that may or may not come from other people when we put ourselves — our work — out there.
The outcome that really matters is the validation and feedback that we provide ourselves.
