Breathe and enjoy the Now.Saturday, November 17, 2007
A few good chickens
Posted in appreciation of the friends whom I can always laugh with ...
And one more specially for Michelle ...
Sunday, November 04, 2007
What am I playing for?
The most valuable lessons in life come through opening yourself to experiences that teach you about living, loving, coping, and pursuing your dreams. Sport is one endeavour that provides this opportunity. Athletes who take the mental game seriously leave their sport carrying with them what is ultimately most important of all: skills for living a higher quality of life.
Many people have asked me what I am playing for. Why bother doing what I am doing?
I have asked myself the same questions. Many times …
We want not only to live but to have something to live for. For me, this means to pursue excellence through sport.
I had been tossing thoughts in my head for sometime and when I finally felt ready to put them down on paper, I happened to dig out “In Pursuit of Excellence: How to win in Sport and Life through Mental Training” by Terry Orlick, PhD from one corner of my bookshelf. He has very clearly articulated most of what I intend to express. So taking the easier option, enjoy his Chapter 1: Personal Meaning …
Exploring Our Limits
My personal experiences as a competitive athlete have been rich ones, bringing memorable highs that remain with me. Some involved achieving personal goals; others involved close human relationships; still others involved the sheer joy of being absorbed in the experience. I reached one of my achievement highs when I first did a quadruple twisting back somersault on the trampoline. Some people were impressed. Others might say, “So what? Who cares if you can spin your body in the air four times before landing? What difference does it make?”
It may not make any difference to anyone else, but it made a difference to me. It felt great to accomplish something that required a commitment to extending my personal limits. Over a period of about 8 years, it began to happen bit by bit … half twist … full … double … triple … three and a half … three and three quarters … quadruple! I remember an excitement rushing through my body … a satisfaction at having explored my potential in one small, seemingly meaningless but personally meaningful, area of existence. I had stretched my personal limits.
The desire to do your personal best, to excel, to attain the highest standards of performance, to be supreme in your chosen field is a worthy human ambition, which can lead to increasingly high standards, personal growth, and personal meaning. If none of us were concerned with the quality of our contributions, our work, our creations, products, our services, our society would make a marked turn for the worse. Yet high levels of achievement and the pursuit of excellence in any field do not come easily. The trail is hard and steep. There are numerous obstacles to overcome and barriers to push aside. Becoming a highly skilled person in any field – sport, art, medicine, science, writing, teaching, or parenting – demands commitment and sacrifice.
The greatest barriers in our pursuit of excellence are psychological barriers that we impose upon ourselves, sometimes unknowingly. My failure to even attempt a quintuple somersault is a good example. Somehow I had come to believe that it was impossible. Perhaps it was like the 4-minutes mile. At one time that too was viewed as an impossible barrier … until it was broken by one man … and then almost immediately by a host of others. It wasn’t the physical makeup of the runners that changed; it was their belief in what was possible. As your beliefs about limits change, the limits themselves change.
While traveling through Southeast Asia I had the opportunity to see barefoot men walking across hot beds of coal. Those glowing embers generated incredible heat, yet the walkers emerged unblistered and unscarred. Is this unbelievable feat within the capacity of normal human beings? How many of us will ever call upon this capacity? How many of us even believe that it is possible? Therein lie our limits. The firewalkers are made of the same flesh and blood as you and I; it is their belief that is different. Therein lies their strength. Belief gives birth to reality.
Exploring Ourselves
Since I retired from active competition, my personal sport-related highs have come primarily through outdoor experiences … running, canoeing, cross-country skiing. I have never formally trained or competed in these activities, yet they offer an abundance of meaningful experiences.
One winter night, the sky was clear, the moon was full, the night air crisp. The snow sparkled like dancing crystals under the moonlight. It was a majestic evening as we set out to ski up the mountain trail to a small log chalet nestled among the tress. At the chalet we made a fire, had some wine and a bit of stew, and joked a little, then we headed back down the mountain. As I skied down I became one with the mountain, not knowing where it ended and where I started. I was so close to it, hugging it and feeling it hug me, as I flowed along that narrow snow-packed trail. I moved into shadows and out of shadows as the moonlight darted through the trees. I was totally absorbed in the experience. It was novel, challenging, sensual, fun, exciting, physically demanding – a meaningful trip with nature … a peak experience, the kind that makes it great to be alive.
Sports provides ample opportunity to free ourselves for short periods to enjoy pleasure and excitement not readily available elsewhere in society. In sport we can live out our quest for excitement, personal control, or risk by deliberately accepting challenges that we then attempt to meet. We like to feel competent and capable of directing our own lives; this is one of the reasons that we seek out challenges both within and outside of sport. Great satisfaction comes from the actual experience of becoming competent and feeling in control.
The continual process of seeking out and meeting challenges that are within our capacity (not too easy but not totally out of reach either) is the heart of human motivation. People are looking for “delicious uncertainty”, challenges that present a difficulty but that also are potentially within control. What is delicious for me may not be for you. We each seek our own level.
As a white-water canoeist I discovered that the challenge of running a river is not a conflict between human and nature, it is a melding together of the two. You do not conquer the river, you experience it. The calculated risk, the momentary sense of meaning, and the intensity of the experience let you emerge exhilarated and somehow better. It is a quest for self-fulfillment rather than a quest for victory over others or over the river. Many sports can be viewed in the same way. Each experience or exploration can lead to enlightenment and discovery. There is no way to fail to experience the experience, and experiencing becomes the goal. The experience may lead to improved performance, self-discovery, personal satisfaction, and greater awareness, or it may simply be interesting in its own right.
This became clear while I paddled down the legendary South Nahanni River in the Canadian Northwest Territories. No one else can ever totally understand what that river meant to me. So it is with the river of sport and life. No two people perceive things in the same way, even at the same instant. Each view is unique, each experience separate, each course different and irreplaceable … and so it should be.
Answering life’s challenges in our own way is what provides personal meaning to each of us. A failure to respond to those challenges leads to hopeless abandonment in the prime of life. In many prisoner-of-war camps, those who lacked the awareness of a meaning worth living for abandoned their will to live and curled up and died. Those who knew that a task or purpose awaited them survived the most incredible horrors and hardships. Suffering ceased to be suffering the moment it found meaning. Viktor Frankl (1968), a young doctor who survived the horrors of imprisonment in a death camp, discovered through his experience that “striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man”. It literally made the difference between life and death.
Although meaning for each of us is unique and subject to change, it seems to flow most readily when we are striving toward some goal that we find worthy or feel is worthy of us. We can experience meaning by committing ourselves to certain goals, ideals, or values; by experiencing someone or something of value to us, by creating something; by choosing to do something for others, with others, or by ourselves that we deem worthwhile. Sports is a wonderful medium for providing a sense of purpose and a sense of continuous challenge, as well as a range of intensity and emotion that is difficult to experience elsewhere. It can be a rich and meaningful encounter if we approach it on our own terms. There are few contexts where we have such close contact with other people, with nature, and with ourselves as we have in sport. Sport offers numerous opportunities for personal growth and for stretching the limits of human potential, both physically and psychologically.
Personal excellence is a contest with yourself to draw on the natural reserves within your own mind and body, to develop capabilities to the utmost. The true challenge lies in personal growth, enjoying the pursuit of your goals and in living the various areas of your life.
Each of us begins at a different departure point, mentally, physically, and with respect to the support we are given. Make the best of the talents you’ve been given and the situations you face – no matter how limited or unlimited they may be. Your quest for personal excellence requires making the most of what you have – whatever that may be.
It may not make any difference to anyone else, but it made a difference to me. It felt great to accomplish something that required a commitment to extending my personal limits. Over a period of about 8 years, it began to happen bit by bit … half twist … full … double … triple … three and a half … three and three quarters … quadruple! I remember an excitement rushing through my body … a satisfaction at having explored my potential in one small, seemingly meaningless but personally meaningful, area of existence. I had stretched my personal limits.
The desire to do your personal best, to excel, to attain the highest standards of performance, to be supreme in your chosen field is a worthy human ambition, which can lead to increasingly high standards, personal growth, and personal meaning. If none of us were concerned with the quality of our contributions, our work, our creations, products, our services, our society would make a marked turn for the worse. Yet high levels of achievement and the pursuit of excellence in any field do not come easily. The trail is hard and steep. There are numerous obstacles to overcome and barriers to push aside. Becoming a highly skilled person in any field – sport, art, medicine, science, writing, teaching, or parenting – demands commitment and sacrifice.
The greatest barriers in our pursuit of excellence are psychological barriers that we impose upon ourselves, sometimes unknowingly. My failure to even attempt a quintuple somersault is a good example. Somehow I had come to believe that it was impossible. Perhaps it was like the 4-minutes mile. At one time that too was viewed as an impossible barrier … until it was broken by one man … and then almost immediately by a host of others. It wasn’t the physical makeup of the runners that changed; it was their belief in what was possible. As your beliefs about limits change, the limits themselves change.
While traveling through Southeast Asia I had the opportunity to see barefoot men walking across hot beds of coal. Those glowing embers generated incredible heat, yet the walkers emerged unblistered and unscarred. Is this unbelievable feat within the capacity of normal human beings? How many of us will ever call upon this capacity? How many of us even believe that it is possible? Therein lie our limits. The firewalkers are made of the same flesh and blood as you and I; it is their belief that is different. Therein lies their strength. Belief gives birth to reality.
Exploring Ourselves
Since I retired from active competition, my personal sport-related highs have come primarily through outdoor experiences … running, canoeing, cross-country skiing. I have never formally trained or competed in these activities, yet they offer an abundance of meaningful experiences.
One winter night, the sky was clear, the moon was full, the night air crisp. The snow sparkled like dancing crystals under the moonlight. It was a majestic evening as we set out to ski up the mountain trail to a small log chalet nestled among the tress. At the chalet we made a fire, had some wine and a bit of stew, and joked a little, then we headed back down the mountain. As I skied down I became one with the mountain, not knowing where it ended and where I started. I was so close to it, hugging it and feeling it hug me, as I flowed along that narrow snow-packed trail. I moved into shadows and out of shadows as the moonlight darted through the trees. I was totally absorbed in the experience. It was novel, challenging, sensual, fun, exciting, physically demanding – a meaningful trip with nature … a peak experience, the kind that makes it great to be alive.
Sports provides ample opportunity to free ourselves for short periods to enjoy pleasure and excitement not readily available elsewhere in society. In sport we can live out our quest for excitement, personal control, or risk by deliberately accepting challenges that we then attempt to meet. We like to feel competent and capable of directing our own lives; this is one of the reasons that we seek out challenges both within and outside of sport. Great satisfaction comes from the actual experience of becoming competent and feeling in control.
The continual process of seeking out and meeting challenges that are within our capacity (not too easy but not totally out of reach either) is the heart of human motivation. People are looking for “delicious uncertainty”, challenges that present a difficulty but that also are potentially within control. What is delicious for me may not be for you. We each seek our own level.
As a white-water canoeist I discovered that the challenge of running a river is not a conflict between human and nature, it is a melding together of the two. You do not conquer the river, you experience it. The calculated risk, the momentary sense of meaning, and the intensity of the experience let you emerge exhilarated and somehow better. It is a quest for self-fulfillment rather than a quest for victory over others or over the river. Many sports can be viewed in the same way. Each experience or exploration can lead to enlightenment and discovery. There is no way to fail to experience the experience, and experiencing becomes the goal. The experience may lead to improved performance, self-discovery, personal satisfaction, and greater awareness, or it may simply be interesting in its own right.
This became clear while I paddled down the legendary South Nahanni River in the Canadian Northwest Territories. No one else can ever totally understand what that river meant to me. So it is with the river of sport and life. No two people perceive things in the same way, even at the same instant. Each view is unique, each experience separate, each course different and irreplaceable … and so it should be.
Answering life’s challenges in our own way is what provides personal meaning to each of us. A failure to respond to those challenges leads to hopeless abandonment in the prime of life. In many prisoner-of-war camps, those who lacked the awareness of a meaning worth living for abandoned their will to live and curled up and died. Those who knew that a task or purpose awaited them survived the most incredible horrors and hardships. Suffering ceased to be suffering the moment it found meaning. Viktor Frankl (1968), a young doctor who survived the horrors of imprisonment in a death camp, discovered through his experience that “striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man”. It literally made the difference between life and death.
Although meaning for each of us is unique and subject to change, it seems to flow most readily when we are striving toward some goal that we find worthy or feel is worthy of us. We can experience meaning by committing ourselves to certain goals, ideals, or values; by experiencing someone or something of value to us, by creating something; by choosing to do something for others, with others, or by ourselves that we deem worthwhile. Sports is a wonderful medium for providing a sense of purpose and a sense of continuous challenge, as well as a range of intensity and emotion that is difficult to experience elsewhere. It can be a rich and meaningful encounter if we approach it on our own terms. There are few contexts where we have such close contact with other people, with nature, and with ourselves as we have in sport. Sport offers numerous opportunities for personal growth and for stretching the limits of human potential, both physically and psychologically.
Personal excellence is a contest with yourself to draw on the natural reserves within your own mind and body, to develop capabilities to the utmost. The true challenge lies in personal growth, enjoying the pursuit of your goals and in living the various areas of your life.
Each of us begins at a different departure point, mentally, physically, and with respect to the support we are given. Make the best of the talents you’ve been given and the situations you face – no matter how limited or unlimited they may be. Your quest for personal excellence requires making the most of what you have – whatever that may be.
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