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How many times have we become impatient because we haven’t received our food fast enough, or the cars around us do not have the same sense of urgency that we have to get to where we want to go? Or perhaps we are waiting in line at the grocery store behind an older person who is counting out exact change at the register?
We have become a society of instant gratification.
We expect things NOW and have lost the idea that good things happen in time - through hard work, perseverance, blood, sweat, and tears.
That same impatience is also often experienced in sports when we haven’t yet achieved a version of success that we deem we should have.
Why do we believe we are entitled to eat the fruit if we haven’t yet given the seed the opportunity to grow?
The seed, (in this case a goal or vision) needs time to mature. It needs to be nurtured, it needs to be watered, it needs to be given a finite amount of time to sprout, develop and bear fruit. Then, and only then, can we enjoy the sweet taste from the harvest.
That means waking up each day thinking about that goal or vision but then setting out to take action and execute all the small things that are required to nurture that dream and develop it from being an idea in our mind to becoming reality.
We do this by creating habits and routines that align with our goal. The same way the farmer nurtures the seed, we must prepare our minds and bodies for competition. We need to eat the right foods, train our bodies for strength and endurance, and feed our mind with positive self-talk and affirmations that allow us to embrace the calm space between stimulus and reaction.
Makes sense, right?
I mean… you wouldn’t go to the gym once, workout for 30 minutes and expect to leave in shape, would you?
Or eat a few vegetables at one meal and then look in the mirror expecting to be thin?
Or read a book on molecular science and expect to be a scientist. If you put it that way it sounds ridiculous, right?
So why do we give up on our dreams and goals as athletes, or get discouraged when others pass us by when we haven’t properly prepared or nurtured our own develop to allow ourselves the opportunity to succeed?
Is it because we are impatient?
Or is it because we haven’t properly aligned our thoughts, words and actions with those goals and visions?
If you are just focused on the fruit (or the goal) …. you are sacrificing the most important experience… the journey!
Embrace the journey and cherish the experiences… if you do, you will be tasting the victory of many different fruits along the way!