Paying the Price

I'm having Winter Olympic withdrawals. I loved watching the games and hate that I have to wait 4 years to see them again. Where will we be in 4 years? Will we have reached our goals? What are we doing to make it happen?

Sandrelle at Keeping Off the Pounds recently posted an article by Dr. Denis Waitley called The Winner's Circle.

The article really hit me hard and made me think about how much effort I am putting in to reach my goals. Is it enough? Am I willing to put in the effort to get the results I want?

Dr. Waitley writes:

Everyone wants to win, but few are willing to invest the time and effort. Paying the price means focusing on developing the skills and training regimen of champions—observation, imitation, repetition and the internalization of knowledge into habits; also, learning why and how to go the extra mile and seeing success as a marathon, not a dash. Champions view failures as temporary inconveniences and learning experiences.

Are you willing to pay the price to go for the gold?

Winter Games

I'm addicted to the winter games. I especially love the alpine skiing, snowboarding, snow cross, speed skating, nordic combined, figure skating, biathlon ... I love it all. I have watched almost all of the competitions except for curling. For some reason I just can't seem to get on board with that "sport" (is sweeping really a sport?) but everything else has me glued to the tv.

I get so impatient listening to all the commentators drone on and on about the same few athletes. I'm not crazy about NBC's coverage because they are too focused on just the American Olympians. I'm proud of my fellow countrymen but the Olympics are about all countries competing not just the USA and Canada. I have been recording the day's events and then watching them back the next day while trudging along on the dreadmill. It definitely takes some of the dread out of it.

I've been thinking of changing the focus of my workouts to training instead of merely exercising to lose weight. I think it's important to have something more than just weight loss to focus on whether it's beating your last time, increasing the amount of weight you can lift, or just getting more balanced and flexible. I need something beside the scale to measure my progress and keep me motivated.

I haven't been skiing or snowboarding in a couple of years but I'm going to dust off my gear and get out on the mountains to play before the season is over. Let's hope Mother Nature pulls through and dumps some snow here in the northeast.

What is your favorite Olympic sport to watch? It's time to get out and play!