Ding ding ding da da ding ding.

Queen wrote “Under Pressure” with one of the most memorable audio hooks in the biz thanks to Vanilla Ice.  Of course, we all know the vanilla one added a beat, which means it wasn’t plagiarism.  Yea.  Right.

 

Anyway, I think of that hook at times like these when I remind myself that …  deep breath now…  everything will be ok.  I DON’T have to do it all.  There is NOT a single moment upon which all of history rests (even though there likely is a single moment upon which…  calm down…  deep breath…  relax).

 

Sigh.

 

I’m too hard on myself.  I know I hold myself up to an insane standard sometimes.  Like when I failed to finish my first marathon and was SO ridiculously down on myself for months…  because I ONLY ran 16 miles out of 26.2.  I fell short.  Failed.  And those most biting words of all:  not good enough.

 

Deep breath…  calm down…  relax.

 

Easy there, Pancho.

 

Just because failure is not an option does not mean failure to attain a goal is failure.  In fact, the refusal to accept failure as an option is WHY failure to attain a goal is not failure.

 

Huh?

 

Not finishing my first marathon was only a failure if I didn’t get up off the mat and run again.  The failure to attain a goal is only failure if it is the end.  If that rock is fuel for a fire which burns with a higher intensity that before that drives the engine to push farther and faster and better than before, that short term setback is merely a step toward actual completion of the goal.  If failure is fuel for the fire, then it is not failure at all, and the unattained goal is not a failure.  I hate to use “management-speak”, but the fact is that we can either see challenges as impediments or opportunities.  Road blocks are merely tools that allow us to find alternative solutions.

 

Me crapping out at 16 miles made crossing that finish line 12 months later all the more sweet of an accomplishment.  And the finishing medal for the next year was a much nicer medal, too.  I never would have gotten that one had I finished the first marathon.

 

So relax there, Pancho.  No need to be so hard on yourself.  Ease up some.  Learn.  Improve.  Succeed.  And when you finish the race, look forward to that congratulatory pat on the back and the “race well run, good and faithful servant”.

 

Deep breath…  calm down…  relax.