I think a lot of times in life you can find yourself constantly struggling to overcome, breakthrough, or tear down all the obstacles that face you on a daily basis. The more I observe people who are successful in training, racing, work, and life are the people who don't have that "win at all costs" personality. There is something to be said about good healthy competition and how it forces you to strive to achieve a level within yourself that you never believed was possible but the more I watch and learn from those who accomplish their goals the more I realize how much they behave like the water.
It's a bit complicated to explain but imagine you are a stone at the top of a mountain, you are strong, solid, unyielding, and are willing to break anything in your path to get to your goal. Now lets say your goal is to get to the bottom of the mountain, you start rolling and you are crushing everything in your path; smaller rocks and stones, trees, roots, branches, streams whatever is in your way you can get through. However eventually you hit a stone even larger than you are and it stops you dead in your tracks. You fight and hammer and pound against the solid stone but it's useless there is no force great enough that you can create to get through this wall. Now imagine you are a stream of water and your goal is to get to the bottom of the mountain, you move and snake through the same trees, rocks, stones, and even other streams. When you get to the stone you follow the edge until you find the easiest way around it and eventually find your way to the bottom of the mountain.
The people that I find that are successful in what they do are not the type of people who bully, push, and force they're way to success. They are the type of people who are the most adaptable and fluid in their actions and behaviors. I admit that I am a bit of a fan of Ultimate fighting and when I see a fighter that is extremely strong and powerful and forces his way through everyone in front of him it is extremely impressive! However eventually those fighters will meet someone who is even more powerful, more strong, and more capable then they are. When that happens they fold and their confidence is lost. It's the fighters that move like the water, the one's that are difficult to hit and absorb any punches and kicks that are thrown at them that are successful. They understand that the fight is not about overpowering your opponent it's about doing damage while not getting damaged.
I look at a long term training plan in the same way, when I first started training for triathlon I had the mindset that more training, more intensity, and more racing was going to make me faster, stronger and allow me to become better. At first it worked and I started to think that this is the key! But I had to be willing to change my approach as my fitness changed and at first I was resistant to it. I just thought if I do more of X I'll get the result Y, but the body doesn't behave like that. The body breaks down and time and recovery are what help it become a better engine. Slowly I started to realize that over the weeks, months and years of training I was training my body and mind to take on massive training sessions but eventually I will hit a stone bigger than I was and I had to be willing to change what I was doing to still be successful. I have to thank Amber for helping me realize that the key to longevity in our sport is not having the ability to do more but to be able to adapt and change what you are doing and to fully recover. She's helped me enormously in the aspect of nutrition, the one area I am weak on, and it's equated to better training sessions and quicker recovery.
Everyone has their challenges in life and my advice to you is to simply face the challenge like the water, the more you absorb, adapt, change, and move with it, the more successful you'll be.
