Monday Motivation: Dealing with Flat Tires on the Path to Success

You know what sucks? When you plan and prepare and train for something for a long time, only to have an annoying quirk of fate throw you completely off track. When that happens, you have two options. I learned all about that just a few days ago…

This past weekend, my girlfriend ran a triathlon. For those who don’t know, a triathlon is a sporting event that people who enjoy self-torture like to do. This was a “Sprint Level” which means that it was a short version (the word “Sprint” implying that people should “sprint” through it or something. Are they crazy, or just bionic?).

By “short,” I mean it was made up of an 880 yard swim, a 15 mile bike ride, and a 5K run Yes, I am aware that those are three different units of measurement. Why do they do that? I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it’s to keep the triathletes confused enough to never say, “hey, we could just use a car and a boat and do this in a fraction of the time.”

I mock the triathlon, but in truth, I have wanted to do one for a while. So when my girlfriend came to me and said, “I want to do this triathlon, do you want to do it with me?” I off course said, “Not this year” and went back to drinking my beer. (Clearly, I need to revisit my own lessons about saying “Yes, And,” which you can read about here and here, listen to an audio here, and watch videos here and here.)

Part the First: Training

Ignoring my laziness, my girlfriend signed up and started training. For three months she trained like a madwoman. Seriously, there was like a “Jekyll and Hyde” thing going on. She never worked out all that regularly before, but once the triathlon training got under way she became an addict. She never missed a day, and we started scheduling things around her workouts. She even started do additional workouts on her own – and on her “rest” days. Crazy…

Part the Second: The Event

The day of the event came and she took off into the water to get started. Once everyone started swimming, I lost track of her. I also somehow missed her as she started the bike portion, so I had no idea where she was. But I kept watch, knowing that the bike course would loop back so I would have to see her eventually.

Time passed. Then more time passed. Then more. And still no sign of her.

I started to get a little worried. Was everything ok? Was she just moving really slowly? Did she get injured? Did she get a cramp during the swim and drown?!? (This was one of her worries going into the event, and now it was transferring to me!)

Part the Third: DING!

Then I saw her approaching. Only…she was walking her bike. Uh-oh…

I didn’t care at all that she was walking the bike; frankly, I was proud and happy that she signed up and did the damn thing. If she needed to walk part of the bike portion, no big deal. But I wasn’t sure why she was walking it. Was she tired, or was she injured?

Then I got a glimpse of her face, and she was visibly distraught. Uh-oh…

I ran up alongside her and asked what happened.

“I got a flat tire,” she responded. “I had to walk my bike for the last four miles!”

To be honest, my initial impulse was to burst out laughing. Not because there was anything funny about the situation. It kind of sucked. But I almost laughed because I was so relieved that she wasn’t injured. Plus, being a humorist, laughing at things is sort of always my first response.

Being a relatively smart man, I knew that a laugh would have been misinterpreted. So I kept it to myself.

Then I felt bad for her. She had trained so hard for so long and had been looking forward to this day for months, and then she had a major DING! Happen.

That sucks.

After taking an extra forty minutes or so than originally planned, she finally walked her bike across the finish line and moved into the transition are to start the run.

Part the Fourth: The Lesson

As I watched her run off onto the 5K course, I thought to myself, “Wow, I am even prouder of her now than I would have been if she had just finished the triathlon normally.”

When that tire went flat, she had two choices.

1. Walk the bike to the finish and then start the run.
2. Quit

The obvious choice is to keep going. But you know as well as I do that when something like that happens, that little voice starts in your head:

• “This is pointless.”
• “You may as well give up.”
• “You’re not meant to do this anyway.”

And so on and so on.

The voices would only get stronger as you were forced to slowly walk your bike through the hot sun while rider after rider after rider passed you. All this on your very first triathlon ever.

But she sucked it up, kept going, and did whatever she had to in order to finish the bike segment.

As she moved into the transition area to get ready for her run, she smiled and called out, “at least I should have no problem with the run now!”

And that’s what it’s all about.

Part the Fifth: YOU

When things go haywire for you, when things get off track, when setbacks occur, you have two options too:

1. Do whatever it takes to keep going
2. Quit

It’s sooooo tempting to just throw in the towel when things start to go wrong. But those are the moments that separate the people who succeed in life, the ones who get to enjoy what they truly want and deserve, from those who keep settling for less and less and ultimately look back and say, “I could have done so much more.”

The next time Ding Happens to you, I hope you remember the simple lesson from my girlfriend’s triathlon and handle it the same way:

Grit your teeth, make a joke, and keep going.

P.S. The next day, we got the official results. Because of the huge setback due to the flat tire, she finished in last place for her heat. And I still couldn’t be prouder…

***
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By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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