Triathletes are often goal oriented, type A go getters. 2020 has presented a challenging year and while some things are returning to normal others are still on hold. Why train? What are goals in 2020? These questions and many like it are proving to be more difficult to answer than ever before.
Its July, we have made it past the halfway mark. For me personally this is a check point on my mindset from New Year’s 2020. Each new year for the past 4 years, I have participated in choosing a theme word for my year. In the past I have chosen words like commitment and growth. For 2020 I found myself inspired after listening to Simon Whitfield talk back in November. Simon was talking about how he finds motivation and how he tries to inspire motivation as he coaches his kids cross country team. There was some discussion in the group around fun in workouts but Simon said he doesn’t like that. He said no one goes out and does 1K hard repeats for fun, it sucks. He went on to explain that while is not fun, it is satisfying. At the end of that workout, he said you feel good about yourself.
I choose satisfaction for my theme word for 2020. Back in January I wrote about what this means to me. Now in July I re-visit this journal entry. I was surprised and grateful to see how much this word still works in the pandemic. I hope by sharing this theme, you can find satisfaction this season.
Satisfaction is formally defined as the fulfilment of one wishes, needs and dreams. Let’s be honest for 2020 no one got their wishes or dreams fulfilled. BUT as a theme word, it has to apply every day. That is the rule of theme words. Themes aren’t goals for the year that only pay out when done. They need to be in place all the time. So when I step away from the big picture and define satisfaction daily, it works even in 2020. It is the very thing Simon was trying to communicate.
Satisfaction as a theme is the simple joy that comes when we push. It is the mindset that sweat makes you sparkle, it’s runner high. When the time comes to train or watch Netflix, I ask will I feel satisfied that I trained? Will I feel satisfied with my binging? The answer is always training. There is no such thing as a Netflix high, its really more of a stupor. There is 100% such a thing as the post training high. The pandemic made it easy to forget the joy of that post training high but it did not stop it from showing up if I showed up for it.
Satisfaction as a theme is amplified by TCoB. The high from training only gets better when we can all do it together. There is an energy that fills the air when we get together. Last week at the brick you could feel it with every breath, at the swim seeing other swim buoys out and about made me so glad I could be there and I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me “I always go faster on Friday morning interval then when I am alone”. Just seeing others push for their satisfaction is satisfying.
The most powerful thing about satisfaction as a daily theme is that it is internal. Nothing can take it away. Me, the individual, has control to see it, feel it and go get it. Sometimes I feel satisfied that I got out of bed and did the workout, other times I feel satisfied that I was on fire on that workout. I get to choose the satisfaction for where I am each day and each day it helps move forward a little more.
