The Day After
If you haven’t watched Mike Tirico’s conversation with Michael Phelps on the topic of mental health, I highly recommend you check it out. One of the comments Michael made focused on the days following the Olympics. He talked about the massive uncertainty that comes after the competition. Now what? Where do I go from here? Who am I after all of this? While very few of us will know what it is like to come off an Olympic podium with a medal, all of us have had or will have to move forward after major events. How well we navigate those next days depends on many factors, but particularly, our mindset.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to climb Mt. Chirripó in Costa Rica. It is the tallest peak in the country, rising to 12,538 ft. It is roughly a 25-mile round trip hike that took me two days. It was an incredible experience and watching the sunrise from the peak was an amazing moment. But, like everything we experience in life, I could not stay atop that mountain. I needed to move forward and descend to my “normal” world.
If we look at any of our highest moments in life as a destination only, we set ourselves up for emotional distress such as confusion, frustration, and depression. The thoughts from this mindset sound like “I will finally be something when I reach this goal”, “I will earn my worth in other people’s eyes this way”, or “I will prove that I am better than others”.
If we instead focus on the journey, we can see our growth as a human being. We can gain new perspectives on life from those vantage points to integrate into our daily lives. What we do with these insights is more significant than achieving the goal. We can ask ourselves, “What did I find in myself that helped me achieve this?”, “Who helped me along the way to reach this height?”, and “What can I take from this experience to benefit my life and others going forward?”
Striving for excellence is a worthy endeavor in life. Going for the peak experiences can be life changing. But we must remember, the end goal is not to have the most awards or prove we are the best, it is to live a meaningful life that adds to the collective wisdom and good of all.