Here is a shot from me at the 2008 North American championships, back when it was held in Cleveland. I have competed in 57 shows in my lifetime, in just about every weight class. What a wonderful competitive career I have had. While I do not plan to ever get back on stage, I love competition and coaching all my athletes and clients. But I find coaching my non-athletes to be just as rewarding if not more rewarding in some ways. I think it is because it is easier for me to show them something meaningful in this process of fitness. Competitive athletes mostly look for wins, pro cards or the end results of our efforts together rather than feeling the joy of our process. While this is not the case for a few, it is generally true of most competitors.
THB:
There is no right or wrong way to do this life. Whether you focus your attention on accomplishing some particular goal or whether you are in it for the ride, either way can prove to be wonderful and rocky at times. However, I prefer to focus my attention on the process of what I am doing and not the results. I want to accomplish goals and results but they are not what I focus on neither are they my reason for doing what I do any longer. As a matter of fact, I still use them as a compass to guide me toward what I desire. They are now the consequences of the reason why I do what I do. I do what I do because I do what I love. Sometimes I must look harder for what I love in my daily activities. Sometimes I have to use the power of my focus to zero in on those elements in my current experience that I find joyful or that I appreciate, but I can always find them. What I am left with every time is a good experience that I love, and thus I am always doing what I love. But I am in control of how I feel about anything in my experience. And better yet, all those things I used to point myself at tend to just become the consequences of my life’s process. They are never the reasons why, they are what happens when I am always able to be that loving and joyful being I know that I am. I am love. I am joy. I am so very good.
