What Do You Do When You Fall Off the Horse?

Hey Athletes,

You’ve probably heard this phrase before (especially if you’ve seen Zoolander): What do we do when we fall off the horse? We get back on!

And you’ve probably heard this one, too: A picture is worth a thousand words.

In this week’s blog post, I’ve got a video that is worth a billion words and elicits all the feels. And it’s a story about falling off the horse and getting back on; despite how much it can hurt to fall off, and how teeth-gritting-ly hard it can be to hop back on!

It’s only 2 min and 30 seconds long, but as someone who watched it 8 years ago and still thinks about it regularly, it has quite a timeless impact!

First you fail, then you fail, then you fail again, then you fail to fail and so you succeed

As implied by Derek's response to Maury’s idiom, it can be really hard and take a lot of skill to get back on the horse, especially if the fall hurt physically and/or mentally. And even more especially if it is literally a horse! Horses are big and scary! If your goal is to be the best jockey, all the power to you!

The fear of failing and exposing our weaknesses, thus proving we are not as strong/fast/fit as we hoped/thought we are scares a lot of people away from ever starting on their fitness journey. But exposing weaknesses exposes opportunities for improvement; failing is a step towards success; and learning how NOT to do something through failure provides valuable lessons for moving forward.  Fitness, strength, and speed are rewarded to those with mental fortitude and determination; and they are not earned easily.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Listen to your body for when you need to rest, but don’t listen to your mind when it is telling you to quit. And think about it: someone who succeeds without trying hard or without failing makes for a really boring story! Someone who embraces The Suck, who trudges through the grind, and who gets up every time they’re knocked down isn’t just an athlete; they’re an inspiration.

(PS: I love that Suburban War by Arcade Fire was chosen as the music for the video. But if I got to choose, I would have selected this goodie)

Take that inspiration and run with it, ATHLETES!!