Leave It All On The Field

Happy Rainy Monday, y'all! Homegirl posted yesterday about her new philosophy, taken from our trainer's advice for me before jumping in my show this weekend. Results were less than stellar - I placed first in my first class of the weekend, then last in each subsequent class. Not my best results.

From my cell phone video - 'scuse the quality.

Blurry, but I like it.

However, I did what I went there to do, and what I think we should all do in every endeavour, every day. Leave it all on the field. Do the best you possibly can, and you'll have nothing to be disappointed about, or at least you can't be disappointed in yourself. Do I wish that I had won four blue ribbons instead of one? Of course I do. It's human nature to want to win, and it is especially my nature. I joke (but I'm not really ever joking) about the line from Talladega Nights, "If you're not first, you're last!" But that's how I feel about competition. I don't just want to do my best, I want to do the best. And that's fine, but that's not life. I can only do my best in the circumstances I am put into. That's the only guarantee I have. I put my foot in the stirrup four times this weekend, and each time, I did the best I could.

The only class I won - that horse was a CUTIE!

I want this kind of commitment in everything I do (improbable goal, but goals are set for a reason). I want to know that each and every day, even if I'm not the best, I'm my best. This means a lot of things that aren't easy: being the best friend, girlfriend, sister, daughter, worker, and pet-mother I can be. That's a LOT of work, and I am going to fail repeatedly at it. That's not the point. The point, dear readers, is that I give 100% every single effort and make it count. You know what I took away from each of my last-place classes this weekend? I completed them. They were what I made of them. No one can say I didn't go in and come out with my heart 100% in it. And that is what makes the difference in a winner and a loser. Not the ribbons, but the commitment. Winning happens to you, commitment happens because you choose it. As for me and my Homegirl, we're our own #1's. And that's enough for me.