Every day is NOT Game Day.
I've heard many people say, you must show up every day expecting to do and be better than you were the day before. In many ways, I can see where they are going with that. But I don't believe we perform our very BEST every day. That would mean every single day, we'd be competing for the WIN.
That's just not practical.
As an athlete, I believe most of our days are training days. However, this doesn't only pertain to our fitness journey--this is true in life.
Every day, we aren't required to keep score or have a judge scrutinize our every move with specific point regulations--just as athletes aren't under pressure to play an actual game every single day of their sport's season. It's too taxing on their bodies to play at such a high level of intensity. They would certainly not "win" at that pace and would likely crater with exhaustion and become injured or ill.
So...
Take a deep breath.
You don't have to WIN every day.
Take another deep breath.
You will NOT win every single day.
Nope.
Most days, we are just training. Showing up and giving it our best and realizing training is all about experiencing the ups and downs.
Some training days, we are weary.
The weary days might be due to a lack of fueling our body properly the day before. In the fitness world, maybe we didn't eat enough or drink enough water. Maybe we didn't get enough sleep. That goes for life, too.
In life, maybe our weary days are due to spending our energy in places outside of our control or not making time for those things that bring us joy. There are many reasons for weary days, but it's inevitable--you will have some of these during training.
On some training days, we feel sore, achy muscles.
This isn't a sign of failure but one of growth. When we are sore, that means we worked a part of our body, and now it is working to repair itself.
In life, it's not much different. When we feel "sore" the following day, it means we are aware of something that might need adjusting. We are learning a lesson that will help us move forward. We are growing to be better humans.
To cure these days, we stretch, get a massage, spend some time on our foam roller--whatever it takes to help our muscles feel loved. In life, we should do the same. Give yourself some love. Reflect and allow growth to happen.
PR Days vs. "Forgot everything I once knew" Days
There are some days we show up and set PR (personal records); they call for celebrations, no doubt! I love me some PRS and competing against myself. However, there are other days when you can't quite get your form right. You have trouble making the same play you've done over and over again. That's just part of training. We celebrate the losses and get back up when we fail to reach our potential.
It's a lot like life--right?! We can't live on the mountain top. If we did, we'd miss a lot of opportunities in the valley.
Rest & Recovery Days
In training, there are always rest and recovery days. If we don't make time for them, we will get injured.
Side Note: And, there are those days when we are nursing injuries with physical therapy, ice packs, etc. It happens sometimes.
However, rest and recovery are vital to prevent injuries--as well as to recover from them.
Life is not much different. If we don't take rest and recovery days, our minds will become too cluttered, our bodies will become weak, and we will burn out. We can't be "ON" all of the time--no one benefits from "Best Day Streaks"--mostly because it's unattainable.
Performance
There are times we get outperformed by others, and others when our strength and talents are needed to pull the load for our teammates. Training days require a little give and a little take.
Some days you're ON. Others, you're OFF.
We are human. We are ALL REAL.
Even if today stunk and you felt like throwing in the towel...tomorrow is a new day.
Another day to show up for training.
Game Day Will Come!
Game Day is when it all comes together. All of the training, the hard work, the determination, the lessons learned, the rest, and recovery to build new muscles---that's when we put them to the test. And, we push with all our might--striving to attain the goal we worked so hard for--to win! But, if we give our very best and come up short--we didn't truly lose but rather learned yet another lesson to help us continue to train.
Life, my friends, parallels so beautifully to this metaphor--not every day is game day.
So...stop aiming for a "Game (or Best) Day" streak.
Wake up. Show up. And, keep crushing those training days to SLAY your goals!