It’s time for some inspiration.

Not just for you. For all of us!

I’m just getting over a wicked flu. I’ve been horizontal for the majority of the last 48 hours!

Now I’m feeling better and energy is starting to come back a little.

But I want to whine. I want to complain and talk about how unfair that flu was.

Everything in my life got put on hold, work and workouts definitely suffered over the past 5 days.

So I have given myself a period of time to complain.

The opposite would be to think “I shouldn’t complain. I have it good! So many people are worse off! Stop complaining and get back to work!”

And maybe that’s what it seems like today’s message is about. Kick your own butt and get over it!

Ah, but if you’ve been reading for a while, you know this is not the Coach Kevin or Tri Swim Coach way!

This is yet another time to accept- where you are now, and where you are going.

Setbacks are part of the deal.

You probably have had a setback or two already this year.

How did you react? Did you beat yourself up, or accept the situation as it is, allow yourself to whine a bit, and then move forward?

The great thing about triathlon is that there are so many inspirational people involved in the sport.

I caught an episode of the Rich Roll podcast yesterday where he interviewed US Olympic gold medalist Aaron Piersol.

The cool thing about this interview was that Piersol came across as so accepting of everything that had happened in his life so far. He was not depressed about retiring from swimming- it was just the right time.

He could see that while winning gold medals was extremely special, it was not everything, and it did not define him.

And this is what I took away from that interview.

Each moment- whether it is an amazing accomplishment in your life, or a major setback- does not define who you are.

It’s the big picture. Can you roll with the setbacks- the injuries, illnesses, or even DNF’s?

Or do you let them define you as a person?

This is the crucial thing here with swimming. It’s far more about this acceptance, “rolling with the punches”, and then recovering, than it is about making your time on that last 100 meter swim, or “keeping up with the Jones’s” or having instant success in the sport.

So go out there and whine a little today.

And then get back to befriending the water. 🙂