Out of Control: Put your focus where it belongs!

https://equinlab.com/2024/01/18/14341t1hph Tires screech to a halt, oh no! Your car has just been hit. As you slowly come back to reality the first thing you do is make sure you are ok. Then you get out of your car and throw your hands up in the air, wanting to curse the person who hit you. “What an idiot!” you think, “How could they do this to me, weren’t they paying attention?” After you see there is minimal damage and exchange insurance information you finally get back into your car. You call up your friend to tell her what happened, “If only that person would have been paying attention, the car accident threw off my entire day.”

We have all been through this, blaming someone else. The car accident threw off my day, if they wouldn’t have hit me I would’ve been able to ______ (fill in the blank).  This is a prime example of something that happens that is out of our control. The car accident was an accident! We cannot control what the person behind us is doing. We can only control our actions and reactions. For example, things we can control-wearing our seatbelt, keeping a good distance between the car in front of us, and stop texting while driving. All of those factors are in our control.

https://serenityspaonline.com/jovvd19v Competing is the same. We have control of our training and eating habits. Those are choices we can make everyday. What is out of our control is what others bring to the competition. Looking at other competitors’ photos weeks before a show does not help. Sure, you may think it preps you for what you will be up against, and for some sports it’s true. If you are running a sprint, and trying to beat a time, then yes, knowing how fast your competition is can be helpful. But in the figure & bikini competition world, we aren’t racing onstage. Constantly looking at photo updates of competitors and typical bicep and ab shots from their camera phone at the gym is not helpful. Does it make you train harder? Maybe, but if looking at someone else’s photos you are competing against makes you train harder, your goals need to be re evaluated. Does it tighten up your glutes? Does it give you bigger biceps or rounder delts? No, it does not. There is so much more to competing than looking to see whom you are up against. This is the one sport, where you are up against yourself. You are training to be fit, muscular yet feminine.

https://www.prehistoricsoul.com/kdwlvgr Don’t you want to win because you are in the best shape of your life? Not because someone you have been facebook stalking didn’t show up at the competition.  Remember you can only control what you bring to the competition. Don’t let something that is out of your control; end up controlling your life. It’s your life, your choices, and your competition, so take control of it and make it your own.