Top of the Key

Today while I was at the SBRC Pool, finishing up my drill swim, I looked down at the basketball courts.  There were 2 games going on, and I remembered that on Tues/Thurs they have pick up games in the afternoon.  Because so many people showed up, they have to play side to side and not full court.  I look at the people playing, and recognized quite a few from when I first moved here and I would bike on up to these games and get roughed up pretty hard.  I would either be banged up from flopping on the floor, or sore from an ankle roll.  But it’s what I knew, and I knew it pretty well…the game of basketball that is.  But I realized today how far I’ve come.  I was comfortably playing ball, it became part of me.  And learning to swim, bike and run were all out of my comfort zone, especially swimming.

One thing did remain constant…and that was the effort I put forward to get better.  Even though the hoops games were just pick up, I would spend a few times a week in the gym working on my shot, or free throws, or cardio.  Anything I could do to get an extra edge.  Mostly involved boring drills but when games came around, these drills came in very handy.  Same with swimming.  I find that the drills can be boring, time consuming, and unmotivating.  But when your half way through an Ironman and you get tired, you can rely on the drill sets you learned in your training.  You can always go back to what works.

The point I’m trying to make is that hard work and dedication to the task at hand is a lifestyle, and becomes part of you that you can take and apply to really anything in your life.  Just last night I was building a website in some code that I’m not very familiar with, but can work my way through it methodically.  Piece by piece…it may take me a few more hours than doing it the way I know best, but learning this new system will be better in the long run, challenges my mind, and its just one more skill I’ve learned.

All this started with seeing those people playing ball…my mind is working overtime, can you tell?