Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

The falseness of low expectations...or losing still sucks!

One of the philosophical ideas one studies when looking at the Greeks is the idea of stoicism. The idea here was that the key to happiness is to lower one's expectations and by doing so frustration with the unachieved can be avoided. While this may sound like a great idea for the hip post-modern reader let me weigh in with my $0.02. This whole philosophical idea is a load of fetid dingo's kidneys (as Douglas Adams might have put it). Once you've experienced something good, lowering your expectations doesn't keep a person from getting that lovely bitter taste in one's mouth. You can tell yourself all day long that you don't expect much but if you've ever received more than you're getting then you'll feel cheated.

I am reminded of this as I look at my race goals for the year. If you, my valued reader, look back on my posts from the beginning of the year you'll find me saying things such as I expect to get schooled and the like. For the most part, my goals reflected that understanding. Yet, as I reflect back on the dirt side of the season, I find myself striving for more than the goals I set. This is because I'm not happy with my best finish being 7th place. Oh sure, I didn't expect to do any better than that this year but last year's successes are making these lowered expectations into a joke. Losing sucks...it just does. Especially if you're used to winning. Last year I stood on the top step three times and on the next lower step twice. Coming across the line in ninth just doesn't measure up, even when you know the competition is a lot better.

This has been pretty discouraging for many of the guys I ride with. They've evaporated from the race scene as their low finishes have taken a toll on their morale. I've struggled too. Why pay $28 to go and finish out of the top ten? Sure, I can think I'm doing it to get better but why do I have to taste so much humble pie? For me, I'm trying to use it as motivation. The guys who are beating me aren't that much better physically than I am, they just have more experience riding on the dirt. Experience I can get; skills can be improved. The important thing to focus on, I think, is the fact that they were once where I am now and they improved. If they improved then so can I and so I keep on striving.

What's the lesson here? I guess it would be that happiness lies not in lowering your expectations of the world or yourself but in realizing the potential you have and working to realize it.

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