I've said it before and I'll say it again and again because no matter what it stays relevant: control the controllable. In the world right now I think we could all use this piece of advice as it feels more often than not that everything is out of our control from our daily lives to the trajectory of our country.
For me, it's how I've coped with what feels like a year filled with setbacks. Canceled races, Postponed Olympic trials, sidelined by an injury out of my control. This year was supposed to be the culmination of my professional career thus far. This year was supposed to be a deciding factor in the coming years of my life. Losing what felt like complete control in April after optimistically chalking up the canceled season into a chance to get stronger was difficult to cope with, to say the least. I know I'm not alone in feeling disappointment at the way things have taken shape these past six months. We are all going through this together whether we like it, we're all experiencing some form of a setback. Now in the fourth quarter of this year, that at times feels never-ending, it's important to continue to find ways to push beyond the uncontrollable and the setbacks and set the stage for 2021.
As I said controlling the controllable has been my coping mechanism. It's how I reframe situations to find the positive, to find in a world of uncertainty the things I can actively do to improve situations. It's what's helped ease some of the disappointment that's come from these setbacks. Sure, the trials were canceled, and initially, I thought it was meant to be a chance for me to become aerobically stronger, one more year to train and prepare. Then this injury happened and so I reframed it. I can't control that this injury happened to me, but I can control my attitude toward it and utilize it as a chance to grow. Instead of one more year of training now it's my time to fix my body and come back healthier than ever before.
And that's exactly what I've been doing. I still don't know for sure what caused my injuries or rather what was the straw that broke the camels back, but coming back has been a chance to fix everything from the ground up. I'm talking about from rehabbing the hip and surrounding structures to fixing mechanical issues I've always had but had never had time to dedicate to addressing why they were occurring. I'm talking about optimizing my nutrition, finally testing for celiacs, and finding that yeast is likely the culprit and not gluten. Building up my iron from a 20 to a 35 ( honestly still not fantastic, but this is the highest it's ever been in my life).
Controlling the controllable isn't easy. It starts by accepting that things are difficult, regularly out of our ability to control, and it's okay to feel like it's hard to stay positive sometimes, that's normal, that's life. The problem with focusing on uncontrollable things though? It's not only taking you away from being productive in controlling what you can, but it's creating negative emotions, taking you away from being present, and probably impacting your performance.
By focusing on the uncontrollable you spin your wheels, draining your emotions to try to change things you can't. Right now the person focusing on the uncontrollable's is that person you know constantly complaining still about how awful COVID is. Yes, it sucks for everyone in some way, shape, or form, but constantly bringing it up all the time is not allowing you to grow in this situation. Complaining about wearing masks, social distancing, how your life has changed is not accomplishing anything. Once you let go you can start to identify and work on the things that you can improve.
With 2021 on the horizon let's continue to find ways to control the controllable, find optimism, and push beyond the noise to prepare for a better next year.
You can check out others through stories like Aisha Praught-Leer's here and Cam Newton's on Under Armour's Instagram on October 30th.
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