Triathlon Training Week 5 Column (and a fun little riff on pride, that monster within)
My fifth column in my triathlon training series with the Wilmington StarNews published today. It was one I honestly didn’t want to write, at least when I started. I like how it came out, though, and in all honesty I owe a lot of that to Katie, my wife. She gave me some honest feedback on my first draft, which I thought was really good but she thought was really bad. I completely re-wrote it thirty minutes before deadline, and this is what came out. I’m much happier with this version.
It’s unbelievable how destructive pride can be in our lives, and how easily we let it affect us. When you read the column you’ll see how it was affecting my training. Also, if I didn’t let Katie read my column before I sent it in–I don’t always do that–then if I didn’t listen to her when she didn’t like it, I would have turned in a crappy piece of thinking and writing that I thought was great, at least at the time.
Pride’s killer, man. It kills relationships, it kills careers. Just look at Gilbert Arenas. The guy’s probably a good guy and even a smart guy, but he thought he could get away with carrying unlicensed firearms into an NBA locker room, which is the equivalent of an office or other workplace. Then, after he was called out for it, he made fun of it all.
Now he’s facing felony charges and time in prison. He can’t play basketball for awhile. Just a few years ago he was “Agent Zero,” the classic feel-good underdog story of a guy who entered the league widely rated as an average player, at best. Then he became one of the NBA’s best scoring point guards.
Now NBA commissioner David Stern and the authorities are treating him similarly to how NFL commish Roger Goodell treated Michael Vick a few year ago.
Pride is that thing in us that resents someone else when they say something against us or against our beliefs. There is good pride–pride in your work, pride in your team, pride in your family, pride in your accomplishments. It’s healthy to be proud of things in your life. What’s unhealthy is that pride that convinces you you’re always right, or that you’re somehow better than someone else.
But if we’re never challenged, if we never accept criticism or consider that we might be wrong, then how in the world can we ever expect to grow or learn? And what’s the point of life without growing and learning?
Pride also convinces us that our pasts are “what made me who I am” as though that’s always a good thing. You hear this everywhere these days. It’s absolutely true that the past makes us who we are, and it’s good to learn from it, but this idea that we can’t make mistakes is a lie. Poor decisions lead to lower quality of life. There’s really no way around that.
I’ve done stupid things in my past that affect my life today. There are definitely things I wish had been done differently. I would love to see how my life would have turned out had I made a few different decisions.
Our lives are all individual, personalized journeys, yes. But they’re also journeys in which we’re given leaders. We need to trust these leaders. Thinking we know how to best live our own lives is flat-out irresponsible, like if we were to wave off a translator in a foreign country or disregard the directions or correction of a guide during a trip. You could go to Haiti with all the best intentions, hoping to save people and help them rebuild their lives and resurrect their hope….but if you don’t listen when others tell you the best way to help them, how are you going to be beneficial? You’ll just waste everybody’s time.
Not to say that we don’t have good individual ideas. But often our own ideas aren’t as good as we think. Truly good ideas are molded by following truly good leaders, by listening to truly good friends and siblings.
I love my wife.
I love my life.
Read the column here.
Below, a funny cartoon I found when I googled “prideful.”













I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I didn’t want to go run. We were running on the road and I know LeAnne would make me run a 5K without stopping again and man alive, I just didn’t feel like it. I missed yesterday though, so I had to go today. (From the sound of things, Lance was in gotta-kill-em mode, so it was a good day to miss. My excuse? Had a long day of work. What? I really did. Check Sunday’s sports section for the end product. It’s gonna be good. I hope. I still have to go write it. Which I’ll do after I do this. So I should probably stop blabbering on in this parenthetical expression. It’s strangely difficult right now.)

