Failure

"There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them," said teacher and coach Tom Krause. He also said a bunch of other motivation-y things that teachers and coaches tend to say. I disagree - there are failures. And then there are successes because of them.

Sometimes we say that petty thing because it's so easy. Or we don't do that simple 30-second thing that would make our husband, kid, friend, neighbor feel so good because we just don't feel like it. Or we only give 85% at work because it was a long night. Or because the work isn't that interesting. Or not challenging enough. Or too challenging. Or we complain about our coworkers or families because they're just not living up to our standards.

Last weekend we had the Rocket City Rumble II and it was a resounding success. Mixed with failure... ahem... I mean experiences and our reactions to them. The tournament went smoothly (thanks to HBICs Bettie PageTurner, Zombie Kitty, and many many more), the games were mostly competitive, the hits were hard, and there were no major injuries.

But... we didn't play our best. We didn't keep our cool. We had a record number of penalties and ejections. We came in sixth place out of six at our own tournament. Our team didn't act like a team or feel like a team.

That was the experience. What's our reaction? Should we talk to death about the failures because it's easy? Forget to tell our teammates when they're doing well, even if we think they only do one thing well out of a hundred? Skate 85% because we're not having a mostly winning season this year anyway. Or because we might as well wait till next year to get serious now. Or because we don't have the luxury of 3-hour practices like other teams do. Or enough practices per week. Or too many. Or should we complain about our teammates or coaches because they're just not living up to our standards?

Tom Krause has another cheesy quote, and I agree with this one: "Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose."

So let's be brave. We already know we can lose.

Right now I feel like our team is me on the floor in this picture, everyone cringing and looking away. But we'll be that #78 Tampa girl, skating away successfully, mission accomplished. Just gotta be courageous. And keep doing those things that are so easy but so easily overlooked - encouraging, persevering, giving 100%, and all those other feel-good sentiments that mean nothing on the page but everything in person.

(Thanks so much, specifically, to Zan Axe, Legally Bombed, and Lucia SlammerMOre for your positiveness this weekend. I want to be like all of you when I grow up.)