It's a warm, muggy night, July summer of 2009. Eleven men huddled up, and the call comes in, it's a run play, my side. It's third and short, and I've been up against a bull all night. The referee sets the ball, we hurry to the line and get into my three point stance, sweat pouring out of my helmet and dropping on the ground like a spring rain.
I remember thinking blow this guy up and get the first down. The center starts his cadence (red 15 red 15) I'm coiled, I'm ready, and I'm GOING to win this battle. Boom I come off the ball hot, and all I hear is whistles I had jumped offside. When I got back to the huddle, I said “my bad fellas,” our QB just said "short-term memory." Unknown to me at the time, that night I learned a very brief and straightforward lesson, I'd carry with me for years if not a lifetime.
We've all been there, spending days on top of days visualizing a particular feat. Whether it be a big squat, bench, deadlift or even a combination of the three, we let it consume us. We spend a lot of time and money. We miss birthdays, graduations, weddings and so on and so forth. So when that one day comes, we put ourselves under insurmountable pressure.
Then it happens the world shits in your Wheaties and ten to sixteen weeks of work goes down the tubes. All the money, all the time missed with family and friends, all the drugs, all the food, all for nothing. One big giant waste of fucking time right?
Wrong, An old Irish proverb is "Fall seven times stand up eight." Trust me I know it sounds like the next powerlifting t-shirt, but it has a depth to it. Plus it sounds better than just saying that's life.
Adversity builds character, don't consider the day as losing or a failure instead use it as a learning experience. So the next time a day kicks you square in the dick, and your feeling like a statue under a flock of pigeons Just remember short-term memory and get right back after things.