A Story About Olympic Weightlifting

I was sitting next to a friend after coaching at a weightlifting meet, looking through some of my old competition results.

And suddenly, I saw my entire career differently.

For years, I had this story that I was a terrible lifter. That I'd thrown so much of my life into something I wasn't good at. That not being perfect or the best somehow erased everything else.

But looking at those results from the outside, I saw something completely different.

I competed at the national level for 10 years.

I made it to the A session at Senior Nationals.

I was team captain of both my undergraduate and graduate teams.

I saw someone who committed herself to a really f*cking difficult sport and kept showing up.

And I realized how little credit I'd given myself for what I'd actually accomplished.

Sometimes you need to zoom out.

When you're in the middle of something, it's easy to judge the entire story by the part that's currently hurting.

A missed workout becomes "I'm inconsistent."

A bad week becomes "I'm failing."

A plateau becomes "Nothing is working."

But zoom out.

Look at the whole picture.

You might be surprised by what you see.