It is that time of year, the off-season. The organizations I am now racing with, AMA and AFM, along with many others, take a few months off racing from the end of October though early March. I am not unlike the other “addicts” that enjoy the time off for about 3 weeks and then really start to miss the racing action, I spend hours each day thinking about racing, planning for the next year, pursuing sponsorship help, training and looking for any opportunities to get on the track again during the off season.
Today, I am at work on a Saturday, overseeing field installations but with no real obligations of my own other than as a contact if they have any issues. This has left me with hours of uninterrupted time to think about racing. I spent the morning updating our team website Ritz-Racing.com and scanning Facebook, reading the posts of fellow racers talking about how much they miss racing or promoting their own efforts for next year. I really think it is great news when my competitors and friends announce their sponsorship deals or get some public recognition for their racing accomplishments, but now I’m going to tell you the whole truth… sometimes I become so envious of my competitors; looking at their photos, seeing the sponsorship help they are getting, the activities they are partaking in every weekend and especially if they are somehow racing in the off-season (like WSMC or WERA,) and I could go crazy thinking about what they are getting or doing or becoming. I could become bitter and angry, thinking “Why not me?” And then I begin to wonder, is racing making me a bad person?
I don’t want to have these feelings and I have even contemplated quitting racing because of them, no other sport has ever aroused such emotions in me. I honestly just want to be a good, supportive person and I think these feelings stir because I am truly passionate about racing. I know there are a lot of good human characteristics to be gained and developed through racing; confidence, compassion, determination, sportsmanship, I could go on and on. So how do I stop those envious feelings? Through refocusing that energy, every ounce of energy wasted worrying about them is less energy that I have for improving myself. My resolution for 2012 is to always be supportive and encouraging to my friends and competitors that are busy living out their dreams and a commitment to myself that I will focus my energy on living out my own dreams.
Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy. – Aristotle
This is not to say that I will never feel jealousy again, that would be unrealistic as it is a natural human emotion. Just know that when you read my FB comment “Jealous” on someone else’s post, picture or thread… all that really means is I just got another little shot of motivation to keep pushing myself this off-season. I’ll be finding a way to get in a few track days, a lot of dirt biking, rock climbing, cycling, swimming, and mental training to make sure I am ready to do MY very best in the 2012 season. I won’t wait for the ball to drop on January 1st, my resolution starts today.
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