Believe.

Here is one of the definitions I found for this word:  to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.

This comes back to the mental part of sport, but rather than look at a test or race, look at your training plan.  Do you fully believe in the training plan you are following, do you trust that it will take you to that next level in your athletic career?  This can also be applied to work.  For work, there is no doubt I fully believe in the products we sell for detecting breast cancer!  I wouldn’t enjoy my job as much as I do if I didn’t “believe”.

In general I must say that I have come a long way in “believing” in myself.  I used to let doubt overcome my mind, and so in turn, I failed many athletic tests/races (or at least I didn’t reach the true potential I could at the time).

I’m the type of person who will put my trust in somebody and give them the benefit of the doubt, until they prove to me otherwise.  Perhaps this is not the best approach, but it has helped me see a lot of good in people, and I feed off of positive energy.

That said, I have put trust in my new coach Stani (which was hard after having such an amazing friend and coach in Stompo), and  I am following her training plan closely, as well as a muscle strengthening program that my friend Rory gave me.  Believing in these two programs has helped strengthen the trust that I should be putting into me.  Through the workouts, I have seen that my fitness is improving and that I could hold splits in practice that used to be held as personal bests.

Two other things come to mind when I think about this word:

1)      Yesterday I participated in my friend Robyn’s fundraiser for an organization called “KidSport”.  Those who attended got two amazing workout sessions – one was muscle conditioning and the other was Zumba!  In the muscle conditioning session I saw how Robyn helped encourage all participants, and everyone knew that although it was going to be a tough hour of working out, they could finish.  The workout was set up as a pyramid, so we first did 10 repetitions, then 9, 8, 7, and so on until 1.  This approach helped everyone believe that if they could do 10, then they could 9, etc.  As you can imagine, everyone finished the workout (and I know for me that I am definitely feeling it todayJ).

2)      Moneyball!  Moneyball is a movie about baseball in which statistical analysis was applied to help identify undervalued players and create a winning team (thanks Andrew for the wording on that, haha).  The two main characters played by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, were alone in their views, but they believed, and this belief helped them make history with the longest winning streak and the beginning of a new scouting method.

Believe.  Enough said:)