Our friend, serial World Champion in Karate and Tae Kwon Do – Kerry McEvoy (alias K-Man) says “There is no such thing as losing. You either WIN or you LEARN. Competition is about ‘Winning and Learning’ he repeats.
We love this philosophy and suggest that YOU make it your own. Thinking this way will propel you to bounce-back with a positive attitude, ready to accept and enjoy future risks and competition. It’s the attitude of a champion.
I had the opportunity to practice this two-weeks ago when visiting Phoenix, Arizona to support AMBUSH representing New Zealand as they competed with seventy-two other teams for the World Hip-Hop Championship. One of my BHAGS (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) is to build a Club Physical Health Club that resembles LIFETIME Fitness in USA. We will need Ten Million dollars to achieve this. Anyway, I had my chance to go for a workout at LIFETIME and the receptionist told me to follow the instructions when I got to the ‘locker-room’. There were about 250 coded lockers in the men’s. I found one and squinting – without my glasses – threw my bag in, inserted a code, and walked away. I was half way out and felt a surge of horror run threw my body as I realised I had taken no notice of the actual ‘number’ of the locker.
Desperately diving back into the area I was extremely lucky to ‘guess’ the locker I had just inserted my bag into. Breathing a sigh of relief I headed up into the massive gym areas and for 90 minutes, enjoying experiencing my dream club. Meanwhile Tina had found a class and within an hour found herself also on a ‘stretch-table’ under the care and manipulation of a Personal Trainer.
I headed back into the men’s locker room, successfully opened my locker and inserted the balance of all of my clothing and having wrapped a gym-towel around my waist, located the men’s STEAM-ROOM. I sat and took in the heated atmosphere (even though it was a whopping 46 degrees outside) while an incredible volume of ‘steam’ was constantly pumped into the tiled room. Then juggled steam and shower for twenty minutes or so.
Back to the lockers I threw my towel in the basket provided and standing naked, carefully, eyes squinting, tapped in the locker-code. Uh-Oh, nothing happened. My pulse-rate increased as I tapped the code in again. Still nothing. Being extremely aware that I was in new surroundings by people I didn’t know and was standing naked in front of a locker, I tried to exhibit calm confidence as YOU would, controlled composure as I ‘wished and hoped’ one of the following half-dozen code-attempts would work. Experiencing feelings of shock and embarrassment I quietly approached a nearby American and asked “Hi mate, what do you do if your locker doesn’t work?”
“Just go and see the attendant outside” he said. (this was ‘outside’ and in the corridor of the club). He continued “The attendant will go and get the security guy”.
Thankfully, after taking a second look at me standing there in all my glory the guy asked “Would you like me to go for you?”. “YES” I enthusiastically replied.
Within minutes I was so glad to see my uniformed savour arrive to open my locker.
The important thing here is that I didn’t ‘fail or lose’ in this brief ordeal. I ‘learned’. I had been able to see, feel and experience a gym that has become my BHAG. That’s the important thing. Now I know to be more careful with opening and closing these lockers. And a reminder to you, to keep trying and attempting new things.
You can either WIN or LEARN.
The same goes the next time you are in competition. There is no losing. Just ‘learning’.
Gym Locker Room | Gym Locker Room Atmosphere | Modern Family
