And... It All Went Wrong

For most of you who don't know, a couple weeks ago, I went to an archery competition (this was not the Lancaster Archery Classic, because I did just go to that recently, but that isn't the one I want to discuss about--I will however not name that competition) and this competition was a very interesting and challenging experience all of its own. Aside from some minor complications that arose during the competition, the largest one was the fact that we had online scoring, which did not record our score correctly on the first day of competition. Then at the late hours of the night, the organizers of the competition fixed all of the scores, so around 9:00pm I had found out that I was sitting in 2nd place. Then day 2 came around and we used the online scoring again, but in doing this, it set everyone's scores back to the way they were from yesterday and so our scores were once again messed up completely. The online scoring had me at 2nd place, but I knew from the competition that two other people had correct higher scores than I did, so I figured that I would be sitting at 3rd place instead.

Then at the end of the competition, everything came to a close. They had to correct all of our scores all over again which took quite a while and when they called up my divisions awards, I was called up for 2nd instead of 3rd, so I had thought, "wow I actually did better than I thought!" They gave me the award, started taking pictures, and then they announced that they had gotten the scores wrong again and that I wasn't in 2nd place, I was instead in 4th. This was a slightly embarrassing moment, when you think you've competed well, you think that you got an award for you hard work and success, and then in a matter of about five minutes, all of that has disappeared.

Now I am absolutely not writing this post to rant about a competition and talk about the things that I didn't like about the competition, I only write what I have above, because there are some times when life throws you some absolutely crazy moments and you just have to push through and deal with them. Even when you feel you are in control, there are always some external forces that can impact what goes around you when you are least expecting obstacles to face you.

For an example, I felt that I shot fairly well at this competition. For whatever reason, when I go up to shoot a 5-spot competition, I get anxiety like no other. (An example of the 5-spot target can be seen in the picture above). This is because I feel like its, easy, I normally don't practice it as much, and when I have that mentality, normally I don't put as much effort in and eventually don't do as well.

This competition, however, I went up to the target, didn't think about how easy or hard it was going to be, I just shot my shot, did what I knew I had to do, and I didn't feel that anxiety that I normally feel. I shot one of the best in-tournament scores that I probably have shot in years and I was proud of myself for my achievement. Then on the next day, I went on to the 3-spot competition, shot like I practiced, did what I needed to do, and I felt like I did fairly well on that side as well.

What I am trying to convey here is that there can be several external forces out there that can bring you down, but there is one thing inside of you that you can control and that is You. You can control how you feel and you can control how you respond to what is going on around you. I knew I had shot well, I knew that I had had limitations in how I could practice for this competition, I knew that I was confident in my shot, and I knew that I could do well. These are all things that I decided to bring with me to the competition before it even started and no one could change how I felt about those things, because only I was in control of them. The things I could not control should not have affected how I felt about my performance.

I remember telling my boyfriend that if I were told that I was in fourth place from the start, then I would have been fine with the fact that I was in fourth. I really didn't practice for the competition, because the collegiate competitions were my main focus in practice, so even placing in fourth would have made me happy. Then I started asking myself why is it different when I thought I was in second, but then found out I was in fourth later on? I'm still in fourth in both scenarios? So why in one scenario was I ashamed of my performance and in the other I was happy? It was all because of the external forces. The scoring was messed up, but I couldn't control that and even the people running the competition couldn't even change or help the scoring in the moment anyway. My perspectives were changed because of the external forces and when I realized this, I became more and more happy about about my performance at the end of the day.

What I am trying to say is to not let yourself get down, because of things you can't control. You can only control you and your performance in whatever you are doing, so don't focus on what has happened that made you mad that you can't control. Maybe someone else told you that you were a terrible shot compared to them.. not saying that anyone would say that, but just what if... maybe it's true in that they are a better shooter, but think again about- external forces. You cannot control how they think and feel, so why should that statement get you down? Only you know how much you have practiced, only you know how much dedication you have, and only you know exactly how well you have shot. Find your confidence inside of you. Maybe a co-worker says that you are more lazier compared to them.. not saying you are or not, again... external forces. It doesn't matter what they say. It could be that their job requires them to run around and do more physical things than your job. Maybe your job is a sit at a desk and grind out paperwork on your computer. Sure, they are doing more of the physical labor and that says a lot about their work ethic, but at the same time, you could be an accountant and it may seem like you aren't doing a lot of work sitting at your desk typing away, but if you weren't there, the whole structure of the company would collapse and that is where you should find your confidence.

Just a couple thoughts for this week!