roadracer
05-20-2009, 04:21 AM
Was what famous cyclist Lance Armstrongs named his book.
So inorder to tell what cycling did for me, I have to start with a message of how life was growing up, when I was not good enough
While growing up,
When everything is not good enough everyone wants you to give it your all, to try everything you can, to progress, to be normal, pressure to do well and to show progress.
When you never do well enough, it is like you are getting it ponded into your head that you are not good enough, reminded that you are flawed, reminded that you never achieve enough, when doing your best is never good enough it makes you question why you try.
When you are pushed to try to achieve so you can meet the benchmarks made by your normal peers, you are continually reminded that you are not as good as your peers, that you are not good enough to meet the benchmark. That you only fail even when you succeed, so why even try.
When only the idea of what you need to achieve and the reminders of your failures are pounded in your head threw 12 years of school you only see your weaknesses compared to other peoples strengths.
You remind yourself that you have this disorder or that diagnoses to try to justify why you are not good at xyz, but it is not good enough because you are supposed to defeat it and are taught to never use it as a excuse or a crutch, so you try to go strong, try to fit in, try to hide as much as you can, because you learn that these symptoms are things you want to do away with or get better at, so you equal it to meaning you should be ashamed of it. You feel not good enough, you do not meet the standards of everyone else.
Do you spend as much time embracing strengths as much as you work on weaknesses?
For me it took cycling to prove to myself that I could achieve. Every time I beat a group over a climb or placed good in a race, every great cycling legends I have meet along the way, olympic gold medalist, world champions, all had a lesson to teach. To be able to prove to yourself, that you are a worthy human being, is the best thing ever. It is my way of defeating my problems, above and better then treatment. Before started racing I was so depressed, I didn't want to live anymore because I was not good enough, cycling taught me that I am good enough, good enough no matter what dx or deficits, good enough no matter how functioning you are, good enough for sucsess.
So that was my first part, for anyone wanting to read it I will post below my story of how I got into cycling (Mili wanted me to ;) so here you go Mili)
So inorder to tell what cycling did for me, I have to start with a message of how life was growing up, when I was not good enough
While growing up,
When everything is not good enough everyone wants you to give it your all, to try everything you can, to progress, to be normal, pressure to do well and to show progress.
When you never do well enough, it is like you are getting it ponded into your head that you are not good enough, reminded that you are flawed, reminded that you never achieve enough, when doing your best is never good enough it makes you question why you try.
When you are pushed to try to achieve so you can meet the benchmarks made by your normal peers, you are continually reminded that you are not as good as your peers, that you are not good enough to meet the benchmark. That you only fail even when you succeed, so why even try.
When only the idea of what you need to achieve and the reminders of your failures are pounded in your head threw 12 years of school you only see your weaknesses compared to other peoples strengths.
You remind yourself that you have this disorder or that diagnoses to try to justify why you are not good at xyz, but it is not good enough because you are supposed to defeat it and are taught to never use it as a excuse or a crutch, so you try to go strong, try to fit in, try to hide as much as you can, because you learn that these symptoms are things you want to do away with or get better at, so you equal it to meaning you should be ashamed of it. You feel not good enough, you do not meet the standards of everyone else.
Do you spend as much time embracing strengths as much as you work on weaknesses?
For me it took cycling to prove to myself that I could achieve. Every time I beat a group over a climb or placed good in a race, every great cycling legends I have meet along the way, olympic gold medalist, world champions, all had a lesson to teach. To be able to prove to yourself, that you are a worthy human being, is the best thing ever. It is my way of defeating my problems, above and better then treatment. Before started racing I was so depressed, I didn't want to live anymore because I was not good enough, cycling taught me that I am good enough, good enough no matter what dx or deficits, good enough no matter how functioning you are, good enough for sucsess.
So that was my first part, for anyone wanting to read it I will post below my story of how I got into cycling (Mili wanted me to ;) so here you go Mili)