Safe Sidelines

Something said in this week’s James Clear email resonates with me.
“The loser has more in common with the winner than with the person sitting on the sidelines.  The winner and the loser each had the courage to try. Both risked embarrassment. Both were willing to face uncertainty. Both were stubborn enough to continue.  Success is endurance in disguise. It belongs to the person who can absorb the losses without absorbing the identity of "loser." It's the courage to start — and to stick with it — that is the real separator. Results tend to find the person who stays in the game.  The sidelines are safe, but sterile. Nothing grows there."
There are a number of things said there I like.  Like “The sidelines are safe, but sterile. Nothing grows there.”
I honestly feel that way about arm chair critics watching a football match or any sort of contest.  It is so easy to say what should have been done from the sidelines.  There is a good chance I am right.  I get to see some event from so many angles.  It can be “they only needed to do this or this and the result would have been different.”
Yet I am big on the difference between watching and participating.  To participate means so much dedication.  It means doing things repeatedly that no one sees.  The mum of one of our gold medallist’s in the Winter Olympics was thrilled that her daughter won but she said “the diet, oh the diet.”  To win had meant sacrifice and endurance.
An Australian was the punter on the winning team in the biggest match in American football.  He did not suddenly and for no reason get thrust into the limelight.  He literally did the hard yards.  His dedication and ability was noted.  There came a time when he shone but it was not by accident it was by participation, endurance.  Putting in the hours when the tv was not on him.
It worked out well.  For some hours of dedication have ended in tears as injury or failure to perform at the crucial time has cost.  Yet without fail I do not hear any winter Olympians speak of giving up.  Many say, “next time.”  They are not ready to inhabit the sidelines.  They learn and move on.  They aspire.
I am not an Olympian but I aspire.  I learn and move on.  I have success, I have failure but losing does not make me a loser.  Giving up does.  I may never be the best in the world, but I can be the best I can be.  That enough is enough to keep me busy.