Give Me a V! VICTORIES

Welcome to The Blogging A-Z Challenge April 2012! Some of the most popular posts here at The Shellshank Redemption are the Motivational Mondays. So, after consulting the tortoises, we decided to make April our Motivational Month! Please join us for this (almost!) daily dose of alphabetical inspiration. We hope you enjoy it! 

* WE IMPROVE OURSELVES BY VICTORIES OVER OURSELVES. THERE MUST BE CONTESTS, AND WE MUST WIN.  (Edward Gibbon) *

I’ve mentioned before on this blog about how I enjoy bike riding. My husband and I have done a few organized bike rides, usually around a 15 mile route. We “train” in two ways. The first is by riding around our neighborhood. I look around at the trees and the water, notice how people decorate their courtyards, etc. Before I know it, we’ve gone five miles. Whoo hoo!

The second way we ride is by going on the nice long stretch of road outside the development. Yeah, us and everybody else. This includes not only the “real” bicyclists, clad in their spandex, perched on their sleek bikes, but also the folks in their eighties with tennis rackets strapped to their backs.

Do you know what happens? Everyone passes me. Every. One. The bicyclists go by in a polite blur and the others give me a smile and a wave as they toodle on past. Yeah, toodle.

The first few times this happened, it bothered me. A lot. But then I figured out that it didn’t matter so much what they did; it mattered more what I did. So, I learned to set my own goals - whether for bike riding or writing or anything else I want to learn or accomplish - and to compete for, with, and against myself.

We are our own, our best, competition.