#god I miss being a gymnast and a coach. this stuff gets me so emotional

[irenedubrovna]

Jordan Chiles is a wonderful athlete with an unmatched presence. She was robbed on the floor and, though she fell on her beam mount, she went on to deliver a solid routine. Her aura spreads through the arena like wildfire. Fantastic fantastic fantastic

Suni Lee is the reigning women’s gold medalist in gymnastics. It is not spoken of how beautiful her gymnastics is. Her return is every bit as impressive as Simone’s. She delivered tonight in a big way. Unbelievably impactful.

Jade Carey is a workhorse and a force to be reckoned with. I wish she could’ve showed up and showed out more, because she really is the epitome of consistency. It’s unfortunate that she isn’t feeling well but her vault showed that she is an incredible gymnast. She’s still in this, and I hope she doesn’t get overshadowed by the circumstances.

Hezly Rivera has unbelievable talent for her age. Her lines are beautiful, she is graceful and poised, and I am so so sad she didn’t compete, but I hope she knows she earned her spot there. I look forward to everything she does in the future.

Simone Biles is everything everyone has said about her and more. She’s not even the gold standard, she is the mountain that generations will have to climb to achieve the same level of greatness. She showed everyone who badmouthed her who the fuck is boss.

Team day was awesome. Everyone put in a great effort. I’m so so proud of Brazil for snagging their medal, they deserved it. Awesome presence, great artistry. I fucking love gymnastics.

[mubal4]

The World Hasn’t Ended

It was probably about 6 months ago, I was reading Tim Ferriss’ book, “Tools of Titans” and this particular quote, from Patton Oswalt, struck me. “My favorite failure is every time I ate it on stage as a comedian. Because I woke up the next day & the world hadn’t ended, I was free to keep fu#$%&g up and getting better.” This has been a quote I look at each day when I write in my manifest.  I keep seeing it but for some reason I was compelled to write about it.  Maybe it was because the F-word was sitting there, staring and me in bold letters, and I was resistant to put that out there. Could have been it but not sure. Maybe I just needed more events to spark something.  Many experiences in the last few months can certainly be relative to that quote.  I shared on my podcast yesterday about my daughter Alaina and her first soccer practice out here in AZ with her potential new team.  Our oldest, Isabella, had a circumstance with gymnastics practice caused by a miscommunication.  Robin has experienced a number of setbacks with this transition and, when we first got out here, with all we where trying to manage, I almost lost my shit a couple of times, in all reality, over minor, minor stuff.  Throughout this process I have failed as a husband, father, friend, and human being.  My girls have felt disappointment, fear, and anxiety, and Robin, has her share of obstacles she had to deal with; some have been easy to move past; others have caused some emotions to flow while being difficult to move on from.  However, when we wake up that next morning, we start fresh again.  The world hasn’t not ended as Mr. Oswalt said, and we are free to screw up, make mistakes, and fail again.  As I write this, I think that is a beautiful thing.  Isabella, with her gym situation this afternoon, she was upset and was concerned about, not only missing a practice but what her coaches might think about things, about her.  We talked, walked through the moment, and she came to a quick understanding that, we screwed up, we will likely laugh about it on Monday, and shortly down the road, make another mistake where we grow from the experience.  There are so many times I shake my head at myself because of something, typically something stupid, makes me fired up inside.  I tend to quickly react and usually, that isn’t the best approach for me.  However, there are times where, before I react, I breath (3 deep breaths), and after I do, whatever that something stupid was, I just move on from it.  How much time do we save in our lives, how many more moments to we create for ourselves, by just letting those stupid things go.  Someone cuts you off in traffic, a business deal goes south, that first date was a bomb, you spill coffee on your dress shirt on the way to the airport and don’t have an extra (😊 – happened!!!).  In the big picture of life, how big of a deal is it really?  People didn’t even notice the coffee stain.  The guy that cut you off maybe rushing to the hospital because his wife is in labor.  The business deal, it may likely be the best thing for you because that client was going to be a nightmare.  That bomb date – no you know what you don’t want!!!  These are all putting a positive spin on it but, just as easy as it is do dwell on them, create a negative perspective, or let them get you down, it is as easy to spin it the other way.  I am just as guilty.  I cursed and was pissed when I spilled coffee on my shirt.  But really, think about it deep down, and I was able to do that, after about 5 minutes of cursing at myself; I laughed.  “Who cares Mike – people won’t even notice it.  People don’t think about you as much as you think they do.” That is one of my favorite sayings because, I thought that I was the center of the universe at times.  In reality, I am a speck on a map, which is a speck in this universe and mostly oblivious to the world.  We all are.  However, we are seen by some. Those that are close to us, those that we love and that love us.  So many that we care for and that care for us are watching, keeping tabs, and praying all great things for us.  In our circles, at least I believe, we all want greatness for each other.  When we have it, we are all excited and thrilled. When we miss it, we are down for a moment.  We don’t want to see each other hurt or be disappointed, but, it will be happened; more than we wish to; but it is a necessity.  We have to eat it sometimes.  We have to fail.  We have to look like a fool, flying in a white shirt, with a coffee stain down the front of it as you are going to make a presentation.  We have to laugh at ourselves.  We DON’T have to take ourselves too seriously.  We have to shake our ass, wear something goofy, dance in the rain, try something new, embarrass ourselves, and maybe, just maybe risk it all, just once. I think, in doing so, we realize that, the world will continue to go on, with God’s blessing, we will rise in the morning, and with the Universe’s guidance, we will hopefully make an impact and leave this world better than how we found it.  

 “Ignore anyone who tells you to go for security over experience.” – Patton Oswalt