You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. -Eleanor Roosevelt

This is at the signature at the end of my email and I have written about it before. Maybe I actually followed it yesterday...Only three other people knew I was even considering swimming the 800 meters at the post swim meet. I had never swam at a swim meet before and I was scared I would embarrass myself and end up last. So, yesterday, after teaching spin class, I sped like a mad woman to post and got there just in time. There were lots of people I knew there which made it worse because if I was going embarrass myself at least I did not want everyone in God's green earth to see it. So, when I got to my lane, my timer asked me what I thought I would swim and I said about 17 minutes. Well, sure enough...I had a decent swim but I was dead last. Yes...exactly what I was afraid of. Good news, I did finish 15:41. At first, I was mortified in the water because I could see people passing me and actually lapping me. I thought of all the excuses (I swam 1800 yards this morning, I am a long distance athlete and do not warm up until after 1000 yards, I just came from spin class, yada yadaada) that I could make but finally on the way home I realized...I did it and I did not die from embarrassment and no one really cared but me. The best thing is I did something that really scared me. Is it scary to most people? Probably not but it was to me!

Today, I ran 55 minutes this morning and rode this afternoon. The week (as usual) has not worked out quite as I planned but it is not a bad week! Tomorrow, a swim and run.

Note for the day...do something that scares you...even if you do not completely succeed - at least you tried and that is winning!