As you scroll through your Facebook or instagram feed you are likely to see people celebrating the new year and saying goodbye to the old year.  It never fails, you will see and hear people talking about how 2019 just wasn’t their year and they are ready for the new one to begin.  Or you will hear how 2019 was a great year and they are ready for it to continue in the new year.  What we often fail to realize is everything happens as it should.  All we can do is prepare ourselves mentally to accept the things that are outside of our control.  

As we enter 2020 we all should take note, things are bound to go against your plan.  The reason we suffer so much mentally is we fail to prepare ourselves for the inevitable hard times.  We only hope for good things.  When my father passed away in August it was by far the hardest time in my life.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to recover.  Then it hit me, I should have been preparing for that tragedy my whole life.  I should have prepared for that tragedy all year mentally.  Knowing that when times are good I should be mentally preparing for a challenges to strike.  This particular tragedy was very hard for me to handle but we all face adversities in our life.  Hardships come in many forms.  You are going to fail often this next year.  You are going to face hardships in your career, in athletic achievements, and in your personal life.  You will compete one day and do great and the next day can’t hit 70% of your max snatch.  You will get promoted and the next day not be able to handle the responsibilities of that promotion.  And you will celebrate an anniversary with a significant other and the next month go through an ordeal that challenges the foundation of your relationship.  None of this is either good or bad.  It is just the way God or nature has intended it to be.  We have no say in the things outside of our control, all we can control is the way we view them.  We have control of our minds and the way we perceive adversity.  Is the adversity something that will defeat you or a chance for you to grow and learn?  In our endeavors we will stumble, we will fall, and we will fail.  Over and over again it may seem.  But this is why it is so important to enjoy the process of reaching your goals.  If you can’t enjoy the process, every failure will make it that much easier to quit.  We must all follow the process through the perceived good times and the perceived bad times.  When we feel like we hit a wall in our lives we must understand that everything is happening as it should and we just need to adjust with it.  Allow our minds to just accept the things outside of our control and know when and where we can change.  

Remember we need to be ready for whatever this year throws at us.  There will be good times and bad times and they will be determined by how we perceive them.  Prepare yourself mentally this January for the inevitable adversities that you are going to face.  So as we prepare I hope that the bar feels heavy, that the runs feel slow, and that you fail again and again. But when that bar feels heavy I hope you still make the attempt, you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and when you fail I hope you shake it off and try again.  And always remember that no matter what happens in 2020 it just as it is supposed to happen, we just need to realize how we can learn and grow from it.  Happy New Year!! 

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