Lipstick On A Pig

Here's another Sport/Art as a metaphor for life rant. Falling in love with the arts/sports that we do is a lot like being in a relationship.

At first, it's awesome. All fairy farts, and rainbows (as one of my mentors likes to say). It's easy to be here every day. It's easy to see progress. Hell, you can get 100% better from just watching this stuff while sitting down. You make improvements from daydreaming for gods sake. Its just like a new love interest. They are soooo funny. And beautiful. You could just look at them all day..... (sigh).

Yeah, well talk to me in 10 years.

Then, their stories aren't so damn funny. And if you did still feel like staring at them, they say "what the hell are you staring at..... did you take out the garbage?". That relationship is work. That pig needs lipstick.

And before you gals that don't know me well scream for me to be beaten, understand that in my relationship.... I am the one wearing the lipstick. So, settle down.

Look, my point is not that long term relationships are lame. In fact it's exactly the opposite. My point is that for you to last in The Academy, you can't just "kinda like it". You have to be IN LOVE. Deeply. If what keeps you going is the new awesomeness....... Well, you'll last about as long as most relationships.

For you to realize all the beautiful things that can come from training (or a relationship), you have to learn to love the little things. The deep things. Not just the surface. It's fine to enjoy the "honeymoon" phase in your training. The huge leaps in progress. The "light-bulb" moments where things suddenly make sense. That's super cool. But after a while, they get less frequent. And smaller.

But, if you really love it. Deeply. That doesn't matter at all. Even the smallest things, few and far between, are better than just some "date".

If you're new to the game.... Find the subtle things. Cultivate your love, cause that's what will remain when this bitch ceases to be "cute".

If you've been training for a while and are kind of "bleh"..... Throw some lipstick in your gear bag, and get back in here!

Ok, that just sounded bad. But, you get the point.