57 Meters..... I could have done better but it was my best...

A big thanks to my buddy at Mac Throw Video. He got me this sequence from nationals 2009.

Today I want to talk about something I like to call "letting go." There have been many times in my career when I look back at a poor performance and feel the urge to cry out as loud as I can because the pain of not performing to my expectation overwhelms me. I remember this time in particular, it was my first year in college and I placed 6th in a competition that I needed to place at least 5th (East Regionals) in order to advance to the next level. I can still imagine the initial shock I felt after my last throw of disappointment and self condemnation. I wanted to be invisible at that moment because I knew that my season was finished due to a sub-par performance and I felt embarrassed because I knew people were probably thinking thoughts such as: "he could have done much better than that" or "he choked."
Looking back again, I wish I could have known what I know now. Rather than being self loathing, I would have accepted my fate and spun the situation around to make it into a motivation instead of a depression. A man once told me that "success is like grabbing a hand full of beach sand and watching almost all the sand escape though your fingers." What this man meant was that, only after failing a large majority of the time will we ever be able to grasp a few of those grains of sand.
My friends, we can learn a lot from this mans wisdom. We must accept that our best effort that day is our best effort for that day. Ask Alekna, ask Gerd, ask your parents or anybody in your life that is successful today how many times they have failed and you will be astonished. The old saying off "the early bird gets the worm" must be changed to "the most persistent bird gets the worm." True success is easy once you are there but very difficult while getting there.
In conclusion, don't and I repeat, don't loose sleep over a bad day of throwing. As long as you know that you did your best because success is just a short walk away. Keep at it, be persistent and don't let your ego get the best of you because if you do, you will never be truly successful.