I Have No Idea Why I Am "here"

[carinab]

Sam, I so appreciate your philosophical posts! You da' man! It was really great to chit-chat with you at A6. Back to the thread....

[Sam]

Gee....Thanks, C!

[SA Friday]

I GOT IT! I have more guns and shoot more to make my BEER taste BETTER!. That study is AWSOME!

They should have used beer instead of hot sauce. I bet the results would have been TOTALLY different. Who's wasting beer on the 'unknown' next-guy with a heightened sense of taste going on.

[Steve Anderson]

This post comes at a very appropriate time.

I have spent the last 10 hours trying to finish the transcription of the Lanny Bassham interview for my next book. (the sequel to R&R: Principles of Performance)

I had transcribed all but the last 10 minutes, and the last 10 minutes of the interview were spent with me asking him how I could believe I could compete with the best in sport, as his program requires.

His answer was shocking but true, and he said some very surprising things.

What it came down to is that you get more out sport than how you finish. There is tremendous value in sport that cannot be measured externally.

Another reason that this post is timely is that I have spent the last 6 months of my life doing the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Making GM was cake compared with what I have just helped to accomplish. Few will ever know, unless I write a book about it. Suffice to say that I dedicated my existence to an outcome that I had no control over and no promise of any benefit to me whatsoever. All of the sudden, shooting a handgun and dividing points by time didn't seem very important. Today it does.

But Lanny's answer to my question may be the answer to Erik's question. Maybe the pocess of becoming who you are is more important than how you finish. It doesn't diminish ANYTHING.

He called it Attainment, and nobody gives out medals for it. But for 99% of shooters, it may be the most important thing. he said if the reality is that you don't have the opportunity (money and time) to be the best in the world, you have to set a more realistic goal.

It's probably the hardest for people who are the closest.

SA

[Phil Dunlop]

Steve, your words strike a chord with me.

I haven't been able to give this sport the attention it deserves for 18 months now which means i have no real competetive outlet in my life.

I have had several visits to the range and competed at club level so i know my skills are reasonable, dry firing at home has kept me in touch, but without the big matches, win or loose i am not complete.

I really must change something.

[Sam]

What it came down to is that you get more out sport than how you finish. There is tremendous value in sport that cannot be measured externally.

That sure strikes a chord with me too, Phil.

A match win is only good for a day. When measuring life in "wins" the next day you wake up searching for fullfillment again.

Maybe the recurring theme is that shooting teaches us more about ourselves that it does about shooting. At some point we have to let go of what we want to become, and what we once were, (yesterday's winner) and just be. Most of people that I've ever met were searching for something. Some with patience, some nearly in panic, but most all of them searching. All of the things that are supposed to bring us satisfaction, don't. It's a very fortunate person indeed that realizes that life itself is the gift.

Is there any lasting value in winning? Maybe it's that winning open doors and draws other people closer to you? People instinctively want to know winners, so winners have the opportunity to influence others. For sure, a person who can teach you how to win is a good thing. And a loser who can teach you how to accept all that life offers with gratitude and just "be who you are" is also good.

[Steve Moneypenny]

Wow, interesting posts at a very interesting time. just as I am focusing hard on winning I read in "the inner game of tenis" and here that winning isn't everything... while I agree to some extend as i've had victories where I didn't feel i deserved them I also feel i've deserved victories i didn't get.

I agree the closer you get to the top the harder it is to lose. I'm not there yet by any means but as i improve it gets much harder to relax and enjoy shooting when I am not going to win. To find that inner peace like some shooters have is truely the elusive part of our sport. where winning doesn't matter. but they always come out on top anyway!