Doing Your Best Looks Different Every Day

In his book "Born to Run" (a must-read, in my humble opinion, not for runners as well), the author Christopher McDougall tells about Tarahumara Indians isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, that have perfected the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. One sentence (there were more obviously) changed my life and attitude toward training:

"The Tarahumara are described as drinking beer, dancing, laughing, and socializing around races, treating them more as a celebratory event of life than anything else. The ones who race do so without stretching or warming up. They win no prizes. Those who come in first hardly get any recognition for it, never mind praise... And despite their minimalist sandals and record-breaking pace, they SMILE while they run."
~ "Born to Run", Christopher McDougall, 2011

SMILE.

Have you noticed people in Gym - working (themselves) out - as Opus Dei priests?
The reason?
"It's good for you" - would be their answer;

The fuck, it ain't!
It's pure suffering, stripped of any real progress, and inner motive.
They do it because their doctor told them, their SM Guru does it, etc...

Same with "runners" - a human sack of bones with rattling teeth dragging itself along, completely ruining its spine and ligaments.

"Because it's healthy"
The fuck, it ain't!

Healthy is relative, as Einstein put it.
Unless you're able to authentically smile - you're doing harm.

With this being said, "smiling" doesn't imply easy or light. It's can "cruel & gruel" physically and emotionally, however, the INNER SMILE OF AUTHENTIC JOY is always there!

That's what changed my practice from running to Girevoy Sport - the moment I can't honesty smile within, regardless of how hard or easy my practice is - I STOP.
There's no point to continue.
I have nothing to prove to no one,
Breaking, aka injuring myself, will through me back, not project forward.
STOP.
There will be another practice tomorrow.
Another day too.
Each day we awake a new person, to new possibilities, with new decisions we can make, and new paths we can take.

Each day we can do our best, and thus our best - looks different every day.
Smile!