Mixed Emotions

The old adage: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. It would seem to me that it is always the times when you are most disappointed that people tell you to go ahead and do the thing that disappointed you, again! Take me for example. I applied to attend ACTIVATE for the 2009 forum. And guess what? I wasn’t chosen. I berated myself for days with questions. Why not me? Why am I not good enough? What else do I have to do? Why did I bother applying? Surprise, Surprise, this poor-poor-pitiful-me attitude took me NOWHERE.

Two years later, after I tried, tried again, here I am: a volunteer for ACTIVATE 2011and past delegate of ACTIVATE 2010. It turns out, a year after my first application, when I applied to attend the forum again, I had grown up quite a bit, and was much better able to appreciate the lengths and widths (haha) to which I would grow from ACTIVATE.

The lesson of the day is this: do not be unkind, mean, hateful, or damaging to yourself because you did not succeed with something the first time. Sometimes, you really must try, try again before you will succeed in something. As athletes, we must all learn this when participating in all sport and physical activity. But this lesson is important for anyone in daily life as well. The phrase, “Everything happens for a reason”, fit very well with my ACTIVATE story. I was not ready that first year to attend ACTIVATE. But after a long year of hard work, I was prepared to begin my journey.

So if you have received a YES response to your application, be sure to stop and take a moment to pat yourself on the back. You are an incredible individual and I look forward to meeting you in May. But if you received a NO response, I want you to stop and give yourself two pats on the back. For the first, think of all the great things you have done in your life and all the things you like about yourself. For the second, think of a maximum of three things you would like to improve about yourself or your physical activity or community involvement. And finally, after all of this, I want you to promise me that you will apply to ACTIVATE 2012, because I look forward to meeting you too.

Peace, love and hugs,
Alli

Allison Burton
ACTIVATE 2011 Volunteer Team Member