Character - What is It... in Triathlon?
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 12:46PM 
Character is the difference in believing something and actually doing it. Plenty of people believe in saving the planet, eating right, or standing up for the little guy, but far fewer actually do it.
People with character put their words into action. They take that extra leap and bridge that gap of fear and stand up for what they believe in. In fact, they usually can't stop themselves from "doing what's right".
If you want to be more fit, lose that gut, or qualify for Kona, you have to have the character of a person who does those things. You have to schedule work outs, eat better and/or less, or race tactically to achieve those goals. Notice that all the words in italics are verbs. They require doing.
When Julie Dibens won the Boulder 70.3 recently, she waited several minutes before crossing the finish line to ensure that more people got prize money. She acted on her belief that the prizes should be awarded differently.
I just wanted to make sure as many girls as possible would be able to earn money today," said Dibens to slowtwitch.com "I just hung out with my family, enjoyed the time and wanted to prove a point. Making money in this sport is hard enough as is.
The most celebrated people of character are the ones that did something. Ghandi marched to the sea and made salt. Mother Teresa spent her life caring for the poor. Superman leaped tall buildings in a single bound. You gotta do to be great.
If you believe in something, but have a hard time acting on it, you either don't believe in it as much as you think you do or you believe in something else more that conflicts with it. But that's a subject for another post...
Smile while you train!
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks, I really enjoy your posts and the podcast.
Good Post!!!
There is a huge gap in thinking and doing. People think they want to be healthy but the doing part is where they fail.