Why Do You???

Recently I was reading the May, 4, 2009 Sports Illustrated and as I was flipping thru the magazine I came across an article about surfer Kelly Slater. I'm not a surfer, nor do I follow Kelly Slater but something caught my eye and I started to read the article. It talks about how great of a surfer he is and how he has been a world champion 6 times in his career. But after a little bit of time away from the waves, Kelly wanted to return. He wanted more. "Why do you do what you do? Why do you dress that way? Why do you do that job? Why are you married? Why are you alone? Why do you compete? Why can't you let go? No, c'mon...why, really?" That was part of the article and it got me thinking on how I would answer those questions.

I won't bore you with answers to why I dress the way I do, why I'm alone or why I can't let go. But I do what I do because it's fun and natural to me. I work for at most 14 hours a week during the season and get paid for playing a game. Not many people can say that they are living a dream. But I think the biggest question to answer is "Why do you compete?"... I think competing is something that everyone does everyday of our lives. Some compete against co-workers or classmates, others like us compete against teammates and other players. But in the off season, you can't compete against teammates or other teams.

So who do we compete against in the summer? Thousands of free agents are out there calling their agents or doing the dirty work on their own to line up a contract for next season. At the same time we're all in the gym, at the track, and on the ice all summer to make sure we're ready come training camp. You have to motivate yourself though, you don't have a roommate waking you up in the morning to head to practice or staying on you to go to that optional lift in the afternoon. I choose to compete against myself everyday. Each week I want to lift more than I did the week before and run or bike a little further. So far I'm halfway thru week 7 of the summer workouts and have so far to go, but it's worth it.

The summer is a time of fun, but can also be stressful for a free agent. You get to see all your buddies and head to the beach, but at the same time you wonder where next season will take you and when you'll sign your contract. You wonder who it will be with, where it will be, how much it will be for. So for all the excitement this nice weather brings, it also brings some drama into our often stress free lives.