Monday, February 1, 2010

Remember The Pain

Last week I ran into John Gross, a well known videographer at KSTP in the Twin Cities. John is not just a cameraman, in his career he has been an emmy award winning journalist, camera man for NFL Films, producer etc. He is a jack of all trades and a master of them as well.
John is a great guy to chat with, I have known him since I was a senior in high school when I did an internship at KSTP and got to know him.
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received came from John. We were sitting on a par three at a course in Mpls where KSTP was holding a closest to the pin contest. John and I spent the entire day at that hole filming the shots and interviewing whoever got closest.
As we sat there John asked me what I wanted to do in my career. I told him I wanted to be on air and in front of the camera etc. John stopped me and said 'Everyone wants to be on air and in front of the camera. You need to know how to work the camera and edit, and produce and then you can be on camera.' He went on to explain how the days of a news/sports anchor who only talk on air are over (and this was back in 98) now you need to be versatile and show that you are more than a talking head, that you can write and build a sports-cast rather than read what someone else wrote.
With that in mind; every time I run into John he has a great motivational story for me. He has been around so many inspiring sports stories he is just bursting with them. John is a great storyteller and gives speeches all over the country so its great to hear him tell one one on one.
On this particular day we were a few days removed from the Vikings falling in overtime to the Saints in the NFC Championship game.
John was on hand for the game and said afterwards he was with a group of reporters/cameramen who were talking to former Viking Cris Carter.
Someone posed the question to Carter 'What will you say to the guys in that lockerrom when you go in there?'
Carter's response according to John was simple. 'Remember the pain.' One reporter asked him what was meant by that and he responded, every time you are getting tired this off-season, remember the pain, every time you want to quit, remember the pain, put in one more sprint because of the pain. In everything you do remember the pain.
To me that was an interesting idea, in sports a lot of the time you hear the phrase 'Gotta have a short memory' guys try to put bad stuff right out of their mind rather than dwelling on it.
Guys talk about putting a bad performance 'In the rearview mirror' but here was Carter saying 'remember the pain'
Carter has a point, remember the pain, but I would amend it to say 'remember the pain but don't be consumed by it.'
Mistakes are made, failure happens, no one wants it to happen or is happy when it does happen but its a part of life.
When failure happens remember the pain for sure, but learn from that pain, use it as motivation but don't dwell on it.
After my first marathon (which was a colossal failure) it was all I thought about for a year. How to improve next year, what I need to do during the summer-winter to accomplish my goal the next year. Oh I remembered the pain but I was so wrapped up in it that I didn't enjoy my training or have fun along the journey. I was so focused on the end goal that I blocked out the things that make preparing for a marathon so much fun. It turned into work and the pressure I put on myself drove me crazy at some points.
It wasn't until I was on my way up to Duluth that I realized what I had done to myself. There was a moment on the drive up there that I said 'Just give it everything you have and don't hold back and then you can walk away with your head held high no matter what happens.'
That year I didn't accomplish my goal either (In fact I have never accomplished the goal I set for myself in Grandma's Marathon and while I think about it, I am able to move past it) but I had a great time doing it and learned about myself along the way.
Its always great to run into John, and I am glad that he told that story as I get prepare for the summer I have put together. Carter was right, its important to remember the pain in any situation (sports, job interviews, relationships etc) but keep it as a memory.