The unpredictability of life sucks. One minute you’re riding high with the wind whipping through your hair and the next minute you’re flat on your ass with a face full of gravel. Alison G. Bailey, Present Perfect.

Through my motorsport obsession. Each of our three children have had the opportunity to go kart every school holidays. Since our youngest turned eight, we raced as a family, sometimes with other families. Last year, I managed to take them from outdoor to indoor karting. Our children were against it, advising me it would not be good enough. Their view was that the circuit was too tight, so too slow, they were resolutely with their outdoor circuit of choice. However, once they started sliding around on polished concrete cackling as their karts kissed the tyre barriers, finding more and more speed, they better appreciated that we cutting our travel time in half.

There are days when I would go kart with our kids, when I keep finding speed, each lap I would reduce my time, improving my speed around the circuit. There are other days, when I just couldn’t get close to my personal best time, I cannot find the speed around the circuit and didn’t know where it has gone. 

We can see cycles of struggle and triumph in our work and life, success can be elusive and transient. Success and failure can impact in different ways, or maybe in a similar way if we expect it. Watching ‘The Test’ recently reminded me of this, watching the best players in the world, suddenly find themselves out of form, battling to maintain positivity and focus in a cauldron of doubt. So too for us, using our talents in our daily lives. 

A wonderful quote for Star Wars fans from Master Yoda: ‘The greatest teacher, failure is’. Expanding on our little green friend’s perspective, learning from both success and failure is important, often learning more from our failures then our successes. Repeated success can increase our sights, our expectations and bring the world alive with possibility, however, we can forget the disciplines and reasons behind that initial success. 

In the rudimentary model, it shows potential outcomes in terms of our emotional state. As both success and failure can shift how we feel.  

Key activities when dealing with the extreme end can include – breathing shifting our state to relax. Dr. Scott Stoll, author of Alive, ‘Deep breathing decreases the stress hormones, cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline’.

Exercise – increases our ability to deal with stress. Ideally spend time in a natural environment and talk to others. Spend time with like-minded people, making sure that we laugh, as laughing is uplifting, ensure that we stay hydrated, eat well, sleep and ensure positivity, pursuing our purpose. 

Michael Neill, why relaxation helps to decrease stress and depression, As you get quieter on the inside, thoughts are changing all the time by themselves. And they’re moving in the direction of health – moving in the direction of clarity.

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