If you had one do-over...

I don't even know what show was on, something my wife had searched up on Netflix, I caught sound bites and quick glimpses as I went in and out of the room. Christina Applegate is an amnesiac who decides she's going to find out who she was. One line stuck out, going something like this -- what would you do if you could completely remake your life?

What if who you have been all your life could be jettisoned and you could start over, making your life anything you wanted it to be, right now?

How different would it look?

I know most people who read this blog are doing so because of a shared interest in running and/or triathlon. So how about this instead -- what if you had ONE do-over in your athletic life, some significant moment that's had a defining aspect to your life ever since?

Maybe it's that DNF that you wish you'd pushed through instead.

Maybe it's a day that you wished you'd stayed home instead of going for that one more run or ride.

Maybe it's the day you felt good and went out for a workout before the doctors said you should, and re-injured yourself (maybe worse than the original injury).

Maybe it's the day that you backed off, walked during a run, and let your negative thoughts convince you that you couldn't do it.

For a time in my life, I was around an organization that did a lot of "self-help" reading, lots of seminars and such. One of the things that was stated was that when you were faced with personal shortcomings, to draw a line in the sand and step over it. The meaning being to move forward, let the past be the past and not the future. One time, some one asked me, "So what if you've got a ladder of lines drawn in the sand behind you?" The answer is that if you see it, you're looking in the wrong direction.

What am I getting at?

Live your life as if you've already had that do-over. Those things behind you that cast a pall on your future, let them go. Your past is not your future. Tear out the rear-view mirror of your life.

How things would be different if you had that one do-over...