Sitting in the van. Quietly. Brainstorming. Racking my brain on a four hour car ride about what went wrong. It was a three round golf tournament, and I held the lead after the first and second rounds. It was a ridiculously hard course that I had played before, which made the loss sting even more. Did I choke? Did I crack under pressure? Was I scared of success after not winning in over a year? No matter what I thought about sitting in silence, I knew that I committed to every movement, thought, and swing that I made. What could I have done differently? Try harder? Grind harder? At the end of the day it was just the fact that I got outplayed. She hit it closer to the pin than I did, she made more putts than I did, and she was more confident than I was. But that was the problem. It doesn’t matter what I did because I was going to do what I was going to do and she was going to do what she was going to do. I thought to myself, “don’t let others affect your game or your thoughts. If you tried your best then that’s all you can do.” This is the moment I learned that the most important part of the journey is the process and not the result. Result based players will always feel like they have something to prove and will constantly compare. Be an athlete. Strive for success in the process and in progress of your game. If you get beat, then you just got beat. Another competition, another game, another match will come. When it does, do your best, learn from it, and then grow from there.

--ANONYMOUS, COLLEGE ATHLETE

**Pictures do not represent the author in the blog piece.

Athlete Stories Form:

These are raw thoughts from an anonymous Mpowher Athlete member. Most athletes have similar experiences and thoughts. Submit a snippet from your life struggles, joys, embarrassments, and fun (it can be done anonymously). Sharing your story will help other athletes know that they are not alone when they are going through a particular experience.