By Charles Jardine
Assistant Editor
“There’s something in today,” said Rev. Rufino Corona, TOR, in his homily during Household Life Mass.
As an athlete, this stuck out to me when I think about my bad practices and finding the meaning in them.
There are three kinds of bad practices, which can also be adapted to the different situations in life.
The first kind of bad practice is “bad me, bad performance.” This means that something is off within myself, and it becomes evident in my performance.
As an athlete these are the toughest days, but there is something in that day still.
In our daily lives, these are the low moments. During these times you often feel helpless and continue to think you’re failing.
The importance of these days can be just showing up and continuing to put in the work. This improves your discipline and willpower because sometimes the best thing to do is just to continue to put one foot in front of the other.
The second kind of bad practice is “good me, bad performance.” These are the days when I feel fine, but my performance is bad.
These days are tough because we often don’t know what is going wrong and worry that it is something within ourselves.
In sports when you’re in a groove, you are able to feel what is going right and what is going wrong. You are able to make corrections very quickly.
However, when you’re in this state you feel what is going wrong, but when you try and make corrections it gets even worse.
This is very similar to our daily lives when we study hard for that test, feel good about it but then fail it miserably.
These days destroy our confidence and test our patience. These days remind us that we are not performance-driven.
Our dignity lies in being made in the image and likeness of God. These days teach us humility and that we are not on top of the world.
The last kind of bad practice is “bad me, good performance.” These days are okay.
It is hard to be a student, to be a person or to be an athlete and often you feel like you are just getting by. Yet, in this stage you are performing better than you feel you should be.
These days are the opposite of the previous. During these days, your performance often helps pick you up.
In sports, it is helpful to have a great coach who can help you through these days. When you feel off but throw well, it usually means that you are doing everything right, and having a good coach can help you realize that.
In our daily lives, this can be a good friend or mentor who helps point things out when we are telling them about our day.
The point I’m trying to push here is that every day has meaning to it. It is easy to see the value in good days, but often we want to move on from bad days.
Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players ever, said he loved to lose. Not because he liked losing, but because it told him there was something more that he could do to improve his game.
This is a mindset that we need to adopt. Bad days teach us much more about ourselves than good days and will help us grow into the individuals that God has called each one of us to be.