Fighting and fighting and fighting and fightning

Lepchenko wins and advances into the fourth round at the 2015 US Open

I'm not a huge tennis fan, but I do love to watch the US Open. I happened to catch the end of a great match between American Varvara Lepchenko and Mona Barthel of Germany. 

At the end of the match, Lepchenko was interviewed about her win. The question was something along the lines of "How did you do it? How did you pull this win out?". Lepchenko, with a big, sweaty grin, said "I kept fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting."

She went on to express her gratitude for the support of the fans, and her emotions about advancing for the first time in her career to the fourth round. It struck me as a very emotional speech, right from the heart, pure and raw. 

I really connected to her statement about fighting. It made me think about the deep connection between the mind and the body and how important it is to achieve success in physical pursuits. As a triathlete, I know that when the mind is strong, the body is strong. There have been so many times when I've been training or racing when I know that the only reason I was able to complete the task was because I knew I could complete the task. I kept fighting. Fighting doubt, fighting fatigue, fighting the voice inside that says "This is stupid. Go home."

You don't have to be a professional athlete (or even an amateur one) to understand and work towards achieving a strong connection between the body and the mind. It can be present in a short workout, or a long run. And yes, we all have days where we head out for a swim, or head to the gym for an hour, and it just doesn't work. What do we say in those instances? Often times we say "My heart wasn't in it."

I think that's a way of saying we just didn't fight to finish it that day.