Motivated By Failure: A Humorous Tale

My husband and I are camping at a state campground with coin-operated showers. It was super dark last night and luckily we had 6 quarters. Three minutes for him, three minutes for me. I don’t need more than three minutes to shower, actually I prefer a quick shower. He headed to the men’s shower and I headed to the women’s. I put in my three-quarters for three minutes and it took me a few seconds to figure out how to make the water hot. Not a big problem, I’ve got over 2 ½ minutes remaining. I’m a bit chilly standing naked in the dimly lit camp shower but I’m still okay. I rinse off, soap up and the water shuts off. Not 3 minutes. Not even close.

My brain fires into hyper-mode. I look at the coin receptacle and I see….a Czech Crown sitting in the return slot. I inserted two US quarters and one five Czech Crown piece. Two US quarters is two minutes in the shower, plus the time I used to mess with the temperature = maybe 1.5 minutes. I must have put the foreign coin in last because the shower started and I hopped in. A five Czech Crown piece looks a lot like a US quarter in the dark. There was no time to think much about my mistake, the soap in my armpits was going to get sticky.

I hear the shower running on the men’s side. Hoping it’s my husband’s shower, I risk it. It’s the final countdown:

I cover up with my towel, run into the dark campground, run to the men’s shower room call my husband’s name, and shout “OPEN THE SHOWER DOOR!!!” He opens the door, I toss the towel on the bench and run into the hot water with my arms up! 5-4-3-2-1 and his shower time is up!! The water turns off.

I did it! Clean, and warm, and no one saw a middle-aged naked lady running through the state campground in the dark. One of my proudest moments.

Freezing camping showers and coaching have a lot in common. Here’s why.

The ‘feel good’ questions might be to ask what ultimate success looks like, and how can you stay motivated by the positive. A great example is a vision board. They are popular. It’s a collage of images you display for yourself to keep your eyes literally focused on success.

A more ‘feel real’ question is what ultimate failure looks like. You don’t need a vision board to be reminded of them. It’s not as popular because it doesn’t feel great. The benefit though is, it is highly motivational.

Success for me was a warm shower, with all the soap rinsed off, comfy pajamas, and reading a book with a glass of wine in my trailer. The moment that was out of reach, I saw exactly what failure meant. It was a cold, naked, wipe-down from a public restroom sink. I was out of quarters. I wasn’t going to wait, soapy and cold, for my husband to realize I was not coming out of the women’s restroom. I made a decision motivated by failure: run.