My Heart Will Go On

In considering yesterday's race, it's possible that I may have been too hard on myself.

This is a typical problem for me. If I do a presentation and receive five positive comments and one negative one on the evaluations, I only remember the negative one. I've never in my life walked out of anything I've done, a play or a presentation or a workshop or a training, and not dwelled on something that I could have done better.

Now that I've had a good night's sleep and some time to think about it, I wondered if this might be the case. Just this morning, I asked my good friends Angelina Jolie:



Dolly Parton:



and Jennifer Lawrence:



if they thought I was being too hard on myself, while my friend Orlando Bloom asked to see my finisher's medal more closely:



Those two jerks from "Twilight" tried to see it, too, but I pretended not to hear them.



Angelina, Dolly, and J-Law suggested that yes, maybe I was dwelling excessively on the negative. Yes, I was unhappy with my race time, but that was partially my own fault, and I was definitely overlooking the fact that I finished at all. Lots of people wouldn't have.

Thinking about that, I asked a few more friends what they thought.

Brad Pitt wanted me to hit him, as hard as I could.



I wasn't really down for that.

James Dean thought self doubt was tearing me apart.



Maybe he was right. After all, Katie Perry thought I was a firework.



And Dale Jr. thought I was a champ.



Adam Sandler was slightly skeptical of this whole exercise:



Cameron Diaz was bored by the whole thing:



and I didn't really care what Shia LaBeouf had to say:



but Taylor Swift advised me to just shake this off:



and Tom Hanks reminded me that races are sometimes like a box of chocolates, and you never know what you're going to get:



I had a bad race, but it's not the end of the world.

As Channing Tatum and I stared off into the distance, contemplating the race after this one:



Jack Dawson reminded me to never let go:



and I decided that yes, my heart will go on.



There's another race after this one, and I'll do better.

But I also completed this race, and that's also an achievement.