Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with racing. Well… sort of…
I have always heard that one of the first things Race Car Drivers are taught is “Don’t Look at the Wall.” In other words at 190 plus miles per hour where you look is where you go and if you look at the wall… you hit the wall!
But I didn’t want to be quoting hearsay so I asked my friends Rick Whitesides and Josh Laycock, two guys really close to racing if it were true.
Here’s what Rick says, “…you don’t focus on the walls you focus ahead on the track.” He went on to tell me about Italian Racing… “…the first rule of Italian racing: what’s behind you, she’s not important.” He went on to say, ” In other words the car isn’t going backwards down the track it’s going forwards and that’s where your attention should be.” and to sum up if it were true he said “The answer is: pretty much.”
Josh told me he always heard “there are two types of drivers… ones that have crashed and ones that will eventually crash.”
Here’s why this is important! I’ve been bothered the past couple of weeks because I keep encountering people who are looking at the wall!
One person in particular who is the most forward thinking person I have ever met… and he’s not even that old. He’s been fixating on what will go wrong. An outcome he clearly does not want yet none-the-less he is fixating on it big time! I guess that’s where Josh’s quote comes into play… we all look at the wall at some time.
One of the other things Josh mentioned was, “Indy 500 veterans always say “rooks” drive differently after they’ve hit the wall for the first time.” And there’s a lesson there. Once you hit the wall… change what you focus on!
Here are a couple of other quotes I found…
“You can focus on what you’re thankful for and become a better person, or you can focus on what you’re disappointed about and become a bitter person.” – Mark Goulston (author of Get Out of Your Own Way).
“Your focus is your reality.” – Qui Gon Jin (Star Wars I)
I hope my friend, I and you get this message. We all need it from time to time.
Focus on where you want to go!
Look for what’s ahead!
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