Smashing the Flex Capacitor

Athletes never live in the present. They're either focused on re-creating the successes or experiences of the past or driven to make next season their best. This failure to live in the present is especially taxing to athletes attempting to walk away. They continue their accustomed training pattern, just in case they strike up the nerve (or the ordinariness of the world impresses the need) to suit up again. As the days pass on and they've shrugged off the awkward idleness of the competitive season, the intensity and/or frequency of their workouts adjust accordingly. Without a coach or game dictating what they should be working towards, the post-competitive athlete must either find another cause or slow themselves down enough to begin to focus on enjoyment of the present. The discipline and routine that made them an above average athlete must now be re-channelled into becoming like all those easy-going, uncommitted folks they looked down upon for so long. The fact that all those that found joy and contentment in the everyday had things figured out all along is a staggering shock to the psyche. You watch from a distance and wonder what it all meant, questioning all you had done and were; longing for the first time to be something you're not sure you know how to be.