Becoming an Ultrarealist
In a recent Strength Running podcast, Jason interviewed Matt Fitzgerald about his new book, The Comeback Quotient. It’s.a collection of stories about athletes who faced setbacks but succeeded in overcoming them. Obviously, I want this book. I wanted it so badly that thanks to Amazon, it will be arriving on my doorstep tomorrow. While I’m waiting, here are three interesting points from the podcast. 1. Matt Fitzgerald is dealing with long haul Covid. Boy, that would suck. Apparently he got Covid in March of 2020, recovered, but six months later was hit with long haul symptoms and has been struggling with it ever since. He’s currently unable to run because of it. Talk about a frustrating situation! Having plantar fasciitis is frustrating, but it’s better than long haul Covid- so I should stop complaining. 2. The distinction between acceptance and embracing a situation. Matt says that people who who overcome difficult situations are “ultrarealists.” They start by accepting the current situation, but then go even farther than that and embrace it. He describes embracing a bad situation as fully committing to whatever needs to be done in the moment. According to Matt, becoming an “ultrarealist” is a key component to staging a comeback, and I’m looking forward to reading more about it. 3. Increase your overall well-being. Certain situations may seem temporarily hopeless. Like Matt can’t cure his long haul Covid today, and my plantar fasciitis won’t be gone tomorrow. But Matt says you can still strive to increase your overall well-being every day. Obviously we all know that lying on the couch reading comic books and eating candy bars for dinner won’t help anything. But we can go one step further and get better in some way every day. Maybe my foot won’t be healed, but can I make my hips stronger? Can I get more sleep? Can I eat a healthier dinner? I can still make my life better. I can’t wait to read this book. He does warn that parts of it may be hard to read, because some of the situations people deal with are very serious, like cancer and depression. But they all make comebacks, so I think in the end it will be inspiring. Just when I needed some serious inspiration, this book appeared on my radar- life is funny like that. Have you heard of this book? Have you read anything else by Matt Fitzgerald?