The perfect stop

You aren't always going to get the perfect ringlet when you're using a curling iron.

And if you play darts you probably aren't going to hit bull's eye every time, either.

Even though we'd like for things to end as wonderfully as we've planned, those home runs we want often take much longer than we think our hearts can take.

Two of my precious athletes (one injured and one team manager) were helping me time at the track meet on Saturday, and they created their own little game where they spent almost the entire meet trying to get the exact same times on their stopwatch screens. It's a pretty challenging thing to do when you're going down to hundredths of seconds, but they had fun making the efforts and comparing their screens after each heat finished.

I love how entertained people can be by the simplest things.

Sometimes it happens.

Toward the end of the meet, they came darting toward me, joyously shouting, "Coach Merrill, we did it!" I was in the middle of talking to a runner about a race she'd just run, so it took me a couple of seconds to process what they were talking about, and then they proudly displayed their matching stopwatch times. Their expressions were full of almost as much elation as mine when I found that blue raspberry Jolly Rancher in my backpack a few hours prior. I told them how much pride I felt in that moment for them, and they gleefully ran back to the finish line to continue their responsibilities for the day.

Oddly enough, this happened one more time before the meet ended, and they made sure to run over and tell me all about it. I couldn't help but smile at how much joy they found in something about which most people wouldn't really care too much. But they had invested so much effort into it, and it became important to them. You've got to love their dedication.

There are far too many times in life where we miss the mark, and it's easy to become discouraged. You didn't hit your goal time in a race you ran; you bombed that test you studied all night for; you said the complete wrong thing to a friend who really needed some encouragement; you accidentally made a peanut butter and mustard sandwich for lunch, because you were so tired and didn't grab the jelly out of the refrigerator that morning; you realize you got entirely the wrong impression about someone; you didn't quite estimate correctly just how much space there was in that parking spot; you bought a dress that looked a lot better on the mannequin; you threw an interception that was supposed to be a touchdown.

Life is full of those missing-the-mark moments.

But it makes things seem that much sweeter when you keep going and finally get it right.

You finally got that PR; you aced your final exam; you helped a friend when he/she needed you the most; you made the best sandwich this world has ever seen; you gave someone a chance; you executed the greatest parallel parking job the streets have ever allowed; you wore a dress you didn't try on and made Beyoncé look so yesterday; you threw the winning touchdown pass to clinch the championship.

Life is also full of those moments where you actually hit the mark.

And those are simply beautiful.

I think the important thing to remember is to persevere through the hard times. I got the privilege to cheer for a couple of my friends in the Austin Marathon over the weekend and see them achieve what they went there to do.They've been training their tails off for months, and their smiles when they finished were absolutely contagious. They hit the mark.

I'm one of the most imperfect people I know, so I'm constantly shooting arrows in wrong directions in so many areas of my life. But that doesn't mean that it's time to stop trying to get them right in the center of the circle. At some point, it will happen; if it doesn't, then it wasn't supposed to. Simple enough.

But, if it does, I know I'll want others to feel the joy—even if it's in the form of matching stopwatches.