I was at a race recently where my son was competing , and I always remind him to keep a good attitude on race days . We started the day with a new set of tires on the car , and right away I noticed on the first run the car was not behaving as it usually does . The second run was much the same and inconsistency cost him the race .

For the next race day , I decided to lower the starting line launch and make a tire pressure adjustment . During the first run , the car had no starting line rev limiter and again he had to abort the run . Turns out the MSD chip was bad . All I had to do was check it before we went up for that run and I would have noticed the issue and fixed it . I was so mad at the fact that I didn ’ t perform this simple task of checking to see if the starting line RPM chip worked .

So , you could say my attitude , or bad attitude at that point , was controlling my thoughts . It was my son that said , “ Hey , you never know , maybe that was supposed to happen ,” as he just shrugged off the mistake . Right there , I realized that I was making a big deal out of nothing and allowing the mistake to dictate my bad attitude . We didn ’ t do well in the race , but after that incident I realized that it was my choice to enjoy the day or not .

Most days I am faced with a circumstance of some sort that will try to steal my joy . I ’ m sure most of you know exactly what I mean . It takes a mature person to stop and think of how good they have it even when things aren ’ t going their way . That is called the right perspective and something I am learning to apply every day .

Getting back to the races , we always see an array of emotions with round wins and round losses . We give that stupid little win light power to control us in a mighty way . There is a dad and daughter that race at our home track , and let me tell you , this girl is just the sweetest person ever . She always wears a smile even when she loses . One person came up to her at a race recently and said , “ I can never tell if you won or lost because you are always happy .” Her reply was simply this : “ I love every day and I ’ m not about to allow losing a round of racing to make me angry .” Recently , she won a big race and her smile was the same as when she lost a round .

So , let me ask you , how do you act when the win light of life doesn ’ t come on ? There is a choice you have to make about where you allow your emotions to go , and that choice as always , is yours to make . DI

January / February 2024

D . I . COLUMNIST

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