You are absolutely right Ant as far as you are concerned. But, when and if you do decide to set certain goals, like Billy said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to obsess for the right reasons.
I used to be a fairly competitive bowler, averaged 199 (never could break 200) and am a member of the ABC 700 Club. I have not bowled a full season since 1996 because at a certain point it was no longer fun and started to feel like a job. There were people there that obsessed over bowling, but their lives didn’t seem to be going anywhere outside of the alley. It stopped being fun for me.
I’ll be honest – I started to obsess a little too much over racing after coming back and tried to do too much too fast. Yeah, I’m doing alot better than my first race back in March, but if I had focused a more on just being happy to BE at the track and doing ANY riding, I might have saved myself a couple of injuries. It took a good conversation with my wife to help me be appropriately realistic and remember to stay within myself. My wife is not a dream-killer and supports me 100% but her instincts are very good and reminded me I need to be patient – it will come – just remember to enjoy myself and have fun.
Everyone has made some good points so far on this post, and if any parents have a racer that’s down on themselves because they came in third or fourth, etc., well just point them to this thread or seek out any of the veteran racers (regardless of what class they race) and we will all try to impart some wisdom on them if you need us too.