Are You a Triple Threat?

In Broadway terms, a 'triple threat' is a person versatile in three major skills, mainly singing, dancing, acting and directing. My good friend, Bob Fitch is a triple threat and has won major awards on Broadway, and acted in films in his 40 years career. He is a skillful and highly regarded magician and, also, a magic consultant to David Copperfield and David Blaine. He is much sought after for his mentoring sessions.

In triathlon, when you are a triple threat it means that you swim, ride and run very well. In other words, you have few weak links. Most triathletes have an imbalance, thus possessing a severe weakness contrasted against strengths - and this can threaten your overall performance. Consider the decathlete (Bruce Jenner and Daley Thompson) who trains for ten events, and knows his strengths and weaknesses. If he is a very good sprinter, he may be an average 1,500m runner. He may throw well, yet jump poorly. Yet, there is little space for ignoring weaknesses. You keep working at your weaknesses and trust that your coaching and training strategies and efforts pay off handsomely in the end.

So, when you are not a triple threat what are your options? Do you focus on your strengths and compensate? Do you focus on your weakness and over-compensate? Or, do you leave things as they are because there is not much you can do about such tipping points? If you tip in the right direction, you may leverage on your weakness.

If you are ignorant, learn. If you have bad fashion sense, change. If you cannot run fast, walk faster. We have choices to improve or stay the same.