Watching The Olympics over the past few weeks has really gotten me thinking about dreams. When
you're an Olympic athlete, you train so incredible hard for at least the four years prior to your games, if not your whole life. Imagine the 40 hour work week that the typical American puts in. Now imagine having to push yourself to the most extreme physical limits of your body for that amount of time, every week, for years and years. Even more than that, you don't get holidays off. Your body needs to stay in top form, so you work it every single day. In the end, you go through all that relentless training for years and years, all for just those few minutes on stage. That's such a heavy weight. These athletes have so little time to prove what they really can do and how hard they've worked for all that time to get up there on that stage.
Even worse yet, if they mess up, be it nerves, or be it just a temporary lapse in judgment or slight miscalculation - They can't undo it. They were given only those few minutes, and it won't ever be possible to get that back again. Sure, there might be other years, but it will never be the same. After they've slip up, they've already tarnished what the country that they represent and what the people of the world think about them. Not only that, but they've even let down themselves and diminished their idea that they could make their dreams come true. Athletics may be mostly physical, however it's also a large portion mental - Once that athlete falls into that mindset that they might fail again, it's hard to come back from that. They may never be able to compete at the same level again because they can't get over there mental obstacle that they might fail. All because of what happened during their one defining moment.
Whereas if you and I typical people work a regular, boring office job, We can screw up many times. We will never have that one truly defining moment of our careers that is nearly close to that of athletes and The Olympics. We will never be able to truly face a challenge like that, that will either make or break our careers. Most every challenge that we face in a regular job can be fixed. And never at any time will any one of us with regular jobs ever have as many eyes looking at us, watching us, and judging us if we fail as an Olympian does at The Olympics.
For any athletes choosing to take the less-traveled, more risky path of becoming an Olympian, I admire that. I don't have that strength. I don't even pursue my comparatively small dreams because I'm afraid of failure, and it's not even nearly to the extent of that of an Olympian. Even less than that, I can't even mentally face the challenge of potentially disappointing millions, if not billions, of people, let alone if it actually were to happen.
Regardless if you mess up in your defining moment, you still tried. Some people don't even attempt risk. I don't really attempt risk either. Maybe that makes me a fuddy duddy, but I don't think that I will ever have the guts to do anything like that. Failure terrifies me, and I admire the fact that athletes face that fear head-on every day to purse their dreams. In defense of people like me, it's easier to have to keep taking steps down when you can't reach the next step up, and have your dreams die slowly over the course of a lifetime, than to lose everything that you've worked for in a single moment.
And every once in a while when these athletes do slip up, and people have the nerve to say "It's your one job, can't you do that right?" - That's ridiculous. Honestly, the people that act like that can back off. These athletes work so much harder than those people for their one defining moment, whereas most of these people have never reached anything nearly of that caliber, so they couldn't possibly understand what all that pressure feels like. Even more than that, the majority of the time, the athlete's worst critic is himself or herself. Don't you think that the athlete get enough grief from themself that they don't need help from other people, too?
Maybe I do take this a little too personally, but I can't stand how ridiculous some people can be. They get much too competitive. You might need a gold medal to make history, but making history doesn't make you a winner. It's overcoming obstacles, working hard for what you want, and being a team player that makes you a winner - The fact that they got that far is already what makes them a winner. Gold medals prove accomplishment, not character. Yes, the gold medal is the nice cherry on top to prove to the world what a winner you are, but it's not what makes you the winner.
I have so much respect for Olympic athletes. These athletes work so hard their whole lives just for the few minutes that they get in the spotlight. That determination that they believe that they can make it is really what's amazing. No matter what happens, I hope these athletes know that they're still appreciated, no matter the outcome, just because they made it that far.
Even worse yet, if they mess up, be it nerves, or be it just a temporary lapse in judgment or slight miscalculation - They can't undo it. They were given only those few minutes, and it won't ever be possible to get that back again. Sure, there might be other years, but it will never be the same. After they've slip up, they've already tarnished what the country that they represent and what the people of the world think about them. Not only that, but they've even let down themselves and diminished their idea that they could make their dreams come true. Athletics may be mostly physical, however it's also a large portion mental - Once that athlete falls into that mindset that they might fail again, it's hard to come back from that. They may never be able to compete at the same level again because they can't get over there mental obstacle that they might fail. All because of what happened during their one defining moment.
Whereas if you and I typical people work a regular, boring office job, We can screw up many times. We will never have that one truly defining moment of our careers that is nearly close to that of athletes and The Olympics. We will never be able to truly face a challenge like that, that will either make or break our careers. Most every challenge that we face in a regular job can be fixed. And never at any time will any one of us with regular jobs ever have as many eyes looking at us, watching us, and judging us if we fail as an Olympian does at The Olympics.
For any athletes choosing to take the less-traveled, more risky path of becoming an Olympian, I admire that. I don't have that strength. I don't even pursue my comparatively small dreams because I'm afraid of failure, and it's not even nearly to the extent of that of an Olympian. Even less than that, I can't even mentally face the challenge of potentially disappointing millions, if not billions, of people, let alone if it actually were to happen.
Regardless if you mess up in your defining moment, you still tried. Some people don't even attempt risk. I don't really attempt risk either. Maybe that makes me a fuddy duddy, but I don't think that I will ever have the guts to do anything like that. Failure terrifies me, and I admire the fact that athletes face that fear head-on every day to purse their dreams. In defense of people like me, it's easier to have to keep taking steps down when you can't reach the next step up, and have your dreams die slowly over the course of a lifetime, than to lose everything that you've worked for in a single moment.
And every once in a while when these athletes do slip up, and people have the nerve to say "It's your one job, can't you do that right?" - That's ridiculous. Honestly, the people that act like that can back off. These athletes work so much harder than those people for their one defining moment, whereas most of these people have never reached anything nearly of that caliber, so they couldn't possibly understand what all that pressure feels like. Even more than that, the majority of the time, the athlete's worst critic is himself or herself. Don't you think that the athlete get enough grief from themself that they don't need help from other people, too?
Maybe I do take this a little too personally, but I can't stand how ridiculous some people can be. They get much too competitive. You might need a gold medal to make history, but making history doesn't make you a winner. It's overcoming obstacles, working hard for what you want, and being a team player that makes you a winner - The fact that they got that far is already what makes them a winner. Gold medals prove accomplishment, not character. Yes, the gold medal is the nice cherry on top to prove to the world what a winner you are, but it's not what makes you the winner.
I have so much respect for Olympic athletes. These athletes work so hard their whole lives just for the few minutes that they get in the spotlight. That determination that they believe that they can make it is really what's amazing. No matter what happens, I hope these athletes know that they're still appreciated, no matter the outcome, just because they made it that far.
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