Go for the Gold in Your Life
With the Summer Olympics ending in London this week the flame of the Olympic Spirit burns bight though the stories of generosity of sprint.
This sprit exists in the moments when all of the world’s people come together to salute an athlete regardless of his or her nationality. Mostly, it’s when someone shows the power of the human spirit far from any chance at the medal stand. I’d like to share two of my favorite stories from the XXX Summer Games.
Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee 400-meter runner from South Africa dubbed the “Blade Runner,” showed up to inspire the world, although he kept reminding that wasn’t why he came.
“I just wanted to do my best,” he said. “I’m a competitor.”
Go as far as you allow yourself to go. The only limits are the ones you create for yourself!
My other favorite story what that of Guor Marial. As a child born in war-torn Sudan, he saw 28 of his family members killed, including eight of his 10 siblings. He was beaten, enslaved and only escaped by running, literally, to his freedom.
Now immigrated to America but not yet a citizen, he competed here in the marathon, only not for Sudan. He refused that. A new nation, South Sudan, has been formed, but it had no Olympic committee. Marial, a 2011 graduate of Iowa State University, was allowed to come under the IOC flag – to compete as a citizen of the world and force the rest of us to remember the mountains some have to overcome just to have a chance.
“The Olympics,” Marial said, “reminds you of a world which has nothing to do with killing each other. It is about a world of living peacefully.”
These are just two stories that captured the human spirit of the games. There are many many more.
As I reflect back on the summer games I had a thought….The Olympics are really about life lessons of:
Hard work
Dedication
Great Coaching
Friendship
Respect
How will you take these life lessons to GO for the GOLD in your LIFE?
Want to explore further? Email me at sarahucoach@yahoo.com to schedule a complementary coaching session with me.