“I’m just like Michael Phelps!” he hollered as he jumped into the pool. A few weeks ago at a pool in the backyard of one of my friends, I watched her son swim with great enthusiasm and pride, modeling himself after the swimmer who has taken the Olympics by storm. I’ve been watching the Olympics sometimes with my grandchildren and they were working with their swimming instructor with the same enthusiasm and pride. Joseph, who is only two, even got caught up in the excitement and jumped in with great enthusiasm. But, since he can’t swim, he quickly learned his lesson as we pulled him out of the pool with a mouthful of water!
I love the Olympics! To see all the great athletes who have worked all their lives come to one place to compete is so inspiring! The cameras catch them as they prepare and deal with the stress and mental anxieties. We see their faces up close as they work to do the best performance of their lives. And then we see some of them dealing with the agony of defeat and others beaming with pride and emotion as they bend their heads to receive their medals and stand poised to hear their countries’ national anthems played in China and around the world to millions of viewers. And my pride and emotion is right there with them, cheering them on, empathizing with their defeats, and celebrating their successes. When their eyes tear up on the podium, I’m grabbing for the Kleenex!
Overcoming Challenges and Dreaming Big
And I love the stories about the athletes…stories about the challenges they’ve had to overcome…stories about their dreams and visions of success…stories about the people who have inspired them…and stories about their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families to pursue their passions and make their dreams come true. Each story touches every person in a different way and no matter what sport it is, we are all inspired by all of them.
Once in a while the cameras will catch the athletes in conversation with their coaches or fellow team members and you hear them saying things like, “We can do this,” “That was great,” “Great job!” or “I’m so proud of you.” They are interviewed and they talk about their commitment to their sports and they say things like, “You can never ever quit” or “Our goal was to get the medal as a team” or “I’ve been dreaming about this day since I was 6- years-old.”
Olympic-sized Lessons
We can learn such great lessons for success from the Olympic athletes about hard work, determination, commitment, passion and lofty goals and dreams. We see for ourselves how ordinary people can do extraordinary things. They did it by putting the word EXTRA in front of everything in their lives…extra hard work, extra determination, extra commitment, extra passion and extraordinary goals and dreams.
They won’t all go home with gold medals but they will all go home with great pride that they did their best and that they were part of a group of extraordinary athletes who competed in the Olympics. All of them have inspired a worldwide audience of future Olympians. None of us knows today who these future Olympians are…they could be jumping in pools, balancing on beams, or racing down streets all over the world. Some will not come back, some will move onto other things in their lives, but many of them will be back four years from now because they learned that you never ever give up on your dream!
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Madolyn, Enjoyed reading your words of inspiration re: the Olympics. Yes, determination and perseverance is the "mantra" for Olympians. At convention, I too saw and talked to many individuals who also share some of the same attributes as the athletes.
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