Tag Archives: Olympics

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

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“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

– C.S. Lewis (attrib.), author of the Narnia books

460Image from Flickr by soupboy.

With the Olympic Games in Sochi taking place right now, I was curious to learn the age of some of the oldest athletes. Among some interesting anecdotes, I learned about Ann Abernathy who was called “Grandma Luge” for her participation in the 1988 Calgary Games, the 1992 Barcelona Games, the 1994 Lillehammer games, the 1998 Nagano Games, the 2002 Salt Lake City games and the 2006 games in Turin.

In her final Olympics she wore a red helmet to honor women over 50 that go out and do what they want to do.

The commentator on her final games called her “Nonna Olympia” or “Grandma Olympics” and in a ceremony at the Olympic Village, the Major presented Ann with an Olympic Torch in honor of her achievement.

Exercise:

What goal have you yet to set, or dream have you yet to dream, because you think you’re too old or it’s too late?

#83: “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions…”

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“…Our inner balance, and even our very existence, depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.”

– Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist

Watching the Olympic Games over the past couple of weeks has been a highlight of my summer. Beyond the gold medals and extraordinary human achievement, we all got to see some special human moments of great beauty and dignity.

Did you see them too?

  • Athletes showing tears of joy in respect and honor of their country’s national anthem
  • Athletes thanking a higher power for their gifts and achievements
  • Athletes honoring their team-mates and competitors
  • The world coming together in peace to celebrate the human spirit

Exercise:

How can you bring your highest moral values and actions to each day and to those people around you, to experience greater beauty, balance and dignity in your life?

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#82: “It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life.”

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“…The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated… it is finished when it surrenders.”

– Ben Stein, American writer, actor, economist and lawyer

With the 2012 Olympic Games now complete, we can all be inspired by many highlights. Among them are numerous examples of individuals who came up short in previous games, and returned after 4 – 8 years of work to achieve their goal.

Some examples include:

  • Brittney Reese, who won gold in the women’s long jump, after coming fifth in 2008
  • Sanya Richards-Ross, who won gold in the 400 meters, after winning bronze in 2008
  • Allyson Felix, who won gold in the 200 meters, after winning silver in 2004 and 2008

Someone once shared with me the phrase, “What stops people is that they stop.” In virtually all areas of life, we experience various degrees of defeat. When we surrender or stop in our efforts, our failures are final.

Exercise:

Where in your professional and personal life can you keep going and persist in your efforts, to achieve an even more victorious life?

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#81: “A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed…”

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“… I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.”

– Georges Clemenceau, French journalist, physician and statesman

The 2012 Olympic Games recently ended. Each country, team and individual was highly focused on winning gold. What did it mean to the individuals who did not make it to the Olympics, or who did not make it through the preliminaries, the semi-finals, or stand on the podium with a medal?

This year’s Olympics had about 16,000 athletes for a world that contains over 7 billion people. How many medals were actually won and how many athletes, by the lack of a medal, “failed”?

Consider how many other athletes experience the great, often quiet, victories of achievement – of achieving their personal best.

Exercise:

What would be necessary for you to continually strive to surpass yourself?

What would be involved in achieving a “ten” in living? Or, to put it another way, what would you need to do to achieve a gold medal life?

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#69: “There are powers inside of you, which, if you could discover and use…”

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“…would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.”

– Orison Swett Marden

What are we capable of? What is our fullest potential as human beings? Perhaps we can consider the Guinness Book of World Records – or the Olympics – as a starting point.

We might think about great feats in areas such as:

  • Speed at running, or swimming (Ye Shiwen and Cameron van der Burgh both set new world records for swimming in the 2012 Olympics)
  • Endurance and strength (Kim Un-Guk set a weightlifting world record)
  • Throwing, climbing, jumping, shooting… (a team from the Republic of Korea set an archery world record)
  • Writing and speaking
  • Mathematics and sciences
  • Mastery in the arts, music, or other creative disciplines
  • Memory (such as in a spelling bee)

Exercise:

With the above capacities already realized by human beings, what would a “world-record you” be capable of?

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