The Olympics break in every two-four years and transfix a nation.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
I love the Olympic Games. It is exciting, heart-wrenching at times. It is the closest many of the millions of us watching will ever get to the best in the world. It is a show of incredible athleticism that inspires young and old alike.
Inspiration and action are completely different things however, but I watch my children awed by what they see, exposed to sports and games they may not have seen otherwise, and a young child’s desire to be great at something. That is inspirational and something to be encouraged, even if they never become the best in the world. Because that truly makes no difference.
I believe in the power of the process. All of us can strive for more than what we can do already. Being the best is not always the ultimate goal, being better is.
Funny story: When I was about 8 years old my coach asked my teammates and I who wanted to go to the Olympics. He was asking to motivate us, to remind us of the hard work it takes to be the best. Hands all around me shot up as high in the air as Hermione Granger’s on her first day at Hogwarts. Mine remained down. I didn’t feel like the pressure was worth it. I wanted to compete at the college level and leave the Olympics to someone else.
I believe in dreams, but I also believe that real life is worth the same pursuits.
You all know that great quote from John Lennon. Well life is also what is happens while you are busy blogging (or other countless tasks). We spend so much time talking about change instead of living it. We spend time worrying about the state of the world and how we can make it better, while other people are living it. We spend time chronicling our lives instead of living them.
I was able to spend time at my cousin’s small organic farm last week on our travels. He admitted he doesn’t spend time worrying about the local coal mine, or GMOs, or even the future of our food supply. He just lives what he believes and that does make a difference in the world. The community of ranchers, farmers, winemakers, and coal miners can sit next to one another at a bar and then stand together when threatened with fracking is reality. They are living their principles, not politics.
I believe we need those of us who worry, who write, who research, who explore, but we need those who are simply living their work so the rest of us can follow where our passions lead and together we can change the world.
What does this all have to do with the Olympics again? Find your passion, muster your motivation, and do something that matters. We can apply that to the Go Green Get Fit Challenge or to reducing our impact on the environment or fighting for a cause near to our hearts. To change the world we must first change ourselves.
Do the Olympics inspire you to anything more?
