As
the Olympics draw near, I’m reminded of an old Glen Campbell song (stay with
me, you'll see the comparison.)
In
Glen's song, “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife”, the lyrics from the 1968 hit,
“Such are the dreams of the everyday housewife,
you see everywhere any time of the day, an everyday housewife who gave up the
good life for me,” make me think of all the dreams and goals women have given
up over the years.
We
all grow up with dreams for our future. They might be as simple as having
a certain number of children, a dream job, living in endless sunshine, becoming
a professional athlete... something, somewhere along the line, becomes a dream
of what your life will be like when you "grow up."
Then
“life” gets in the way. Yes, some dreams
are achieved, but many fall by the wayside. And even if we are able to pursue our dreams without a hundred obstacles getting
in the way, one little thing can derail us in a second. A heartless comment. A bad day.
The gnawing feeling of failure. It can all make us second-guess why we think we can succeed where others have failed.
Now,
think of the athletes from every country competing at the Olympics. The elite.
The best. And all but one in each
event could easily perceive themselves as a “loser.” It’s hard to believe they’d think that way,
yet many do.
In
a study, Olympic silver medalists are generally less happy than Bronze medalists.
Crazy, right? It's the way they look at the results – the silver medalist
just missed first place, while the bronze
medalist is happy because they received a medal at all.
How
can someone who has worked so hard, given up years of their life to hone their
athletic skill, feel that way? These are
people who don’t give up. “Quit” is not
in their vocabulary. And they’ve done everything possible to reach for their
dream.
That in
itself is success. We also have people who’ve fought for the future even though
they themselves won’t benefit. Look at
the upcoming Olympics. There wouldn’t (finally!)
be a women’s ski jumping event if it wasn't for the women before this, fighting
for equal rights in sports. Canada's Katie Willis is one of the many women who
fought for the sport to become an Olympic event. And although she has
retired from the sport (at the ripe old age of twenty-two) she’ll be cheering
for the women who will make history this year in the event.
In
life, we all feel down at times. We have
a bad day, things look like they’ll never be “up” for us again, and it’s easy
to throw your hands up and say “I give up.”
Or, we do succeed at
something, and then we keep setting the bar higher until our expectations are
unrealistic. When do we look at
ourselves as a "success"???
And
at what point do we give up on our dreams? Have you given up on yours?
What
is YOUR "ski jump"? Mine is writing. I can't stop—nor do
I want to. What about you? Have
you given up on something you wish you wouldn't have? What stopped you
from achieving your dream? And is it too late?
