The Master’s Track & Field National Indoor Championships conclude today at the Reggie Lewis Center, in Boston. About 850 Master’s athletes, aged 30 – 90+ have been running, jumping and throwing their way to better health.
It takes passion, inspiration and motivation to continue to remain active and healthy, well into our midlife and senior years. How do they do it?
Well, for starters, they’ve got soul:
Maybe your impossible goal is plain and simple. Once you get healthier, stay there for the rest of your life.
I could try and explain it to you, but you already know what I’m talking about, don’t you? If you are confused, this 30-second You Tube video should clear it up:
There, that’s the point of this Lane 8 message today. We succeed in proportion to our willingness to fail.
Fearing failure is a sure fire way to have success elude you. Who wants that?
Lane 8 is the worst lane in Track & Field. Fast runners are put in the middle lanes and slower runners are assigned the outer lanes. The slowest competitor is always assigned Lane 8.
And in the 400 meters, which I compete in, you stay in your lane the entire race. The way the starting lines are staggered, makes it look like Lane 8 is way out in front, when in fact, it’s the exact same distance as the others.
So many consider lane 8 the worst lane because you cannot see any of the other competitors, until they pass you.
My goal is to be in Lane 8, the worst lane. And I also don’t care if I come in last. Seriously.
Our son (9) says, “Dad, you want the worst lane and you don’t care if you come in last?”
(Pause for effect, and read each of the next three sentences with decent pauses in between)
“That’s right, son, Lane 8. In the finals. At the World Championships.”
I continued the answer for our son, “You can come in last and still be the eighth best in the entire world.”
I then shared the moral of the story with our son:
“You can go through life and set the bar low, reach it, but then live with the regret of wondering what you could have done if you tried harder. Or, you can set the bar ridiculously high, fail, and yet live with peace because you know in your heart you did your very best.”
It’s 5AM, November 17, 2009 here in Orlando, Florida. I write five blogs every single day. Adidas has a tag line, “Impossible is Nothing“!
Nike has one too, “I’ve Got Soul“. It’s even a You Tube video. It’s what I’m I’m craving right now – a little soul.
That video, even though it’s only 63 seconds, never fails to inspire me. How many days, and how many ways, do you inspire yourself before you ever walk out your front door?
Seriously, how many? Hey, you don’t owe me an answer. You’ll never owe me anything. But I challenge you to challenge yourself and ask, “What do I owe myself?“
Here’s another short, quirky You Tube video from jeff noel at University of Oregon and Track Town USA.
If you are not a Track fan, that’s ok. This blog isn’t about Track anyway, it’s about excellence, our physical well-being and our approach to what we do with it.
