Did you enjoy the Olypmics? I sure did, though I’ll admit with all the coverage NBC gave us, it got a little overwhelming. I sort of miss the old days with Keith Jackson giving us the 3-4 hour show at night with lots of little bits of everything. Anyway, during the last week, my Sports Illustrated game with all the typical articles about the various stars. While reading, one idea sort of stood out that resonated.
The article on young Gabby Douglas, the article described how Gabby’s mother was deeply touched when her daughter said that she wanted her life to count. She told Sports Illustrated, “[Gabby] told me she wanted her life to count for something,” says [Gabby’s mother]. “I looked at her thinking, Wow, this is my little girl.”
Well, don’t we all. I mean, that’s part of the challenge of living in the age of TV and fame–1960s to now, a fairly short period of time in world history. It’s hard for many to accept that their lives will not become famous. I see this in my students who often have no other plan that hoping to get into line for one of the many reality shows that seem to take people off the street. Then, my students surmise, their lives will be made because they’ll be on TV, and they can parlay that into riches. Yet, even for most who get the one dance or song on TV, that never really becomes anything to drive their lives.
Gabby’s sentiment isn’t noteworthy because it is unique, but rather because the journey she took to get there is so familiar for most Olypmic athletes. They toil away in obscurity, pursing their craft for the love of the sport rather than the allure of fame. Gabby knew this too which is why she chose to travel to live half a country away from her mother, to train with Liang Chow, former gold medalist and coach of Shawn Johnson. It was Chow who asked Johnson, before the 2008 Olypmics, “just how great do you want to be” meaning, how hard are you willing to work here in Iowa, here in obscurity. Sports Illustrated knows this; earlier in the magazine, in the article about Usain Bolt, the writer there correctly notes this fact:
For all but a very select number of athletes–tennis players, basketball megastars–the Olympics are a stage larger than any they will inhabit in their lives. Weeks, months and years of solitary practice are rewarded–or not–with nations watching, rapt and expectant.
In other words, they work for hours, day after day, to become excellent at their craft with no guarantee of a payoff. Think back to the Olypmic Trials for the USA. Remember that those other athletes who do NOT come in the top 2 or 3, some who don’t even make the finals, worked as many long days as the winners. The same is typically true for every other country. These athletes are not doing it because of the allure of fame or even for the hope of changing the world with their lives, as noble as Gabby’s dream is. They are doing it for the love of the craft. They are willing to put in the hours because they know that practice produces habits, and they want to build habits of success in obscurity knowing that these habits will carry them through once the heat of the competition begins.
This year as school begins again for many, or as you head back for another work week, don’t lament your labors happening in obscurity. Most of greatness happens just like that, with no one watching. Approach your new classes or now work tasks with the confidence that you are doing good work. Make your every effort, every class at championship level. Whether taking notes or reading for class, sitting in a committee meeting or making a report to the boss, do it like the athletes seeking greatness at the Olympics.
In the end, each of us can be like Gabby, making our lives count for something. We don’t need a gold medal to bring that dream to life….we just need to get out there and live our lives well.