A story is told about an athlete who was in a competition and his fans cheered him up at the opening celebrations. He was a 10,000 meters champion from a local competition and it was his debut national challenge. He was confident as people cheered and as the reporter interviewed him, he said his eyes were set in nothing less than victory; he was hungry for a win. Therefore, when his turn came and the gun blasted, he shot like an arrow that knows exactly where to hit. The crowd cheered as they shouted his name in high tones; he felt that he could not to let them down. This gave him the impetus to keep runing and the strength to stay in the lead.
However, after the first five laps the crowd seemed drained, all its energy and was becoming quieter with every lap. Eventually, the stadium went silent save for a few random cheers. After a few laps some runners quit while others slowed their pace but he increased his pace. He maintained top speed consistently and even when nobody was cheering he did not slow down a minute. He knew that his life depended on the race and winning it would achieve his childhood dream. When the whistle blew for the last lap, he combined all his power and ran towards the finishing line with a speed that triggered the whole stadium to stand up and cheer him on.
He finished strong, breaking a record by winning by a huge margin from the second placed runner. When he was being interviewed, he said that he appreciated the cheering from his fans but his motivation was not determined by them. He was committed to his dreams than to his fans and that is why he never let them down. He added that even when the silence was killing others and making them quit, he could hear his ambitions cheering him on; he was passionate about what he had put his mind into doing.
I could not fail to notice the winners’ attitude displayed by this man. As the year begin,s we have our pens busy as we scribble the so called resolutions that we want to achieve by the end of the year. We are passionate about it and at the moment we feel like we can grab the world by its horns. We don’t dare dream small because we feel deep inside of us, greatness calleth and we cannot settle for anything less than making it happen. However, as days turn into weeks and weeks pile into months, we drag our feet, we fold our hands and we end up crawling on what made our hearts jump. When nothing seems to motivate us, we end up sliding off the chase. When people stop noticing our initiatives, we become emotional and we wave away greatness and walk away. When those who believed in us seem like they forgot about our existence, we send resignation letters to our victory. Besides, we red card our journey and think that joining the crowd makes us better than facing the challenge full course.
Lesson: Firstly, if we will ever achieve anything, we ought to be more committed to our dreams than to our ‘fans’; they can shift allegiance and walk away but our dreams remain if they are true. Time to please people ended with slave trade; life is too short for you to run your life for people who are mortal, let’s run for immortal causes. Secondly, we ought to learn how to separate emotions from our dreams; expecting people not to hurt you is a standard too low to settle for. If you can effectively handle your expectations, you can handle life like a pro. Face life!
Lastly, our ‘friends’ can stand with us at the beginning of a journey but the world will stand for us when they see us marching towards the finishing line. This year show the world what you are made of and chase your resolutions (read dreams), even when you feel like you are walking through the valley of the shadow of silence. You are marked for greatness.
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