Run YOUR race – It’s the only one you are guaranteed to win
Run YOUR race
With the World Athletic Championships on the screens this week (and the topic PJ and my daily check-ins) it is no surprise it would be the topic of this week’s piece 😊 There are so many things we can learn from these amazing athletes in their respective fields. I find it so inspiring watching them compete, but even more so knowing that it took extreme sacrifice, commitment and laser focus to get there in the first place. I would love to share some of my thoughts:
Being world-class doesn’t happen by standing on the sidelines: I love listening to the commentators, they have some amazing quotes. One that stood out was when the commentator of the women’s pole vault final said: “Champions come through when they need it the most.” The reason they can come through is because of their sustained, focused effort. There is no coming through if you didn’t put in the practice.
It isn’t about how hard you fall, but about how quickly you can get up (cliche alert, we know): It doesn’t mean that coming through will always result in a gold medal. Sometimes it is picking yourself up when you fall. There have been a few examples of people who have taken some horrific falls. One which was particularly spectacular, not because of the stumble but because of how fast she got up and regained her composure. Sifan Hassan was trying to pick up the first leg on her quest for three medals. In the final lap of the women’s 10,000 m, she had streaked past Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia and was holding her off. But Tsegay closed in, and as they reached the final few steps, Hassan went tumbling taking another athlete down with her. She had one day to pick herself up and compete in the 1500m semi-final – and oh boy did she compete! She went on to win a bronze medal in that event. Don’t barrier up when you are disappointed by the outcome or by other people. Stay vulnerable and keep going. There is no reward without the risk of failure.
You may be using the wrong leaderboard to measure your performance: It happened a few times that athletes were looking at the stadium screens while running and slowed down. But the images on the screen were delayed by a couple of seconds, with their rivals being closer than they expected. When we use the wrong metrics to measure our performance, we can either fall short of our potential or we can end up overestimating our performance. We must make sure that we choose our advisors, our metrics, and the people that we look to for advice with discernment. They must be honest with us, and we need to be open to hearing them.
Focus on your learnings: “Every experience is a positive experience if I view it as an opportunity for growth and self-mastery” (Brian Tracey). Teenage athlete Agate Caune runs an amazing race in the 5000m semifinal. It looks as though she will be taking the top position with her impressive lead. But she had peaked too soon! She forged a massive lead, out on her own, before being caught and passed by the more experienced Chebet, Tsegay and Margaret Kipkemboi on the final lap. Caune, who turned 19 earlier this month, was rewarded with a personal best of 15:00.48 and a top-eight spot to qualify for the final. Her race was impressive, but if she is not able to take stock and realise that she needs to make a few adjustments to her strategy in the final then she will surely not grow. Every experience is an opportunity to learn something valuable.
You will win if you run your race in your lane: Caune, the athlete from the aforementioned example, might very well not have been focused at all on what was happening to the rest of the field because she was running for her own personal best. As an outsider, it looked like she was making a huge “strategic mistake” running so far ahead of the rest. I even said to my husband she wouldn’t be able to hold the lead. But maybe that wasn’t her end goal: she might just have wanted to see how fast she could run the race. She was competing with herself, with her personal best. She was not at all distracted by what the commentators were saying, or what the other athletes were doing. When we run in our lane and run our own race, we take off the pressure and regain our focus. We are less distracted. I am not saying we need to be ignorant. That would be silly. But we can do well to stop looking around so much.
Winning together is better than not winning at all: The women’s pole vault final was AMAZING! Give it a watch if you haven’t yet. Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon pushed each other to amazing heights, with both of them clearing an amazing 4.9 metres. They are tied for gold and they opt not to do a jump-off, but rather to split the Gold. Winning is winning, even when we have to share the victory.
Lastly, another great quote by the commentators: “Favourites don’t always win. It’s moments like these that inspire greatness in everyone else.” (possibly one if the best quotes ever, according to me). Remember, just because you are not the favourite to succeed or to win – even if the mountain seems insurmountable – it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t show up and give it your best!
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