Why are we amazed by others dedication? Why not be amazed by our own?

First day of the new year at FSC is in the books. Man, our staff is getting bigger. I actually had to sit in the back of the room for the first time in six years. The meetings were painless and I learned a couple of new things that I will need to keep up with for this year. On a side note, insurance has gone absolutely insane. We got a report today that the optional student policy has increased in price by 120%. I can now only imagine how our own insurance will rise this year. Oh well, I’ll deal with that when we find out. I’ve got to have it so I cannot really just bury my head and not be willing to pay for it. I actually wanted to talk more about the Olympic life and I will go that direction. We watch the athlete’s and are amazed by their athleticism or their skill and the dedication that they exhibit to get to this level. We are baffled by the way they sacrifice just for the opportunity to be on that stage. We think that their sacrifice is above our capability and that our lives are too busy to allow ourselves that type of discipline. I personally feel that we are too scared, maybe lazy or not dedicated enough, to allow ourselves the opportunity to see what we can do if we sacrifice towards a particular goal or goals. Four years is a long time to give up all that comfort you have wrapped yourself in but what if you knew after those four years you would be in a better place. That is the problem; you could put in those four years and fail completely. Would you have been a failure or would you have found out that you need to work even harder, or maybe, just maybe you found out you just didn’t have what it took? If the latter is the answer does that truly make you a failure or could it just mean that you saw it through the finish even though it wasn’t the finish you had at the beginning? Who really knows, but most of us will never know because we are unwilling to take ourselves away from our shelter and comfort to see what we are truly capable of achieving. I know, four years is a long time. Heck, two years is a long time to pursue something so why not start with baby steps. Pick a small thing you want to accomplish and sacrifice for one month to achieve it. The problem with that is that you might not see the results you want after one month and for many that is enough to throw in the towel. We have all made sacrifices before because what we wanted was big enough to warrant the choice. There have been times we have sacrificed because we have had to and sometimes we did it completely by accident. I propose that you truly attack something you want to do and sacrifice for one year. If you can do it for a year it will become habit and two years will be a breeze. After two years it will be your lifestyle and results good or bad will become clear. Find that thing or things that you truly want, set your short-term, mid-term, and long term goals, write your action plan and go for it. Make sure you have evaluations of progress set and don’t turn back. 2012-2013 plan for me: top 10 overall for FTR H/S Senior B class. Complete the Tough Mudder in December. Regain my game and begin competing in the over 40 class in the men’s tennis circuit. Oh yeah, work with my team at FSC to help them achieve the goals and dreams they have and push them to heights they want to get to and don’t truly know if they can get there. There was a movie titled the Peaceful Warrior and one scene of the movie talked about how important the journey was when chasing a dream. We all remember the journey even when the goal has passed. Enjoy your journey, it makes the grind bearable.