Going for Gold
This morning there was something about Lysacek’s interview on the morning news that was a tap, tap, tap on my shoulder and psyche.
He said he had to thank the male skaters who stood on the medals podium at the previous Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, because watching them was so inspirational to him. So he had that vision before him, held it, and then continued to work and work.
Scott Hamilton made an appearance during the interview and said, “No one worked harder or put in more time than Evan did.” Lysacek said he trained every day and spent countless hours on the mundane parts of his routine. He said he practiced thousands, even hundreds of thousands of times.
Inspiration + hard work = Gold sometimes
Lindsey Vonn waxed emotional after winning the gold for her skiing performance and said she was surprised at “watering up” (crying) but that her gold medal performance had been the accumulation of years of work and wanting it.
Are there lessons here for writers?
What inspires is different for each of us.
What inspires you?
Write it and post it where you can see it. Visualize it. Draw it. Collage it. Vision board it. Create whatever will keep it in front of you.
Do you want it enough?
Can you find clarity and focus?
Do you enjoy it?
Do you love doing it? Not just the idea of being it?
If you want to become a writer, dip into that inspirational well within and begin writing. And keep writing. Are there mundane aspects to writing? Oh yeah. Do you need to work hard to be successful? Absolutely.
Even when you’re tired, write some more.
So today I send an energetic shout out to those Olympic athletes for their hard work, their determination, their character, talent, competitive spirit and congratulate them on dreams come true.
Besides being fun to watch, they inspire me and they remind me that dawdling and bouncing around only get you so far. They remind me to be focused and to work hard. Visualizing success is not enough.
See the gold. Go for the gold, and I promise, the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.
