Over the past couple of weeks, the world witnessed one of the greatest individual sports performances of all time.
Ever since Athens, where Phelps won 6 gold medals – he has had a massive blanket of pressure wrapped around him – imagine going through your life the past 4 years with everyone asking/wondering/talking about whether you will break Spitz’s record of 7 gold medals in Beijing.
Race after race…. we saw brilliance – not just because he won 8 gold and broke 7 WR’s – but in the way he carried himself over the past 4 years culminating in these past 9 days.
Unlike nearly all sports super hero’s of today — Phelps’s is not covered in tattoos; he never boasts about how great he is; he doesn’t even have an asshole haircut….
He simply - humbly, allows his actions to speak for him.
100+ million people watched him dominate – but I wonder how many of us were so inspired by the greatness we witnessed that we will take something positive and make changes, even just small, yet the major changes in our daily routine to get to the next step in our lives?
We can come up with all the excuses needed not to change – “Phelps is phenonomly talented – I am too busy with my job – I have a family — I will start tomorrow….”
or…..
Many of us get excited after witnessing greatness ….. we start a diet; we exercise; we suddenly work harder at what we do; we excitedly focus; we dream about tomorrow … but when our changes to our daily lives becomes a bit difficult to stay consistent ….we fall back down to where we started….
…most talented people around the world will go through their lives not living up to their talents and abilities.
Because it is so much easier just watching greatness on TV or in the movies … and dreaming about becoming great than it is to consistently focus and work hard and strive to be the best we can be.
Emerson said: “man hopes. genius creates.”
My modern translation of this: “most men sit around hoping to become great … only a few step up and really make it happen…”
Especially if you work for the naseba group …. I challenge you to make the changes in your daily routine and step up to the next level in your job and life.
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2 Responses to “ode to the greatness in man.”
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August 19th, 2008 at 6:07 am
The media are now putting the question out there: Is Phelps the greatest athlete of all time?
Can we class him in the same, if not better category as Tiger Woods, Lebron James etc?
Nice comment about him not ” having an asshole haircut”…but in fact he is just as anyone else who reaches the top very quicly - the somehow seems to stumble down before they pick themselves up again…In November 2004, at the age of 19, Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months probation.
The question I have for Scott, is how does someone pick themselves up after a ” stumble” in life to again achieve gretaness and even be better than before?
August 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
very interesting comment ….
as for Phelps’ teenage indiscretion you refer to … drunk driving at 18 just proves to the world he is not angelic.
however, i can not imagine the stress he must have endured for the past 4 years .. culminating over the past 10 days with the world watching and waiting (many people probably hoping) for him to fail.
your last question has given me the topic for tomorrow’s blog