Life Lessons from the Olympics
“The beauty of sport and the values it portrays”
The Olympics this year was a beautiful intermingling of sportsmanship and emotion. Most importantly the Olympics became a stage that proved that irrespective of being international sportsmen or sportswomen, we are all human in the end.
We live in a reality where everything we do or say is weighed on the scale of competition. Competition compels most people to guise their true selves under a mask of goodness so that they could showcase and make the world believe that there is no one better than them. There are some that tend to assume that expressing disagreement on situations is done for competition thereby causing unpleasant situations. Sometimes constructive criticism is misunderstood. Why? Because most humans of the twenty first century seem to think that everything is a threat or challenge thrown towards them. It is seemingly a race of who crosses the finish line first.
Think for a moment. If each and everyone one of us aspire to step out of the race that we are running with our lives (like many of the athletes at the Olympics did) and attempt to see the world in a better light there may be so many positives that can be taken in order to adjust our mistakes and make sure we do not commit the same mistake again. It may be a learning experience, a chance for us to think twice or even question ourselves as to whether our personal actions may hurt another person who works just as hard to come to the stage they are in life. An opinion is something people will give. Whether you accept it or not is a personal choice that is in your hand because the way we see and perceive things is subjective. But if we look at everything as competition or a threat thrown towards us then that is where everything goes wrong. We should give ourselves a self- check once in a way and try to understand if we do have a mistake on our part without causing pain that can never be repaired to another. Where does winning at all costs take us? Think for yourselves!
We witnessed at the Olympics that each and every human fights their own personal battles. When a few athletes pulled out of races that may have taken years of practice to come to that stage or when some athletes pulled out their knitting kits in the middle of facing international competition we understood that everyone has their very own demons to face. These were beautiful moments that proved that even an individual that is perceived as a professional and is expected to have high emotional stability can have melt moments in life. The reason being that we are all humans with flaws and imperfections.
The Olympians further showed the world that competition is nothing, but being human and self-less is everything. They taught us through the sharing of medals that every individual’s hard work must be acknowledged and that even when in competition it’s not just oneself that gets over the line, but also cheering and encouraging your peers to get over the line with you. This should be the attitude that everyone has.
All in all, it proved to the world that humaneness, a selfless and genuine attitude and personality, fair play and goodness at heart wins above all!
Lots of love and respect to the Olympians who taught us these beautiful lessons of life!
Cheers!
