Gold Chase: Usain Bolt

Permit me to be among the people that will do what many other people will do after the Olympics. I like to pen down some memorable things I learn after every major sporting event in the world.

Last night, alongside with many other uncountable people, I spent 10 memorable seconds watching the battle for the fastest man on the planet which at the end of the day didn't end up being a battle, but an award given to a well-deserving man.

The frenzy is dying down now but the lasting effects of those few seconds will remain with us for a long time to come. A couple of things ran through my head this morning while thinking about the whole race all over again and I'd like to share:

1. He was an early "discoverer" <====
Usain Bolt is 25!!!  and he is the 4th most valuable athlete in the entire world (I read that somewhere; can't find it now); just in case you didn't know that. Nobody builds talent in one day. It all starts with discovering what you have and not ignoring it. Imagine if he had discovered he could run like that and stayed a local/community champion, would we even know his name today? Dude discovered his talent and worked on it. I once read a story about Tiger woods who practised golf everyday at 4am since he was 3 or 4 years old; little wonder he's one of the greatest names in golf today.

I know that many of us are probably past the age of discovery and we are all chasing paper and comfort now, but IT'S NEVER TOO LATE. Imagine if everyone in the world discovered that one thing they are good at and stuck with it; the kind of life we would be living right now will be very amazing.

2. He ran against himself
After the race, as usual there were a couple playbacks in slow motion and one of them showed Bolt running while looking to the left as against looking ahead and at that moment, it struck me that the dude was actually looking at the clock and I thought Wow! who does that? Where other contestants were focused on finishing the race for the chance at a medal, my  guy was there trying to beat his own record by ensuring he did better than the last one.

So here's what I learnt; when you have become so good at what you do, other people do not really matter any more as competition, but you are the only thing stopping you; meaning that the only thing/person stopping you from being better than you are now is yourself. Sharpen yourself. Dare to do better than yourself and stop at absolutely nothing to be better than you are now in the skill you've got.

3. He shared the moment.
This is probably one of the most important lessons in life. Bolt won; not Blake but I'm sure we all saw that they both had the moment. Even though everybody was screaming "Bolt Away" and "Usain" at the top of their voices, dude shared the moment with his friend and fellow contestant. He probably had a choice to have an exclusive celebration, but they both had the moment. Remember at Wimbledon women's finals when Serena Williams won, she ran up to her father first to celebrate. Tiger Wood's father is also a known name today because he helped his son. I could go on and on with examples, but I'm sure we get the point.

Lesson's pretty obvious. Every moment you get in the spotlight didn't happen because of you. It happened because many other people were involved and those other people deserve to be recognized as you are recognized.

So that's it. I hope it made sense.

Side Notes:
a. Very soon, we will start "Bolting." No more planking and stuff. We shall now start the Bolting process. I shall be part of this one. No dulling. :D

b. Did y'all see the London Police tribute? Epic moment people. Epic moment. 

Okay. Have a great week. Cheers!.