Choosing Bronze
maybe i should have posted this back when everyone still had Olympic fever, but this came to my mind while i was watching women’s gymnastics a couple weeks ago. but am just now getting it down in words.
we saw a lot of disappointed Americans walk away with the silver medal in the 2008 Olympic Games. be it because the Chinese cheated or maybe not… the night just didn’t go in the American’s favor.
but we have all been in disappointing situations where we feel cheated out of something. deserving of the gold but handed silver. i am speaking metaphorically of course, but i know there have been times when i would have gladly taken bronze because the pain of being so close to gold and losing it was too great.
have you ever felt it would be easier and hurt less after a disappointment, if we all just prepared ourselves for bronze to begin with? or is that simply cheating ourselves?
oy. good question. um (dang, i say “um” all the time and i seem to write it a lot too) so we’ve always heard “go for the gold” and i think we have always assumed that meant, “get the gold or else”. but i dont see it that way. i see it as…apply yourself, do your best, reach for the highest point possible and go for it. its more something that inspires but often times it depletes us if not achieved. i guess its a matter of perspective?
oh…that’s a good question, but I always shoot for the gold. Gold or bust. 1st or nothing. 2nd place is the first loser. But, now that I’m an adult, I don’t participate in competitive sports anymore so I guess the right term would be “be the best I can be.”
i feel that’s cheating yourself. I say do whatever you can possibly do to achieve whatever goal you’ve set, and then if you do come up short, you know it was out of your control. Although, some types of people can’t think that way. Life’s full of disappointments though. You just have to take the good with the bad, and learn from both.