A Recipe for a World Record

Often times, I write when something troubles my mind, or exceeds my heart. This is not the case. Moments of epic proportion are currently not in my vocabulary.

But what I am figuring out is that, these are moments that perhaps cause momentum to flourish. Success does not come over night. There is a fight. Either a fight in our soul, our bodies or our mind that really has to happen in order for success to come about. As I witness these 2012 Olympics, we see the end product. Many athletes are in a race. A race for setting a record and being the best. People closely watch their every move. The real beginning is not the starter gun ringing through the stadium. The beginning starts months maybe decades before.

These beginning months are filled with early mornings and long days. Moments over and over again that push the limit. No one is watching other than their support system that come from family, friends, colleagues, and coaches. Now obviously there is no recipe for a world record or gold medal. However each athlete's common path is the moment in which they face adversity. A fight where they must dig down deep. A place to where only they know they can go.

 My "fight" place is in the chilling crisp stillness. The most vivid times I can remember this is when I would walk to work for my 4 am shift. I was attending college at the time with no car so these walks had to motivate me. But I have realized, that this is when the world is the most still. People who have worked the night shift have not gone home yet. Those who are getting up early are barely turning off their alarms. Late night party people are passed out drunk at this point. The late night critters are getting ready to settle into their holes, and the morning birds have not yet risen to sing. The world is still.

I was left with my thoughts. In my faith, I felt the closest to the significance of knowing God. Normally writing and music have this over powering energy that clarifies these moments for me when I can't be awake at this time. But there is nothing quite like, the stillness of the earth.

Searching in this stillness may just be the recipe to overcome. When we search our hearts for something stronger, it takes us to a place that may even surprise us. We press on for success. We simply cannot become stronger without it.

We can't fake the pain either. The adversity really hurts. It has to in order to make a significant difference. There won't be any cheers for this pain either. No one in our support system would celebrate the idea of failing. We don't cheer until the product of that pain becomes success. The gold medal, the diploma, the birth of a new child, and life long marriage are these products of success.

So my life lesson here is that stillness provides a time to search our adversity. We can't choose the pain. We can't choose how much it will hurt. But we can choose what the product of this pain will be. Will it be a time to quit or a time to succeed? That choice is yours.