What GOAL Should You Dive Unto?

Photo from USA Today Sports (Shaunae Milller & Allyson Felix)

I live vicariously through the female track and field athletes.  I know one should never have regrets, but I truly regret not participating in any organized sports during my childhood, teens or adult life.  Maybe if I had, I would not have found myself back in 2006 at my heaviest weight of 318 lbs.  Thankfully, I have shed the weight, but my LOVE and respect for female track athlete’s is borderline obsession.

SO you can imagine how I have been glued to the television during this amazing Olympic time.  Last night I waited in immense anticipation for the women’s 400-meter final in which Allyson Felix was expected, by many to bring home the gold.  But something BAZAR happened. Something that blew my mind!  Her competitor, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas dove across the finish line to win the race.  Yes, you read it right, DOVE!  Allyson and Shaunae were so close till you had to see the replay a couple of times to see who the gold medal winner was, and indeed, Shaunae, thrusting her entire body to the track and diving got her the gold by a few inches.

At first I thought, how distasteful and un sportsmen like.  Yes, I found it odd that in a sport where you are to use your feet, legs and arms to win, one would resort to diving like in an Olympic swimmer, initially impacted me negatively.  I almost felt like Ms. Miller resorted to “un sportsmen” like tricks all for the sake of winning.

THEN I had to take a step back and think……….

I said to myself, “wow, this young lady wanted the gold that bad till she was willing to fling her flesh onto a hard track all while going at a very high speed.  The risk she took of hitting her head, breaking a bone, causing internal damage, etc. was not higher than achieving her goal, which was to win! Think about it guys, what if in her dive she caused a permanent injury to herself?  Would the dive have been worth the gold? And I am sure in her mind, it was.  So that leads me to ask myself and you, how bad do you want the goals and dreams in your life?

Shaunae Miller wanted it badly, and isn’t that what separates winners from losers?  Now that I have had all night to think about this race and its outcome, I do not see what Ms. Miller did as desperate and un sportsmen like anymore.  In fact, I have a new found respect and admiration for her.  I see it as a woman who set a goal and by any means athletically permitted, did whatever it took to achieve it.  Many times in life, you will have to do things that others will see as desperate and strange all for the sake of obtaining a dream.  I am sure people thought the early space explorers were mentally insane to want to drive a man-made aircraft into unknown outer galactic territory. 

I myself, have done a few things that may not have been seen as the status que all to obtain a goal.  As long as in your quest to win, you follow the permitted rules, as Ms. Miller did, winning at a cost is fine. 

So my take away from this history making race is to ask myself and you, what goals and dreams do you need to dive unto?