I haven’t posted videos of me lifting at the Rocky Mountain Games yet because I just haven’t figured out how to get them to post correctly. In the mean time, I want to share something that touched my spirit deeply while I was there.
As I was getting changed in the locker room after the games were over, I happened to look up above the lockers. It was covered in inspirational sayings. Nothing fancy just plain paper, with print bold enough you could easily read it from the across the room, about 10′ away. It wasn’t the specific quotes that touched me so deeply, though they were quite good. It was where they hung, and the paper. It was hung right over the lockers next to the showers, and the paper was starting to pit and curl from all the moisture of being so close to the showers. That’s what really got to me.
I was filled with the vision of what that really meant. This was the Olympic Training Center. Only rare occasions such as that weekend did an everyday gal get to train and compete there. But who did get to train and use those gyms and locker rooms everyday, they were the best of the best athletes in our country. Those few athletes with the talent and training it takes to win a spot on a USA team. Athletes with hopes and dreams of competing on the world stage in the Olympic Games, against all of the other athletes from around the world who are the best of the best in their country. These are athletes with abilities that I can’t even begin to imagine, let alone come close to touching.
Here is the part that hit me to the core, no matter how elite, no matter how many medals and competitions they’ve won to get where they are. No matter how much these women had going for them to make them cock sure of themselves. They were no different than any other women, they still need to fill themselves with positive self talk, encouragement and inspiration, and they needed it in the most pivotal room ever; The Dressing Room.
My imagination lingered over how many dreams were probably made or broken in that locker dressing room. How many times has someone sat on those benches, dog tired, in pain and so fed up that they were tempted to not even get dressed for practice. How many got dressed anyway, how many walked away? How many came back from a hard training session, fatigued after working their hardest and still failing the goals set before them? How many came off the field knowing that the injury they just endured will cost them their shot at the games? Do they give up and get on with their lives? Do they dig in and accept the challenges, no matter the time and sacrifice? That room was filled with as much doubt, pain, fear, anger and frustration as any dressing room, I would suggest more, because the stakes are so high, the expectations and commitment so much greater.
I thought about the difference between myself and these elite women. In both the literal and metaphorical sense, how many times would I not even stand up and walk into the dressing room? How many times did I walk out of the room before I even got the the locker?
It was a deep source of encouragement and inspiration to know that even though these elite women have learned the hard discipline of encouraging themselves in the face of fatigue, fear, pain, anger, doubt, and frustration to always keep achieving bigger and better things, that no matter how good you are, somedays you need a little help to light that fire.
Here are a few.
This was my favorite; it’s bittersweet to me. It touches me on many levels.
This made me smile so deep. Every time I drop a bar because the blood is screaming through me I will aim to pick it up those few breaths before I really want to, while it’s still screaming.
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