Final Push - Your Gift

It was a bright but brisk Sunday morning as I took my 13-year-old to soccer conditioning workouts a couple days ago. Mind you this is just conditioning…running, sprinting, agility drills, etc. Any family member that wants to join in is welcome. So, being who I am, I took the challenge and said sure…I would work out with the boys. As the coach paired off the boys for drills, he naturally paired me with my son. After some warming up, we started sprint drills.

Each pair races. First ten yards, then 20 yards, etc., ultimately up to 100 yards. In the first sprint, it was close, but I edged him out at the finish. In each race we were very close, but I noticed that the difference was not in the speed but in the mindset. As I would approach the ¾ mark in each sprint, something in my brain would kick in to drive me to another level of performance…in other words…I finished hard.

This was a reputation that I always had growing up in sports and in life. While I was never the fastest or the brightest, I had the most endurance and if within striking distance, could outkick most to the finish. It won me races and has given me a great lifestyle.

But then something unfortunate happened. Just when I was becoming a legend in my own mind…somewhere 30 yards into a 50 yard sprint, my mental afterburner kicked in one more time and instantly, simultaneous with the thought, it felt like a sniper’s bullet pierced the back of my left thigh muscle. The searing pain that shot up my leg was a good old fashioned hamstring pull. I hobbled to the finish and Ben gloated as he cruised by me. Nice!

It seemed that this was a microcosm of my life…my mind flooded with testosterone, going for the win, pushing myself beyond limits but the problem this time – I was doing it in the wrong game. My teenage mindset was a bit out of place in a 50+ year old body…But did I learn from that? Of course not.

I kept running the other drills until I blew out my right hamstring as well. Now barely able to jog let alone run, the lessons started seeping in. Great attitude…wrong game.

The truth is…everyone has a gift. Something that you were either born with or developed by hook or crook over the years. Some skill, some mindset, some insight, something so powerful that when applied, you are unstoppable. And if your “Little Voice” just said, “I don’t have anything like that…,” tell it to shut up because your “Little Voice” is wrong!

Be awesome!

Blair