Two weeks of staying up late for Winter Olympics viewing has brought back memories of my own fantasies of Olympic glory. A lifetime ago I was a sprinter, of the Summer Olympic variety, and I say fantasies rather than dreams as I knew I wasn’t that good, recognising such an achievement was a far cry from the reality of my capabilities.
Natural talent is one thing, but where does that moment come in a person’s life when the dream is so strong it becomes real, it becomes achievable, and it becomes the ultimate goal you are willing to sacrifice so much for over so many years to see the dream become a reality. Where does that commitment come from? How do you sustain it?
What happens to that commitment when you launch out of the starting gate for the downhill, only to come a cropper before you’ve even made it to the first marker flag? What happens when a skating routine you’ve done to perfection over and over again falls apart on the night and you end up on your rear end with wounded pride? How do you get back up and start from scratch after an injury most of us mere mortals would see as the death knell of a sporting career? How do you put the past four years of training behind you and look four years down the track, reliving the moment and seeing a completely different outcome?
Where does that strength of character come from? No doubt the sports psychologists who deal with these men and women would have several explanations and more than one method of bringing their clients from the depths of despair and disbelief back to where they can re-engage with themselves and their sport to the point where the Gold is once more within their sights.
Austrian psychotherapist Viktor Frankl survived the Nazi concentration camps of the Second World War, and his observations in the midst of such horror ring true for any situation of great stress. He saw those who were so intent on their own survival they became immune to the needs and feelings of others, but there were others who maintained their dignity, those willing to sacrifice their own needs for others. They were prepared to suffer the indignities of starvation, degradation and possible death because they could still see beyond the present. They kept a clear picture of what they believed the future held close to their heart. Staying alive so they would be reunited with loved ones, staying true to their values, keeping their sense of humour, these things and more kept them alive.
For good or bad, the events of the past mould us and shape our character, but they don’t have to determine our future. Dreaming of what our own future could be allows us to break free of the mould and chart a new course, but to make it to the winner’s podium, that’s where the commitment and determination come in. All the wishing and hoping, planning and dreaming come to naught if you don’t actually do something, so I end up coming full circle back to whether I have what it takes to produce a literary ‘piece’ of any sort, doesn’t have to be a masterpiece.
Just something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. To finish something would for me be the realizing of a dream. I’m tired of fantasies.
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