What image comes to mind when you hear the word “champion?”
The athlete in me sees an Olympic gold medalist. Or the winners of the World Series. Or a state championship team.
In other words, the athlete in me sees a person or team who wins and experiences that awesome feeling of conquering the competition. Of being the best.
At least that’s what I used to see. Until I started coaching sports and running road races.
When I first started coaching high school softball, I saw a team of athletes that I wanted to turn into champions. To me, that meant beating the competition. Winning games.
But I had a problem. All I saw were athletes, competitors who wanted to be pushed to their limits to win games.
So I pushed them.
And they didn’t much like the way I coached.
See, I didn’t take the time to figure out who they were as people. I didn’t take the time to figure out why they liked to play softball and what they wanted to accomplish that season.
After the end of that frustrating, miserable, losing season, I decided I never wanted to coach again.
Those girls didn’t become champions because I didn’t understand what a champion really is.
I stayed away from coaching high school for two years.
In the meantime, I ran a marathon.
Deciding to run the marathon was a tough choice because I knew with my super slow Schaefer speed that I had no chance of winning.
None. Zero. Zip. Nada.
Why would I want to compete in something where the chances of me winning were zero? It didn’t make sense to me to want to run. Because I wanted to be a champion. I wanted to win.
Then at the end of one of my training runs, it hit me. I wasn’t competing against the other runners. I was competing against me.
As long as I finished that marathon, I would beat me. Because 26.2 miles was a longer distance than I had ever run before. And because it was a dream of mine.
SO….I believe a champion is someone who pursues a dream or goal or objective–no matter how big or how small. A champion is someone who TAKES ACTION toward their dreams. A champion is someone who enjoys working hard, never makes excuses and finds a way to do what she dreams.
That’s my definition of a champion. What’s yours? Please leave a comment and let me know.
To your dreams,
Bonnie Jean
