"Live Like a Champion"

“Live Like a Champion”

Judy and Katie Griffler recommend you “Live Like a Champion!”  The past is gone, but Now is Forever.  The future does not lie in our hands, but the future lies in the hands of the Present.  Go out and grasp the seconds of the day as if you had only that day to live.  We only have one life to live, so live it like a champion.  Everyone was put here for a purpose, so let that purpose rise up above and show everyone what you are made of.  Scouring through the rummages of past pain only imprisons you to yesteryear and its septic tank of disappointments, failures, and fears.  Like Lot’s wife who looks back and turns into a pillar of salt, you lose talents, abilities and potential to time’s erosive forces.  Equally, dwelling on the future transforms you into a “bankrupt idealist.”  Harness the best possibilities of the present day.  As life is not a dress rehearsal, Judy and Katie Griffler suggest you live each day as if you are a champion.

Champions are people of superlative achievement.  In athletics, they win the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup and Olympic gold medals.  They combine passion, discipline and sacrifice to yield high achievements.  When others relax and sleep, champions practice their craft.  In the words of Longfellow, “The heights of great men obtained and kept, were not attained in sudden flight; But they while their companions slept; toiled upward in the night.”  Champions live with confidence instead of arrogance as they work to achieve their rewards.  Among the most distinctive qualities of champions is the ability to delay gratification.  Do we not marvel at the presentation of medals at any Olympic games as we witness the just rewards for athletes who fiercely discipline their minds and bodies?  Earning a gold medal means you have exceeded the best efforts of any comparable competitor in the entire world.  Yet, before an Olympian mounts center stage at a medals presentation, he mentally lives as a champion.  His mental vision manifests when the medal is hung around his neck.  If he fails to live as a champion during preparation and practice, assuredly he will not mount the center podium to receive a gold medal.

Good stewardship in each day determines future outcomes.  Hence, the Gifflers suggests we “go out and grasp the seconds of day as if it you had only that day to live.”   Their recommendation invokes remembrances of Rudyard Kipling’s immortal words in If.  If you can fill the unforgiving minute, With sixty seconds of distance run.  Maximize the minutes you have as you wait.  Smart phones, tablets and laptops offer writers incredible opportunities to make each second of each minute of each hour of each day count.  Whether on a train, plane, bus or in a café, diner, hotel lobby or library, writers can retreat to the sanctuary of their creative space.  Similarly, artists, musicians, coaches, financiers and persons in divergent guilds can utilize their time more effectively than ever.  Champions rarely waste time as they realize fractions of seconds determine whether a person receives a gold, silver or bronze metal. 

Often, we hear the adage; Life is not a dress rehearsal.  We have one earthly pilgrimage notwithstanding any belief systems of reincarnation.  To avoid sitting in a rocking chair with many regrets and equal amounts of guilt layered with defeat and humiliation, doggedly pursue your heartfelt dreams and goals even if you never achieve them.  Interestingly, there is neither shame nor guilt in trying and failing but considerable regret and embarrassment plagues the person who allows fear and cynicism to paralyze him.  The Gifflers posit living like a champion each day is the best antidote to nursing regrets and failures in life’s autumn years.

Champions definitively know their purpose.  They do not zigzag through life.  They do not take scenic routes traversing divergent detours and scaling rough terrain to arrive on the path of purpose.  Rather, they define and determine their purpose.  Clarity enables champions to hone their craft and offer maximum contributions to humankind.  Take the requisite time to discern unequivocally your primary purpose and passion in life.  When you work in purpose and passion, excellence in achievement is a natural result; ideas and successes emerge easily.  Essentially, you work and live like a champion!