A Champion's Path to Achievement

By Kathleen Gage and Lori Giovannoni

We design our life with specific goals, plans and actions for achievement. Yet, in a moment all can change. We are then left to ponder the question, “Have you chosen your life path, or has it chosen you?”

Even with the best laid plans there comes a time when our greatest achievement is to surrender to that which life has put in front of us. Surrender with a sense of acceptance not defeat.

Acceptance of the inevitable often leads us to our most profound achievements, left to discover a purpose that may have been buried deep within our spirit. Like the tides, achievement has an ebb and flow.

Our greatest achievements reside in the art of possibility. The possibility that regardless of what circumstances we find ourselves immersed in we maintain our beliefs, we continue to grow, learn and expand as a direct result of the situation.

Possibilities, like people, require nurturing and a place to grow. Our minds house all possibilities, but access to them calls for a particular kind of self-love and personal knowledge. Knowing how and when to call forth the possibilities of your day or your life is an art. There are no project plans, goal setting courses or prioritized lists that will teach us to reach into ourselves and elicit the possibilities of our being.

This is personal work; the personal work of self-care, both simultaneously powerful and fragile. Possibility must be cultivated until there is a strength that allows it to stand on its own.

No matter how much evidence we have that life is full of uncertainty there are those who do all they can to achieve constant certainty. It is the very uncertainty of life that has us love with intensity, live with passion and cherish the moments that may have passed unnoticed if each moment were guaranteed to be followed by the next. It is the uncertainty of life that pushes us to achieve.

Uncertainty may well be the catalyst to become our greatest self, achieving that which we otherwise would not have. It is that which allows the ordinary to become extraordinary, the average person a champion in their own right.

A champion is one who understands that time is fleeting and life is rich with possibility. A champion is a champion first in their mind and heart long before they are a champion in their sport. We are all champions in the making. All we have to do is believe.