Myth of the Leprechaun
When I look back over my own life and reflect upon my successes along the way, I also pay homage to the failures, difficulties, sacrifices etc that it took to accomplish each of them. In very few cases did so-called “luck” have anything to do with it. But yet I find it funny when people say “… you’re so lucky”.
I think of the journey to get to my first Olympics in 2006. It was a childhood dream of mine to become an Olympian and I certainly wasn’t the guy at school with all the talent so it was never an inevitability. I’d already had two dreams shatter around me – my dream to represent Australia in rugby and play for the Wallabies. This dream crumbled before my eyes when I snapped my PCL ligament two weeks out from the Hong Kong Sevens World Cup whilst playing for Australia A in the Fiji Sevens. Then four years later, after having taken up bobsleigh and after much blood, sweat and tears, I was ready to have my dream of becoming an Olympian come true. We had satisfied the international qualification criteria to compete in the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City 2002 and were just waiting for the final but all important telephone call telling us we had been selected in the Australian Olympic team. The phonecall came, but unfortunately it is one I will never forget. They had decided not to select us and impose a higher Australian qualification criteria. We would not be going, despite being the only team who qualified who would not be going to compete ! It was a devastating time. So before I even came around to the 2005-06 season I had to find the strength to put my heart on the line again, knowing it could be crushed as it had two-times in recent years. And that was before I even started to compete on the ice and the hard work began.
So off I went. Travelling from Australia to Norway – Germany – Austria – Canada – Germany – Switzerland – Australia – Italy – Germany – England – Australia – Austria – germany – Australia – Italy. Doing almost 200 runs in the season. Competing in minus 15. Crashing and seeing people almost die in front of me. Training and training. Investing time and money and energy and emotion into making my dream become a reality.
This certainly wasn’t luck. LUCK ? What did luck have to do with this ? This was hardwork and resilience.
Perhaps there is some truth in the expression “The harder I work, the luckier I get” as that speaks of positioning yourself so that you can best take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. But luck … no … If you want success then you need to be out there doing the hardwork that comes with making your dreams come to pass. Lance Armstrong says it well ….
“Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”
Challenge – what do you need to work harder in ? What opportunities have you missed because they are dressed in overalls and look like work
