Bolt: Lessons in Competition

Bolt: with his eyes on the clock

Jamaican Usain Bolt blitzed to victory in a spectacular 100 metres sprint on Sunday the 5^th of August, at the London 2012 Olympics clocking the second fastest time ever amid deafening roars from the 80,000 people packed into London's Olympic stadium.

The towering 6'5" and 25-year-old athlete broke the tape in 9.63 seconds, an Olympic record and seconds only to his own world mark of 9.58 seconds.

"My coach said stop worrying about your start, the best of your race is at the end, that's where you rule," said Bolt, "so I stopped worrying about the start and I executed, so it worked," this he added after winning the race in Olympic record time despite a slow start.

Chants of "Usain" rang out around the capacity crowd as he pointed to the sky with his trademark "lightning bolt" gesture, and basked in adulation during a slow jog around the edge of the track, draped in the Jamaican flag.

But the thing that got to me was the fact that Usain kept his eyes on the clock through the race and not on the others competing with him and I guess that was why a seemingly slow start did not bother him. He was competing against himself.

As humans, our aim here on earth more than any other thing is to fulfill our purpose. Fulfilling purpose might sound trivial but by fulfilling your purpose you unconsciously permit others to fulfill theirs. Year after year, the world advances and life becomes more convenient and worth living because a few determined people decided to fulfill purpose. Imagine what progress we would have made if more and more people did same.

Our goal is not to compete against our fellow humans or try to outsmart others, our goal primarily should be to continually improve ourselves and beat our own records all towards the goal of fulfilling our purpose and helping others to fulfill theirs. Because when we transform our ideas into positive venture, we make the world a better place to live in and inspire others to do same. 

From time past, it has always been the most rewarding path to thread.

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