Advice from a small town girl

I love the Olympics, and have been spending all my spare time (and quite a bit that wasn’t spare) watching them on television.

But I must confess that the athletes are a mystery to me. I want to know where that drive comes from.

I don’t have the drive to walk to the end of the driveway and back.

I frequently am heard to say that one of my siblings is missing the “consequence” gene; that the idea that “if I do this, then that will happen” is missing.

I appear to be missing that gene also. It’s a double-edged sword, as it happens, because in my case it’s more of “If I don’t do this then that won’t happen.”

If I don’t walk to the end of the driveway and back, I won’t become healthier. If I don’t take some of my own advice to heart, I won’t feel better.

But the issue of the consequence gene is moot.

Because the desire gene is missing too. Apparently my personal evolution is actually a mutation.

Many of the competitors at the Olympics have been training since they were tiny children, and I’m not just talking about those from countries that “select” them to be athletes. My mom couldn’t even get me to practice the piano.

Now, I don’t think we should all be trying to win gold medals, at least not in the Olympics, but I really think that most of us could use a little boost in the desire department.

And I’m not talking about Viagra or Cialis.

I’m talking about the desire to excel. It doesn’t necessarily have to be athletic excellence. And it seems to me that to excel at something should be its own reward.

Unfortunately, we live in an instant-gratification, American Idol world. Somewhere along the way we’ve gotten confused about the kind of desire that makes an athlete train for 15 years for the Olympics and the desire for fame. Somehow, in our muddled brains, that equates with a 1 5-second performance on YouTube.

It seems to me that the connection between performance and reward has gotten a little bit skewed over the past few decades.

These days, if you excel at (some) sports, for example, you can count on taking home millions of dollars a year in salary and bonuses. Same thing if you “excel” at business.

I’m not going to go too far into my belief that such rewards are ridiculous, not to say unnecessary.

And unhealthy for society as a whole. Because I believe that there are a lot of people out there who know that they’re never going to be a star, so they just give up.

And I may just be one of them.

I know that if I’m going to lose weight and be more healthy, I need to “dig deep” to achieve that.

I just don’t know how.