Suppressing all insecurities, stepping into the cliff, tolerating the pressure and executing to perfection. Wash, rinse and repeat. Endless mornings and short nights, that often are accompanied by an endless succession of letdowns and almosts; most of them due to coming out a few inches too short or too long. The constants challenges that seem as if they were punishments more than tests to our endurance. All to reach that one moment when the body can't seem to understand what it's being put through and muscles go into shock. But as the mind keeps on consciously pushing, through aching joints, sore throats, headaches and bruises, marks are left in our subconscious--marks, of how it feels to be nearing on our finish line, on our peak, on the one thing that will let us know we have earned our place in this earth.
Convulsion for trying to succeed has led us to believe in the systematical categorization of our virtues and gifts. By Schematizing the many attributes we posses, a system of measurement for creativity has been established. Locked in the back of our heads, blinding us from what our imaginations wants us to do. Medals, grades, trophies, applauses and compliments, that constantly distract us. As this pattern is followed our social atmospheres keep on being contaminated with the common desire to be unique and special, forever intervening with the truthful aspirations of the common folk. This attitudes conspire in order to make us avert looks from our own actions to focus on what the neighbouring competition is doing and how we can one-up them. Just so that we can display those shiny pieces of metal that prove how we are better than them. This cycle repeats and repeats leaving all the ones with a fighting chance alone, so that they can devour their own psyches to the point of becoming a tumult of testosterone, blindingly following each other while convinced that each one of them is leading the pack. What is left for the other ones is to simply look for their space by pretending to join the fight, or to look harder for something actually worth fighting for.
Separating oneself from this mess can easily turned into a battle for not being pulled back in, as our milieus unconsciously work to keep us in line with the routine everyone follows. In spite of the challenge, breaking away has proven time after time to be the only way to achieve a more profound sense of accomplishment. One that will take you to where no one has been before. One that fuels the soul to make anything seem possible, as if your heart is taken on a chariot and it's carrying your body through hell without much hesitation.Worries will slip out of your mind and the fear will slowly dissipate as you dare looking up to see what's after hell itself. This motivation, this hunger, will transcend any kind of ephemeral feelings all this hormone-induced fake inspirations, bold lies, or shallow loyalties can offer you.
Although strength might come from different places, there is one kind that will always prove to be the most resilient and vigorous of all. It is the one that comes from the amount of unselfish dedication each one of us is willing to carry on our back everyday. Because carrying that weight is what will force us to stay on our feet when everything else fails, it is a load every fiber on our body will refuse to drop and have it go to waste.
That is where the strength of all the heroes, the champions, the legends and the "one in a million" individuals comes from. What drives them to go through all this kinds of hellish situations must escape all vanity, it has to escape ego. I'm not saying this emotions are absent from their spirits, after all they are still humans, but there is a key difference between being motivated by ego or vanity and using them. No other way would we see, this inspirational figures winning, and winning, time after time, racking up medals and trophies with remarkable easiness of spirit and humbling attitudes. Such is their drive and perseverance that getting to their level almost seems unattainable. Although, very enticing.
So enticing that as soon as we accomplish anything that escapes the norm and we experience some sort of gratification we tend to fall into complacency, and as we move through problems, and victories start piling up, the showers of compliments and rewards inevitably drown us in an ecstatic avalanche of narcissistic nature. This succession of events become the barrier between the legendary feats and the "weekend hero" moments, as it often goes on until a comfortable level of complacency is reach, a place where you can feel superior to some and live the rest of your days happily, barely above average. This false sense of accomplishment is the biggest threat to human potential and to come out victorious from that fight is hard, but far from impossible. After all champions aren't just legends.
They are the other Ones, the outsiders, the underdogs, the kittens that became lions, the ones looking for challenges that seem impossible, with attitudes that don't make sense, fueled by energy that escapes logic, packed with stamina that defies science, armed with strength to break the norms, hearts of stone and nerves of steel.
Nothing will ever compare to achieving the life-long goal of securing a place in the history of this human race; I mean, the list is short and the names are few for a reason. Mainly because when the challenge requires the ultimate sacrifice, a human eternity, not even a century, of pain and effort not many are up for it.
"Enlightenment isn't found with a full stomach, or on a soft pillow"
Eventually regardless of whatever mountain we are climbing, whatever problem we are facing or journey we are starting, the challenge will be the only reason why it will be memorable, no medal can give you the satisfaction that surpassing your own limitations can. "You can always better yourself", something that all the great ones know and the good ones sometimes ignore, and in this finite race for meaning, constantly finding the best in ourselves is the only way of ensuring we'll have another go at it.
Maybe if we are lucky, by doing so we'll set into motion a special course of events, one that will shape the rest of our lives into a statement of our existence, as we pay the price for having the blessing of living in this world