Perspective on Perspective?
I’m going to try something a bit different today, let me know what you think! This blog is going to be a quick, but deep dive into a quote I heard recently on a podcast. The interview was with NAU Cross Country/Track Coach Mike Smith, and is follows:
“When you’re pouring your heart into something, that is everything. You have to find a balance between the permission to feel what you’re feeling, and the understanding of how this falls into everything [going on in the world].”
This quote hits home on the crux of pursuing a passion, and demonstrates the nuance of the situation. Recently, from my observation, there has been a shift towards people seeing sport for what it is, a game. It’s easy for this type of thinking to diminish the significance of what we are all doing in sport. We are all trending towards having a bit more perspective on where sport falls in our problem stricken society. And to be clear, I think it’s good to have some perspective that there are much bigger issues going on in the world.
But we have to be careful we don’t get caught up in thinking that since there are much larger issues in the world, your pursuit of your goals in sport doesn’t matter. This quote outlines this beautifully. While it’s true, maybe running five seconds faster for a mile won’t change your life (or anyone else’s), you still must give yourself permission and grace to want to succeed and to feel the feelings that arise on your journey. Perhaps even a greater sense of perspective shows that the thing that matters in all of this is the fact that you are pouring your heart into excellence. This journey can be the greatest teacher of life’s wonders and virtues. It will teach you things you will take well outside of sport. Maybe you can’t change the world's biggest issues today, but you can push yourself to get better, and to pursue excellence. This pursuit is legendary, and you can be grateful that you’re in a position to chase something. Like most things, it’s a balance between extremes, it’s a “yes/and” rather than an “either/or.”