Get up and be a champion

Just the other day, I was watching some events at the ongoing olympics competition in Rio de janeiro. Actually, I'm not the kinda person that is very interested in track and field events. I've watched more of the soccer events than any other events, but that is not the issue here. There was this guy competing at the 10,000m race, Mohammed Farah. I heard the commentator talking about the guy being a strong favourite to retain the gold he won four years ago in London. Hence, he was the man I was seeing as the potential winner.

Gold medals never come easy (Forget about Michael Phelps and Usain bolts making it look too easy on the eye), but this one was harder than most for Mohammed Farah. First, he fell along the road, had the courage to pick himself up to continue, and then found himself in a fierce final sprint with Kenya's Paul Tanui. Farah becomes the sixth man to win two olympic 10,000m titles and he now ranks high in this sport's all of fame. If he wins the 5000m, he will become the second man, after Viren, to win both Olympic titles twice. Viren famously fell too, when he won the 10,000m for the first time in 1972 but also got back on his feet and hared back into the race which is exactly what Farah did 44 years later.

Now, let's apply this event to our everyday lives. How often do people fail in live and never have the courage to get back up and win. I've seen some athletes fall and never have the courage to continue in the past and that is very true with some individuals. It's all about having the right mentality, I think. After the race, Farah said "When i fell, I was just thinking 'try and get up as fast as I can'". Vireh once said that "It is the mental side that proves to be the deciding factor in any race" and Farah undoubtedly showed it on the day.

Life is usually full of ups and downs. There are many instances where we face Farah's situation or even worse in the journey of life, but the most important thing is how we deal with such periods in life. We fail only when we accept failure. The most successful people in the world today have all had periods when failure stare at them in the face but they were able to deal well with it. Someone once said, "Failure is not really an opposite of success as we have been made to understand, but a part of it". The important point in this article is this, be like Farah, fall, get up and be the champion.