I am generally trying to ignore the Olympics this year, as always. Not always easy. I listen daily to programming on CBC Radio One and they provide a lot of Olympic coverage. An awful lot of Olympic coverage. The programming is peppered like symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome throughout the day with Olympic news straight from Sochi. So, I know who is winning what piece of metal for which event almost as fast as I can forget their names. Straight from Russia. Without love, or much in the way of love given how the Great Bear of Eurasia is more or less confined to the penalty box until they get over their institutionalized homophobia.
I always have a nice grab bag of excuses at the ready for ignoring this great international event of sportsmanship and peace. Most of all, I don't give a shit: not about competitive sports anyway. Of any variety. They all bore me, not because I suck at almost all of them but really, sports bore me. They always have. I have never got this crap about having to be the best at something, of sighing because you won silver and not gold, of whining because you got bronze, or boo-hoo-hoo-ing because you didn't win anything at all. Hey, you got there. Isn't that something? Maybe you haven't been judged the absolute best, second or third best in your game, you have been judged suitable to participate in the Olympics. Yes, the Olympics! The world's most prestigious amateur sporting event. Never mind if your the best or not, you are good. Love it.
A lot of this has to do with how we gage and judge success. Well, I'm a writer. I have never published anything outside of a couple of articles for online publications and an essay on solutions for homelessness in the Downtown Eastside. I actually won second prize for the essay, if you have to know. Five hundred bucks. Sponsored by the lovely activist lawyers of the Pivot Legal Society. Nothing to sneeze at. But big deal, I am simply happy that the essay got some attention, got a few tongues wagging and is being consulted as a credible source for information and ideas by those who make decisions on public policy. The five hundred dollars came in handy too, if I must say so myself. I have also written a novel, a whole whack of short stories and lots of poetry and this damn blog as well. Hey, I got it done. Now and then someone reads my rants. Well done!
I am an artist. I have never won any prizes for my painting and have actually in my day heard some very hurtful and mean-spirited comments about my art, not many, but just enough to keep me humble. I am not in a good gallery and I am nowhere near famous. On the other hand without any help from anybody I have successfully sold almost one hundred of my paintings. All under-priced, I would say, because I was generally poor, broke and desperate for revenue. I now charge closer to market rate for my work and since jacking up my prices I have sold practically squat.
I am a mental health peer support worker. Have I won any awards? No way. I get tonnes of praise and support from colleagues, coworkers, supervisors and clients. They're happy, I'm happy. I go home every day from work satisfied that through my little bit I have helped make a difference for others or at least have learned something new about myself or how to improve at my job and boy does that feel good.
Success is simply doing something well or adequately. I got out of bed this morning. That's a success. I make my bed and clean the bathroom, the floor areas, and dust every day. Yay!!! I eat a good breakfast and walk a minimum of five miles a day. Cheers and whistles!!! I resisted the temptation of swearing or being less than civil towards strangers behaving like oblivious and invasive idiots today. Absolutely spectacular. And the beat goes on.
Success, if it is anything at all, is doing our very best with what we have to work with. We cannot usually determine the outcome. That isn't our job. Often we will make mistakes and fall. Then we get up again and keep on keeping on. That is a success. If we can end each day knowing that we have done our best and that we are willing and ready to learn to do better and offer that same generosity to others throughout the day, then we're not just successful. We're heroes!
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