Olympic Value

Another Olympics have come and gone, and while I will be the first to admit this one felt different than previous versions, it still reinforced to me its importance in our wonderful but tricky world. It accomplishes things that other events, governments, businesses, and people are rarely able to.

They bring people together. I do believe the ideas of ‘togetherness’ and ‘one family’ from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can come across differently to different people, but that doesn’t take away the fact it does achieve those things. Imagine any other activity that allows you to spend 3 weeks living in an apartment block with people from all over the world, where you have the opportunity to learn about them, their culture, their struggles, their possibilities. It won’t solve all our international issues, but it does enable a level of worldliness and understanding that people would be hard pressed to get in any other setting.

They show goals are achievable. The Olympics don’t hold a monopoly on the ability to show that goals and dreams can come true, but it is perhaps the most visible one. I’m not even talking about winning medals, but the sheer ability to get to that level of competition is an incredible accomplishment full of sacrifice and effort. Those lessons not only help the young recognize the power they possess, but we adults too can see that goal setting should be a lifelong endeavour, no matter how big or small the aim.

They provide distraction. More than one person has said to me over the last two plus weeks that they’ve been thankful for the Olympics simply to take their minds away from the challenges in Canada right now. I’m not here to pretend that the Olympics act as some vision of panacea for those in our country or world who are living through extreme challenges and struggles, but the idea that sport can temporarily take people is a reality. The global scale and visibility of the Olympics, and the connected nature of so many of us watching at once, make it better than any other sporting event at doing this.

They show that competition is good. In a world that, at times, makes competing and bettering ourselves seem like negative concepts, I like that the Olympics puts competition on full display. Those athletes want to win. They’re trained to do that. But, for the most part they recognize this as only one aspect of the event. Yes, compete to win but aim to do it fairly and in respect of your opponents – we saw this on display many times with athletes celebrating the achievements of others, even when vanquished. Everything isn’t always going to be fair and equal for us and seeing the balance of competition and sportsmanship demonstrates this.

While the world of international sport faces great challenges, the Olympic movement still brings with it significant value. Those challenges can be debated, but I do think at its heart the Olympics are a great event and one that every two years highlights values and lessons that all of us can incorporate and live by.

Re-Evaluation

Even early in the pandemic, it was clear this was going to change us. Maybe we didn’t know how long we’d be in its grasp, and still don’t for that matter, but we collectively knew this situation would cause a shift. For me, I felt like I wanted to come through it a different person. More grateful? More positive? More hopeful? I’m not sure what I was aiming for, but it’s always said that you don’t let a good crisis go to waste and I wasn’t about to let that happen. 

Flip ahead a few months and when I was a free agent, with my time at Edmonton Tourism at an end, and change was upon me. Though this exit may not have been the direct plan, it as an opening, a forced chance to re-evaluate and I’m wanting to embrace that. And that’s been the aim the last dozen plus months.

With that re-evaluation comes lots of questions for an introspective thinker like me. I’m not unique that way as many of us have internal dialogue that can simultaneously be positive and combative. Questions abound such as what I want my future to be? How do I get there? Have my needs and goals changed? Those are all important but beyond that I think bigger thoughts have come to mind:

• Interactions matter – even if you’re on the introverted side of the spectrum, as I am, being with people matters. That may just mean being in a coffee shop solo surrounded by others, but we all crave connection. With the many restrictions over this pandemic, I missed the ease of meeting up with people and have appreciated to a greater degree the ones I’ve been able to have these last many months. 
  
  
• We still have it rather good – if the most challenging thing I’ve had to deal with over the last many months is figuring out how to develop my business, reshape my career objectives, and wear a mask in public, I’m ok. So many people in our country, and certainly in other parts of the world, deal with far more complicated situations. That’s a pretty obvious assertion, but even though covid has knocked us down, many positives still surround us.  
  
  
• Little things really do matter – I’d never intentionally taken for granted hugging my nephews, but I sure missed it early in the pandemic and over the last year as we had to do gatherings more carefully. Seeing the 3 year old run up to me or being able to hug the others meant even more than normal. I hope that lesson sticks and is applied to other situations.

In challenging times it’s easy to wax poetic about all the wonderful things we should do and how much we’ll change. If the first phase of this is re-evaluation, then I’ve been fully in that for many months. Continued action is next and that’ll be the interesting test.