It's not the distance that overwhelms people who race Hawaii's Ironman
Triahtlon. It's the relentless wind that blows across the lava fields.
You'r on one of the highest ridges, you see miles of repetitive road to
Hawaii, and you realize it's extremely hot and you're going straight into
a 30-mile-an-hour crosswind. I've found that those who dwell on these
conditions tend to fold. I always train for adversity. I consider
adversity an asset, something to turn arond to my advantage.
One of life's most important lessons is learning to put your losses in
perspective and to savor your triumphs by riding on euphoria's wave.
Have high goals and expectations; regard defeats as stages on the road to
success by remembering the little victories that have gotten you where
you are.
--Dave Scott is a six-time Triathlon winner--
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We are each put on this earth to make a particular contribution to
humanity. Some as teachers; others as housewives, executives, athletes,
doctors, farmers, actors or politicians. The list is endless. Although
God, the Almighty, has a plan for every one of us, He gives us choices.
It is our responsibility to make the best of those choices in order to
achieve our ultimate purpose.
God gave me a talent to do gymnastics. But I had to choose to completely
dedicate a number of years of my life to the sport in order to make the
most of that talent.
As smiple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can; by
making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been
given, by treating others as we would like to be treated. If we live by
God's rules, during our relatively short time on earth, we will be
rewarded greatly with eternal life with God in heaven!
-- Mary Lou Retton was the first American woman to win an Olympic
gold medal in gymnastics. --
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The "less moral" way can be very tempting. Like everyone, I am always in
a kind of battle between my lower self (the part of me tied to society's
pettiest goals: greed, selfishness, narrow-mindedness) and my higher self
(the part of me that cares for others and acts for the benefit of the
community). The Koran guides me. It teaches that some of the reason
we're here is to exercise personal responsibility, to evolve the higher
self and to influence that development in others.
-- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball great, led the Los Angeles Lakers
to five NBA championships.--
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Why are we here?" may be the wrong question to ask because, as an organ
with finite capabilities, the mind cannot consider infinite possibilities
the question implies. It would be like asking my four-and-a-half-year-old
daughter to explain Einstein's theory of relativity. It requires a
tremendous leap of faith to come up with a reason for being. And I don't
think anybody can have an answer he believes in with rock-solid
confidence.
In trying to concoct a reason for existence, we've created theologies.
Given my travels as a tennis player, I have been exposed to Buddhism,
Shintoism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Santeria,
animism. And I have always been perplexed to find that most of the
world's great organized religions tell you they have the only answer.
Christ said, "No one cometh unto the Father but by me." In Islam, Allah is
God and Muhammad is His one true prophet. I kept thinking, "Hey,
somebody's got to be wrong!"
Despite my skepticism that any one religion can provide universal truths,
I have synthesized many faiths and come up with some basic ideas. One is
that all we see around us, living or inanimate, could not have come from
nothing. There had to be an original cause. The second idea is that my
life is part of a continuum that goes back as far as life itself has been
around and that will be around after I'm gone.
--Arthur Ashe, tennis player and sports consultant, was the first
black man to win the Wimbledon and U.S. Open championships. --
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Who knows why we're here? No one knows. You can say you do, but you
can't. All you can say is what I said. It ain't over 'til it's over.
And that's all.
--Yogi Berra, former major league catcher and manager,
is the sage of baseball.--
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