• Every ordinary person was taught to be ‘good enough’, but should we settle for that?
Image: REUTERS/Paul Childs
We are coming off a week that ended on a high note after the world-amazing feat of man against clock by Eliud Kipchoge last Saturday.
The entire world rallied behind the athlete as they supported him with his dream of running a marathon in under two hours. Kenyans in Europe flocked the streets of Vienna, Austria, to support their fellow countryman. At home, Kenyans were glued to the screens, waiting to live through one of the greatest moments in history. Even the sceptics were watching anxiously.
Eliud Kipchoge is now the only man in the entire world who could ever say he has run a marathon in 1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds.
However, throughout his training and the actual race, Kipchoge was preaching something more than just accomplishing one’s goals. He wanted to prove that no human is limited. He wanted to show us that limitations only exist because we put them there.
His message was bigger than running. It made me wonder on all the limitations I set for myself as I tweeted out in solidarity, using the hashtag #NoHumanisLimited. The fact is we currently live within the limitations we set for ourselves out of comfort and survival.
Every ordinary person was taught to be ‘good enough’… Earn good enough grades, get a good enough job that will give you all the comforts, and so on. Perhaps it is because we spend so much time hustling and struggling that when we get to a point of comfort, we are okay with it. We don’t know how to break down the mental boundaries that keep us captive in a world so ordinary that we lose sight of the extraordinary.
Some 24 hours after Kipchoge set his place in the history books, another Kenyan in America was doing the same. In the streets of Chicago, Brigid Kosgei had had enough of the 16-year women’s marathon world record reign by British marathoner Paula Radcliffe.
Kosgei didn’t just break the world record, she smashed it by an entire 1 minute 22 seconds, which in the world of athletics is a huge time difference! I’m sure Kosgei trained hard to achieve that record but I am also certain that the euphoria she felt watching her countryman the previous day was the extra motivation she needed to achieve her own goals.
The few who do live for just the extraordinary moments in life not only achieve great success for themselves but for all humanity. Look at Tyler Perry, for instance. He was never taken seriously when he was pitching his films to Hollywood Studios. But that didn’t stop him, he still made his films and built success around it.
Tyler Perry dreamt so big that he now owns the largest privately owned film studio in the world. Bigger than most Hollywood studios combined! He has changed the course of all black people who are told they are dreams are not good enough. More than that, his massive studio will provide employment for many young people.
That’s what dreams are made of; they do not just make you the best at what you do, the biggest outcome is the impact you create by achieving your own dream.