Starting lines are simultaneously the greatest beacon of hope and the world’s greatest challenge. A starting line asks only one thing, a simple three words: Do you dare?
As a runner, I’ve been at hundreds of starting lines. I’ve been excited and nervous, confident and afraid, ready and unprepared. But no matter how many times I’ve been there before, the number one emotion I feel and see in the other competitors is hope.
This is the point where all beginnings start. Runner or not, this is where you make only one choice; will you give it a try? And that decision is followed by an infinite number of possibilities.
Will you succeed? Do you have what it takes? Can you be brave? What will you learn? How will you grow? All these questions linger at the starting line. As head Nike running coach, Chris Bennett, once said, “Nothing is confirmed on the starting line other than you must cross that line to have a chance.”
Starting lines are filled with grandiose hope. Everyone has their goals or an idea of how what comes next will go. But not a single person has the answers. Before the answers come, you have to cross the starting line.
It doesn’t have to be a race. Starting lines are everywhere. Your new year resolutions? Yep, they’re starting lines. That challenge you set for yourself? To be a better friend, student, sibling, etc. – starting line. The goal you keep on the back burner, never saying aloud because you’re afraid you’ll never achieve it – You guessed it – Starting line!
Starting lines are the great equalizer. It’s not talent or fitness that gets you past it. It’s hope.
And just crossing a start line is good enough. Who knows what will come after. Maybe you’ll crush a huge goal, maybe you’ll fall short and realize the effort is much more rewarding, or maybe crossing that starting line will inspire you to cross another. Crossing the start is a win. And you can search for those cross lines everywhere. You can search for small wins everywhere.
Find success where others see failure.
You got passed in the last straightaway of a race? Dang it! But did you see how well you paced the rest of your race? Did you see how strong you looked? So, what, you didn’t win. But you did PR!
Learning from failure is equally important as reflecting on the experience as a whole. It’s okay to fall short, you tried and gave it your best effort.
We need more celebration and joy in this world and not less. So, count it all as a win. So long as you remember how impressive it is to just cross the starting line, you will find more wins. You will feel more hope. You will cross another starting line.
