Watching Deuces first go at track and trying to quickly pickup on everything myself has me continuously observing all aspects. I’m still learning terminology and rules. Watching him and his friends compete, especially him and his closest friend, they are both new to the sport and both give it everything they got in each event they do. Both run in the hurdle relays and both are big parts of their team. I missed that event last night due to baseball. The wife sent me the video from his heat. While watching it over and over to see each stride, his timing and his reactions I begin to think about today’s topic. For him his hurdle right now is both figurative and literal.
How do you handle a hurdle? Some will run up to it & stop. Some will trip & fall. Others never let it stop them, they run up to it & jump. Proud is no where close to describing how I feel about watching Deuces grow & continue to never settle on being just a guy, he wants to be the guy. I’ve seen him stumble, I’ve seen him fall but each time he’s gotten back up. There’s times where his biggest hurdle is himself. He is so driven to succeed that moments where he doesn’t do something to the level he has set for himself he begins to crack. He carries a massive chip on his shoulder and wants to prove people wrong as well as being accepted. With those lofty expectations failure will occur. Each time he’s risen more determined. As a parent I continue to question am I leading my boys in the right direction, am I teaching them how to face and overcome defeat. Do they handle triumph properly? I had to have a talk with Z-man last night after he was called over to play for another team. A kid struck out and I heard him tell another player I knew they were going to strike out the whole time. I said respect everyone, if you’re on a team you are only as good as your weakest player. There’s going to be times that player will be you. How would you handle others saying I knew you were going to strike out? He said, I wouldn’t like it. Every moment and experience we have is a chance for us to learn and grow. Z has an uphill battle himself, his biggest hurdle is he want’s to be better than his brother. He watches everything Deuces does, you can see him studying and playing things out in his head.
We face many hurdles in our life, kids, spouses, time, money, work, rejection and so-on. Some face their hurdle openly, while others let theirs bury them. Some will continue to pick themselves up until they jump their hurdle, some may continue to try but never be able to complete the jump and others will walk away before they even jump.
Deuces is me made over, from head to toe to his hurdle. I continue to struggle with myself. I’m not where I want to be in my career. I feel like I still let too many people down, I need to make more time to be in multiple places, I need to pick up the phone and talk to more people. My phone is full of numbers from you name it, Super-Bowl Champions to janitors. Each number means something to me, however I don’t do a good enough job of reaching out to each of those people on a regular base. Social Media is another place, I have a bunch of followers, some I have no idea who they are and some are family that I haven’t spoken to or seen in a long time. I wear many hats and carry extremely high expectations of myself. I often fail over and over on jumping my hurdle. I will never stop, I will continue to pick myself up and continue to push myself to make that jump.
I hope you clear your hurdle today, if you struggle I hope you have a support system to cheer you on until you make that jump. If you can’t make it know that others are in the same lane as you. If your reading this you are part of my support system and I in yours. Know that you are never facing your hurdle alone.
Enjoy your day and your jump!
TCB