As is normal when I travel, once I open my mouth to speak, someone inevitably asks, “Where are you from?” This past week was no exception.
In an oriental restaurant in the middle of the Mississippi belt, the owner strikes the iconic “Usain-Bolt-to-the-World” pose upon hearing I am Jamaican by birth — hence, the lilting accent — and we become immersed in animated conversation about Bolt’s record breaking times as the fastest man in the world. Now what, 9.58 seconds? He was clearly a huge fan.
As we chatted, for some inexplicable reason, the whole Bolt narrative struck me in a very novel and profound way. Usain Bolt is the fastest man on earth — by a few milliseconds. That’s less than the full blink of an eye!
Indeed, a few milliseconds is what separates Bolt from his nearest rivals. A few milliseconds that have heaped upon him glory and fame and millions and millions of dollars in earnings and endorsements. A few milliseconds that he’s undoubtedly trained extensively to eclipse for most of his professional life. A few milliseconds that have distinguished his greatest athletic aspirations and accomplishments from what could well have been relative obscurity in a rural Jamaican town.
Think about that for a minute. Then, consider other athletic greats: Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods, et al. Really, most times, it’s just a couple of degrees that distinguishes a winning trajectory, putt, or basket from mediocrity, or failure.
On a deeper level, what does this mean for the rest of us? What few “milliseconds” could have saved a loved one from a catastrophic accident, fall, or health crisis? What few milliseconds could have prevented ugly words from being spoken, or a regrettable action that forever changed the tone of an intimate relationship or friendship? In fact, what fateful few milliseconds now stand between our present reality and the dreams we have from coming true? Could that winning blink of an eye come through that phone call we’ve been waiting on, seemingly forever? That letter of acceptance that causes us to police the mailbox? That final push to deliver and reinvent, even when we feel like giving up and have nothing left to give?
Perhaps, Bolt’s illustrious milliseconds are a cautionary reminder, also, not to linger long in the land of “Almost” — that most horrible place where God-given seeds of ideas and concepts that would catapult us from “ordinary” to “great” are suffocated within milliseconds of conception by doubt and negativity. Far too many of us are inspired by our fears rather than our dreams, which ultimately leaves us in the realm of spectators, cheering on those who grabbed hold of their milliseconds of clarity and ran with them to become the greatest version of themselves.
Indeed, how many more “milliseconds” are now left in our own lives that we should determine not to miss? How many more blinks of an eye will it take to get to the other side where our dreams manifest into reality?
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Usain Bolt is by far the most decorated sprinter of all time. We bring you ALL final races of the Jamaican – from the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 over London 2012 to Rio de Janeiro 2016. As extra bonus, you can enjoy his Olympic debut from 2004 in Athens.