Michele Cushatt - Writer and Speaker

The Secret to Gold-Medal Writing

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Michele in Communicate

Watching the Olympics wears me out.

It’s not so much the late nights of figure skating or my white knuckles during the luge. It’s not even the emotional ups and downs—the thrill of anticipation followed too quickly by the devastation of defeat.

What makes me tired is the thought of all those years of practice, practice, practice for an event that will be over with in one or two minutes.

I’ve heard several well-meaning jokes lately about these athletes: “So what in the world does he/she do the other 4 years of 365 days leading up to this one???” Everyone laughs. “I want his job!” Hardy-har-har. True, on the outside it looks easy: Spend four years working out at the gym and sponsoring Wheaties, then hop on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Olympics twice a decade to see if you can bring home a shiny piece of metal. Who wouldn’t want a job like that?

But then I start to think about the long days of training. The early mornings and late nights. The day after day of doing the same thing again and again. The childhoods spent training instead of playing. The strain on a marriage and family. The constant failing and trying again. The endless cycle of improving, and then struggling. The injuries and rehabilitation. The skiing with bruised shins and skating with wounded egos. The pressure of people watching and critiquing, arbitrarily deciding whether or not you’re “good enough” to represent the good ‘ole U-S-of-A. Even the jokes of well-meaning, albeit envious and ignorant fans.

As I’ve watched the Olympics this week I’ve realized that the athletes I now watch on the television are the rare few who persevered through four years of impossible private obstacles to enjoy a few minutes of public obstacles. They do what few humans have the stamina to do. All for one or two minutes to reach for a dream

Admiring them from my couch in Colorado, I realized how week-willed I can be as a writer. I want my one or two moments of medal contention, but rarely have I put in as many hours as these athletes have. Rarely have I been examined under a microscope as they have. Rarely have I studied my craft as intensely as they have. Rarely have I faced my own failures as often as they have. And rarely do I pick myself up and keep going after a significant crash and burn.

And I haven’t been writing for four years yet.

There’s no easy way to say this (“easy” doesn’t make anyone Olympic material anyway): If you (and I) want to be a gold-medal-winning kind of writer, it’s time to start training like it.

“You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.” ~ 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

(picture courtesy of pontuse at stock.xchng)

Tags: Writing, Writing Business