I have two things in my life that require equal parts discipline and inspiration: praying and exercising. As a Muslim, I am obliged to pray five times a day, and as a new convert to running, I try to pound the pavement at least three times a week. Persistence is required for both commitments, of course, but I’ve learned that tapping some inner source of joy is also essential. Watching Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps race to record-breaking victory last week, I felt those waves of inspiration washing over me.
At first I found the Baltimore-raised swimmer a bit boring: He had no inspiring, come-from-behind life story, and, like most athletes, offered only the most basic platitudes when interviewed on camera. But what caught my attention was watching him pound through the water like a perfectly tuned machine, honing in on his goals with a fierce, almost blazing, concentration. When Phelps beat out Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic in the 100-meter butterfly by a hundredth of a second last week, chills ran down my back. “He’s magic!” shouted the NBC announcer.
In watching Phelps race, I glimpsed something vital. For one thing, I was reminded that life’s most thrilling moments don’t take place on the couch; they happen in motion, often when we’re pushing ourselves to extremes. I know that when I run, I sometimes battle a deep-down fear of injury or even death—the idea of running a marathon, for example, still seems impossible to me. When it comes to praying on time, I face a different inner barrier: the desire to distract or entertain myself rather than concentrate on what is most important.
But watching Phelps, I saw the liberation of pushing yourself all-out for a single goal, holding nothing back. And watching his muscled scream after his relay team won an improbable victory against the French team, I thrilled to his animalistic joy.
Maybe it’s about realizing that we may be capable of so much more than we realize. This week, for example, I read about two brothers, aged 89 and 87, who swim competitively, setting national records for their age groups. Not everyone can maintain such incredible levels of fitness so late in life, of course, but Gayle Appel Doll, director of Kansas State University’s Center on Aging, says in the article that nearly everyone can benefit from even the most basic exercises, no matter their age, and that stereotypes about the elderly may be one of the greatest barriers to overcome.
“If we have images of what we should be at 89, then we start to act and function like what society tells us we should be doing,” said Doll in the Washington Post Magazine article. In other words, we don’t really know our limits until we push them.
So what could I be if I really tried? I am a pretty poor swimmer, so don’t hold a spot for me on the women’s team for the 2012 games in London. But I suspect there is a marathon out there somewhere with my name on it. And whenever I feel tired of praying, or trying to be my best self, I hope I remind myself: Just one more stroke—this might be the one I need to win.
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