Hello beautiful people. Bob Beamon's 8.90 metres in the Long Jump at the 1968 summer Olympics held the world record for 23 years before it was finally broken by Mike Powell in 1991, who jumped 8.95 metres.
That has stood as the longest standing modern Olympics athletic records in long jump.
What was Mike Powell thinking about while he trained and prepared for the olympic games? What goes on in the minds of athletes training in that category today?
To beat Bob's record or to at least scratch it?
As far as records exist, they are meant to be broken. This is as real as it get out there, every record you see can and will be broken if we find someone willing enough to put in the time, the effort and to look carefully at the record with a determination to beat it.
The problem is that many of us use these records to limit ourselves instead of seeing them as an inspiration, and proof of how far we can go. We only want to scratch them instead of trying to break them by going far beyond what the previous person did.
What the precious person did is not a miracle, it is simply something you can do and you can even do much more than that.
A young Nigerian female writer would kill to be like Chimamanda, but how many think they can be better?
Is she the pinnacle of writing? NO. Out there, there are over 100 women who can write better but they have set the bar below her because of the success she has achieved and they don't see something else they can do to beat her, not in competition but in originality.
We are okay with targeting the records but how about we try to beat them by going far above and beyond them? Instead of having target points in line with our bench marks, why not have target points "beyond" our benchmarks?
Looking beyond the record fuels you, it determines how much work you get to put in, it widens your thoughts and what you think you are capable of.
Beyond the set benchmark, there is the ability to do and achieve even more, because benchmarks have no ceiling, the reason you see the current world record is because someone was willing to beat the average set.
You can be the next person to beat the record.
What is that benchmark in your life?
Are you thinking about it, or are you thinking beyond it?
