Message of the Day - The Heart of the Champion

Good Morning,

 

We all look to heroes and champions who inspire us to be better than we are, to help us to aspire to achieve greater things in our own lives. Most every champion has a lot of  heart. In some cases they are champions because when everything else has failed them, they are tired, they are in pain, they feel like giving up, they push through with their heart alone.

 

One of my heroes is a horse, you probably heard of him, Secretariat. He is often called the Super Horse and considered by many to be the best who ever lived. What inspires me about Secretariat is that he ran because he loved it, not for the accolades the money or the fame. He just did what he loved to do and he was very good at it.

 

He was so good that in the Kentucky Derby, which he still holds the Churchill Downs track record of 1:59.2 (from 1973), he ran each quarter of the race faster than the last. It was as if he had more in him the further he ran. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyqllleV6WA

 

In the Preakness, he would have held the track record to this day except for a timing discrepancy, but that did not bother Secretariat, he just ran. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNChcy3WC2Q

 

In the Belmont, he not only holds the track record, 2:24 (from 1973), he won the race by 31 lengths beating the standing track record by over two seconds. On the far turn, Secretariat’s jockey had to look behind to see where the other horses were. After Secretariat crossed the finish line it was another six seconds before the second horse crossed. Six seconds doesn’t seem like much, but in racing, any racing, it is a huge margin. In fact this race is considered one of the greatest achievements in sports of all times.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu5_nuIEgkw

 

When Secretariat was finally put down in 1989 due to laminitis, an incurable foot disease which finally was too painful to bear, the doctors found a try outstanding discovery. Secretariat’s heart was two and half times the size of the average thoroughbred heart.  

 

It is said that Secretariat’s secret weapon, among other things, was his heart.

 

Maybe it was more literal in Secretariat’s case, but it is a lesson to all of us.

 

What about us?

 

With our heart in the game, we can press on when we feel we can go no further.

 

With our heart in the game, we can win and surpass our own best performances.

 

With our heart in the game, we can open up opportunities we may never have thought possible.

 

With our heart in the game. That is the key.

 

Is your heart in the game?

 

No matter what the game is, get your heart into it.

 

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336