At the weekend Usain Bolt ran his last individual sprint at the World Championships in London. The hype and expectation was as crazy as to be expected, but the result not so with him placing third.
It wasn’t the fairytale ending everyone wanted, and the disappointment was felt worldwide.
However, what it has given us are some real life lessons we can all go to town with. We’ve been given the gift of a fantastic example of what can happen when you least expect it along with how to deal with it.
Too often, fairytale endings are made out to be normal. The lives of people we put on pedestals can be made out to be picture perfect. What Bolt has shown a world needing to be shown is that fairytale endings don’t always happen. Life can happen instead.
One anguished tweet afterwards said ‘Why oh why didn’t Bolt just retire after his 3 Gold medals…..why oh why…..’ Maybe like everyone else, Bolt didn’t know when the best time to retire would be. Maybe he didn’t want the ‘what if’ voices in his head.
Bolt has shown the world that achieving greatness is possible, but he has also showed us that he’s human too. And that being human doesn’t mean a perfect fairytale life, but lots of ups, downs, trial and error, and muddy decisions about what to do and when. No matter the effort and preparation, the outcome can’t always be controlled, but you can control your response to it which Bolt did with his signature grace, dignity and charm.