It is Olympics time and I have a huge love/hate relationship with the event, duel feelings. There is no doubt I will park myself in front of the TV and watch as much as I am able to — and in doing so I will both growl and cheer.

I don’t have the stats for London 2012, but two years ago, 11,000 athletes went to the Beijing Summer Olympics. There were only 302 events in which to win a medal. Without great math skills, I can figure out, that even though most athletes had good to great performances, many must have left with the feeling that they wanted more, better or different.

When silver medal winners are referred to as losers, I go plum, bonkers crazy. Worse is when the athlete refers to themselves in this way. If a medalist feels this way, what must the woman who tripped or fell at the start feel. What about the one who finished with her best time ever yet, still didn’t “win”. The duel emotions of “Wow, I made it to the Olympics coupled with I’m disappointed I didn’t do better,” must be a huge challenge to accept. All of us have experienced duel feelings at some point in our life.

Proud of the accomplishments we’ve made, and yet antsy that we didn’t do more; that it could have been better.

I found a book yesterday that may help me understand the mindset of the elite athletes, competition in general, and how these dual feelings exist in all of us. I’m not elite in what I do, but I do have both pride and dissatisfaction in the work I do. — I am always looking to make a little progress.

The Power of More by Marnie McBean, a three-time Canadian Olympic champions caught my attention when I was at the library and I can say that only 30 pages in — I already want more! ☺ AND… bring on the games!