Fantastic Freedom

The sports world saw greatness yesterday; and not just the greatness within athleticism but also the greatness within humanity. On Wednesday at Wimbledom, two of Poland's own, Jerzy Janowicz, 22 and Lukasz Kubot, 31 played each other to become the first from their country to make it to the semifinals of this prestigious tennis tournament.

Jerzy beat Lukasz in straight sets but what I'll remember most about this current event in sports is not the details of the match but rather what happened afterward.

Jerzy collapsed onto the court into a heap of emotion, after winning match point. Then, just seconds later he popped up and rushed over to acknowledge and congratulate his opponent. An emotional embrace and even a exchange of each other's shirts gave us all a glimpse into sportsmanship, humility and complete freedom. The freedom to choose our own way and the fantastic things that can come as a result of powerfully positive choices.
 
Jerzy, despite significant hardships, never gave up his power to believe in his dream that one day he would be one of the top tennis players in the world. You see, a mere 18 months ago, he was unable to participate in the Australian Open qualifier because he could not afford the plane fare. And despite his impressive world ranking, he was struggling to attract a sponsor. Money was so scarce for Jerzy that his parents decided to sell their chain of sport shops to help keep him going. He even resorted to sleeping in his car while playing tournaments. But through it all, Jerzy never gave up on his dream, a dream he was free to
pursue no matter his circumstances.
 
I find this so encouraging and exciting because I believe all human beings were created with a spirit of freedom and gifted with a desire to use it; our free will. As we saw in Jerzy, when we choose a path that creates good things from our freedoms, extraordinary things happen, and aren't all extraordinary things powerful? Any one of us can be extraordinary because we all have freedom in our DNA. Perhaps the secret is you've also got to have guts. And if you don't have guts, you'll be lucky to be just ordinary.
 
So, as you enjoy your family and friends this Independence Day weekend, won't you take some time to pause and ask yourself whether you are using your fantastic freedoms to do something extraordinary or are you only observing that in others.

If this post touched you, I'd love to hear your comments and invite you to share this with others.