Are You Only Seeing What You Expect To See?
The moments that decide the course of a life are often consumed before blind eyes, unprepared to grasp the deep essence of reality.
It happened in front of everyone, but as if nothing had happened. On July 07, 2024, in the bright sunlight, a scene of tragedy unfolded, without anyone noticing. The man was about to finish his life's race, an almost poetic end, like the legendary Marathon race. The runner with rich experience in athletics crossed the finish line, then suddenly fell to the ground, as if sickened by a terrible exhaustion, on the background of a Herongia Anteatum, a precarious causality between high doses of adrenaline. He had fallen, like a fallen soldier on the battlefield, without anyone paying attention to this unfortunate moment.
Every ending can be a beginning, but not everyone is ready to see it that way. The possibility of injury, or of some mental crisis, was not an option taken into account by this runner who came in second place. With certainty, no images of a disastrous end crossed his mind, nothing stopped his momentum towards the "unmeasured", following the unnatural path that stems from an Ego that repeated loudly and bluntly: "Prove that you can!"
His rich experience in athletics masked the (really important) thing he had to focus on. He compared his initial perception to the obvious reality, ignoring the body's cues that showed an increasingly precarious weakness. I would say otherwise. To insist on passion, despite everything that can happen to you, is to give life to a painting, without protecting it against vicissitudes.
His expectations were stronger than the message of his conscience that warned him of what might happen to him. Basically, he ignored what most would have seen in a critical situation: "In the face of life's trials, true courage consists in recognizing the limits and acting accordingly."
How do you get the essence of the soul out of you, when reality requires you to stop before you reach the impossible?
Impassive nature witnesses human tragedies that consume themselves like solitary flames, unseen by the eyes of many. Between the sun and the earth, a thread breaks, leaving a life to rest on the bed of silent oblivion. The runner eventually recovered, thanks to the SMURD crew who intervened promptly, managing to prevent the inevitable. But what we have to learn is this: "Obsessive pursuit of passion can be blind to the warnings of being, leading to ignoring one's own limits, with potentially tragic consequences."
To take the essence of the soul out of you means to recognize your own ignorance and turn it into a warning, it means to recognize your helplessness when the body pushes you to fall. These recognitions help you to be more humble and aware of your limits, which can be crucial for personal growth and avoiding tragic situations.
The runner is not a god. His experiences over the years have taught him to ignore pain, to suppress his body's warning signals. This consideration did not make him a hero, his decision to risk his life at a local competition proving to be a haphazard attempt to push his body's normal limits. In his soul there was a battle much tougher than the race, a battle between following his ambition and admitting his weakness. Will you choose to stop and do a reality check before you soar to become a hero?
Can you recognize that past experiences do not always prepare you for critical moments, according to a vision that separates reality from ideal?
It's simple. He could not cope with the situation. Everything that happened to him until then, all the experience gained in dozens of contests, did not prepare him for this critical moment. No one becomes a hero if he dies after crossing the finish line, but if he manages to do the impossible in the struggle with life. When you find yourself in a critical situation, take into account the responsibility to stop, otherwise circumstances will disrupt your concentration at every step.
The individual perception corresponds to a certain mode of functioning of the vital organs, a certain rhythm, predilection for each person's body. In the case of the runner, the possibility of injury or a seizure was never considered. No images of a disastrous finish crossed his mind, although the signs were evident in the last hundred meters. His expectations, stronger than reality, pushed him to ignore the dangers. With each step, his body sent him signals, but his mind refused to accept them. Ego was stronger than reason.
Do you have the courage to expose your perspective on a fateful triggering event, thereby highlighting the contrast between ambition and fragility?
The decision to risk his life in a local competition proved to be fateful. Instead of becoming a hero, the runner became an example of a warning, which I can formulate in the following way: "The intensity of our experiences can be a source of strength, but also a path to self-destruction."Let's remember, then, that receiving traumatic experiences is a way for consciousness to establish itself not only as the possessor of pain, but as its creator.
I believe that the weakness of the athlete is to live a full and powerful life, driven to the maximum in the direction of endless ambition. But only those with a tragic sense of existence can sense the silent violence of decisive events, beneath ephemeral appearances. Here the words of the writer Ion Frunzetti come true: "The roar of the pleasure of exceeding our limits suddenly deifies us, our triumph over the world thus seems assured. Pleasure is sacred drunkenness, even if its sunset throws us into hell."
The great art of leadership consists in fulfilling our noble aspirations but guarding them against our own inner vicissitudes. The courage to accept our limits is true greatness.
You only see what you expect to see when the far too big Ego asks you to do the impossible. Moreover, you narrow your horizons by refusing to see beyond your own beliefs. As I said at the beginning, the moments that decide the course of a life are often consumed before blind eyes, unprepared to grasp the deep essence of reality.
