Immovable Human Spirit

What would you say gets you out of bed everyday? What do you wish would get you out of bed everyday? What moves you to work? Money, responsibility, education? What moves you to pursue hobbies? Perception, passion, recognition? What moves you to do anything? Bones break, confidence breaks, careers break. And still, something in us refuses to stay down, what is yours?

We all strive to do something. Something has you get up in the morning. For most of us it's the alarm clock that won't shut up and makes us go to work. But why do you work? To provide for a family you love? To provide your lifestyle you love? For those who don't work, is it to pursue other education, passions, hobbies, you prioritize more? Or is free time and free will enough to move you infinitely—the ideology to live the absolute best you can, because countless out there can't? In case you couldn't tell, this was rather inspired by the Olympics. There were quite a few inspiring stories this year that mirror how strong and willful the immovable human spirit really is. We all saw, know, and love Alyssa Liu (my close personal friend in case you forgot), and she had quit figure skating 4 years ago when she lost her love for it. Only to find it again on her own time and on her own terms and win gold in the most inspiring way. While she is 20 and essentially a prodigy, I feel it was a stellar example in that you can always return to do what you love and enjoy it the same way—regardless of age!!!! I want to emphasize that because there are friends of mine who consider themselves too old to pursue things for fear of embarrassment. I have experienced my fair share of this—when I returned to dance I took a class at my nearest dance studio and was met with only 3rd graders in my class. I was 18. It was humiliating and grounding all at once, a reminder that loving something often requires being willing to look foolish for it. Which was only emphasized when I went to a collegiate conditioning dance class and quickly realized I was the worst one there, as the rest had been dancing since they could walk. It made me realize how much courage it actually takes to return to something you once loved, especially if you aren't quickly the best at it. This can be said for any hobby and even education. Personally I find it the most commendable, returning at any age instead of regretting it as the days pass you by. They are going to pass anyway—wouldn't you rather be happy while they do?

For some, what keeps them going is influenced by what they are exposed to. I have a friend who is studying to be a social worker—so what moves her is the goal to never need a social worker, and to help those who do. She strives to make the world better than how she found it in a way she will succeed in, and I love her for it. I have other friends who value the simple fact that you can move forward, and that is reason enough to do it. Many are denied the chance to move forward as freely, or at all, so it's almost an homage to do it because you can. I won't lie sometimes it isn't always a positive thing that moves you. Recognition, only doing it to be perceived doing, only to seem cooler, or people pleasing, only working in a certain field to appease others, not yourself, and my personal favorite: spite.

Spite is a real thing, and the urge to finish something or succeed at something because someone said you couldn't, is more than enough motivation. (Incoming Olympic tie-in) Lindsey Vonn I feel had a similar mindset, paired with her inability to let go of her shot at the Olympics. She had ruptured her ACL days before the games and chose to compete anyway, despite several doctors and I’m sure many masked onlookers online telling her not to. She wound up hurting her ACL 10 times more, but still has zero regrets on the situation. I mean if you trained for years, and put your blood, sweat, and tears, into something and lost it so quickly, when it was your final shot to do so, I would have done the same. I can also admire coaches who endured similar situations, and they choose to return and coach those who harbor the same drive and passion for it—almost like a way to stay tethered to what they once loved. Completing something and starting something, regardless of the positive result or negative motivator, and vise versa, is always something to be celebrated.

No matter what it is that moves you—passion, duty, spite, or even just the stubborn refusal to stay down—the act of showing up in itself is a victory. Whether it’s Alyssa Liu, finding her love for skating again, Lindsey Vonn standing at the top of a mountain with a torn ACL, or a coach returning to guide the next generation, the lesson is the same: greatness isn’t always about talent, recognition, or winning—it’s about commitment, courage, and the unwavering choice to keep going, and begin again. Life will challenge you, bones will break, confidence will falter and days will pass, but the immovable human spirit keeps getting up. Perhaps that is the point, to move forward simply because we can, to chase what matters to us , and to live with the knowledge that showing up again and again is itself, a triumph.