Five Life Goals

I was a young woman finishing my graduate degrees at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. While I competed in many sports and excelled at swimming, I was innately a great runner. What made me great was that I refused to let anyone pass me. When someone got close to me in a race, something went off in my sense of overdrive and I kicked into high gear. I decided to find a coach, train, and go to the Olympic trials in Atlanta. The training went great and actually helped me better focus my work and studies. I was training for the 100-meter dash, in hopes of making it all the way to the Olympics in Munich.

Daddy was a golfer so I was familiar with some of the current golf legends. Lee Trevino had written a little book called How to Succeed. It was a very simple concept that has since become a natural part of my life. Trevino suggested that we take the time to pinpoint five basic goals for our lives. We were to write them down and post them on our bathroom mirror so we would see them at the beginning and ending of every day. These were my five goals:

1. Get a Doctorate Degree
2. Be Happily Married
3. Write and Publish a Book
4. Run in the Olympics
5. Learn the Art of Having a Gracious Heart.

I posted these goals on my mirror.

I was deeply in love at the time with the first person who had ever proposed to me. His parents were from India. He had to return to India to tell his parents about me.

They were not happy with his choice and reminded him of his duties as the only son of a traditional family. After six months of harassment, he agreed to marry the girl of their choice. He did not consummate the marriage, returned to America without her, and we began the arduous task of finding a lawyer who could handle a very complex annulment.

The horror of this personal event deterred me from my goal of running in the Olympics. I missed the Olympic trials and thus the chance to go to Munich. The terrorist attacks at Munich and the subsequent withdrawal of the USA from the Olympics did little to heal my wounds at the time. Over 30 years passed.

In the Fall of 2001, I was down at the barns feeding horses when a UPS truck pulled up to deliver a certified letter. I shuddered to think why anyone would certify a letter to me. With trepidation, I opened the letter only to find the following surprise:

“Congratulations! You have been selected to carry the Olympic Torch in the 2002 Winter Olympic Torch Relay.” It went on to explain that someone had submitted my name, and out of hundreds of thousands of applications, I had been selected to carry the Olympic Torch through Oklahoma City. I had only to accept. I burst into tears.

Over 30 years had passed since I wrote down my five life goals. I still displayed my goals in an album, although I knew that running in the Olympics was not a possibility. I had told myself that one unfulfilled life goal would not be a bad average. I had known that I would probably spend a lifetime “learning the art of having a gracious heart.” At the time of the invitation I had gotten my doctorate and written several books. Here before me was the fulfillment of another of my life goals.

As it turned out, I ran a lot farther in the Olympics than the original 100 meters.

I had to train about four months to carry a four pound weight high in the air while running uphill. The day of the event, January 11, 2002, was not only exhilarating, it was deeply moving. The streets were lined with people waving flags and cheering, and tears of joy rolled down my face as I realized that God sees our deepest desires and fulfills them in ways we cannot imagine.