Monday Motivation

On Friday night, Olympian Katie Ledecky won the 800-meter freestyle. Yeah, that’s pretty awesome. And here’s the thing –

She’s only 15 years old. In fact, she’s the youngest member of the U.S. team.

But that’s not the really amazing part.

What made her race catapult into AWESOME² territory was the way she won it.

At the start, Ledecky dove into the water and went out fast. She grabbed the lead right away – like that gold medal had her name on it.

Now, the 800 meters is a looooong way to swim – eight laps in the pool. And it takes over 8 minutes… I don’t know about you, but I get tired just thinking about it.

Anyway, back to Ledecky’s fast start – it sure looked like she went out way too fast for such a long race. Even the announcers were spouting doubt. They said she was showing her youth. They said she was demonstrating her lack of experience. They said she just didn’t know better.

Well, guess who didn’t know better.

By lap seven, the announcers’ doubts were changing to shouts.

Because Katie Ledecky didn’t fall apart. She didn’t lose her head and lapse into a doggie paddle. She did not even slow down. She just kept cranking those arms and kicking those feet.

She gave it her ALL – full out – and kept that lead the whole way.

What did she have to lose?

Absolutely nothing -- so, what the hot place!

She didn’t hold anything back.

She laid it all on the line.

She left it all in the pool.

I’m pretty sure she finished that race with nothing left in the tank.

Which got me thinking…

What if you took an athlete’s approach to art?

What if, at the end of the day, you left it ALL on the page?

What if, for just one “race” this week, you wrote so many words so fast that the only thing left in the tank was…

Gibberish?

...and you had to hose down your laptop and plunge your burning fingers into ice water –

‘Cause, man, you were smokin’!

Okay, I’m obviously moving into gibberish territory.

.

But hey, I’m just saying –

What have you got to lose?

PROMPT: Set your own word count PR (Personal Record) this week. Leave it all on the page. Gibberish is optional.