My son got a chance to meet his idol, Tony Hawk, recently. I know he was excited, but I couldn't really tell - he's still pretty young and he didn't say much. I was thrilled, not so much to meet Tony, but to see the look on my son's face when he did.
It reminded me of the day Brent Seabrook brought the Stanley Cup to the South Delta Rec Centre for all the minor hockey players to see, and to have a picture taken with it and our local super-star. It may take 10 years or so, but I'm sure we'll be celebrating another local athlete's success, and how he, or she, will mention that day as a turning point in their career.
There are so many examples of kids achieving great things after meeting their idol. Wayne Gretzky meeting Gordie Howe. Bill Clinton meeting John F. Kennedy. And how many of our current Olympians mentioned watching the Games of years past as the inspiration to excel in their particular sport.
For the last two weeks, I've been glued to the television watching the London Games. I don't know what it is, but every four years I'll wake up in the middle of the night to watch rowing, diving, decathlon and water polo, when other times I wouldn't change the channel from a Seinfeld episode I've seen 15 times to watch these competitions.
I even got caught up in the race walking. They walk 50 kilometres, and faster than I can jog! The oddest part was, even when they finished, they still have to walk away from the course. You'd think after walking 50km, the last thing they'd want to do is walk some more.
The best part of the Olympics is seeing and hearing the stories of what athletes overcome just to be there. A strong performance is a bonus. Imagine how young soccer players must feel after watching Christine Sinclair and the women's soccer team battle on to take the bronze medal.
We have lots of inspiration around us, but it means nothing if we can't translate inspiration into motivation. After meeting Tony, I used the opportunity to subtly talk with my son about setting goals.
It's great talking to a young child about setting a goal, because they dream so big and don't see any limitations on how high they can reach.
"I want to go to the X-Games, Dad," he tells me.
Then we talked about the steps we need to take along the way to make his dream a reality, just like with any other goal.
I tried to find some research on the effectiveness of setting goals.
Unfortunately, the Harvard study that gets quoted all of the time (three per cent of the '54 class that set goals had a higher net worth than all the remaining 97 per cent who didn't) never actually happened.
Most successful people I know of, however, write down their goals and review them often. Seems like an easy lesson to teach a child, especially with the Olympic experience so fresh in our minds.
So, thanks to Tony Hawk, it looks like we are on the road to X-Games 2020. Sounds like a lot of time hanging around the skate park for me.
Then again, I can use that time to look over my goals.
