One of my favorite sports movies of all time is Cool Runnings, the story of the Jamaican bobsled team. It is such a great story about athletes who wanted to go to the Olympics so badly that they found a (very unlikely) way.

There is so much inspiration in the movie; characters realising they could change their story, getting comfortable with themselves, standing up for what they believed…

The late, great John Candy played their coach, Irv – a former bobsledder who cheated and got his team disqualified. One of the most memorable scenes is when Irv explains why he cheated.

It seems like every week we hear about some athlete or another caught cheating in Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit, cycling, sprinting, the list goes on. I wonder about the winners who are never caught. Are they happy that they achieved their goal, despite the way they did it? What about people in other fields who stop at nothing to be the best, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake?

As Irv says, if you are not enough without a gold medal, you’ll never be enough with one. If you are not happy without some material item or external validation, you will not be happy after you get it. You might feel a fleeting satisfaction, but the gravity of your inner feeling will pull you back down.

I recently heard a quote that sums this up beautifully, “The only joy you will find at the top of the mountain is the joy you bring with you.”

Do you know that you are enough?