Inspired by achievement: the Year of Secretariat
2023 is the 50th Anniversary of one of the greatest athletic accomplishments in history: Secretariat’s Triple Crown remains an inspiration for all ages
I had been dreading the arrival of June 9, 2013.
I didn’t even realize I had been dreading it until the day before it arrived; and then it did.
For over a year, I had been celebrating the arrival of the 40th Anniversary of Secretariat’s astounding, astonishing, never-touched victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.
“It’s always nice to see someone get close to perfection,” actor John Malkovitch notes in the special feature ‘Heart of a Champion.’ “That race was really, sort of, supernatural…Secretariat will be remembered for generations. He’s immortal now.” This is a great explanation of the spell-binding effect Secretariat has had on millions of people for decades.
If you read my blogs from 2012, you remember me pondering: What if I were as good at my job as Secretariat was at his? What if I were as good a writer, a communications specialist, a Dale Carnegie instructor, as Secretariat was a runner?
What would it look like if I could “win” my race by 31 lengths, the same margin of victory by which he won the 1973 Belmont Stakes?
I set out to discover the answer: beginning in summer, 2012, I woke up every day and fell asleep every night studying clips or reading books about Secretariat and the team around him. A curious law student staying at my house worked up the nerve to ask me: “Why do you have a picture of a horse titled ‘Focus, Red, focus’ across from the toilet in the bathroom?”
My son David returned home from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa one weekend to find a new motivational Secretariat quote on the kitchen whiteboard.
“Oh, my God,” he groaned. “Is she still obsessed with that horse?”
“Never mind,” his sister Johannah shushed him. “It’s working for her. Shut up.”
I took my commitment to be as good as Secretariat deadly seriously. In February 2013, I earned as much money as I had the entire previous year. In March 2013, I earned as much as I had in all of 2011.
New clients seemed to fall from the sky, and I never turned down work. I scheduled no vacation. At one point I was working nearly around the clock, all day for one client and almost all night for two others. I am not actually sure where the energy came from. One night, I fell asleep around 9pm and then woke up at 11pm and wrote for 6 hours.
“Did I dream it, or did I send you a full set of key messages and backgrounders for approval at 4am?” I asked my client.
“You did, and they were awesome!” she enthused. “I took them in to our 8am meeting and our president was ecstatic!”
“Wow,” I noted to myself. “Writing in my sleep! I didn’t even know I could do that.” In winter 2013, it was not unusual for me to fall asleep with a Blackberry in my hand and a laptop on my bed. I drove from Toronto to Ottawa and back every week.
And so I felt some sadness as the 40thAnniversaries of Secretariat’s Triple Crown races approached. The Kentucky Derby, in which he set a record which has never been matched:
At the Preakness, Secretariat entered the turn in last place and came out of it in first.
Sunday, June 9th is the 40th Anniversary of his 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes, a time and margin of victory which have never even been approached:
My Year of Secretariat, my fabulous year of Secretariat – the most work, the most money, the most fun, the most accomplishment, would be coming to a close as the anniversaries passed and I had nothing to look forward to.
That was when my Brilliant Thought occurred: why would my “Year of Secretariat” have to end just because the 40thAnniversary of the Belmont Stakes had passed? Why couldn’t EVERY year be “The Year of Secretariat”? In ten years, we will be celebrating the 50thAnniversaries of his victories. Why shouldn’t I plan for “The Decade of Secretariat”?
Why couldn’t every DAY be the Day of Secretariat? If I could commit to being ultra hard-working and excellent for one period of time, what would stop me from making the commitment for EVERY period of time?
After all, for me, the only difference between a “Year of Secretariat” and a year of lesser accomplishment is my attitude of mind.
“By far the most vital lesson I have learned,” Dale Carnegie wrote in Stop Worrying, “is the importance of what we think…our thoughts make us what we are. Our mental attitude is the X factor that determines our fate. Emerson said: ‘A man is what he thinks about all day long. How could he possibly be anything else?’
“I now know with a conviction beyond all doubt that the biggest problem you and I have to deal with – in fact, almost the only problem we have to deal with – is choosing the right thoughts…the great philosopher who ruled the Roman Empire, Marcus Aurelius, summed it up in eight words – eight words that can determine your destiny: ‘Our life is what our thoughts make it.’”
I can now look back on my Year of Secretariat and see what my thoughts made of that year. I can measure it irrefutably, not only in revenues and profits but in quality of life. On June 8th I had a new Brilliant Thought: my Year of Secretariat doesn’t have to end on June 9th. Actually, it makes more sense to have it BEGIN on June 9th, doesn’t it? I have decided that it does. And, that decision is all that matters – that thought is all that matters.
Bring on the Decade of Secretariat!
