Who is BA Houleye?

If you’ve been loosely paying attention to the Olympics, you are probably familiar with Simone, Katie, and Molly. You might even be familiar with the A-Team, Barshim & Tamberi, and Tom Daley.

But you may not have heard about BA Houleye from Mauritania.

She was one of nine women in heat 3 in the women’s 100 meters preliminary round. Racing in tights, long sleeves, and hijab, she finished last with a time of 15.26 seconds and out of the picture frame when the winner crossed the line.

If that’s all you saw, it would be easy to conclude that she got smoked and might wonder if she was embarrassed from getting beat so soundly.

But with a moment to P.B.R., you might wonder how fast you could run 100 meters or see that BA courageously set a PB (personal best), as did six of the nine women in her heat.

Through one lens, she lost, but through another, she was victorious. It all depends on what benchmark you use to compare her performance. For me, it was a personal development Gold Medal achievement.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the woman who points out how the strong woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the woman who is actually in the arena…”

– President Roosevelt

Unhealthy comparison is the body armor that keeps us from fully showing up in the arena. Think about it, if you knew that you would perform as BA did, would you have traveled to Tokyo for, on the surface, just fifteen seconds?

This week’s video is about comparisonitis and how to prevent it from holding you back from your personal best.

Until next week, if you find yourself comparing yourself to others, remember to Pause Breathe Reflect and have fun storming the castle!

Michael

To access The Pause Breathe Reflect Store click PBR and to listen to The Kintsugi Podcast, click Kintsugi.

P.S.,

A little update on my recovery. Here are a few things that I can do this week that I couldn’t do last week:

• Flex my knee to 90 degrees
• Walk for up to an hour three times a day with one crutch
• More stamina and starting to sleep better