Becoming a try-athlete …

Just as the start of a new year brings about a flurry of new resolutions and fills gyms for a couple of weeks, the televising of the Olympics every four years stirs the wanna-be champion in us.

As inspiring as it is to hear the life stories of these elite athletes and watch them strive for gold, most of us watching will never join them on the field of Olympic competition.

Yet, while the majority of us may never become Olympic athletes, world champion decathletes, or even triathletes, we all can be “try-athletes.”

Becoming an Olympic champion comes only by dogged, determined trying — day in and day out, year after year — to push yourself to do your very best.

All of us can do that!

Each of us can commit to abandon the ordinary to seek the extraordinary, to surrender the average in pursuit of the excellent. But you have to get off the couch and try.

Are you a “try-athlete”? Or an observer as life passes you by?

Scotty