This makes complete sense as many of us strive for perfection in almost everything we do, which is simply just impossible and not attainable according to our human standards. This quote will remind us of this and make it acceptable for us to experience failure in certain activities that we are willing to strive for and be the best at.
For many, this is where the phrase stops. There is no other secondary look at how this phrase impacts how we think about our lives and what we do. We just continue our lives, trying to improve in the aspects we want to improve at while knowing that there are accomplishments we would love to achieve that will never happen.
This is a mindset that is extremely prevalent but one that I believe is foolish. If we are "only" human, then there is no need to try and push ourselves to achieve what is thought to be impossible. As a human, we know that the imperfections are either already there or coming and make perfection simply out of reach.
What gets me thinking about all of this is two examples that are currently in the athletics atmosphere that completely oppose each other when it comes to this phrase. These two athletes are at the forefront of middle distance/long distance running and create a great example to showcase why the "We are only human" phrase can prove to be accurate where in other cases, can be wrong.
The first athlete is the probably the most revered and cherished athlete of the current day: Eliud Kipchoge. For those of you who do not know who Kipchoge is, he is currently the reigning Olympic champion in the Men's Marathon as well as the World Record Holder for the event, set at the Berlin Marathon in 2018 of 2:01:39. He has also won the London Marathon four times in a row along with the Berlin Marathon three times in a row.
For all extensive purposes, it is nowhere near a stretch to call Kipchoge the greatest marathoner of all time. He has run 12 marathons and has only lost once (where he was bested by Wilson Kipsang's WR performance in Berlin 2013) and has competed at the biggest and most competitive marathons in the world. This type of dominance and consistency has really never been seen before in the marathon and is remarkable given the age and period we live in.
And behind all of these accomplishments is a man who can only really be described as a humble, selfless and a true professional. Living and training in rural Kenya, Kipchoge shares much of his praise for his teammates and spends most of his free time with his family and caring for his farm. He has praised the ability of the heart and mind and how mentality can overpower physicality to achieve what may be seen as impossible.
Maybe the most famous quote for Kipchoge is from his time in the Nike Breaking2 experiment, where he famously said "No human is limited." He goes on to say that it is all within our mind and we come to put limits on ourselves, and that is why we fall short. Without placing these limits, we can accomplish almost anything we set our mind to.
This completely opposes the "We are only human" phrase and puts the idea that our own limits are placed upon by ourselves. Kipchoge's achievements and thoughts prove that we should never limit ourselves to what we think we can do. With the mindset that Eliud Kipchoge has, nothing is out of reach and your mind will not become the limiting factor in performance.
To contrast this, my other example athlete who has been extremely popular in the middle distance running scene as of late: Asbel Kiprop. Kiprop is another Kenyan who is regarded as one of the best 1500m runners of all time, having won the 2008 Olympics and three World Championships in the event. Kiprop is also the third fastest 1500m runner of all time, with a 3:26.69 time to his name.
However as many in the community know by now, Kiprop has tested positive for doping with EPO (Erythropoietin) and has been banned from the sport for four years. Along with this, he is facing having pretty much all of his accomplishments erased from the history books and given back to the IAAF or Olympics.
Previous to this, Kiprop has had other controversies including his repeated failures at Olympics in the 1500m where he has made up excuses and countless others. But since this doping case, the train has completely come off the rails. From having a complete and utter meltdown to having an affair with his training partners wife (along with posting a video on the internet) to literally threatening to KILL someone on Twitter, Kiprop has degraded into a disgrace and a sad case of how bad things can go wrong.
It is impossible to say when Kiprop began using EPO, but his use of it may show the weakness of himself and what his goals in athletics were. This mistake that he has made and his actions to follow just show a man that is in disarray and had a weak mindset from the beginning. He shows that is some cases, we are really only human and our mistakes are inevitable and may lead to downfall.
Kiprop is a fine example of how the "We are only human" phrase can in fact be proven true and find itself in someone's psyche. In attempts to attain glory, Kiprop lost himself in becoming a cheat and is now paying the price that he simply does not want to pay and will aggressively fight against. His attempts to obtain glory led to his mistakes and proved the phrase to be accurate.
To say Kipchoge's career is almost opposite to Kiprop's is not really an understatement. The former has been the ultimate professional and shown that limits are only in the mind and prevent us from becoming who we want to be. The latter has ruined his career with disgrace and shown that he let his mind determine his limits and force him to cheat to obtain success.
I find it crazy and extremely interesting looking at the stark differences between these two. Only being born about 50 km from one another and both training in the city of Eldoret, these two men have led completely different paths in their athletics careers.
We are only human, that is certainly the truth. But whether we let that limit us or not is the factor. Whether you want to end up like Eliud Kipchoge or Asbel Kiprop in anything in life, it's your decision.
-Simone
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| Eliud Kipchoge, London Marathon 2019 |
For all extensive purposes, it is nowhere near a stretch to call Kipchoge the greatest marathoner of all time. He has run 12 marathons and has only lost once (where he was bested by Wilson Kipsang's WR performance in Berlin 2013) and has competed at the biggest and most competitive marathons in the world. This type of dominance and consistency has really never been seen before in the marathon and is remarkable given the age and period we live in.
And behind all of these accomplishments is a man who can only really be described as a humble, selfless and a true professional. Living and training in rural Kenya, Kipchoge shares much of his praise for his teammates and spends most of his free time with his family and caring for his farm. He has praised the ability of the heart and mind and how mentality can overpower physicality to achieve what may be seen as impossible.
Maybe the most famous quote for Kipchoge is from his time in the Nike Breaking2 experiment, where he famously said "No human is limited." He goes on to say that it is all within our mind and we come to put limits on ourselves, and that is why we fall short. Without placing these limits, we can accomplish almost anything we set our mind to.
This completely opposes the "We are only human" phrase and puts the idea that our own limits are placed upon by ourselves. Kipchoge's achievements and thoughts prove that we should never limit ourselves to what we think we can do. With the mindset that Eliud Kipchoge has, nothing is out of reach and your mind will not become the limiting factor in performance.
To contrast this, my other example athlete who has been extremely popular in the middle distance running scene as of late: Asbel Kiprop. Kiprop is another Kenyan who is regarded as one of the best 1500m runners of all time, having won the 2008 Olympics and three World Championships in the event. Kiprop is also the third fastest 1500m runner of all time, with a 3:26.69 time to his name.
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| Asbel Kiprop, World Championships 2015 |
Previous to this, Kiprop has had other controversies including his repeated failures at Olympics in the 1500m where he has made up excuses and countless others. But since this doping case, the train has completely come off the rails. From having a complete and utter meltdown to having an affair with his training partners wife (along with posting a video on the internet) to literally threatening to KILL someone on Twitter, Kiprop has degraded into a disgrace and a sad case of how bad things can go wrong.
It is impossible to say when Kiprop began using EPO, but his use of it may show the weakness of himself and what his goals in athletics were. This mistake that he has made and his actions to follow just show a man that is in disarray and had a weak mindset from the beginning. He shows that is some cases, we are really only human and our mistakes are inevitable and may lead to downfall.
Kiprop is a fine example of how the "We are only human" phrase can in fact be proven true and find itself in someone's psyche. In attempts to attain glory, Kiprop lost himself in becoming a cheat and is now paying the price that he simply does not want to pay and will aggressively fight against. His attempts to obtain glory led to his mistakes and proved the phrase to be accurate.
To say Kipchoge's career is almost opposite to Kiprop's is not really an understatement. The former has been the ultimate professional and shown that limits are only in the mind and prevent us from becoming who we want to be. The latter has ruined his career with disgrace and shown that he let his mind determine his limits and force him to cheat to obtain success.
I find it crazy and extremely interesting looking at the stark differences between these two. Only being born about 50 km from one another and both training in the city of Eldoret, these two men have led completely different paths in their athletics careers.
We are only human, that is certainly the truth. But whether we let that limit us or not is the factor. Whether you want to end up like Eliud Kipchoge or Asbel Kiprop in anything in life, it's your decision.
-Simone