By Salty View

Like Simone Biles, We Can Just Say No — And the Dying’s Not so Bad

Simone Biles had a moment of inspiration this week. “Today it’s like, you know what, no,” she said, explaining her decision to withdraw from Olympic competition. Must have felt like a death — to the hope of Olympic gold, to the reward for untold hours of practice, of nursing various injuries, of daily sacrifices over many years. Maybe, a death to the expectations of coaches, teammates, and millions of people pinning their dreams on hers.

Unpacking the Pressure

So many tangible and intangible forces — each with their own energy — must have felt like an enormous pressure. As Biles testified, “It felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.”

In our own smaller-scale lives, we face the similar forces that we also name “pressure.” It’s a constraining pressure, one that narrows our focus, and limits our options. Until we, too, have a moment of clarity: “It’s like, you know what, no.” Perhaps, at the time, the “no” represents a dying to our own dreams and perhaps the dreams of many others. But we too, can just say no, and when we do, we can learn that the dying, in this case, is not so bad.

My little world is a very different world than Simone Biles’ world of elite athletics under the glaring spotlight and crushing power of international…