Tag: Canadian Spirit

#WhatItTakes – The Entire Olympic Manifesto

Here is the entire #WhatItTakes Olympic Manifesto put together by Sport Chek, Shane Koyczan and Sabrina Benaim. This entire poem exudes so much pride in the spirit of Athleticism, but mostly it embodies the beauty of the Canadian Spirit. I am forever proud to be a Canadian. Eh.

OPENING

We hope every seat is full

We hope you hear them cheer for everyone but you

We hope defeat is in your cards

We hope your hope splinters into shards

that you must handpick from the bleeding wound of your defeat

We hope that every athlete you meet

is better, more determined than you

But you need to be tested the same way wrong needs right

The same way ROAR needs FIGHT

You must fight to be here

You must pay with sacrifice

You must disregard the price of admission

If you want in, it’ll cost you. It’ill cost you broken bones and blood

We hope for a flashflood of fear and uncertainty

We wish this misery upon you because it gives birth to brilliance

There will be a moment in which everything you want becomes a singular goal

A moment of debt when every heartbeat you own can’t pay for every breath you stole

You must pay with the whole of you

Because this is the price and these are the stakes

you must pay for all the hurts and all the aches

you must open your heart like a vault and pay for your pain

because THIS is what it takes.

 

VERSE#1

What will you do when your lungs burn and your body shakes?

When the disaster in your muscles go from tremors to earthquakes?

How will you hold on when every rung you reach for shatters in your grasp and there are more ways to fall than there are to climb?

How will you keep going when the hands on the clock refuse to applaud you until your best time is a broken record that skips over your next heartbeat?

How will you move forward when your feet feel like anchors you must drag across the finish line?

How will you sharpen into an ! the curled up ? of your spine?

What will it take to keep you from doubting yourself THIS time?

 

VERSE#2

You have to ask yourself, is your prime ahead of you? Or behind you?

Will your worst days remind you that your best are still to come?

Is the drum in your chest loud enough to keep your challengers up at night?

Do you have what it takes when the fight goes into extra rounds?

Will the surplus of pounds you lifted be enough to prepare you for the more that is required when what comes next finally arrives?

 Are you committed to the grace it takes to turn your falls into dives to cut through the surface of the water?

Will you have what it takes when there’s no spotter to save you, and no net to catch you?

When your mind asks for more, will your body match you?

VERSE#3

Greatness walks up to you, she asks you two questions :
Can you see yourself in me & are you ready? 

To push beyond your limits while shutting out the noise
To wear well each earned bead of sweat because you’ve worked just as hard
With a different set of rules to triumph before the clock ever starts.
Ask them why they call you anything other than athlete.
You see expectations and break them wearing muscles and tears,
Each one a testament to your strength.
To erase the idea of what you are supposed to be is not what you are here for,
You came to show the world what you are capable of.

There is no box to check for greatness,

They’ll know it when they see it.

 

CLOSING

There is a war you wage on yourself  every time you attempt to do better

The letter of resignation you wrote is a no thank you note you keep using for target practice

THIS is what it takes.

These are the brakes you cut to keep yourself from slowing down, 

To keep yourself from stopping,

Topping your last achievement will never ever take less effort than your maximum.

What takes you from start to finish is more than the muscle around your bones.

May exhaustion turn your arms into the stones you must lif tif ever you claim victory

May gravity always be the foe that prevents you from taking flight 

May there forever be more fight in the other guy 

May you be blessed with the nightmare of constantly asking yourself why you should keep going?

Knowing the boundaries of your reach will teach you to extend past them.

Do not CONDEMN failure

You will come to know it

You will be crestfallen

You will be beat down

You will at times drown in the drought of your determination 

You will stumble

You will make mistakes 

You will learn there was a level beyond the hard way.

THIS is your education

THIS is what it takes!

 

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Commercials that Make Me Proud to be Canadian

Being Canadian is woven into the fabric of my being. When I leave my country for an adventure abroad, I wear my flag proudly. It is my identity. A BIG part of who I am. When people ask where I am from, I skip not a beat as I say, “Canada”, and then I smile, and then they smile. They know us the world over. They know us for our kindness and our friendliness. They know us because we care, because we are daring and because we are humble.

While we watch the Olympic coverage, and the media is abuzz with patriotic adverts to rally the Canadian Spirit around our athletes in Rio, these two commercials are the ones that make me so very proud to be Canadian.

Tim Hortons’ Commercial: Nothing says “I am Canadian” better than a Cup of Joe from our beloved Tim’s. No matter what your day is like, a drive to Tim’s can turn it around. So, when Tim Hortons came up with #WhyWeBrew, I knew it was an important moment. True to the Canadian Spirit, this commercial believes “Because greatness is not what you have, it’s what you give”. Yes, we are a nation of givers.

 

Air Canada Commercial: This one is an exceptionally clever marketing campaign to galvanize Canadians to travel, especially with the summer coming to a close. However, it is more than just a smart marketing venture, it is a snapshot of what it means to be Canadian; a look at our adventurous side.

“You’ll love your home, but its border will not be able to hold you…Maybe to prove yourself, maybe because you’re needed, maybe to show off your big bad superpower brain. That’ll be you flying the flag, that when you leave, they’ll remember that smart, helpful, confident, tough, CANADIAN.”

 

Long Live the True North Strong and Free.

 

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Shane Koyczan and Sport Chek: A Powerhouse Team for the Canadian Spirit

So, I was almost out the door to enjoy a Friday evening last night when this came on the telly. I had to stay until its 60 seconds was up. I was riveted. Go ahead, see why.

This is the transcribed version for Verse 1 of the Olympic Manifesto created by Sport Chek with Shane Koyczan, a renowned Canadian spoken-word poet, at their helm:

What will you do when your lungs burn and your body shakes?

When the disaster in your muscles go from tremors to earthquakes?

How will you hold on when every rung you reach for shatters in your grasp and there are more ways to fall than there are to climb?

How will you keep going when the hands on the clock refuse to applaud you until your best time is a broken record that skips over your next heartbeat?

How will you move forward when your feet feel like anchors you must drag across the finish line?

How will you sharpen into an ! the curled up ? of your spine?

What will it take to keep you from doubting yourself THIS time?

 – Shane Koyczan

First let me digress to just say that Shane Koyczan is a genius when it comes to Poetry. I have heard some of his work, mostly to do with his anti-bullying campaign and the To This Day Project, but this man truly has a way with words. They bend at his bidding. Here is a blow-you-away video from Shane Koyczan and the To This Day Project

The images, the music, and Koyczan’s poetry in this video come together for a devastatingly moving emphasis. The result leaves you speechless.

Returning to Verse 1 of the Manifesto though. There are a few more verses like this to land in the next week (fear not, all have Koyczan pounding out his incredible poetry), according to online newsfeeds, on August 14th, 18th and the 21st. Koyczan’s words are short but pack a punch that gets you right off that floor where you may lay beaten. His words reach out to drive into action not just Olympians competing for titles they have worked for most of their lives, but his words (as is usually the case with Koyczan) reach out to you and I, people carrying our own crosses on a daily basis. Koyczan drives his hand into your chest and lifts up your heart and you can feel it rise as you start to feel stronger. Such is the power of words to inspire, to galvanize toward something bigger. Such is Koyczan’s gift. For their part, the Sport Chek media team hand pick the best moments of the games and then slap on a crescendo of a soundtrack to perfectly unite with Koyczan’s spoken word. The result is a Carpe Diem moment. A YOLO effect. A fight-until-the-death philosophy that keeps you pushing.

I have the utmost respect for the talent powerhouse that Koyczan is, and then he goes and teams up with a Canadian sports retailer like Sport Check to really make a difference for the Canadian Spirit. That deserves a standing ovation.

So here’s to Koyczan, and here’s to our Canadian athletes competing in Rio, and here is to all the athletes and their families and their fans, and to you and I. In the words of Koyczan, “What will it take to keep you from doubting yourself THIS time?”

 

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