Some of us Play, Some of us Watch
You think you need permission.
You don’t.
You think you need support.
You don’t.
These two things keep 98% of people from doing 100% of the things they aren’t doing.
You won’t start that business because Mom wants you to get a real job and take the safe path.
You won't take that promotion because you can't move out of town .
You won’t write a blog because your brother doesn’t share your opinions and he won’t support it.
You won’t ask out the girl at the coffee shop because you don’t think you have a shot at her saying yes.
We put so much of our decision making power into the hands of the opinions of those around us.
What will they think?
If everyone let that stop them then the World would look a lot different than it does today.
No one would dare to sing those songs that we all enjoy so much and we’d have no sports to watch.
Nothing new or innovative would ever get created and we’d still be riding horses to work.
No one would have the courage to stand in a classroom full of students and share their knowledge with them.
If we wish to live fulfilled then we must step up in the face of criticism and not allow the opinions of others to stop us from going forward.
The voice in your head telling you that you should must become stronger and louder than the voice of your neighbor telling you that you can't.
I know full well that not everyone will support the things that I dare to say,
but I’ll say them anyway.
I know full well that not everyone agrees with the path I’m on,
I’ll take it anyway.
Because I know that it’s up to me to create the life and the legacy that I can be proud of when I’m finished.
In my heart it’s my hope that anyone who crosses my path is better for it because I choose to say what people need to hear.
I don’t let myself, or you, off the hook.
I challenge us.
I push us.
I make us uncomfortable.
I want it for us.
I want us to see that we can.
I need you to believe in yourself as much as I believe in myself.
The entire structure of our society and the success of our planet lay in the ability of its individuals to believe in themselves and to have the courage to do the things they dream of doing and the solve the problems they dream of solving.
For otherwise, what’s the point.
You will face the naysayers.
You will feel like your in it alone.
You will be discouraged by the lack of support from the people you thought would support you.
Opposition is always part of the game.
You must go anyway.
You must push forward for it does not matter as much as you believe it does.
By doing things you are already proving to be stronger than the ones who never will.
I’ll leave you with one of the best speeches ever given.
“The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt
(Paris, April 23, 1910)
“It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the area,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs,
who comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”