This thought hit me the other night as I was watching “A Few Good Men”. Tom Cruise’s character is a lawyer who everyone expects to take the easy route. He has a reputation for plea bargains and that’s what they expect him to do this time around. No one is waiting for him to do anything great.
Our lives are made up of moments and they stack upon one another. We get used to our particular level of performance. Whether your best is better or worse than someone else’s is largely irrelevant. People expect that you are going to show up like you. When you fall short of your normal level, the people who care about you might worry. Your enemies may chuckle but most people are too self-interested to even notice.
The thing that no one is waiting for is for you to be great. It will make your friends uncomfortable because if you do something great, then they feel inadequate. Your enemies want you to fail, not succeed and the general bystander needs more mediocrity or ineptitude from others to make them feel better about themselves. So under no circumstances is anyone waiting for you to do something great.
So it all boils down to you and what you want for yourself. The moments of your life belong to you. There will be peaks and valleys for each of us. The question becomes what level do you want to be your average? Who do you expect to show up every day when you look in the mirror? If no one else is waiting for you to be great, will you demand that of yourself? Or will you live up to the expectations that people have for you at the moment? These are questions that only you can answer. Regardless of whether you do so consciously or not, your actions will tell the story. So what are you waiting for? Make today happen and if at all possible, make it great!
Pete
The past was a simpler time in many ways! There’s no doubt about it. The complexity of the world has jumped exponentially. Despite its complexity, human beings remain relatively the same. The complexity is around us, not within us. So it is possible to keep the effects of the world at bay if we remember that we are part of the “natural order” of things. In most cases we act much more like animals than machines. Despite this fact, we expect ourselves to work similar to machines or want results to show up machine time.
I’m continuing to challenge myself going into the month of June. Last month I did not eat until I posted a blog. This month, my focus is on my exercise routine. Each day I will do what I refer to as 2 out of 5. I’ve developed a list of 5 exercises to choose from each day. In order to meet my requirement each day, I must complete two of the five from the list but cannot repeat the same exercises two days in a row. The intention is to build consistency into my regimen while maintaining some variety. We shall see what this does. Below is my list of five:
For the month of May, I decided to commit to publishing a blog post every day. The stipulation was that if I did not publish a post, I would not eat until I did. Today is the last day of my successful endeavor. I was able to hold true to my word for the entire month. There were definitely hours of hunger where procrastination seemed like the only thing that was on my plate. But each day the publish button got pressed before the food went in. Below are some reflections on the experiment and things to consider moving forward.
In the 1970’s Philippe Petit walked a high wire strung between the Twin Towers in New York City. It was an amazing feat that was a result of a slow but steady progression of skill and daring over years. The film “Man On Wire” is a great documentary about the planning and execution of his walk. A slight warning that if you are afraid of heights, you may feel uneasy. Even though you are safe from any imminent danger, you may feel dizzy or tingly based on the images. I cannot imagine how Philippe Petit felt during the walk, over one thousand feet in the air without a net! Sure, he had years of experience and successful walks but the scale of this endeavor dwarfed everything else. It is easy to look at Philippe and say that he is special, talented or even crazy. Closer to the truth is probably that he was passionate about pursuing something to an extreme level. The use of a net negates the entire reason that he was walking in the first place. Under no circumstances and am I suggesting that a tight rope walk from dizzying height should be be in anyone’s future (I’m one of those people who tingles just seeing the photos). I am suggesting that the intersection of passion and stakes is a place of power. It’s someplace that we need to become more comfortable going to.
I was raised in the Catholic faith but have some major misgivings about the history and present of the religion. Regardless of those feelings there are certain things that stick out from my childhood experiences of religion. One phrase that always stuck out for some reason was part of the act of contrition. When repenting for sins, the prayer asked for forgiveness “for what I have done and what I have left undone.” The second part is what always hit me. That I was not only responsible for seeking forgiveness for the actions that I had committed but also the ones that I had omitted as well.
Today my son’s game had an extremely good referee group. The center referee and his two linesmen called the game very well. Despite the fact that they did a great job and got the majority of the calls right (even the ones that went against my son’s team), there were still complaints from parents. Which made me wonder if people really have any idea what makes for a good referee or if they just want calls to go in their team’s favor? Here are some thoughts to consider.
I am your new coach. That’s a role that I take very seriously. It’s a mixture of teacher, mentor, psychologist, personal trainer, confidant and many other jobs that coalesce into a position of great possible influence. The word possible is in there because people are put into roles like this every day but just because someone leads does not mean that anyone will follow. A position of power does not make someone a leader. Leaders must be willing to go first. My hope is that I am able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am.
Huryk Unlimited 