It's called reality my friend...
I'll admit it, being married changes you. One of
those changes is that I've been getting a lot of secondhand reality TV, which
happens when you share the TiVo. The only show remotely close to actual reality
is America's funniest home videos. But nonetheless we can learn from America's
next top chef/model/cheerleader/ventriloquist/bounty hunter.
1. The sky is the
limit.
Do you want to be on the covers of
magazines? Be a white rapper? Look like a high school cheerleader again? Life
actually has even greater possibilities. Do you want to make records then
switch careers midway to shoot magazine covers and then music videos? It's all
possible. The prizes exist outside of reality television. They exist in
reality. You can't have every prize and you will lose some, but you don't have
to get accepted to a reality show to compete. You compete already, the game is
called life and you are the star.
2. It's
going to be a lot of work.
I heard someone say:
"I wanted to be a doctor, but it seemed like too much work." It's true, being a
doctor requires a lot of work. Unfortunately, unless your highest aspiration is
french fries, everything is a lot of work. Some people get lucky but you can't
base your life on getting lucky. Fortune favors the prepared. The one thing TV
show contestants get that we don't, is they get told when they're screwing up.
You whine; you get yelled at, you slack; you get yelled at, you screw up twice
you go home and it's very clear what you did wrong. In real life we don't get
that luxury. We just have that nagging feeling that we missed a turn somewhere.
In real life you don't have 8 contestants, you have thousands. We think if we
were on those shows, when crunch time came we would do better. Well unless you
are where you want to be, it is crunch time. Right now there are people
competing for your dream and working harder and whining less and making progress
not excuses. You are losing time and money reading this blog :)
Life is hard. Everyone is struggling
through something. Whether it's a career, growing up or working out, you only
move forward if you push. It's not a giant push when the moment arrives, but
it's getting into the habit of pushing. You're on the treadmill and you go a
little farther everyday. You practice a little longer. You do the thing that
scares you. You do it on faith that someday you're going to get somewhere even
if you can't see that progress today. No one starts training the day after
they're accepted to the olympics. You only get accepted to the olympics if
you've been training all your life. Make pushing and growing part of your
mindset and you will rise to where you're supposed to be. If you don't want to
do all that work, just understand that not living your dream takes almost as
much work. It takes a lot of energy to be defensive and bitter and come up with
reasons why you didn't succeed.
A lyric
from the next album:
If your dream is 100 steps
away, how many steps did you take today?
Posted: Sat
- October 13, 2007 at 10:13 AM
