December 3rd, 2012
Monday Funday: Keep Going. Your Chance WILL Come.
The other day I saw the movie “Lincoln.” To be honest, it was a bit long and boring, but in that way where I’m certain it will win some Academy Awards because it’s an important movie with an important message. A guy, going against the thoughts and beliefs of an entire country, shaking up the norm, standing behind his beliefs so much he’s willing to tarnish his absolutely perfect and popular reputation. Having little support, and yet, going for it anyway. Seeing the bigger picture at hand. Not just for today, or tomorrow, or his kids and family, but for the sake of the entire country, as a whole, for years and years to come. One decision changes everything. Doing whatever it takes to push through evil to get to good. And to do so because YOU know it’s the right thing to do. In your heart, you HAVE to. No matter what. And you’re willing to take foot to pavement (or rather boot to mud in this case) to convince others it’s important. You keep going, even when it seems so impossible and like there’s no end in sight.
I remembered a Lincoln quote that I’ve had pinned on my bulletin board for awhile: “I will prepare and someday my chance will come.”
So simple. And yet, so forgotten among many of us who wish to do great things and then find ourselves paralyzed within that vision.
We want to only prepare when we know our chance is coming. We want to only be ready when we think we’re going to find what we’re looking for. We want to know ahead of time what it’ll look like or that it’ll work out. But it doesn’t work that way. The important stuff happens behind the scenes, in the daily routines and rituals. The keeping on keeping on even when no one cares about the work you’re doing or no one reads the words you’re writing. It’s putting on an outfit when you have no idea whether or not you’ll even see a person. It’s preparing, every day, all the time, for the chance to happen. Because it will. If you act like it will, now.
I know this is true for you because it’s true for me. We all go through it. We’re all going through it right now on some levels I’d presume. So keep on going. Keep on fighting the good fight. Keep on believing in what you’re doing. And keep preparing. Your chance WILL come. And so will mine. I believe that will all my heart.
What “chances” have you been waiting for? What do you do when you find yourself wanting to give up? Share in the comments below.
Xo,
Sally Hope
I SOOOO needed to read this today! Thank you Thank you!! :) You are the best!
I’m glad you found it helpful! What inspired you about it??
This post made me smile…. yes yes and yes.
I definitely feel you about waiting for things to happen rather than setting the stage for them to happen. Sulking is no bueno. I keep dating the guys I’m not really really into. I think, “Why do I always end up in the wrong situations?” rather than stepping it up for someone awesome.
When I’m down, I go to work, which is hard when you work online, so I go out in public to work. I go to bed early and have a whole morning routine. I plan my projects in advance to leave time to screw up and be spontaneous ;) I make little day trips for myself to places in town I’ve neglected. I have breakfast outside on my porch. For whatever reason, making my meals in advance helps too! It makes me so glad I took care of myself.
You know what? That is so true. Especially in my business. There’s a guy you might have heard of, called The Rock. He worked his butt off for a long time, through stupid gimmicks while people were chanting, “Die Rocky Die”, and he had to smile like an idiot and pretend he didn’t notice. Finally, he just had to ask if he could try his own thing and he became “The Rock”.
Although his ascent to the top was fairly rapid, there’s also his in-ring rival, Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was the only graduate of his wrestling school in 1989, and everyone thought he was destined for greatness, but yet could never seem to rise to the top of his profession, suffering through politics and lousy gimmick after lousy gimmick, hating it all. Being told he would never make it wearing black trunks and black boots and how he wasn’t flashy enough, which would later lend itself to his “Stone Cold” persona. Even when he was finally signed to the World Wrestling Federation, he was once again saddled with a silly gimmick.
Even when he requested a gimmick makeover, management didn’t get what he was looking for, sending him names such as Ice Dagger and Chilly McFreeze when he lobbied for his character to be “cold and ruthless”.
Finally, he had an opportunity when someone else got into trouble and he was pushed to the top of the card where he could finally be himself (or at least an extension thereof, turned up to ten), where he would become the biggest star ever in the history of wrestling, outselling and outdrawing even Hulk Hogan.
Austin once made mention of it on WWE’s “Tough Enough” reality show, where WWE Superstars work with trainees to see if they can make it to “the dance”, when he said he knew all his other gimmicks “sucked”, but it was a foot in the door, and he knew his chance would come if he could just get that foot in the door and wedge it in.
Just like Austin, and just like Rock, sometimes you have to suffer through a lot of crap, but you can’t let that get you down, and you can’t give up, because at some point, that door is going to open for you and you just have to get that foot in the door and get whatever chance you get and make it yours. If Austin had let promoters tell him he wasn’t marketable, he would still be “The Ringmaster”, chugging away in the midcard, perhaps released from contract instead of taking his chance when he got the slightest opening to become Stone Cold.
Just keep your eyes and your ears open and your boot ready to jam in the doorway the second it cracks open.