You have to love the game.
Without it, you are going to be pounding the pavement miserable step after miserable step wishing you were doing something else.
What’s the point in that?
That should literally be the first indicator that you really should be doing something else – if you dread going in to do the work.
For me, I found something that I truly love. My love of the game has grown beyond anything I previously thought possible.
Step into this moment.
You know, the moment where you smile during the struggle, enjoy the pain, laugh at how hard it is and cut your rest periods short because you want to challenge yourself more and more.
Some can be methodical about their goals and dreams, but for me, I’m acting like life is one big stage and there is a grand orchestra behind me playing all different kinds of tunes.
I am dancing through life right now. Some periods of time are slower, some much faster…but I am dancing nonetheless.
You always remember the people who were there to congratulate you when you achieved your dream. Unfortunately, that’s not always who you thought it was going to be. But that’s ok.
For one reason or another, things are never going to be what you thought they were going to be. They will turn out differently in many ways – sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
But that’s life. That’s how the cookie crumbles.
Each day I go a little bit deeper into trying to be the person I wish to be and bring out the good traits in myself that were hidden for such a long time. I am learning.
There are rarely days when I don’t travel deep down into the rabbit hole and search for things hidden inside. I don’t know if I could have it really any other way. In fact, that journey has been going on for almost 4 years now and it’s impossible to suggest that I’ll ever go back to that man before the man I am today.
One thing I do know for sure is that I haven’t spent any time finding myself, but rather have spent almost all of my time creating myself.
I think there’s a huge difference there.
It’s creating vs. finding because in all truth and honesty, I didn’t have anything to actually “find.” I had to drop everything I had learned to become and everything I thought I should be in order to become the person I had always dreamed of.
Not the person society or others told me I should be…but who I knew I could become deep down inside.
I make mistakes.
Sometimes I come off too strong or start pouring things out too early. But I don’t run scared anymore. I used to – I used to be scared of everything.
Scared of making mistakes…scared of myself…scared of losing…scared of abandonment…and I finally found ways to drop those one by one because they turn your life really into nothing. They take everything out of you and there you are…just one big ball of being scared.
Our lives are a series of interpretations of what is actually happening in reality. We bring with us stories and past events that shape what something means to us when it happens and that usually dictates how we act.
If we can change that interpretation, we can change our entire world.
I’m working on changing a few of mine right now. We will see how this pans out in the end.
You have to love the game.
This game of life.
Without love…then what? What’s the point if you don’t love what you are doing?
One last thing – if you go hard in life and do everything rooted in love and passion, it’s going to be pretty damn hard to knock yourself when you cross the line.
Just keep that in the back of your mind.
Make mistakes going 100%.
Sure there will be spectacular wipeouts, but you will recover and be on your way again.
There’s no doubt in my mind.
Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project