Life is tough. It will knock you down, and kick you again as you try to get up…just because it can. Last night, I watched a movie where two women, brought together by circumstances neither of them would have wished they were in, fought the good fight. One was fueled by excitement and the other knew things had to be different but didn’t know how to get there. But somehow, they found each other and began a quest neither one had picked for themselves. And as the women hit one wall in front of another, being told “no” way too many times, and no precedent set before them, they never gave up. Giving up simply wasn’t an option for them. If you have to start somewhere, why not here? If you have to start sometime, why not now? Personally, when confronted with challenges and uncertainty, I never run away from them. I am going to get in there and give it everything I have. I will make mistakes. I will learn from them. And then I will do better. There are some things that aren’t worth the effort and nothing will ever change that. But then there are some that you are pulled to and you know you aren’t ready to be done and you say to yourself, “This is not the way this ends.” You shake your head and dust yourself off. You don’t look at what was done, but what yet still needs to be done. Have you ever wanted to quit something because it is hard? Maybe people told you it would be impossible? Perhaps, you started something and only after you got into the middle of it, did you realize that it is harder than you thought it would be… But there comes a point when your attitude towards what is in front of you changes. You know it when it happens. It is a point of no return. The resolute decision to move forward — to never look back — and the commitment to see this through, whatever it is for you. Are you afraid of what others will think of you, so you do nothing to change what you secretly wish was different? Here is the ugly truth…what about what you think of yourself? Doesn’t that matter? When you are getting ready to turn in for the night and you think about what you accomplished during your day, are you going to go to bed wishing you had done something different or will you smile to yourself, knowing you didn’t quit? Do you know why we need to be inspired and why it is so powerful? Because it changes things and attitudes in people. It motivates action and those actions are contagious. It is how things change. Some people don’t like change and it can be difficult to understand it sometimes. But people have to grow and things must change. What do you sit back and watch happen? What can you do different? Do you cringe when it comes back to the surface, knowing if you had done something earlier than it would be different now? There is something to be done. Always. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. The fight alone is worth it. The struggle does not promise the greatest outcome, but it will promise lessons never learned inside a classroom, strength found where it was not thought to exist, and determination and perseverance becomes viral. It becomes unstoppable. When you have a choice to make between the easy way of doing nothing and the difficult way of doing something, I hope you “Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“With great achievement comes great risk.” – unknown.
Michelle A. Homme 2014 ©
