I have a few things to talk about today and, again, I haven't been posting as much as I'd like, but it's the nature of the beast anymore. It's a good thing that I'm not writing as much on here, trust me.
Anywho, first things first - the passing of Robin Williams. I was bummed. Really really really bummed. Nostalgia aside, his death forced me to look at the world in a way that I didn't really want nor anticipate. We now have a responsibility, people...
My biggest fear is that there will be no one to fill his shoes. You can't kill yourself raising the dead. I get that. But you damn well better work to make sure that the world isn't worse off because of the loss. We need to make sure that we are culturally creating a climate conducive to producing more Robin Williams-like human beings. I know, it's abstract, but hear me out. We need to make sure that good movies and good writers and good artists and actors and musicians have a place to grow and learn. The guy didn't become The Genie at birth. He had to work to develop that, and we helped him. We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to him to make sure we keep culturally moving in that direction; and at the same time we need to be aware that there are some movements that are not worth supporting or, even worse, are counter productive to this positive movement. Ever hear of "Hood Pranks?" That's not comedy. It's an embarrassment to comedy. I'm not even going to link it because it sucks and I don't want to insult your intelligence. We have work to do, people.
#Dropsmic
#embarrassedofprematuremicdroppicsmicbackupagain
Onto the title of today's post...
You're in it. There's no denying that. But it could be worse.
In the wake of trying to get published, holding down a full time teaching job, coaching part time, and attempting to qualify for nationals, I found myself today working on positions filming myself over and over and over again. Here was the end result (8 sets of this complex @ 60%):
This is how some days look. I'm alone in my high school's weight room lifting in silence. To be honest, I prefer it this way. There was no music on a whaling ship. If it was good for them, it's good for me.
And in that exact line of logic, as it moved through my head as I settled back into my heels, I also, for some reason, thought of the movie The Great Escape:
Hopefully you get the idea from the trailer, but if you don't, Google it.
As I sat there, thinking about the position-work, all I could think about was the idea of, well, "How long is this going to take?". I wasn't thinking about how long the training session would take. I was thinking about how long it was going to take to qualify for nationals. Another year? Another two years? What about my book? How long until it got published? What then?
But then (and yes, I think about ALL of this on the platform... that's precisely why I train the way I do) I thought, well, how selfish? How ridiculous? Nationals? In a year? It takes some people a decade. And a book? Now? It takes some people two decades.
So then what?
It's amazing how perspectives work. Think about what it is you do every day - think about what it is you love doing. Think about the end goal. Think about how it is you plan to get there. Think about what it is you are doing right... now.
You can get there.
All of us; me, you, him, her - we're all prisoners. We're all strapped to this thing; slaves, aren't we all; biding our time.
But if you prepare and if you grind and if you hope and plan and push... eventually you're going to get a shot. Because if you're a fighter, and you fight every match, and you prepare well enough to win every match, eventually you will be offered a title shot...
And then there I am. Back on the platform. Hitting position work.
And then there I am. Back in my kitchen. Emailing publishing Agents.
And then there I am. Going to bed each night. Sifting through it all.
And then it starts over again.
Insert everything else. Insert life and work and taxes and family and friends and a mortgage and yada yada yada.
Insert The Grind.
And in the middle of all of that, think really really hard...
And plan carefully...
Because The Great Escape is just around the corner...
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