what inspired my life change: THE TRUTH

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GremlinJenny
GremlinJenny Posts: 151
in Motivation and Support
Amongst my friends, I'm kinda known as a hardass. I'm eternally optimistic, but a diehard realist. Inspirational quotes and lectures were always kinda lame to me (sorry!!!). I always understood that the motivation had to come from within so seeking outside sources served me no purpose. That is, until I happened upon an amazing video of some guy giving a lecture to a bunch of high school students and talk about an a-ha moment. Or more like a mirror in your face moment.

I tried to find the video on youtube to share with ya'll, but it's not on there. I saw the original video on Facebook. It's called The Truth if anyone wants to search for it. Vague title, I know. lol...

I'll try to summarize the anecdote he shared as best I can, but pls forgive my faulty memory. I'm sure I'm gonna bungle some of the details but hopefully you'll get the gist.

The story he shared started with something like a young man approached a successful, wealthy, happy mogul. He asked him to share the secret to his success. The old man looked at the young teen and asked him "Are you ready for success? I will share the secret if you are truly ready for success." The young man said "hell yeah! I'm ready!" The old man told him if he was truly ready for success, then to meet him at the beach the next morning at like 5am.

Confused and wary, the young man agreed. He wore his only suit in his closet, and showed up at the beach at 5am, dark as night before the sun had begun to rise. There was the old man waiting. The man simply said to the teen "Are you ready for success?" The teen hesitantly said yes. So the man said "Follow me," and he proceeded to walk into the ocean, clothes and all. The young man looked at him like he was crazy but followed him nonetheless. The water was FREEZING and his suit was getting ruined. He started to yell at the old man "WTF are we doing?! You crazy old man?!" And like a broken record, the old man asked again "I'm only gonna ask you one more time, are you ready for success?"

Glaring him in the eyes, the boy begrudgingly said "yeah, alright." They continued to walk into the frigid waters, up to their waist, up to their torso, and up to their necks. The old man continued to walk and the boy realized he wasn't going to stop. At this point, the water level was about to reach his mouth and he thought "this old man is off his rocker. I'm going back!" Just then, the old man grabbed the boy's head and shoved him under the water. The boy struggled and tried to free himself. He was flailing, trying to get above for some air.

Just before he was going to black out, the man let him go. The boy popped up gasping desperately for air and started screaming at the old man "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU!? YOU'RE INSANE!" The man calmly looked him in the eye and said, "did you feel that? in that moment, that ONE single moment, what did you want more than anything else in life?" And the boy said "AIR! i wanted to breathe!" And the man said "exactly. when you want your success as badly as you wanted that breath of air, you WILL be successful. nothing else in the world mattered."

Cut back to the original video of the speaker talking to the high school kids. He went on to explain the anecdote that in today's world, everyone "claims" to want success, but they don't REALLLLY want it. They just KINDA want it. Do you REALLLLLY want to lose weight? Or would you rather sleep in? Do you REALLLLY want to study and succeed? Or would you rather call up your friends and find out what parties are happening this weekend?

He really spoke to me when he mentioned a girl he knew who worked in television production. He said this girl would work all day, nonstop. At times, she'd forgo sleep and food and bathroom breaks! Bewildered, he asked her one day "how do you FORGET to eat? lol... how do you FORGET you needed to run to the ladies room!?" And she responded that she was focused on her work and doing a good job, that she was so incredibly determined, nothing else mattered and she simply and honestly would forget sometimes.

That's when I realized, 'omg, that's me!' When it came to my career, I was golden. Nothing, and I mean, NOTHING came in btwn me and my responsibilities. My work ethic was obvious. How many times had I blinked my eyes and realized a whole day had passed and I hadn't eaten, or moved from my task at hand? I'd sacrificed my social life and even at times my health (NOT GOOD) for the success of my career. And it happened really easily too. It was like a no-brainer "sorry guys, i cant go out, i have to work." But when it came to weight loss? I most definitely chose sleep over a 6am workout. I chose the cream based pasta over the success of weight loss.

I couldn't lie to myself anymore and create anymore excuses. My success was there, waiting for me to simply be ready for it. Not just "kinda" ready, but really and truly ready. And here I am, 26-lbs lighter, 10 inches smaller, 6 sizes smaller and counting. While it hasn't been easy, it was surprisingly not that hard once the choices became no-brainers to my success.

Sorry for the long post, not exactly my most eloquent story-telling. LOL... but hopefully someone else out there can find the same inspiration that it gave to me. Motivation most definitely comes from within. But... it doesn't hurt to have an outside source shine the obvious light on it. ;)

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