Friday, July 29, 2011

NO EXCUSES

Excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing.
~Steven Grayhm

This week has been all about CHANGE.
  1. Becoming an intentional changer
  2. True optimism
  3. Questions are the answer
  4. How one step leads to another
Today is about perseverance.

I grew up watching the "Rocky" movies. I remember seeing the original Rocky at the Drive-In theater behind my house as a little boy. As I grew older, I cheered for Rocky against Mr. T and the Russian and then lost interest as the series never seemed to end.

So, when Rocky Balboa came out a couple of years ago, I was a bit skeptical. Reluctantly, I watched it and it was an okay movie with a bit of the nostalgia of the earlier movies. But one scene in particular stood out in the movie.

Rocky's son had a hard time growing up in the shadow of his "old man." In one poignant scene, the son tells his dad as much. What follows is one of my favorite movie scenes. Take a look...


This week, we've been talking about CHANGE. We set a micro-goal on the way to reaching our bigger life goals.

As I end this series, my encouragement to you is to never give up on yourself. This is a cliche' phrase and we hear it all the time. But, you never know how close you are to achieving your goal or victory...SO YOU CANNOT QUIT. 

Perseverance is not about always winning. Like Rocky said above, it's about getting up when we get knocked down and then getting up again if needed. 

Life is ALL about the journey not the destination - don't let anyone tell you different. Don't live for some fantasy-land down the road. Live for today - drinking in the life that you have while you take micro-steps to create the life that you want. Don't miss the journey.

Live today with love, perseverance, and joy. 

QUESTION: How do YOU define perseverance?

2 comments:

Shari Daniels said...

This is such a meaningful post, in so many ways. The video clip truly spoke to me as I see so many people just like the son, including myself. Thank you for that wake up call, Rocky. I'm bookmarking the video for when I need that pep talk again.

Shari

Jason said...

Shari,
I love the video quote. I think we can all relate to what Rocky says at one point or another in our lives. Thanks for the comment!