Rocking Chair

Rocking Chair (Chapter from my book, Winning Within.)

We get stuck. Mostly we get stuck in our routines because they become convenient. We are not afraid when we know what to expect. Then we wonder why we are bored. It’s because we continue the same tasks everyday. People have music inside their hearts but to pursue that music causes them to do something different. It’s scary to do something new. In a live lecture, Dr. Leo Buscaglia said, “How am I different? And if you find out night after night you are not different, then jump out the window, run around the block and when the cops stop you, you say you are doing something different.” That’s great wisdom.

So what are you afraid of? Are you afraid that you might be wrong? Leo goes on and says, “You know a clock that stopped is right twice a day.” That’s classic. There is nothing wrong with being wrong.

Are you afraid of failure? I love that word because I haven’t used it since school. Dr. Wayne Dyer said that there’s no such thing as failure. Everything you do produces results. You put a golf ball on a tee and try to hit it. So what if you don’t hit it 300 yards. You hit it 25 yards. You have not failed, you have produced some results. I love when Thomas Edison was asked how did it feel to have failed when he attempted 10,000 ways to make a battery work. He simply replied, “Fail, I haven’t failed. I just produced 10,000 ways on how not to make a battery work. What have you done?“ The key here is what have you done?

Failure is a concept that you can use and abuse all day long. It’s up to you. I am telling you that your success in school or at work will be dependent upon how well you persevere and are willing to try new things. That’s how people become great. Elvis shook his legs and gyrated on a stage. People thought he was weird, but he was doing something different. That’s the key.

I have an exercise you can do right now. I want you to close your eyes and visualize yourself about 85 years old and sitting on a rocking chair on your porch. Once you have that image, I want you to see yourself rocking back and forth. Do that a few times. Now, close your eyes and go back to a time when you were the age you are now reading this book. As an 85 year old ask yourself what would you have tried differently back then? What would you have been willing to try? What was the music inside your heart back then but you were too scared to pursue? Now open your eyes.

Here you are presently sitting, standing, or laying down. That 85 year old sent you a message. You will be old one day. You will be sitting somewhere someday reminiscing about the past. You have a chance right now to try that thing you are so afraid of. If it doesn’t work out then you will know now. Then you can move on. It’s a series of events that you have control over right now. Don’t miss it. It could be the music that changes the world, and most importantly, yourself. Go and be better than you used to be.