The Unlikely:
Once upon a time a little girl, in the midst of her parents separation, had a dream of being an Olympian She went searching for a coach to make that dream a reality.
A milkshake machine salesman had dreams of owning a restaurant chain. However, he was selling nearly extinct machines, in a dying industry.
A housewife who was the victim of domestic violence and a high school drop out, returned to school, gets her GED and becomes a successful business owner.
The little girl who found her coach is Gabby Douglas. She left home (still hasn't been back in two years!) to go live with strange people of another race in another state and become a champion.
The milkshake man is Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's. He saw his future at the burger flippers' roadside stand, and decided that what he wanted to be was an ex-salesman and the progenitor of the world's most famous restaurant chain.
The abused housewife was my Aunt. After being left for dead by one husband and abandoned by another, she picked herself up, dusted herself off, became a jack of many trades. She's also been happily married for 40 years now.
What do these people have in common? No particular advantages, position, or influence. They did all have a gift -- a calling, if you will. They also decided to change. They decided to become something different. They decided to become themselves.
That's sometimes the most difficult thing we can decide to do. Becoming yourself means giving up other things - a familiar home, a fallacy others tell you, a respectable yet dead-end job; an excuse you tell yourself.
Deciding to become who you were meant to be, agreeing to the hardships, accepting the pain, taking the ridicule that oftentimes goes with it - That's the most difficult thing you can do.
| "Our life is what our thoughts make it." |
What you think is who you become.
Now, you can't tell me you have more obstacles than that little girl. Or that the salesman had a more promising future than you. After you get through all those excuses, ask yourself:
What are you thinking of doing? Who did you become?And who will you decide to be tomorrow?
You could take this opportunity today to learn from Gabby and Ray; we all could.
Just as they decided to become something different, just as they decided to become the heroes of their own destiny, you get to choose. You get to take your thoughts and make the life you want with them.
I hope you'll take this opportunity in these final weeks of 2012 to ask yourself...
How can I become my own unlikely hero?
