Ya Gotta Read The Field!
Michelle, my daughter-in-law, or
Grasshopper, as I often refer to her taken from the "Kung-Fu" TV series, possesses
more untapped potential than anyone I have ever met. Wife to my eldest son
Jason at the age of 22, mother to my grandson Colin at the age of 24 along with
becoming a certified public accountant that same year, scoring 99, 93, 92 &
84 on the four part accounting exam. Also, being a homeowner at the age of 25
puts her in the category of achieving a lot more than most given her few short
adult years on this planet.
As I’m visiting with her at her home
on Long Island, she sits with tissues in hand and tears streaming down her face
as she painfully explains her feeling of being stuck in her life. Worried about
money, the idea of a second child haunting her and her full time job that is
boring her out of her mind, she just can’t seem to get out of her own way.
“I’m tired, I’m bored, I hate my job, there’s never enough
money. I can’t leave my job, how will the bills get paid.” She cries.
“Alas, my darling, you’re not
reading the field,” I say.
“What?” she whimpers.
“In football the best players are able to get in position and
before making their decision of where to tear up the line they read the field.
They’re looking for an opening, they’re anticipating the moves of the other
players and how they can maneuver through the line of defense and get to the
end zone. Similar to life when you have to learn to spot opportunities. Learn
how to read the world around you and anticipate certain changes and how they
will impact opportunities coming your way.”
“But how do you do that?” she cries.
“You breathe. You focus on being happy. You begin. You get in
position, and you look around at the other players. What are they doing? You
study the ones that have succeeded and you ask how they did it. You can’t back
up your bet and that’s what you want to do. You want someone to tell you that
you’ll win and no one can tell you that. It’s like free falling. You have to be
willing to take the chance and believe you won’t splatter on a rock. That your
dive will enable you to enter the water without injury. Life is set up for you
to succeed. You don’t even need a backup plan, as a matter of fact if you set
up a backup plan that just might be what you end up with. But if you visualize
your success and accept no other scenario the Universe will have to deliver
your dream or go one step further, deliver an even better scenario, one that
you would have never dreamed possible.”
Life is the ultimate team sport. You
are the gladiator given everything you need to be successful if you just
believe. You want guarantees, there aren’t any. And if there were what would be
the point to all this. These challenges separate the men from the boys, or in
this case the women from the girls.
And I know what you’re thinking
Grasshopper, “But how….?” Stop over thinking everything. Stop planning every
little move. Calm down, visualize what you want in as much detail as possible
and don’t ask how it’s going to happen. The “how’s” to this are none of your
business. Does the field kicker ask about aerodynamics before he kicks the
football through the uprights? No he doesn’t, he just focuses, kicks and voila
through the goal posts it goes. He really doesn’t know how it happens he just
knows that it does. And for those times when it doesn’t he will admit, he was
distracted.
There is something greater than ourselves working for you out
there. It is the intangibles, your gut feelings, those serendipitous moments,
the power we were all born with to create. Your son knows it, why do you think
babies are so happy? They look at us and think, WTF, have they all forgotten
the power of thought?? Oh god I hope that doesn’t happen to me. There is power
in the word “NO” but there is greater power in the word, “YES”.
If you want to be a worker bee and work behind a desk for 10
hours a day then so be it. There’s nothing wrong with that. But what I’m
hearing is that you can’t stand it, you’re angry, you’re depressed, and you
don’t love your life. Well, Grasshopper there is only one person to blame for
that and it is you. So get away from your work desk and do what you have to do
to move the energy toward your dreams. Knowing there are no guarantees except
for the ones you put in place and that guarantee is that you don’t stop pushing
toward the end zone until you have that football in hand and know that you are
going to score…..a TOUCH DOWN!!
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