“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place. And I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there if you let it. You me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.” ~ Rocky Balboa
What a great speech. It kind of jolts you back into reality. And it’s not a pessimism/optimism thing either, it’s just a guy – Rocky – spitting some wisdom to his son – Robert.
I don’t know if it’s a generational thing, but a lot of people my age, or maybe just a lot of people in general – including myself from time-to-time – have this sense of entitlement. I think we all understand that good things happen with hard work, but at the same time we expect things to fall in our lap. We expect things to just “happen” – for big breaks to simply occur. We hear about billionaires in their twenties, guys like the facebook guy, the google guys, and so on. Guys who are wildly rich at a young age, and we expect the same kind of thing to fall in our laps someday.
We expect to be automatically treated with respect or given promotions. We expect our hard work to pay off quickly and without a hitch. We get so “high”, expecting all of these great things, then are crushed when life isn’t perfect, or when we’re thrown a curveball or put in a bit of a bad sport.
That’s just life, it’s a part of the struggle – it’s a part of what makes us men, what helps us grow up, and shapes the kind of man we’re going to be.
Whether we’re a leader or a follower. Whether we’re someone who points fingers, who looks for scapegoats, reason’s why things aren’t going smooth, why we face setback after setback; or, if we accept the shit that life throws at us and fight back, push forward, evolve, and rise above the bad things like the setbacks, and don’t look anywhere but in the mirror for someone to blame for the bad things.
I think that life can be a fair place. If you’re good, and you work hard, you up the odds of being happy successful – but it’s not always like that by any means. Yes we get breaks, we get dealt a favorable hand, actually I think we all get dealt a favorable hand at some point; the thing is, some don’t recognize it, some ignore it, and some jump on it, making the most of it and running with it.
“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows” – that’s the truth. It’s an amazing place filled with amazing people, and great opportunity – but never think that you don’t have to work for it.
Life will knock every one of us down, we’ll have times when everything feels hopeless, when the shit hits the fan and we’re faced with a decision: feel sorry for ourselves and look to blame others, or accept the shitty situation and keep plugging away.
How to make the most out of a bad situation.
1. Don’t walk around blaming others for things that are under your control.
I’ve fallen into this trap before and I’m sure that at some point we all have. Something bad happens, or things just aren’t going as good as we’d like them to be and we start making excuses. When you get into that mode of thinking it’s pretty hard to get out of it, especially if you make a good argument to yourself as to why it isn’t your fault.
It’s just something you have to be aware of. If you start heading down that road, catch yourself and start writing.
a. Write down what’s going wrong, how you’re responsible for it, what you’re doing wrong, what you’re doing right – and how you can begin to turn things around.
b. Ask for help.
Don’t ever be so proud that you think you have to do everything on your own. If you need help, ask for it.
2. Understand that bad things happen.
A healthy understanding that life hits hard is a good thing. I’m not saying that you have to be a complete pessimist, actually I’m saying the exact opposite, be an optimist through and through. Maintain a positive attitude because that’s going to help you a lot more than walking around in constant fear. It’ll help you believe in what you’re doing – which is very important, but also not get so down when bad things happen that you quit.
By all means, believe that everything will work out, but understand it might not work out how you want it to. And the road to realizing your dreams isn’t filled with “sunshine and rainbows.” You’ll encounter bumps along the way, but appreciate them.
If life was all “sunshine and rainbows” it’d be a pretty boring place – we’d be spoiled as hell and probably never content or fulfilled.
Put your head down and work. Work hard, relish in the good times, but also appreciate the bad ones.
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Look for part two of this rant on Wednesday when I go into this topic from a bit of a different angle.
What’s your favorite “welcome to reality” or motivational quote?
Do you agree or disagree with the article?
– Whatever your answer is, let me know why.
