What does it mean to be a pioneer?
What does it mean to be the first of your kind
to lead without being led
or to step away from the predictions that tell you,
“You can’t do it,”
yet when you go ahead and do it anyway –
See?
So then,
what does it take to defy the odds
or turn off the volume
on the voices that speak against you?
What does it mean to endure?
What does it mean to be the underdog?
What does it mean to continue and to keep going
regardless of pain,
of disappointment,
and in the face of that so-called adversity,
what has to happen
to make the voices of doubt be quiet?
How do you fight back against the tides?
How do you find the drive and the desire to keep going?
How do you do this
even if the winning is lost?
How do you keep going?
How do you refuse to lose your spirit?
Or wait, no –
How do you stand up each day,
even if you know there’s something out there
just waiting, lurking around the corner
and looking to knock you down –
How do you do it?
How do you hold your head up high
or keep your shoulders back
and your chest up, but wait –
more importantly
how do you do this
even in the face of judgment?
How?
Some people say, “I don’t know.”
You just do . . .
Some people say if you never went through your falls,
then you’d never know how resilient you are.
They’ll tell you that you have to be strong.
They also tell you that you don’t know how string you are
until you realize this is just who you are –
Strong . . .
People will say how to think and how to feel,
yet in the thick of it,
the question remains
How do I get through this?
How do I continue to stand
when my knees are weak?
How do I hold my head up high
when my spirit and my back is broken?
Some people say, “I don’t know.”
You just do.
You never know who you are
until you’re tested.
And sure, I’ve heard people say,
“God never gives you something you can’t handle.”
And sure,
I’ve heard people answer this and say,
“Oh yeah, well,
I wish God didn’t have so much faith in me!”
I’ve heard the saying,
Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
I’ve heard this said to me as well
yet in my defiance,
I’ve thought well either kill me
or let me be weak
because I’m tried of being tested
I’ve heard the common positive affirmations.
I’ve had people tell me,
“Don’t quit before the miracle happens.”
I’ve heard people talk about the word
“potential.”
But still, the questions remain
How do you see yourself through it all?
How do you get up when you’re so tired
that all you want to do is lay down
and let the world go by?
How do you keep going?
Some people say, “I don’t know.”
You just do
What does it mean
to stand in the face of the wrongs around you?
What does it mean to speak out
about the impositions you see?
What does it mean to stand,
even if only by yourself, alone as ever,
and cold to the touch but yet, there you are,
standing up for yourself and in the face of the social,
economical, personal and, of course,
what does it take to stand up to the professional bullies
you see in your daily grind?
What does it mean to take on
the unfriendly giants?
How do you do this?
How do you fight back, all day, every day?
Some people say, “I don’t know.”
You just do.
What does it take to be a leader
and not a follower?
What does it take to follow
and still lead?
See? There’s a trick to this.
I know there is.
There’s a secret here and a special mixture,
which means
there’s more than one ingredient
to create the perfect self.
What does it take to be the first?
Or what does it take to not care
whether you’re first or last
because in your moment of awareness,
you realize that all you have is your time,
your effort, worth and value,
and with the solutions you create,
what does it take to see yourself through
without the distracting haze of emotional thinking?
What has to happen to instill plans and strategy?
Or, better yet,
what has to happen to incorporate logic
so that we can think
logically and strategically?
See this?
I know there’s the emotional brain
and the logic brain.
One has fears and intimidations.
The other has none.
One responds to emotional distraction
The other works
according to blueprints and plans
What has to happen to make this so?
How do you do this?
Some people say, “I don’t know.”
You just do.
I remember when I was young.
I was one of the last of my friends
to learn how to ride a bike.
I remember asking a friend
how to sit on the bicycle seat
because maybe there was a trick to it.
And what was the answer?
I don’t know.
You just do it . . .
With respects to learning how to ride a bicycle
I failed and fell
until I finally grew tired of falling and failing.
I grew tired of people telling me
what to do or how
and there was no understandable explanation
which meant that internally, I had to come to an understanding
and figure the touch and feel for myself.
So, I took my bicycle and went off, alone,
and found a parking lot.
I made a deal with myself
to learn how to ride a bike
or die trying.
I fell a lot.
I fell until I learned my balance
and then, quite honestly,
I didn’t fall anymore.
I was able to ride around
and defy the voice in my head
which told me, “You’ll never get this!”
But I did
How did I get this?
I don’t know.
I just did . . .
There are a lot of people
who will tell you
what you “can” and “cannot’ do.
And that’s fine.
But choose wisely
especially when considering the people you listen to;
including yourself
because the one thing I know
is those voices can be a bitch –
especially when it’s your own.
Listen carefully. Choose wisely
Replace thought with action
and whenever possible,
remove emotion and use your goals, plans and strategies.
Focus on this and study your plans hard
because the more you do
and the more you become effort-based
instead of result-focused
the further you travel
and the farther along you’ll go.
And then
almost unaware and instinctually,
you’ll look back and realize
that in spite of everything that was against you,
you defied the odds
and made it farther
than you ever believed you could.
Just keep going, kid.
Trust me.
I’ll be right behind you, just in case
So, what does it mean to be a pioneer?
What does it mean to find balance?
What does it mean to keep going?
I don’t know the answer but I do know this –
You’ve been doing this for so long,
I think that maybe you forgot one important thing.
Do you remember when they told you
not to quit
before the miracle happened?
Well,
there’s something that I think you’ve overlooked.
You are the miracle!
That’s how you’ve survived this far
If not, trust me,
my world would be a bad place
and I would be in bad shape
without you.
Note To Self:
It’s go time
On your mark
get set
GO!
The Written Addiction 