The Madness of Success

"The best of the best have to slack at some point in order to reach peak performance. Don't you think that everyone has walked the path?"
​-Jetta

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"Take the chance to make the choice to change."
​-Jetta

I remember a moment from when I was in grade school. This moment I do not share with anyone due to the sheer embarrassment. This week's blog post was supposed to be a little different, but I had a change of plans as i remembered this story. As I look back, this story really isn't as embarrassing now as it was at the time. It was a seemingly normal day at school when I decided to get up from my seat to go and retrieve something. The side of my left foot caught the corner of the desk. What came next was a hard smack to the ground as I lost my balance. My face hit the corner of the desk, the desk's leg, and finally, the ultimate demise: the floor. For a moment in time I thought I had passed out as my face smashed the floor. Suddenly, out of nowhere, my nose began to pour blood everywhere. The pain ran deep within my head causing issues. Tissues were piled on to attempt to stop the nose bleed. I have to admit... I was scared.

In all actuality, this actually happened. This was not something that was made up or merely exaggerated. I still remember that day school when I tripped and lost my balance only to embarrassingly hit the floor in pain. I feel that we all have had at least one of these embarrassing moments in life. I tried to keep my little story very clean and not too grossly picturable. My apparent 'punchable' face really got hit with the floor. However, no matter how embarrassed I may be to finally tell that story, or how grossed out you, the reader, may be, that was not my point of this. 

There are always going to be those moments where you feel like you're falling on your face. I bring this up because I just watched an amazing video yesterday that talked about this topic. Every so often I have to listen to these motivational speeches to get back up on my feet. The past week has literally had me watching several motivational speeches to keep going. I found a great one from Steve Harvey where he mentions and discusses what makes great success. The first principal of good success, or just success in general, starts from failure. Now everything cannot be perfect. That is one thing that I have had to learn to accept throughout my life. Being able to understand that has helped me immensely with several situations. 

So what is the actual point of this? For the longest time I have been thinking about how we measure success. What is success? I have found that success is just progression. I always like to say this, "The past is nothing but the past, so we learn from and reflect on it. The present is what is happening now, so we can take what we learned from the past and apply it to the moment. In the future it is how we see ourselves down the road. The simple way to put it is this: You cannot change the past, but you can live in the moment to better the future. The smallest adjustments really bring in the bigger picture."

If you have followed my blog for a long time, you will notice that I am a huge advocate for the small things in life. I do get lots of questions on this and why I keep talking about it. Well, what I can say is that all of the small things really do equal the big things. it is oftentimes that the small things in life get shoved over to the side and unrecognized. On occasion I will still hear a phrase in my head that discusses the smallest things make the biggest impact. That is true. 

Going off of what I mentioned above, there is an African story that is about a forest fire. There are several animals that live in the setting, which is a forest. Suddenly, the forest catches fire, which becomes an issue of concern because it is burning their home. The animals consist of large ones all the way to the smallest ones. Out of the animals present, the smallest so happens to be a hummingbird. The upheaval between all of them gets worse and worse as the fire keeps inching its way closer. Suddenly the hummingbird flies over to get some water in its beak. This breakthrough moment seems to be too confusing for the other animals, who are much larger. They look at the hummingbird and say "what are you doing, that is not going to make a difference." They were judging based off her small stature and tiny amount of water to be put towards putting the fire out. The little bird says, "it is not about the size of the individual or the size of the task, it is about the attempt and effort." All of the animals finally see her point and begin working on the fire. 

This has been quite a humbling story in my life because it has shown me that we are all making a difference every day. No matter who we are, where we are, or what we are doing, every single one of us makes a difference every day. The world needs every one of us everyday. What we do not realize is that each action that we do counts towards something. Every action and every deed counts towards something. That is what is so beautiful about life. 

Success is always defined by everyone differently. However, the world always seems to find one 'cookie cutter' mold for everything. No matter what it is: life, age, or even stages of life, the world always places a stigma on it. With so many different cultural norms we often find ourselves saying, "I have to do that." Another one of these sayings is, "She or he is doing that, so I absolutely need that too." It is often hard to see it, but without a doubt everyone experiences this firsthand. Now it is so important to note that life can be whatever you make it out to be. You are the captain of your airplane, boat, car, or whatever your heart desires. You, yes you, are the captain. ​So be that, and do that.

"With that being said: my perspective shifted. It literally shifted from first to sixth within just a couple of weeks. Sometimes these mind changers are so important in life. As everyone ages the time also changes. Everyone has their minds shifted quite a lot. Throughout my life I have been able to change perspectives many times. Life goes on and our minds take in new information like the car takes in new gas. Our brains function as our engines that power our bodies through everyday. Our feet are the wheels that navigate the roads. Every bone in our body is like the frame holding the car together. No matter what eye color someone has their eyes are still like the navigation system. Our hearts are the steering wheel, taking hold of the car and directing it. The passions buried deep within give the engine -the brain- its horsepower and torque. The blood running through our veins is the gas that powers our vehicle. The smile that is present on the face can be attributed to the logo emblem on the front of the car."
​-Jetta "Shifting Perspective"