THE RIDE AND THE NOISE

"All the noise and everything out there, you can get whiplash if you allow yourself to."-Erik Spoelstra

As you may have heard, Vicki and I are getting married in roughly 6 months or so.  The journey so far has been fun, challenging, and without a doubt, one of the biggest tests in our lives.  Not due to our love for each other, but all the stress that comes with planning an event.  The financial end, the advice, the not knowing what is the best course of action, etc, etc.  This is our ride.

What is your ride?  What is your dream?

Did you ever engage yourself in something that takes over everything else in your life?  Have you ever looked for support and what you got back was limited?  Did you ever try to get on that bicycle and start pedaling down the trail, only to have your team mates tell you you took the wrong path?  How about when you ride down that path, one of your team mates decides to stop and then take their bike and go home?  Then there's that time where you need to stop riding because you know the trail is going to get treacherous and you have to mentally prepare yourself for what's ahead of you, but one of your team mates insist that you go forward, and if you don't, you're not part of the team, and you never really did anything to contribute in the past.  You also think about the times you assembled your team and some people didn't even want to be in it.

That my friends is noise.  The noise allows you to focus on it.  To hear it can break you.  You get distracted and focus on it.  Most of the time, it is so overwhelming it is impossible to ignore.  The fever pitch of it can make you feel hopeless, hurt, angry, upset, insecure, and worst case scenario, defeated.  Noise can be a bad thing, however it can be a motivating factor to attribute to achieving victory.

I heard something new in the last month.  When someone says I can't, I say watch me.  Since I have heard that, I have decided that is one of my rallying cries.  I have spent my life proving people wrong.  I have achieved when many said I wouldn't.  I have dreamed and lived it.  I am very fortunate and blessed to have the life that I have and that God has given me the sense of direction and purpose that I have.  As I have said many times before, we are all blessed.  We were given another day.  Every time we wake up in the morning we are blessed to listen to the birds sing, smell the air, and enjoy our families company once again.

So why we would let a little thing like noise get in the way of that?

In life, some people aren't going to be supportive, no matter what their role in our lives are.  They can be as thin as that dude you grew up with, or thick as your immediate family, not everyone is going to do the right thing all the time, and sadly stated, will never do the right thing ever.  The only thing you can focus on is will you do the right thing?  Will you show people you love that you care?  Will you be there on the side of your team mates and partners?  Will you ride down that path with them if they pick it despite how you feel about it?

Once you do that, you know that you rock.  And you is what matters here.

So find that volume knob and turn the down noise.

And turn up the greatness that is you.

Mike C