It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself. — Muhammad Ali
There comes a time in everyone’s life when he or she must make a decision, a major earth shaking decision. Sometimes an event happens more than once, sometimes only once, but it will happen and when it does each individual must respond in some manner.
For me I have had at least three earth shaking decisions to make in my life, events that would have altered my life drastically from the course I was currently on. And each time, each time I chose to back away and run. You see each event forced me to take a leap of faith, a leap I was terrified of making, so I took the cowards’ way out and ran away.
I didn’t have the faith in myself to take a chance, a chance on me. When I look back on the events I visualize each one as a canyon, deep, extremely wide, and rocky, ready to rip me to shreds should I fall short. I could see the prize on the other side of the canyon and to reach it all I had to do was take the leap. Instead I retreated into the safety of the comfortable.
Life changing events happen at least once to each individual, and the time frame is of no importance. Now I have taken the leaps before and achieved the prize. Getting married is a big leap of faith, wondering if the union will last. Well for me the union has lasted over 30 years at last count and still going strong. I think I made a pretty good leap. But the other times, those events that affected me and me alone, those were the ones I turned my back on. Those were the events that could have made me very, very wealthy, and I chose to ignore them. I ran away from the responsibility and the rewards because I was afraid of meeting the challenge necessary for success.
Today I approach the twilight of my life and look back on opportunities I denied myself, the opportunities I turned my back on. For the last few years I have just been surviving when I could have been living. I began to see myself as the failure I felt myself to be.
Then something happened. A small state of depression gave me a huge wakeup call and I realized for the first time in years I had one more shot at making a life instead of making an existence. I decided on that day, about a year ago now that I needed to change everything about me. So I dusted off my old books and self-improvement tapes and went to work. I went to work on me. I have been working on me ever since. This blog is part of that makeover.
As the last year has passed I began to wonder if I could make the type of life I always dreamed about. Doubts entered my mind because after a year nothing in my life seems to be changing. Then one morning as I was walking down the hall going for coffee I felt it, I felt myself approaching the canyon of faith once more. It has been years since I had that feeling and while I can’t see the canyon I know it is near and one day very soon I will come face-to-face with it again. Only this time I intend to make the leap, a leap that leaves all this behind and gives me the prize I have always wanted.
I don’t when this event will happen all I know is I am on the correct path, walking in the right direction, and that soon I will stand on the precipice of success. I will meet the canyon, filled with razor sharp rocks which could rip me to shreds, only this time, this time I will not turn away, I will make the leap.
Will I make it? I don’t know, only time will reveal that outcome. All I know is I am determined to make the leap of faith, whatever that leap may be. For me, at this stage of my life failure is not an option so I can’t even think that way anymore. I know this is my last chance and I dare not fail, I will achieve my goals and my dreams.
Opportunities presented themselves to me and I failed to take advantage of them, now I am making my own opportunity, forging my own path because once you pass on opportunities they never come around again. But this is America, land of opportunities and if we don’t take an opportunity when it is presented to us we can always, and I mean always make our own. That is the beauty of this country.
Easy? No, not by a long shot. Achievable, you bet. But only if we open ourselves up to failure, only if we decide the only person who can stop us is ourselves. No one can keep you down without your consent so why give someone else that power over you?
Losers protest and have no idea why they protest. Losers demand equality, which in the real world does not exist. Losers can’t believe in a Divine Intelligence, much less understand the power of faith. Losers have no hope only the demands that the world take care of them. Losers live a miserable existence because and only because they want to. Losers are individuals who inflict pain upon themselves because they are losers.
Real Americans achieve because they believe in a higher power than self. Real Americans achieve because they believe in themselves. Real Americans achieve because they know “if it is to be, it is up to me.” Real Americans achieve because they live in the greatest country the world has ever seen, and the world is jealous because we are unique within the universe. Real Americans achieve because Americans have faith. Losers are not Americans, they are cowards.
I have never been a loser but neither have I been a Real American. I am like the majority of the population, caught in the middle and I have found the middle is not where I want to live any longer. It is past time for me to take my leap.
Life only occurs once and how we live this life determines who we are within this universe. So I ask you, what are your dreams and aspirations? Have you met your canyon of faith yet? If not you will and when you do will you make the leap?
G.
