WRONG EQUALS RIGHT
I'm tired...
Here I am sitting down to write you but not knowing exactly what I'm going to write about.
Yesterday was one of the hardest and exhausting days I've had in a while. And today is no cakewalk either. Did a ball-busting ('scuse my French) workout put me in this state? Not exactly, although Wednesday's workout was extremely tough for me, mainly because I really didn't feel like working out.
Actually, I'm sick. Nothing I won't get over, just a persistent cough and an incredible feely of exhaustion and lethargy that is usually foreign for me. I just don't seem to want to do anything. Much less write a newsletter (if I'm being truthful).
But here I am, plugging away, hoping to conjure up a morselful of insight or wisdom.
Let me tell you a quick story...
Once upon a time, a young, energetic young man graduated from College with a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering. Hoping to find a fascinating job he tirelessly searched, but couldn't find anything. 3 months went by and still no job. So what did he do?
He went surfing!
For the next month, he and a fellow graduate, also without any job prospects (and also a surfer), lived it up in the quaint out-Island city of Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos. Every day they surfed, dove (you should have seen the bucket loads of lobster they caught - so much so that they literally had to give it away to whoever wanted some), sailed, and wound down ("Island time" is a very real phenomenon they didn't notice until they got back to the states and everyone was wooshing by them).
30 days sailed by and it was time to get back to the "real" world. Both grew up in Miami, FL and that's where they landed. It was November, 1983.
On the day of their arrival, the Aerospace Engineering grad noticed that his alma mater (Univ of FL) was hosting interviews by several Aerospace companies the following day. One of them caught his eye...
National Aeronautics and Space Administration...NASA!
He had dreamed of working for NASA for years. Only problem was, when he called his school to schedule an appointment to see the recruiter, the school told him, "sorry, but you needed to schedule an appointment several weeks ago...all the appointment slots were taken.
Not taking no for an answer, this kid got up at 2 am, drove 6 hours to Gainesville, and was the first one at the recruting office. When the NASA recruiters showed up he gingerly approached them and said, "I know you're doing interviews today and everyone needs to have an appointment in order to see you." Then he explained how he had been out of the country the past month and wasn't able to sign up for the interviews. He asked if they could fit him in at the end of the day, even if only for 15 minutes, and that he would really appreciate it if they could. They said they would let him know at the end of the day.
Nine long hours passed with the kid patiently waiting for an answer. At the end of the day the NASA recruiters poked their head out of the recruting office and said, "come on in...we'll see you now".
Excited, flabbergasted, and in shock, the young kid walked in and sat down. They spoke for about 45 minutes. At the end, the NASA recruiters and the kid shook hands, the kid turned and left, and started driving back down to Miami.
The kid honestly didn't know if it was worth coming up. He just couldn't get a read on what the NASA recruiters were thinking. The kid thought, "it was probably wrong coming up here without an appointment...I should have just stayed home..."
It turned out that doing something the "wrong" way actually was incredibly right. A month later that "kid" got a job offer from NASA that he quickly accepted.
21 years flew by and for lots of reasons (maybe one day I'll tell you), the kid, now almost 45, retired from NASA. He returned back to his roots in Miami and concentrated full-time on helping people get in shape.
I was the one that made that "wrong" decision over 21 years ago, but it was the most right thing I could ever have done.
I guess the whole point of this story is no matter what others may tell you is the "wrong" thing for you to do, if you feel it's right, then go for it with all your might. History is filled with successful people that continued forward, despite everyone telling them how wrong they were, until what they knew was the "right" thing to do in their heart was done. And It was only after they achieved their successes that others saw the wisdom in their actions.
Until next month...
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