Rhoneisms

If you are reading this today, I’m likely under some log, or weight, or human in the GORUCK Challenge. Not much more to say other than I will see you on the other side.

That’s what the world tells us.

“It’s too hard.”

“It’s too expensive.”

“It doesn’t pay well enough. “

“How are you going to support yourself?”

“Your chances are between slim and none.”

“No one really does that for a living.”

“That’s not a real job.”

These are the sorts of things that we hear. It usually starts after early childhood. When those dreams of being anything you want to be…

“I want to be an astronaut!”

Because your parents tell you you can grow up to be anything you want if you put your mind to it…

“I want to be President!”

Because they really do wish it to be true for you…

“I want to be a Mutant Ninja Ranger!”

Because they love you and don’t want you to believe otherwise….

“I want to be a Kangaroo!”

Usually begin to be crushed not too long after by the realities and the expectations of a world that tells us otherwise. By schools that teach us to conform. By companies that teach us to consume. By societies that teach us to blend in.

They do this in a iety of ways. They tell us any of those excuses above. They fill us with fear of failure measured against their interpretations of success. They promote the value of easy over hard, of cost over worth, of reality over dreams.

“You are [insert some perceived impediment here] so you can’t be an astronaut.”

“The chances of being the President, especially for a [insert some stumbling block here] kid, are so small you might want to try for something a bit more realistic.”

“There are no such things as Mutant Ninja Rangers.”

“Humans can’t be kangaroos.”

But most of all, they figure out every possible way to make us believe in one big idea…

“You can’t.”

But, here’s a secret I’m going to tell you. One that I wish I could travel back in time to tell my five year old self. One that I wish I could tell to your five year old self too.

The world is wrong. You really can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it. Those that do so, those that dare to dream and who refuse believe in limitations always figure out a way. The kid who rejects such notions becomes the adult who shows it all to be a lie. And, for every “can’t”, I’m betting there is at least one example of someone who proves the “can too”.

There are examples of astronauts who were told they couldn’t be because of their gender. There are real-life superheroes who spend time dressed up in costume doing real-life good deeds and crime fighting. I’m sure we can find at least one person who lives as a kangaroo. And I’m sure our current President was told countless times he could never be President because of his race.

My point being is that, while it may not always be easy and the chances may be far against you, it does not mean what you dream of doing is impossible. That is what they want you to believe and it is a lie. And the sooner you believe that whatever crazy, outlandish, daring, brash, or, maybe even, important idea you have is possible the quicker you can get on with the work of finding a way to do it.

Many of you know that my usage of Twitter has declined dramatically. In fact, up until a couple of months ago I was on an extended sabbatical from it. There were a iety of reasons for this, as there also were for my return. That said, if you’ve followed me on Twitter you may have noticed that my posting on it is sparse and tends to be mostly for promotional purposes.

Another big reason for that is that I have largely switched to App.net for my more sociable pursuits. I appreciate the fact that it is a paid service supported directly by it’s users. I find the community that I’m building there to be smart and strong. I also appreciate the larger character limit as it allows for more complex expression. There is where I post ideas, quotes, interesting links, and the other things those that used to follow me on Twitter used to see from me there.

I really like it. I think you will like it too. I have 50 invites to give away on a first come, first serve, basis. All you need to do is click here and, if you are among the first 50, you will be in and automatically following me.

See you there.

People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. — Rosa Parks, My Story

Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat, because she was tired of giving in.

When we don’t give up, we don’t give in.

When we give up, we give in.

Don’t give up. Don’t give in. ¹

I post daily here. I stand this ground. If these words changed your day, please let me know by contributing here.

There are people so depressed that, for them, success is defined as simply being able to get out of bed in the morning and face another day.

There is a homeless man downtown for whom success is cashing in enough cans to be able to buy a small bottle of hooch that evening. And, in the rare but most successful of cases, still have enough change to get a cup of coffee in the morning.

My little girl defines success by being able to convince her parents to give her anything she wants (and she has more success than she reasonably should).

My point being that success is not something that can be objectively measured. How others count it does not matter. It is not linear. There is no recipe. And, in fact, there is no real definition or standard other than that which we define and set for ourselves.

Our days are made up of many minor (and sometimes large) successes and minor (and sometimes large) failures. And each day, each moment in fact, we get a clean slate to start anew. We could choose to celebrate the big victories by barely acknowledging them and the small ones with a full-blown parade. How we define it, how we measure it, and how we celebrate it, is up to us.

Success for me is publishing something that makes your day better, every day. If this connected with you, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
– Rudyard Kipling, If

The GORUCK Challenge is likely the most physically difficult test most who face it will ever achieve. A team building event led by Special Forces veterans designed in part to simulate the sort of training and challenges they faced in their careers. You are required to wear a backpack — known as a "ruck" in military parlance— loaded with 6 bricks, a hydration bladder, and anything else one feels inclined to bring. In other words about 40-60 pounds. They advertise 8-10 hours over 15-20 miles. Every one I am aware of goes beyond that promise. They also advertise that they under-promise and over-deliver. Indeed.

I was supposed to take part in the Challenge last year but I broke two toes in training and had to simply shadow that class instead. I was really bummed at the time. Mainly because in the hour before I was injured was the first I had felt ready. And, this is the sort of event where the idea of ready has very deep and broad meanings.

The registration fee was transferable and I vowed to take part in the next one that was held here. That date is March 30th — less than a week from now. I met up earlier today for a practice ruck with some of my future class mates. We put in some good livin’ and started to really bond as a bunch. All of the months of training I have had leading up to this were put to the test. The running, the lifting, the dieting, and the sweat. Yet, even with all of that, today was the first time, this time, I finally felt what I was waiting to feel…

Ready.

I’m pretty tired and it has been a long day. Therefore, just a quick post of a few things that I’ve mentioned before but still am finding delightful.

• Path— Still using Path to log many of my daily travels and life moments and share them with a small group of my close friends. It is the one place I feel safe posting almost anything.

• 1Password — Specifically, the built in web browser in the iPad version of the app has been really helpful in a iety of ways. If I know I’m going to visit a website on the iPad mini and it will require I enter a password, credit card, or fill out some personal details, I don’t launch Mobile Safari. I go straight to 1Password.

• Poster for iOS — I would not have been able to keep up this daily posting routine without it. Still a wonderful app for blog posting from an iOS device.

• Day One — Been using this a lot more lately for capturing ideas as I’ve begun work on my next book. Especially love the quick capture menu bar widget in the desktop version. Been really handy. I also use Slogger to capture all my blog posts, social network updates, Pinboard links and Instapaper favorites. So, it is basically keeping an Internet travel log of sorts for me too. Really like this app.

• Drafts — It’s like a Swiss Army knife for text. I’m a writer. Of course I love the hell out of it. And, like a Swiss Army knife, it is not my primary weapon. But it is the one I always I turn to in a pinch and it never fails to rise to the task with yet another obscure, yet useful, thing it can do.

We all have our personal struggles in this life. Our shit to shoulder. A monkey on our back. The things we keep mostly hidden from the world, yet still remain with us.

Perhaps it was a childhood that was less than ideal.
Perhaps it is a marriage that is slowly falling apart.
Perhaps it is a less than ideal relationship with your kids.
Perhaps it is a bad habit or addiction you wish you could shake.
A secret, silent, shame.

You are a hero. We all are. I may not know what you are victorious over but I know that each one of us has a huge amount of baggage to carry and, to get through this life with it, it takes heroic courage. That making it to the end of each day, is a small (and, some days, large) but not insignificant victory.

So many problems would be overcome in this life if we recognized each victory in what we have come to know as routine. If we all simply recognized the hero in ourselves and each other.

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