Today, I hope to challenge you. What do you dream about? What have you always wanted to try but have always invented reasons not to do? What would you like to accomplish? Well, you say, I gave up on my goals a long time ago. I can't, couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't, am not talented enough, not smart enough, not good enough.... I guess you get my point. We all have things like that. When I was in high school, I saw the movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise and I was convinced I wanted to be an F14 pilot. I wanted to go to the US Naval Academy and fly jets for the Navy. Well guess what, it never happened. Why not? Because I didn't want it bad enough. If I had really wanted it, I would have tried harder. So I went to TCU to study business I wanted a college degree but I was more concerned about chasing girls than studying. Which resulted in terrible results. See I wasn't good with girls and my grades suffered to boot. I was just plain lazy.
Now, I am really a fairly intelligent guy (please no comments from my friends or family!). If I put my mind to something, I am capable of learning just about anything. So why didn't I graduate Magna Cum Laude from TCU? Well there were some pretty smart people at TCU and I just plain didn't want it bad enough. Oh sure, if it came super easy I would have made straight As but since it required reading and studying, I didn't. Plain and simple right? Well are there areas of your life where you could have done better and didn't? Sure there are. Does that make you a bad person or a failure? Of course not. Don't be ridiculous. All it means is you didn't want it bad enough.
Now let's get back to the mental list you made from our first paragraph. What things are on that list that you want to do but don't? Why? Are you going to go through the whole could have, should have, and would have list again like we just did? I know there are areas in my life now where I need to work on this.
Let me tell you one area of my life where I decided to try something no one really thought I could do. Remember there will always be people telling you that you can't. They will aways have something negative to say to talk you out of trying. If you aren't careful, you might actually believe those people. But one of my favorite sayings is, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." Now I don't believe in dog fighting or cruelty to animals in any shape. It's absolutely wrong but I like the saying. What it means is that the person who looks the best on paper with the most talent and ability isn't always the person who succeeds. It's the person who tries his hardest and believes he can that normally does. You can do anything that you put your mind to.
OK, so let's get back to my little story. I graduated in the top 10% of the bottom 1/3 of my class at TCU. Like I said, my grades were terrible. I think I had a 2.25. Now another of my life dreams was to go to law school. So one day, I decided to try. I decided to apply and just see if I got in. Well I did pretty good on the LSAT and was accepted to a law school here in Fort Worth. Then I did something remarkable that set the tone for my whole law school experience.
I went out to dinner with my then wife, my cousin and his wife. I remember we went to a comedy club downtown and then we went back to my cousin's wife's house. As we were all sitting around talking and having a good time the subject of me going back to school came up and this is what came out of my mouth. I said, "I'm going to go to law school and give it my best shot. I am going to do my very best and see what happens. I don't want to look back 20 years from now and say I could have, would have or should have. If I flunk out after the first semester, I will do it knowing I tried my very hardest." See I had the right attitude now. I was going to try with everything I had. Notice where my focus was. It wasn't on doing this well or doing that well. It wasn't on being the best student or making the best grades. My focus was on being the best I could be. I didn't look at anyone else but me. If I gave it my all and failed I could live content knowing I gave it may all.
Where do you face challenges like that in life? I still face many of those same things today. There are times when I don't want to work that hard or I want to quit trying something. I believe if you give life your very best and the key is to make sure you know you are doing all you can, then you can hold your head up high no matter what the outcome. Because you know that no matter what, you did your best.
And I guess, that's another Opinion .... Oh wait a minute. Would you like to know what happened to me when I made the decision to try my hardest? Well, God was able to bless all that I did in school. Not only did I finish law school, but I graduated Cum Laude
And that's another Opinion of the Minion
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