Strength Tip Of The Day…Reinvent Yourself
by: Brandon Richey
Strength Tip Of The Day…Reinvent Yourself
Reinvent: To bring back in existence or use; To replace with an entirely new version.
The other day I ran into a young man that had moved away from his hometown in order to start a new chapter in his life. I normally don’t strike up personal conversations with strangers to such a degree, but he kept volunteering information about his life so I just kept listening.
Don’t Shy Away From Reinvention…
So this young man was telling me a personal story about his life and was very honest and very genuine. He had turned his back on a history of troubles involving a lot of different things. He had evidently reached a breaking point and had gotten fed up with where he was and ultimately decided to just leave his hometown to start his life over.
We started our conversation because he happened to have a fairly extensive martial arts background and had taken notice of me training myself on some footwork drills and kettle bells at a local gym I ventured out to on Saturday evening after some mad Christmas shopping. I had to blow off some steam after that little adventure.
So here was a young man trying to reinvent himself. I’ve got to admit that he got me thinking about what he was doing and I let him know that his decision was a very brave and admirable thing. Let’s face it, it takes guts to have the courage to step out and turn your back on an old chapter of your life. I mean it’s not easy to make big changes.
I actually told him that he demonstrated some strong leadership by making such a decision and sticking to it. I wished him luck and moved on, but my mind kept going. I was constantly thinking about the culture of “followers” we live with in today’s world. Let’s face it, there just aren’t too many good leaders left in the world today.
It seems to me that today there are way too many excuse makers, finger pointers, and quite frankly people who just constantly allow fear to run their lives. Not only do they allow fear to run their lives, but they actually feed it because their expectations of where they are in life allow for that to happen more and more. The truth is that if you expect certain outcomes in life, either positive or negative, you’ll get them. It’s a vicious cycle that can never end without the strength, motivation, and implementation of reinvention.
I know I’m going all philosophical on you today, but take a second to think about it. If your expectations of life are that you are just going to accept it as it comes then you are always going to be stagnant. Now don’t get me wrong you can’t control everything, but you can control a lot (including yourself) and it’s with those variables that you use as the building blocks for your life. The same goes with your training.
In order to reinvent yourself you’ve got to formulate a plan and execute the steps of that plan one by one until you reach a goal. Be efficient, be innovative, and make the choices along the way to get you to where you need to go. It sounds simple on the surface, but the fact is that it’s a process. Here’s a nice little video I did a while back on being efficient.
Now you may think I’m just rambling on about traits that should be automatic with most people, but the fact is that THEY’RE NOT! Just look around you. I never try to live my life by always comparing myself to others, but there is a time and place for that. I mean if someone is making it somewhere that I need to go, but I’m not getting there and they are, then I need to look at what they are doing different that allows them to succeed.
The process of reinvention requires a vision and the color of your own personal expression. As divided of a country as America is today one thing that I think all Americans can agree on is that we all love a good underdog story. From Rocky Balboa to the 300 Spartans to the Karate Kid we all can appreciate a good comeback. Why? Because that’s what being a leader is all about. We all have our battles, our failures, and our comebacks. We can relate to it.
I’ve always enjoyed real life comeback stories as well and one that has always stuck with me is Robert Downey Jr.’s life story. In case you didn’t know he had some serious personal battles with drugs and other troublesome factors in his life several years back and now he’s become Iron Man! Not only that, but he has a hell of perception on his success and how he deals with it. Check out this interview he did on Kimmel and pay close attention to the part where he’s joking about his self esteem. Knowing about his past that part of the interview seemed very genuine.
No doubt we all have to deal with things in our own way, but I think the “finding” for doing so is the very definition of reinvention. I know I took the topic in a different direction today, but right before Christmas I thought it might be appropriate. Have a Merry Christmas, blast open some gifts, and be mega awesome by helping someone out this holiday season.
Please feel free to drop your questions and comments in the comment box below. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart my friend.
Related Articles:
Overcoming Adversity (The Psychology)… Part 2
Willing The Human Psyche: An Exploration Into Overcoming Adversity…
Continued Perspective On This Culture Of Weakness…
The Meaning Of American Strength!
Strength Tip Of The Day…Reinvent Yourself
