It’s Not What You Want, It’s Who You Become
When I was a kid, I wanted a particular CD from the mall. I saved up some money to buy it, but I needed my stepdad to drive me. I waited all day for him to get home from work. I asked him to take me, and he agreed, but it would have to wait until the next day.
So I waited anxiously.
I remember hearing the songs from that CD on the radio, and it only made me want the CD that much more. The next day came, and my stepdad got home late from work, but it was too late to go to the mall.
I pleaded that we still had time and it would be a quick in-and-out thing. He could even wait in the car. Unfortunately, it got held off another day. Another day came and went, and still no trip to the mall.
At this point, I couldn’t help but be a pain in the ass.
I quickly turned into the squeaky wheel, and before I knew it, we were headed to the mall. I could tell he wasn’t thrilled, but I smiled the entire way. I bought my CD and played it over and over for days. To this day, I can’t remember what the CD was that I bought that day.
But I did learn one valuable lesson:
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
From that day forward, I knew something had changed in me. I had no problem being the squeaky wheel. If I wanted something, I found a way to get it. Prior to that event, I settled for anything. If I didn't get what I wanted, I justified why I didn’t get it and moved on.
We experience many life-changing events throughout our lives, and that was one for me. If you want something bad enough, you find a way to get it. No obstacle is too big to overcome.
We all have instances in our lives that have turned us into someone different.
That instance may have changed our way of thinking, given us a brighter outlook, or made us think negatively. Whatever the case, it changed us.
A bitter divorce could easily change someone's outlook on marriage. A troubled sibling might make parents want 1 child in hopes of avoiding the sibling issues they had. Someone who has invested all of their money in a stock and lost it is probably not thrilled with stock market investing.
An entrepreneur’s business failed, but rather than quit, that entrepreneur rose above the obstacles and started a new thriving business. We all have those life-changing moments that we can almost always look back on and recall exactly when and why they happened. It will be forever ingrained in us and has now been added to our wisdom library.
Sometimes it’s nice to be who we are, but who we are now may not be enough to get us to the next level or stage.
