Why is it the case that so many today are petrified of hard
work? I was raised by a hard working mom and a very resourceful dad that never
gave me the opportunity to be lazy and assume that the path of least resistance
always has a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I had a fascinating conversation with a young
lady who works at the rec center where I take my guys often to shoot hoops. I
was impressed with her wisdom when it came to the ills of today’s society especially
with young people looking for jobs.
I admit that I’m old and have had a variety of jobs
throughout my life. What I’m learning is that my parent’s influence in my young
life helped me to not shy away from doing something totally outside my box. As
I listened to this young gal talk about her dad’s impact in her life it struck
me at how easy it is to make excuses about life and always do the blame ‘thing’
to avoid owning your life circumstances. She was quick to admit that her dad
had spent some time in prison for doing some crazy stuff in life. Yet, she
explained how her dad wasn’t afraid to get any type of job and throughout life
was able to provide and ultimately became someone who owned a house. Her
simple, yet profound point was that too many in today’s youth culture assume
that jobs just come to you by doing nothing.
What got my attention with my young friend was how her
present job she got when she was 16 and has been at the rec center for almost
10 years. She continued the conversation
with explaining how most of her friends didn’t have any direction or purpose in
life. She was quick to explain how her dad helped her focus with her pursuit of
education and her present job. Her youthful wisdom said that there wasn’t a
perfect job and that learning to be content in life was key to being
successful. I was taken back by her seasoned wisdom for someone so young!
As we watched a group of young guys shoot hoops she was
quick to mention how easy it is to get distracted in life with dreaming that you
will become the next draft pick for the NBA or NFL. Her point was that having a
couple of brothers she understood how difficult it is for today’s young men to
think ahead and pick a path to pursue to land not a job but a career with a
future.
I know that having a dad who grew up in both poverty and
real racially tense environment didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream of
going to college and becoming an Air Force Aviator. It would have been so easy for my dad to blame
his stepdad for his circumstances and choose to drift in life and become a quitter.
Yet, my dad’s glowing example was that he was someone that was never afraid to
do something different and would always say that the difficult we can do in a
day and that the impossible will take a little longer.
So why miss out on the adventure of life by allowing fear to
paralyze you from taking a risk!
No comments:
Post a Comment