My sister sent me one of those calendars that sit on your desk that you look at each day and there is motivational saying for each day of the year. This one is based on the book written by Jen Sincero called – “You are a Badass.” I decided to look up the book and went through the first few chapters. The basic concept is similar to what I have come up with, just a little more edge to it. I liked it! The self doubt, pity and all that other BS is in your way of becoming awesome. So get over yourself and just decide to start doing the things that a badass would do.
This got me to thinking. When someone does something impressive, and you find yourself whispering to yourself, wow…what a badass, do you think, I could do that! No? Then why not?
Ok. So I saw this clip of a snow boarder doing a back flip off a 3 story building, landing perfectly on a slopped roof, sliding down onto a dumpster full of snow and then gracefully landing on a hillside and then expertly navigating through a bunch of trees. I was thinking, wow, now that is a badass. There is NO WAY I could do that. Seriously? No Way!?!? Actually, I was wrong. I absolutely could do that. I could be that awesome. I would just need to convince myself that the pursuit was worth it, start putting in the time, practice and focus on the sport of snowboarding. At first I would be just trying to stop from falling, but pretty soon I would be doing some small jumps and after thousands of hours I would eventually find myself jumping off roofs and finding the prospect of landing in a bunch of powder not that daunting. The kid that was doing the backflip, probably has his own view of what a badass is, and thinks what he is doing is just a parlor trick.
Fortunately for me, my family, and my career I have no ambition to be a snowboarder anytime soon, if ever. However, there are some things that I have seen that I do believe qualify for badassery. Do you? Think about it. What is something that you have seen other people accomplish that you take a pause on and think to yourself. Wow, self, if I could do that then I would absolutely be a badass. Jen’s book got me to thinking about this and I realized that this has been that extra little ingredient behind my commitments that have been super motivating. When the morning is extra cold, the day especially rough, and the demands on my shoulders extra heavy, I have often thought about the goal that have I set for myself. I did get the idea in my head that competing well in a 100 mile race would be badass, memorizing a 1000 digit number would be badass, doing 400 pushups in a row would be badass, and several others. I realize now, even more so, how important it is to consider what great feat you are going to try to accomplish so that you can look yourself in the mirror and say, wow…I am a badass!
Samuel, the ancient Jewish King, held 1000 sacrifices on the doorstep of the temple he built. Shakespeare wrote 2 plays a year for 20 years in a row. Gandhi fasted for 40 days. Zhang Ying of China, recited a 3260 digit number in just 1 hour of study. Bobby Fischer won 20 candidate matches in a row on his march to become world chess champion. Ann Trason has won almost every ultramarathon event ever held and has held world records in almost every distance in that sport. I could go on and on about men and women that have done incredible things, set tremendous aspirations and then went out and achieved them.
The point of this blog is to convince you that you too can also be a badass. Just figure out what that is, determine what you aspire to, and then quietly without a lot of fanfare just start doing it. Wake up early and in the quiet hours all by yourself, figure out what it is going to take to qualify as a badass. In my opinion that is what I am seeking for. Accolades from others are nice, acknowledgement from external sources is validating but the single greatest moment for me will be when I finally stare in the mirror one day and say – I did it. I am a complete badass!
Guy Reams
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