Quick to Quit

How are ya today Cyberspace? I'm well, thanks for asking. Trying to get used to my new schedule - my school has moved and now I have to drive to school every morning. I know, I know...first world problems. My point is...now I have to get up earlier and last night I stayed up to watch Kansas almost make a miraculous comeback against Kentucky in the NCAA national championship game. While they didn't win the game (they missed free throws all game long), they came awfully close...and that perseverance inspired me.

Perseverance is not a common trait in modern times. I find that as I get older, I see more and more people giving up; or not even trying at all because they have an expectation of failure. This could be concerning sports, work, school...I have literally watched people (no names involved) say "No, I'm not even going to try, I know I can't do that." But chances are, if you really want to you can do whatever you want. For example, I can't do a backflip...but I could if I practiced.

It's not just physical things I see folks give up on. One of the best writers I've ever met has a blog (Thibeau Time) and even he said to me yesterday, "I think I might give up on writing my blog - I just don't have the motivation anymore." I told him that he has to continue...I mean this is a guy who has some real writing talent. I was disappointed to hear this from him, and I hope he reneges on that statement. I've recommended many, many books to many, many different individuals and it's not uncommon to hear the response "No, that's too long," or "I don't even know if I could read that book," or, even worse, "I'll wait for the movie to come out."

Which brings me to my inference of why our society seems so quick to quit. Throughout history, there has always been some form of entertainment...something to distract the mind. Or for the mind to obsess over. Musical composers like Mozart, artists like Michealangelo, early thinkers like Galileo, explorers like Christopher Columbus and writers like William Shakespeare (if he was a real person) were great artists...but their 'arts' took time; their obsessions took focus. I think that today we suffer immensely from a lack of focus.

How many time have you walked down the street and had your shoulder bumped by someone not looking where they're walking because they're texting? How often have you had a conversation interrupted by the ringing phone of your fellow conversationalist? Have you watched any cartoons recently? Somebody told me (and I'm inclined to believe it to be at least partially true) that 10 minutes of Spongebob Squarepants is enough to have a detrimental effect on a child's attention span.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we are CONSTANTLY bombarded by information - newswires, sports tickers, text messages, emails, BBM, Twitter - all of these things teach us to focus only for a moment on a specific topic before moving on to the next. How can we expect to have a population that actually takes time to critically analyze anything when we're bred to distractedly think about everything? Then again...maybe that's why all this stuff exists...

Having said all this, the thought of one individual person to be able to focus enough to trump seemingly insurmountable odds, let alone a whole team, begins to seem slightly ludicrous. So when I see it, as I did last night (even though they lost in the end), I was extremely impressed. I love a good underdog story, as does everyone, and there was almost one written on the court before my eyes.

What challenge do you face that seems unbeatable? Don't shy away - embrace it. Make yourself focus...put the cell phone down for an hour and work toward your goals - they'll never be realized if you only focus on the obstacles in the way. Don't give up - ever.

 I've already begun to write my own story - when will it be time for you to write yours?

Peace and Love
The Critical Stranger

As always, thoughts, comments and suggestions are encouraged and appreciated!