“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”
Winston Churchill
Beyond the Quote (135/365)
Rather than wait for the opportunity before you start to prepare—start preparing for the opportunity that is going to come. Too many people wait for their golden ticket, their lucky break, their big moment—when really, all they’re doing is waiting. Golden tickets aren’t given to people who aren’t even in the competition. Lucky breaks might happen, sure—but luck has more to do with preparation meeting opportunity. Don’t base your life plan on the lottery—it’s not an admirable way to the top anyway. Big moments come and go all of the time. The tragedy, as Sir Winston Churchill points out, is when those big moments come and you’re unprepared, unqualified, or just plain too passive to step into it.
Many people dream of sharing their story on a large stage in some way. Some dream of giving a TED Talk. Some dream of going on the Joe Rogan Podcast. Some want to be on Oprah. Here’s the exercise I want you to run through your mind: If Oprah called you today and said she had an opening on her show for tomorrow and she wanted you to be her guest and share with the world your life story—would you be ready? What if the organizers of TED called you and asked you if you could give a thought-provoking and engaging 15-minute speech to fill an open spot in two days—would you be able to capture that opportunity? What if Joe Rogan called you and asked if you would come onto his show for a 3-hour interview—would you know enough about what’s going on in your world and the world at large to hold the attention of millions of listeners? Regardless of how you answered, this exercise is designed to get you thinking about reverse engineering your life.
You need to take that end goal of being able to give a 15 minute speech or hold a 3 hour conversation about your life, and you need to figure out what you can do today that will help you get closer to that. Another way to contextualize this idea is to imagine what you would want people to say about you at your funeral. If people were going to summarize your life in a 15 minute speech, what would you want them to say? What if they only summarized it in one sentence? What would you want that one sentence to say? What if you wrote that sentence and that speech yourself, now, and then lived your life in accordance with those words? This is how you reverse engineer the outcomes you want in life.
The idea is to start with the end in mind—not wait with the end in mind. That’s the difference between waiting and patiently pursuing—waiting is passive and uneventful, patiently pursuing is active and thoughtful. Waiting is scrolling through social media—patience is producing content for social media. Waiting is watching TV—patience is producing your own TV shows. Waiting is twiddling your thumbs—patience is clacking away on a keyboard with those thumbs. Life isn’t a spectator sport and life isn’t about waiting for your special moment. Life is about spending time every day engaging with the endless opportunities around you and learning experientially. Special moments pass right in front of you every day—heck, sometimes you even get tapped on the shoulder. The question is, will you be ready?
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Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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