Many, many years ago I was frustrated that I wasn’t experiencing the successes in my life that I saw others were. People would do things that I wanted to do, but I excused them as impossible for me to ever attain.
There’s no surprise then that I was also jealous of people – wanting what they had, because I couldn’t have it.
I’m talking here about things like someone fulfilling a part of their life’s calling, achieving a career succes or financial success, being daring enough to just do that thing you’ve always wanted to do, travel to a certain place, and so on.
Then came the precious day when this clip below got up out of being a victim and into being a victor. It’s a short part of the film The Edge, staring Anthony Hopkins and Alex Baldwin as two men who get lost in woods and are hunted by a bear. After loosing one of their comrades to the bear and being faced with what many would consider an impossible situation, there comes this scene:
If you can’t see the above video, click here.
How what one man can do, another can do
I want to encourage you today that it is true – becuase I have tested in my own life again and again – that what one person can do another can do.
It first begins with acknowledging that what you want to achieve can be done. If we can fly people to the moon, if people can do extraordinary things like they do, if miracles can happen like I’ve seen and witnesses, then it can be done.
The next step requires us to take ownership. If you can take leadership of your life and responsibility of your situation, without looking to others as the keepers of your successes or failures but become responsible for them yourself, and get into the driving seat of your future, tearing up every excuse and not accepting them any longer, then there’s no telling where you’ll go.
As the the top comment on this clip on YouTube said, “In 2002 I was down, and out, hooked on drugs going no where. I literally repeated this to myself over, and over, and in 1 yrs time my life completley turned around. I have been drug free since, and my life is an enjoyment today.”
I wasn’t hooked on drugs like this person, but still to this day, I repeat it to myself again and again: what one man can do, another can do.
Here’s to a victorious 2011,
Scott
Archived Comments
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An excellent post Scott.
What one man can do another woman can do….
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Catherine! Totally!
This clip has inspired me for years
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Emerson said, “The world makes way for the man who knows where he’s going.” I dig that. I also heard a hack salesman once say, “[If you can get your life together and know where you’re going] you’ll be ten feet tall and bulletproof.” I dig that one as well.
Can’t do the Youtubes at work, so I’ll have to check out the video later. Hopkins and Baldwin, you say? I’m not familiar, but I’ll look into it. Of course, now you’ve got me wanting to revisit Baldwin’s epic monologue in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Gets me pumped every time.
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Brian – did you watch the video yet?
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Powerful scene Scott. So many success stories begin past the breaking point, it tells us something about human spirit. Now I’ve just booked a flight to India to begin hunting my own bears
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Alex it’s very powerful – motivates me right now!
All the best wth India – let us know how you get on
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Just watched it on the Blackberry a few minutes ago. Inspiring piece. I’m not gonna kill the bear. I’m gonna let the bear do its own thing. The bear’s lifestyle is unsustainable and will come to a halt on its own. Why should I waste my energy trying to kill the bear?
Interesting to see Baldwin being the one charged with taking action.
“Coffee is for closers only.”
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LOL – Brian, I feel the adrenaline in this clip is wasted on your greater intelligence!
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Aw, shucks. Not what I meant to imply at all.
I assure you, Scott. There is no greater intelligence at this end. And if there were, being immersed in a corporate sea of beige walls and blond “wood” furnishings would be my chosen excuse for not being properly pumped up by that video.
(I did watch it on a 1.5″ wide Blackberry screen, so there’s going to be a loss of “presence,” imo.)
Still. The “kill the bear” piece spoke to me. There’s so much talk out there these days about taking over, about how social media is going to change things (kill the bear). Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more that I’d like to let “things” play out naturally. Live and Let Die?
What one man can do, another can do.
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I hear ya. I get what you mean
© Scott Gould
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