As the great Rocky Balboa said in his last movie, “But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
Such a true statement especially in times where people are getting beat down, whether people are losing their jobs, houses, relationships or just trying to live paycheck by paycheck. The state of affairs out there is tough and I don’t see it changing in the near future.
However, it is up to you to decide whether to stand up and keep moving forward. You are the only person that can keep yourself going forward and rise from being beat down. I am not saying you need to do it alone and not have support from friends and family but to truly rise from being beat down, one would need to accomplish it on their own without relying on someone to take care of them.
To quote J.F.K (Yes I am quoting Rocky and J.F.K in the same blog), “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Again the idea of the individual trying to help a situation is there. Many problems in this country would be solved if people tried to help themselves and not expect handouts. If you have a dream or goal in life do everything you can to make that dream to come true. You will never accomplish anything unless you try. Don’t expect your dream to be handled to you on a silver platter, unless you win the lottery or something, it takes hard work to make things happen.
Since I started this with Rocky lets use this fictional character as a case study. This will have movie spoilers and if you haven’t seen the Rocky movies (and if you haven’t please crawl out of the rock you are under and watch them) then please don’t read any further as I don’t want to ruin these great movies for you. Anyway, Rocky started out as a low-life, uneducated boxer (ok hired thug) who barely made it by until an opportunity was given him to fight the heavyweight champ. Everyone expected him to lose in the first round of the boxing match. He felt he could not win but he just wanted to go the distance at least. Cue the famous Rocky montage. Rocky trained hard. He didn’t sit around eating twinkies all day or his pet turtles (he did drink raw eggs though which I don’t recommend), he worked very hard and went the distance.
The second movie saw Rocky riding the success of the fight which included doing commercials and not wanting to have a rematch against Apollo. Unfortunately, he could not read. This lead to the boxer working at the meat factory and eventually getting laid off from that. Rocky tried to do everything he could do for his family (including to learn to read) but realized he needed to go back to what he was good at and that was boxing. This lead to him being the champ. He accomplished a dream of his and again did it by hard work. He did what he had to do to for himself and his family (including a new born son).
The next two movies dealt with the success of Rocky and the struggles he dealt with while having money. Even when you are on top you still get dealt with the blows of life. In one situation Rocky is getting handed opponents that were not championship calibur and it got to Rocky’s head. He took less pride in his training and was not working as hard. Finally, a tough opponent challenged Rocky and beat him handily (Of course it was Mr. T). To regain his championship, Rocky would have to train hard again like he used to and find the eye of the tiger (I bet you are singing that catchy tune). He regained his championship because of working hard.
Are you seeing a trend here or do I have to continue any further? The point here is that you can’t expect everything to be handed to you. If you want something badly that you can’t get right now whether it being a job, some new item, a girlfriend, a robot for your drunk brother in-law on his birthday (see Rocky IV) or whatever it may be you have to work hard at it. Life will always try to knock you down and it probably won’t get easier anytime soon. However, it is up to you to pick yourself up and decide to keep moving forward. If the people of this country would just pick themselves up and work hard at attaining their goals then this country would be better as a whole. People need to stop blaming things on others and expect other people to do everything and just work hard themselves. I don’t promise it will easy or that you won’t ever get knocked down by life again, but I do promise you will be a better person in the end. So pick yourself up right now and accomplish your goals and dreams and feel good.