In the early 80s I had the opportunity to visit a medical clinic in the downtown east side of Vancouver. Okay, it wasn’t so much of an opportunity as it was a necessity. As I sat in the waiting room scared for my life to even breathe and maybe catch something, I did my best to avoid eye contact with anyone, lest I get myself into trouble. The walls were adorned with the usual medical posters, pamphlet racks sporting various sorts of tracts about pregnancy, drug use/abuse. There was one poster however, that was seemingly out of place, yet somehow found purpose.
I don’t really remember the picture so much as do the phrase accompanying the picture. The phrase resonated with me then as it still does to this day, which is part and parcel why you are reading this post right now. Was it profound, not really. Was it deep in meaning, for some it might be. For me it became a sort of outlook on life. Of course, it only was applicable in my life after the party was over. For the most part, back in the 80s the party didn’t stop until 1992.
My life attitude then was living for the party, which simply meant spend it while you got it, consume it when you want to, and don’t worry about the in between times. This philosophy damn near got me killed too many times, but I still wouldn’t learn. Friends and colleagues were dying from this or that and I was either too blind to see it or too numb to care.
In 1992 the party ended, well, for the most part it ended. I got off the streets and quit the hard drugs. I was able to clean myself up. One day I remembered the poster in that clinic from nearly a decade earlier. The words flashed across the memory screen inside my head like a movie marquee, IF YOU HAVE IT IN YOU TO DREAM, YOU HAVE IT IN YOU TO SUCCEED. I took that motto and I owned it. Everything I had left within me I used to bang the drum to which I now marched.
The funny thing about dreams is that over time they have been known to change. Some people don’t do change well. Others embrace change with open arms changing their shirts while they hug it. I happen to be comfortable with change. Panhandling helped me with that I’m sure. Yes, my dreams changed. What did not change was my determination to take each challenge and overcome it to the best of my ability. Failure was not an option. What was and has always been an option not only for me, but for anyone is how they respond to failure.
Respond the wrong way and the dream dies, then you have to wait on another dream to come your way. Responding to the failure as only a bump in the road, the dream lives, and the potential to succeed remains. The real problem exists however in the definition of success, which as you are aware, looks different to everyone.
For some success comes in the acquisition of wealth, or stuff. It could as simple as having a loving spouse, a house with a white picket fence, the 2.3 kids. Success looks and feels different to everyone. I’m not sure where I heard it, perhaps I made it up just now, but it makes sense, and it has to do with having realistic expectations. Reach for the moon but shoot for the stars. As for me, success is a matter of knowing that I did my best no matter the outcome because in the end I’m the only one who it’s going to matter to.
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