I love listening to music pretty much any time of day. I listen to it when I get ready in the morning. I listen to it when I’m working. I listen to it when I want to rev it up. I listen to it when I want to chill it out. I listen to it before a date. I listen to it while I write in my journal.
Needless to say, I do a lot of collecting.
Every now and again, I will hear a song on the radio or in a movie and think, “I NEED that song. How do I not have it yet?” Inevitably, I’ll go home to download it and upon adding it to my library, I’ll discover it’s already there.
I loathe this feeling so much in a way I have a hard time articulating. Often times it comes down to this thought. “You mean I’ve had it all the time? I could have been enjoying it this entire time? It’s been right here?”
The metaphor, my friends, closely follows what I’ve discovered of late.
My life is good. Still my life is hard.
I’ve discovered a difference between those who succeed and those who fall short. Those who succeed dig in and hold on through the storm. I don’t mean merely wade through the storm. Rather, they look around and find some useful tools to help them best weather that storm.
In these storms I’ll frequently look around to acquire some useful tool to help me and frequently when I go to add it to my ‘character traits library,’ I’ll discover it’s already there.
“You mean I’ve had it all the time? I could have been enjoying it this entire time? It’s been right here?”
I once had a wise man pronounce to me, ‘trials are for defining your character to you.’ I suppose this is one of life’s best kept secrets … or most cliché phrases. You are stronger than you think you are.
And me… I’m a rock.