After a nice break, I’m back in my office and ready to get back at it.
I’m a little more excited to be back in my office today, because my office has been upgraded with my new artwork from Hugh MacLeod.
I thought over the next four days, I’ll share a little bit about each print and why they speak to me; but more importantly, how they can speak to you.
#1 (in no particular order BTW)
This is it. fight like hell. linchpin (click here for a better look at the print)
This particular piece of art speaks to me in a few ways, and I wanted to share some of those feelings with you in the most simplistic way I can.
This is it – We’ve all got one life, one shot, one chance to do things our way. Are we willing to sacrifice it all for a paycheck? I’m not. Are we willing to accept the Monday Blues or the Terrible Tuesdays? Why should we look forward to saying TGIF (thank goodness it’s Friday)? We should ONLY accept “TGIM, TGIT, TGIW, TGIT, TGIF.”
Fight like hell. – Unfortunately the easiest route is to not fight at all. The easiest way is to take the life everyone else chooses to accept. The easiest way is to follow the herd. It’s easier to accept stress and unhappiness than it is to put on the gloves and enter the fight.
The fight is scary.
The opponent is bigger and stronger than you.
The opponent is like Ivan Drago – you’ve got to be Rocky.
However, the fight is about creating the life of your dreams. The fight is the biggest battle you’ll ever have. The fight is waking up every morning with a smile on your face. Only a few will ever go into a ring. You should be one of the few.
The art is a reminder to me that every time I walk into my office, I’ve got to put on the gloves, put in my mouthgaurd, clean up my cuts and bruises, and get back at it. I’ve got to fight like hell.
But every day is going to be hard. I’m going to get hurt. I’m going to get knocked down, but what’s my other option? Find out tomorrow.
Here is Hugh’s take on it:
“It’s easy to tell somebody to get into The “Linchpin” Zone. Much harder to live it. But fight like hell to get there, regardless, every friggin’ day, or else you’ll never make it.
You know you’re capable of doing great things, being in “The Zone”, but every external marker out there indicates otherwise- that you’ll never get to do “life’s best work” that you’re capable of; that your career will be nothing but drudgery and abuse, in exchange for, what seems like, an increasingly meager paycheck.
Yeah, it’s a painful place to be. But it doesn’t last forever, unless you give up. Not if you don’t succumb to all the overpriced, “treadmill-enabling”, external markers of success, such as fancy houses, cars, schools, vacations and “stuff” that you can’t really afford. You don’t really need nearly as much as the guy in the next cubicle says that you do. “
