One Step At A Time
You will be dead one day. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s true. The question is: Are you choosing to live right now? Take a moment and think about it. Life doesn’t start when “this, that, or the other thing” is resolved. This IS your time. Life is now. Do something with it. Don’t wait it away.
Thanksgiving 2007 as the sun was rising, the fog was lifting, about 100 friends and friends of friends converged on a football field for our annual Turkey Bowl Tournament that my brother and I hosted each year. Teams showed up for the invaluable prize of bragging rights. This was my place to shine. The place where I schooled the youngins, showed that this dude still got it!
My team was in the championship game, I lined up on the outside, the quarterback hiked the ball and as I pushed off to outrun the defender in front of me I felt something in my right knee come undone. Felt similar to blowing up a water balloon until it pops. Next thing you know I’m laying face down in the turf.
The result of the final football game of my life was eight screws and three dead peoples parts holding my right knee together.
Three weeks after my surgery while my knee was still in traction, we packed our belongings in a large yellow moving truck and began the caravan from Washington State to San Diego to start a new entrepreneurial adventure. Because of the condition I was in my in-laws agreed to come help us move and make the long drive. Under one condition, that we take a detour out to the Northern Californian coast so they could see the infamous Giant Red Woods for the first time in their life. After making our way through the Red Woods we had agreed to drive back across to Sacramento to stay the night and get back on the main interstate. As we were preparing to turn east and leave the coast the decision was made to just get a cheap hotel on the coast and get back on it early the next morning.
The next morning I got up and decided I would go grab some coffee before we jumped back on the road. I crutched down to my wife’s vehicle and when I got to the parking lot the vehicle was not there. I thought, my father in law must have taken it somewhere quick so I went to crutch back to my room. As I turned the corner I ran into my father law and said, “Tim where did you park Liz’s vehicle?” He answered, “I didn’t park it anywhere, Liz was driving when we got here”. And all of a sudden I realized... The car had been stolen. (The police found it a few day later totaled and dumped in a river). I found a catholic priest who agreed to give me a ride to the nearest town with a car rental business. As I was riding with this stranger I thought, Is this a sign? Maybe were not supposed to be going. But I rented the car we loaded up and made our way to San Diego.
If I’m being honest, I was full of fear. I just chose to keep on going, keep on moving, keep on trying. Messed up knee, stolen car, limited resource, strangers in a new city etc. We just kept going. We decided we would continue to find out what was around the next corner, one step at a time. We resolved we would rather fail trying than play it safe and never know. It wasn’t always easy, there were plenty of obstacles along the way but it happened. We had a dream. We hoped. And one step at a time we saw our dream turn into reality.
It’s often difficult to grow into your greatest self, but it’s a tragedy to let the lie of fear stop you. So realize right now that fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in your head. Be courageous. Go after your goals. Never let your fear steer your present or decide your future. And remember, courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is far more important than fear. And life, real life can only happen one step at a time.
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.” -Henry Ford
