Seek Out the Options

There’s this inspiring sports story of rebellion and resilience involving a boxer by the name Vinny Pazienza. I came to know about this story from the movie Bleed for This. In short, Vinny was involved in a fatal car accident that threatened his boxing career but he came back against all odds to win a match.

I know it can be easy to be encouraged by a success story such as this, however, being encouraged is nowhere close to motivation. You see, with motivation you’re given a reason to do something whereas with encouragement it is merely providing support or being uplifted.

Deriving from the story, Vinny received bad news after bad news but always chose to look at the positive or rather what ensured he could fight again. The lesson I got from this story and the message I tried putting across in this quote was that of orienting our perspective towards challenging situations. I’m pretty sure most of us if not all of us, upon receiving bad news just turn on the despair switch without actually evaluating the options to facing the situation or the solutions available. In the movie, when Vinny was told he wouldn’t be able to walk he asked what can be at least ‘tried’ so give him a chance to walk — just a chance. When he was told he wouldn’t be able to fight again he did the same thing, he sought out the options that would at least give him the chance to get his normal life back.

When faced with hurdles, there will always be ways to get past them be it jumping over, going under or going around.

Seek out the options.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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