77-year-old Singer Songwriter Actor Rick Springfield was the guest on the Joe Rogan Experience with Host Joe Rogan. Grammy Award Winner Rick discussed his career and life. I’ve been a fan of Rick Springfield since college. In 1985, I saw Rick in concert in Honolulu at the zenith of Rock Stardom. He looked great. He was amazing.
In 1981, Rick Springfield’s song Jessie’s Girl was Number One on the Billboard Charts. Rick also played Dr. Noah Drake on the hit soap opera General Hospital. Throughout the mid 1980’s, tall handsome Rick Springfield was the Biggest Rockstar on Planet Earth. Women and girls loved Rick Springfield. He was the iconic heartthrob.
When Rick began is career in the early 1970’s, he manifested and visualized his success. He knew he arrived when he played with the Beach Boys at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. The crowd went wild when he played the opening chords of Jessie’s Girl. Rick was a Star.
Joe asked, “What was that feeling like?”
Rick laughed and said, “Yeah! About fucking time!”
I have distinct affinity with Rick. No, not because Rick is tall and handsome, even at 77. I deal with clinical depression like Rick. Like Rick, I do what I love for as long as I can over the years. For Rick, that’s his music and his writing. For me, that’s Aikido and my writing. That gives us life. That keeps us young inside.
Rick discussed the role luck played in his career and life.
Rick said, “The luck happens when you stay in the game. I think that’s the core of it. It’s staying in the game. So that when the moment happens that you are ready… You gotta be ready. You gotta woodshed. You gotta have your craft down. Be competent. You have to have something to offer.”
I stay in the game. Just train. Be present. Whatever happens, happens. I have no control over what happens to me. I control my response to what happens to me, both the good and the bad. I determine what goes on inside me.
Maybe luck happens when I work on myself, not on others. The possibility of luck occurs when I’m open to it, when I’ve done the work. Maybe, like falling in love. Love happens when I’m the right guy, when I’m the best man that I can be. Well, I’m still waiting. I stay open. Just train. Who knows? Lightning could strike.
Growing up, I got that Dad wasn’t going to help me become the man, I wanted to be. I was Dad’s greatest disappointment in life, regardless how hard I tried. Dad scared me to my soul. Although he was essentially a good man, he had a lot of behaviors that I didn’t want to inherit.
I knew to be the man that I wanted to become, I had to find someone to guide me.
I met the late Mizukami Sensei when I started training in Aikido over 35 years ago. I got that Sensei could teach me about being a good man. Sensei saw that I had to prove that I was good enough, because I knew inside that I wasn’t.
Sensei said, “Just train.” I didn’t have to get somewhere or be someone else. For the first time in my life, I could just be me. I could always be better, always be the greater man. For Sensei, Aikido was about repetition. Practice makes the unnatural natural. I put my head down. I put in the work. I worked on myself, not on others. I got yelled at, because it was my time. I got back up when I failed, when I fell down. I said, “Hai.” When I didn’t know what Sensei was teaching, because I knew he would correct me, anyway.
In Aikido, Mizukami Sensei said, “Wait it out. Enter the attack. Take a glancing blow if you have to. You’re not always going to get away scot-free. It’s one time.” I learned to take a hit, take a risk for what’s meaningful to me.
I’m Godan (5th degree blackbelt), because of Mizukami Sensei. I have a meaningful life, because of him, too. I got lucky. I did the work. Luck makes no difference unless I do the work necessary.
I stay in the game. Just train. Be present. Be ready. Listen. Open up myself. Work on myself, not on others. I look for the opening. That’s all on me.
In many ways, I think we create our luck. Luck is present in seeing the opening, in seeing what’s possible, in being present. Still, luck makes no difference unless you work on being the greatest that you can be. Do the work.
Stay in the game. Stay open. Be present. Just train. Things have a way of working out.
