Yeah i was thinking about like just some great times in my life and like
things that i i i think about the way i live my life now and we're all we're all we're all
in this weird place with the pandemic and it's really changed things and i know some of you are
working in jobs that you don't enjoy and you want to job search some of you are in careers that you
don't enjoy and you want to change them some of you have been displaced or furloughed or let go
outright or whatever and i think about you know because i get these questions a lot i get them
in the system i get them from the boot campers i get them from from people in the programs and
you know people say well how do i find the time to do this how am i going to make that happen
and i was thinking about i was talking to one of my high school buddies the other day and
then this story kind of popped into my head when i was 14 so literally like 40 years ago
and i think about when somebody asks me well how do i do that i don't have any time
when can i job search how can i learn how to change careers i want to open up a business
and all that good stuff and this is what this is what's now recently been going through my head
when i was 14 i was about i just turned 14 and i was just going into high school i literally
i turned 14 like right on the first day or something it's like probably like my
birthday i'm going to school and i before we go to school we get these we get the schedule
and i went to this this parochial all boys high school and a lot of type a's there was like 365
kids that started and only 244 finished so one out of three kids couldn't make it through four years
to graduate from this this high school it was like a thousand boys in the school at the time
and so i get my schedule and it's like uh 02 to 08 zero two period to zero eight period
and two of those periods one was gym and one was lunch so i had five classes i was like oh two what
the heck is this o2 thing and so i i go to school i'm there for about a week or so and probably like
right after labor day i was waiting for a buddy of mine i had a few minutes to kill and i happened to
be on the floor where the principal's office was so i mean her into the principal's office
and i walk in there and i i said to this guy i said hey uh you know hey i got a question he says
hey young man i'm happy to help you so my name's andy i'm a freshman um i got a question about
you know i got my schedule here and this 02 period where i show up for school starts at 8 48
i have no idea why it started at 8 48 maybe they needed two minutes of roll call or something but
um what's zero one like what why doesn't it start at zero one and the guy says to me
oh well that's for that's for um there are classes that happen in the first period i said well how
come i don't have one he says well those are like the extra classes like the advanced classes that
kids will take so advanced classes what do you mean well you know like the really ambitious
kids they like to take this extra chemistry or biology or these other classes that we
don't normally offer during the regular hours i said can anyone take those he says yeah i said
well can i take those he says well sure if you want to sign up and next semester you can start
so now okay now the hamster's running right like now i'm moving
so now i'm thinking well the ambitious kids show up at eight o'clock for the 001 period i says hey
i have another question he says sure i says is there a zero period like is there a some what
like are there classes before the first period he says well no there's no teachers nobody comes
and nobody comes to the school and right there's no there's no classes i said well
how are lisa's school open he says well usually a facility guy gets here about 5 30 or quarter six
and then he opens the building and some of the swimmers come because they have swim practice
in the morning i said can anybody come in the building he says sure i says well can i do it what
can can i do anything i want is it is the weight room open like the strength training room open
he says yes how about the basketball court he says yeah i said there's a batting cage in the gym
that's on the edge of the can i use the batting cage because you know i'm going to try out for the
baseball team sure if you can get somebody to you know feed you the balls and it's like don't worry
i can get somebody to come so let me get this straight i can get in this school at six o'clock
i could strength train i could run up and down the basketball court i could hit baseballs i could
shower take an extra class and then everybody else starts he's that's right i saw see tomorrow
he says well i'm not gonna be here it says i know it's a figure of speech i don't expect
i'll see many people here at six o'clock so i go home i said to my mother hey mom great news
i'm gonna take an extra class at school it's at eight o'clock i could take it
oh that's great honey it's my it's not even the best part you get to get up at 5 30 and take me
to school in the morning so i could work out there she says well really well why not after school i
said well mom silly don't be silly that's that's for homework you get what i'm saying 6 a.m that's
when you look 6 p.m that's when you look right that's when you figure it out and and you're never
the advancement never happens the changes never occur between 8 and 5 or 8 and 220 or whatever
it is you want that extra stuff you got to do the extra stuff and and that's how life will always be
it's not it it's not it's not gonna happen during nine to five it's not gonna happen in the regular
hours when everybody is doing whatever it is that they are trying to do if you wanna make
those changes that's what it means so saturdays sundays nights weekends that's when it happens
yeah yeah i know you didn't need to teach me that but i was thinking about this
the other day about like what really do do i go through now and when anybody asks me that
that's what i think i think that you need to put the effort in at the craziest of times and it's
and the only if you don't have what you want if you didn't accomplish some goal you wanted to
there's only one thing you need to ask yourself is what was i unwilling to give up that's it straight
to the heart there is no other question you need to ask yourself and we all have our limits maybe
i didn't want to give up dinners with my family that's okay maybe i didn't want to give up
social outings with my friends or my golf game on saturday or whatever all that's okay maybe
you didn't want to go into debt you didn't want to open up the business you didn't want to try
extra marketing you didn't want whatever it is but there will be something that some thing that
stopped you that you imposed on yourself that you were unwilling to do and so you know when ashley
was asking me about disappointment and i was talking about expectations that's all you need
to do is where where did the buck stop where where was that self-imposed limit that i put on myself
that prevented me from getting what i wanted just ask yourself that that's some cold hard truth it
really is so anybody who hasn't accomplished what they want that's the reason you just you
know what the reason is it isn't because the market crashed it isn't because your boss fired
you it isn't because of any of that there was something you were unwilling to do what was that
and then if then decide if you want it bad enough to decide if you could tackle it smarter decide
if you could just knock the wall over decide if you can keep practicing believe me it's the truth