Chasing Sunsets

One of my favorite movies is Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown”.  In it, Orlando Bloom’s character, Drew, is a shoe designer and his highly anticipated shoe flops.  Like losing the company billions of dollars worth of a flop.  After his failure, Drew decides to commit suicide, but just as he’s about to do it he gets a phone call that his dad has passed away while visiting family in Kentucky.

He goes to Kentucky to sort everything out and begins to realize that even though he has been at the center of a fiasco in his professional life, that doesn’t make him a failure.

 

The first time I saw this movie, I thought, “This is about how you measure your success in life.”

Then I spent a lot of time thinking about how I measured my success and even though I was successful in many  important ways, family, friends, happiness, I still felt unsuccessful.  So I kept waiting to be a success.

I think we all spend a lot of time waiting to be successful. 

Waiting to reach a goal.

It’s healthy to be goal-oriented, but what I also notice is the waiting…

We’re constantly waiting to:

Hit the specific weight

Fit in the certain size

Have you ever said to yourself,

“When I lose the weight I’m going to <insert awesome goal here that can’t possibly be attempted until you are XX amount of pounds lighter>”

I have.

But not anymore.

In my life, there is no finish line.

There are a million finish lines.

I’m a long way from my dream weight or dream size, but I’m not going to let it stop me from fulfilling my dreams.

I’m not going to wait “until”.

I’m going to do things NOW.

I will do them at this weight and at this size and realize that the feeling of accomplishment and success is even sweeter.

I’m going to measure my success not by the things I’ve failed at, but by the things I’ve accomplished.

By the races I’ve finished, not the ones I’ve lost.

By the pounds I’ve lost not the ones that hang around.

By the clothes that are too loose, not the ones that still don’t fit.

Trying to reach a goal means maintaining forward motion.  If you’re on a treadmill and you turn around to see what’s behind you, there’s a good chance you’re gonna fall off. So you have to keep looking forward.

So as you’re moving forward, what can you do NOW?

At this weight? At this size?

ANYTHING!

You can do just about anything. 

Don’t wait “until” or you may never get there.

  

You have measure your success by your ability to hit dozens of milestones and goals all the time rather than not getting to the ONE big one.

You have to celebrate every victory in your journey.

You have to have the courage to do the things you want to do, the things you dream of doing, now rather than later.

It’s kind of like chasing sunsets. You may never get it, but every beautiful orange and purple sky is a gift. It’s that WIN that tells you that you made it through another day on your way to being the best you possible.

I'm going to measure my success not by my ability to catch a sunset, but my ability to enjoy it.