Steal These Thoughts!
“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, are our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.”
A fictional character he is but much loved is Albus Dumbledore, the resident legendary professor of the Harry Potter series’ wizarding world.
“And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
Thomas Wayne
Failure is a part of life and a large part at that.
One of my all time favourite TV shows is Arrow. This show first emerged in 2012 which was a pivotal time for me as I’d just gone through a life changing event and in some way themes from this show put priorities in perspective for me.
We all have challenges and fears, most of us (including me) will do anything we can to avoid these situations and feeling uncomfortable. There’s an old adage that there is no easy life, just tough decisions and the way in which you choose to approach the curveballs thrown at you will determine the life you lead.
He who is not courageous enough to take risks, will accomplish nothing in life
People will say many things about Ali, but one thing that cannot be denied is his profound influence upon our society and staying true to himself. He was never just an athlete, he transcended his sporting background and much like Bruce Lee before him, he flowed out into many parts of our culture.
In the mountains of amazing things that Ali had done, the one thing that I learnt from him and still resonates with me to this day and will do for the rest of my life is the art of self-belief.
If you want to achieve it, you got to believe it
It always seemed that Ali had no fear, he was cocky, he was brash and was a master if not a grandmaster in mental warfare and all of this stemmed from his unwavering self-belief. Not for a second, would he consider that he was beatable, he never worried about what his opponent was doing and only focused on what he had to do to get the job done.
He’s a proven example that believing in yourself can take you to amazing heights and hit the potential you know you have, despite what the critics say. Even recently there has been another great example of self-believe from the sporting arena, with another prizefighter becoming a world champion after 10 years grinding. Those who follow the UFC, will know I refer to the newly crowned middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who despite all the detractors and fighting at only 2 weeks notice, pulled out the biggest win and one of the most amazing upsets in the sports history. When interviewed after the fight and asked what kept him going after 10yrs, he responded “I always believed, I always knew I would be a world champion”.
You can call this the Ali effect, but the amazing powers of ones mentality in the pursuit of accomplishing their dreams cannot be denied. Ali had this in abundance and has left the world with many lessons on how to be great, but also to do it your way.
If you think about it, he was a philosopher without even knowing it, his quotes are infamous and like Bruce Lee’s famous excepts they will be used to inspire for generations to come.
A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted wasted 30 years of his life
Although the world has lost a great character and innovator, we should reflect on what he taught us and make sure we use those learnings to make our own lives amazing. He will always be the greatest and he showed us all, how great we can be too.
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can subscribe to my weekly “Steal these thoughts” newsletter here.
Every week I share a dose of my own writing and interesting content that has caught my eye, it’s free, no spam, unsubscribe whenever you want.
Get my free weekly newsletter every Tuesday morning with:
2,000+ people enjoy it.