Being a Contender
February 19, 2008
Ok, hands up if you also “could’ve been a contender”. Something deep within the human psyche was expressed in Marlon Brando’s famous lines from On the Waterfront, “I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”
I plead guilty. There was my half finished story outline of life in an ant colony and numerous discussions with friends about the Butterfly Effect and how the concept had script potential. Both rattled around in my head long before similar ideas became movies.
Full credit goes to those who overcame their inertia to lead a once vague and fragile idea through the creative wilderness until it eventually became a well deserved success. They succeeded where I failed - at least in those areas.
The causes behind this inertia seem to be hard-wired into humanity.
1. Being too busy - the consistent demands of life weigh us down and we keep lurching from one task to the next with little time for planning or reflection. Days pass, then weeks, then months…. oops there goes a decade!
2. Lack of confidence - uncertainty about your abilities, goals, motives or potential (or a combination of the above) undermines our resolve and we tend to wait until ‘things improve’ or postpone action until ‘next year’ or any other self-appeasing reason for inaction.
3. Feelings of unworthiness - the nagging worry that somehow others are more worthy or more capable is toxic if mixed with the suspicion that life has dealt you a dud hand.
4. Lack of skills or experience - the very real limitations of that old conundrum where you can’t get the job without experience and you can’t get the experience without doing the job.
5. Fear - Although most of our fears never actually eventuate, we tend to forget that statistical fact when we sink into dread about our next big worry.
A recent skelliewag post on The Audacity of… Failure contained a great quote:
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan