Yesterday afternoon was another busy day for me. I had work that I wanted to do. I had errands to run and people to shuttle places. I certainly didn’t have time to catch up on news. I usually limit my exposure to the news to short burst so I can protect me attitude.
As evening approached, my husband, realizing that we had both had busy days was very convincing to get me to nix the dinner plans I had and took me out to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. I have the philosophy that if something news worth happens that I should know about, someone will let me know. Sure enough, our server, who we have known for awhile, told us the news about Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.
When someone has attained fame in the entertainment industry they become very public figures. Farrah’s battle with cancer was widely known and it seemed to be drawing to an end. Her death, although sad, wasn’t a surprise. Michael’s, on the other hand, death was a shock. Because of the shock factor, the news agencies ate it up!
Michael was exceptionally talented performer. When he danced and sang he was connected to the Devine. He felt the music. Because he felt the music so strongly, his dance was very fluid and he accomplished dance steps that are still marveled at today.
When Michael performed he was in his zone. One of the things that made his performances so special is that he truly cared to bring that side of himself out to make us happy. He always liked to please his fans.
That was his blessing and his curse. People reacted to his performances by making his music one of the most sought after in all of history. He was truly the “King of Pop”! But, his desire to please also made him unhappy by all of the negative press that he received.
Even though we may not be in the public arena, doesn’t mean that we won’t be faced with harsh critics when striving for our dreams. Especially, if we are trying to accomplish something extra-ordinary, such as success. Some of the harshest criticism might even come from the people that we love the most. They don’t mean to hurt us, but they are concerned about our deviation from what they consider normal. They don’t want to see us get “hurt”.
If you really, really want to accomplish incredible things in life you have to survive the naysayer. That means, growing tougher skin. It means knowing that you aren’t going to please people all the time. It also means being committed to doing what is right for you.
Understand that everyone has a right to their opinion. Turn your hearing off. It is like the story about the hard hearing frog. It goes like this:
Two frogs fell into a pail of milk. They both wanted to get out before they drown. One of the frogs had exceptional hearing and the other frog was a little on the deaf side.
As the two frogs struggled to get out, a crowd of frogs gathered around the top of the pail. The crowd of frogs soon started shouting “give up, you can’t get out”, “why try, you know you’re going to drown”, “you have gotten yourself in a fix this time”, “no frog has gotten out of a bucket before, so why try?”
The frog, with the good hearing, soon became discouraged, gave up, and drowns. The hard hearing frog couldn’t hear the other frogs and kept jumping and jumping until he turned the milk into butter and he was able to hop out. The other frogs said to him, “we told you that you would fail”. The hard hearing frog said “What?” His friends said it again, louder this time. “Oh”, said the hard hearing frog, “I thought you were just cheering me on!”
Moral of the story…..when everyone seems to be telling you to stop pursuing your dreams and just be average and ordinary, you must be like the hard hearing frog. They are just cheering you on!
