Be Surrounded

There is a scene in the mini series Band of Brothers; a soldier in the 101st Air Borne, is walking down the road with his Captain, who is the company commander.  They are at the head of the line of troops moving through enemy controlled territory.  Another comes up to them and says, "You know you are surrounded".  The Captain answered, "We are Paratroopers, we are supposed to be surrounded".

That is good advice for all of us, we need to be surrounded.  We need to surround ourselves with people who make us better.  We need to have good, moral, positive and motivated people around us.  We all have an inborn desire to be part of a group.  We can make that desire work for us and make our lives truly wonderful or we can let it destroy us.  The groups you choose to identify with will have a huge influence on your life.

You can belong to gangs that use you to further the gang, not you.  You can pal around with people who are negative or have poor morals.  You can become addicted to booze, drugs or any of the unhealthy lifestyles, oh you will find others there but I promise they will not make you a better person.  Or you can look for people that are happy and successful.  They don't have to be rich, in the size of their bank accounts, but wealthy in happiness and living like they feel is the right way.

As an adult athlete, one of my long time goals is to be a better athlete.  I want to be stronger, faster and continue to improve every year.  That goal is open ended because I want to always strive to be better.  By choosing my friends and the groups I belong to wisely, I am supported and motivated by the positive role models I look to and respect.  If you want to be a better athlete then look at what the successful ones are doing.

There is a price to pay as well as that choice to make.  If you want to be surrounded by those kind of people that are positive, moral and motivated then also have to make the decision that you are going to be that kind of person yourself.  Happy, life successful people are not going to allow you to be around them, if you are not willing to be that way yourself.  That means you need to clean up your own act.  You have to choose to be happy and be optimistic.  You have to know that the world isn't out to get you.  I hear for example at work, "I need to see if I can get more hours, because I need to make more money", but this person frequently comes in late and usually wants to leave early.  The boss doesn't schedule them many hours now because they are not dependable.

If you are like me and desire to be a better athlete, or just desire to be a better person, then start with acting like that better person.  Once you do that then something truly magic happens.  Those kind of people start letting you into their lives.  Life can be wonderful and fulfilling, but like all things worth having, you have to earn it.

Thanks for reading

Dave