Everyone has seen Rocky II at least a few hundred times. One of my favorite parts is when Adrian, Rocky’s wife, is in a comma after birthing their son. The movie portrayed that before she had the baby, she didn’t want Rocky to fight anymore, but Rocky did…he knew it was his passion. Adrian knew it too, but she didn’t want Rocky to get hurt. Rocky stayed by her bed the whole time when he should have been preparing for the heavy weight championship fight; a beautiful act showing his love for her. When she finally came out of a comma they were able to see their baby together and started to determine what they were going to do. In her still small voice she looked up into Rocky’s eyes and said that there was one thing that she wanted. Rocky said anything, what do you need? He got closer so he could hear and then she said it even louder. She said, “WIN”. He knew that meant that he had her, someone he loved, blessing to keep following his creed. Rocky’s face lit up and he looked back at Micky, his trainer and friend. Immediately, Mickey said, “Well, what are we waitin’ fer!”.
This reminds me of my son, Luke. He has become my inspiration and my driver to not leave anything on the table; to follow my passion and creed in life. Here is a text he recently sent me as I have been floundering in my writing and pursuit of teaching other leaders how to lead better by equipping them with tools and sharing with them experiences that I have had and learned from. Luke wrote, “Dad, I want you to pursue Learning Leader with more effort. You’re leaving it on the back burner. Your passion. Sooner rather than later you’re going to be 80 and you’ll look back on your life and I want to be sure that you have followed your own passions. That since hitting 50 you’ve kept your life interesting, that you prioritized what’s important to you. If you don’t think you have time, you’re thinking wrong. We Perrin’s work hard, but more often than not we sacrifice pursuing our passions. I don’t want to get to the end of my life here on earth and not have made it worth remembering. Then he shared this quote by Ryker Lupen.
““We are both the writers and historians of our memories and our purpose. Don’t let your book be blank when you move on to your next life.” ”
Wow. I am so proud of my son and motivated by him at the same time. You can bet that I have started to get off my butt and begin to pursue my passions and follow the creeds that I believe I was led to years ago. One of those creeds is “That if it’s not a challenge, it’s not worth doing.” and the second is “To help equip leaders to be more effective leaders and have a bigger impact.”.
My Father-in-law meant a lot to me and was immensely impactful in my son’s life. Luke is a lot like him and is more and more like him every day. My Father-in-law’s death taught me a lot, but one specific item was his life creed. It is called “The Winner’s Creed” which he believed so much in that he had it engraved on the back of his headstone. Obviously, it reminds me of him…and most recently, my son.
My challenge to you is to really stop and reflect on what your creed or creeds are in life. What are your passions? Are you following them? If you don’t you will never reach your full potential and you won’t have near as much impact on those you have an opportunity to lead. Luke’s encouraging words to me made me think; do I want to get to the end of this life and have regrets because I did not pursue my passions. I’m not letting that be me. Don’t let that be you. Take the path less traveled and discover things you never dreamed of, take on the heavy weight champion of the world and win, take what looks like the harder path and see what you see at the peak of the mountain. Say, “I CAN” and overcome that challenge to follow your passion. If it is truly your passion, then I believe YOU CAN!…and will.
