The Drive

Most of my friends don’t write. It’s not that they can’t. God bless ‘em, they’ve got better things to do with their lives everyday than write about life when they live it instead. But virtually everyone in my life inspires me one way or another, by either going after the things that are fulfilling them or by their fear of getting back up from their last mishap. And going for it. It doesn’t take a writer to inspire me, or an athlete, or a motivational speaker. It actually doesn’t take much for me to find the next someone to provide me a source of more drive.

Over the years, I’ve become inspired by people who believe in me and people who don’t. I’ve realized when you’re running on empty for whatever reason, you’ve got to find fuel in everyone and everything. My smarter or more successful friends can be motivating with their discipline and focus. Unemployed friends energize me with their own stories of what inspires them, and my content friends energize me so I never become that way.

As I imagine it, there’s little that can be more gratifying than accomplishing something few thought you could do. And who knows if those that did believe in you did it with any intentions other than pure hope for your success? (There will be some who never doubted, but not many.) Enjoy the authenticity of faith when you find it, and let it push you. Revel in the doubt and skepticism, and let it galvanize you. If you’ve studied–and pained to become not just good, but great at something–enjoy your travels. They’ll be adventurous. Sometimes, you’ve got to walk that road alone for a while before anyone notices you there. Unless, of course, you walk in the middle of it.

And own it, without anyone’s permission.