Destiny Archives | jeremyrolleston.com

Pure Inspiration IV – Sung-bong Choi

I’m in tears as I write this. This is pure inspiration – exactly what I want this blog to provide. To give you and I together another dose of inspiration for our week.

And what a dose of inspiration it is. An example of how your past doesn’t define your future. An example of guts and inner fortitude, but also of good decisions. Consider the courage it took to get himself off the street; the courage to take any singing lessons in the first place; and the massive courage to go on the show when Sung-bong thought he was an average singer (even if he was wrong !). An example of the dignity of a young man and the honest compassion of the judges.

May you be inspired to not let your past define your future and to go after your dreams with all you have.

A Life That Counts – part II – no limits

You might a past post I wrote following Steve Jobs death and a recent post of mine where I was reflecting on where I was going and what I was doing as I create the life that I want. And you might remember me giving myself a bit of an uppercut given I’ve written a book about all this ! 🙂

Well after that uppercut, came this … a hit over the head !!!!

How can you not be fired up by this ? Or is it just me? Enjoy and be inspired and challenged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He5A9dvUP-s

A Life That Counts

I’m at an interesting juncture right now. I am leaving my current job after realising it was the antithesis of the organisation I want to work for and the culture that I thrive in. So much so that it was a big contributor to me ending up sick with glandular fever. But I digress :). So at moments like these I started to reflect as you often do. Am I heading in the right direction ? Is what I’m doing going to count for something ? Am I just doing what I’m doing because that is what I know and it is the easier and safer path ? Is this what I really want to do ? What do I want to do ? My future is in my own hands and is the result of the decisions that I will make today … but what do I want it to look like ?

Well after some reflection and some proactive steps including catching up with a few of my mentors and an executive coach … a few things are clear … I do not have a crystal clear picture of what I want my future to look like – but I do have do a hazy one. And I have figured out over the years that that is just fine. My future path may not be absolutely straight and paved as I look ahead, but I am going to make sure I am certainly travelling in the right direction and making decisions that are getting me closer to where I want to go and to creating the mosaic of the life I dream.You see I know what I generally want my life to look like. I know what I want it to feel like. I know what I want to see around me. And I know that I want to make a difference – to do something significant – to avoid just going with the flow. To create something that outlives my life. To do something that engages my heart. To do something more than work my butt off to effectively push my companies share price up. To do something where the results are tangible and the testimonies are irrefutable.

So I think it is time to take a note out of my own book A Life That Counts. To continue to dream. To have the courage to follow my heart. To make plans and actively create the life I dream (without rules and other people’s expectations defining what it will look like). To be wise but not too sensible. To make the little decisions that will ad up to the big things. To believe that my future will look exactly like the vision board on my wall. To train my speech and my thoughts to support this and not to tear it down. To enjoy the journey for life is short and could end tomorrow. And to make a difference.

So Jeremy – note to self. You wrote a flipping book about this so make sure you are continuing to live by the very pages you wrote.

And for those of you who haven’t read my book ‘A Life That Counts’ – buy it here and always feel free to tell me to take a leaf out of my own book. After all I want to live an extraordinary life, with purpose and significance and along the way (like the quote at the top says) create a legacy that will live forever.

Fire up people ! … and fire me up along the way !

A sign …

I hope you’re smiling and I hope you’re challenged !

Zero to hero ?

Gilbert Arena’s is an American basketball player for the Orlando Magic in the NBA. He is a 3x NAB All-Star, 3x member of the All-NBA Teams and was voted the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2002-03.

Sounds great doesn’t it ? … well is wasn’t always great … listen to his story.

To use his own words …
My number is 0 – it reminds me of what people thought of me.
Noone believes in me anyway. So I’m going to fight for it.
Believing in myself when noone else did.
Prove everyone wrong.
1st 40 games sitting on the bench. Feeling depressed, useless, full of doubts. Tears. Pain.
Zero to hero.

My challenge:
When you want to do something great in life; when you have a vision and a dream for what you want; when you’re going after something … never be surprised that there will be doubters, sceptics, mockers and opposition. But never let anyone else’s expectations define your future. Choose to believe more in yourself than other people might believe in you. Choose to think differently. Choose to take responsibility for your own life and define your own success adn journey. These are the internal choices you will need to make. Noone will see them but these are the iron clad decisions and lines in the sand you will make inside. And from there you will add hard work, strategy, talent, perseverance and everything else it takes to get to where you want to … Just like Gilbert Arena ! From zero to hero … and your story is next …

An inspired and passionate rat in the ratrace or not a rat at all ? …

When I was writing my book I interviewed 10 famous and successful Australians. And it was confronting.

These people include the likes of Dick Smith, Gai Waterhouse, Louise Sauvage, James Tomkins, Lydia Lassila, Alexandra Croak, Matthew Burke, Matt Shirvington, Jason Stevens and Michael Milton. They are Australians of the Year, Olympic and Paralympic Gold medallists, World Champions, household names. I wanted to get behind the scenes – to find out what makes them tick. Why are they successful ? Why do they make the decisions they do ? How did they confront and conquer disappointment and obstacles ? What ha they learnt and what was their advice after their own journey’s and the success that came with it.

But the thing that struck me was that they were all PASSIONATE about what they did. They loved it. They would have probably done it anyway. There I was at 4:30am in the morning standing next to Gai Waterhouse at Randwick racecourse and she was as chipper and friendly as I imagined her to be. She loved being a horse trainer and the challenge of making a horse run fast. She loved conversing with the jockeys. The old experienced ones. The young 16 year old apprentices that she ‘mothered’. She loved talking to the owners. She loved running a business and all that that entailed. She loved racedays and the glamour that came with that as much as the early hours that noone saw. And then there was Dick Smith. He loved adventuring. He made money to facilitate this. He was happiest out in the Blue Mountains bushwalking or flying a helicopter and exploring. Matthew Burke – he loved sport. he loved the challenge of reaching of his potential and of being the best he could be. He loved touring. he loved being in a team sport with good mates who he had fun with and with whom he battled with whilst representing his country.

It was very confronting for me. Why ? because I was trying to figure out what ‘thing’ I was truly passionate about. There was no one thing. And it irked me. I wanted it to be easier – to know what that one thing was and pursue it with all my heart. To not just settle for doing something because it was easy or because the money was good or because that was what I’d done in the past. I think I’ve now figured out that for me there is no ‘one’ thing – I love life and I want to live an amazing life with everything that goes into that melting pot.

So what that in mind, whether it is ‘one’ thing or many – the challenge is still the same – the challenge of this bill board. May it inspire you to follow you heart. For remember there are many things that will capture your attention, but very few things that will capture your heart. Pursue those !

Write the Future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE

Because of circumstance and past decisions we often feel like our future is defined and mapped out for us. We feel almost trapped.

And equally, one of the myths we believe is that we are entitled to a great life. That someone else is responsible for filling our lives with happiness and fulfillment. We tend to blame something external or someone aside from ourselves for the things we don’t like about our lives. And we create excuses or come up with various reasons why something didn’t happen or why we can’t be or can’t do or can’t have what we want in our lives.

The truth is that there is only one person responsible for your life and that is you. If you want to follow your dreams, if you want to achieve your goals, if you want to be successful then you must take 100% responsibility for everything in your life – your relationships, your finances, your achievements, your levels of happiness, your feelings – everything ! One of the best days of your life is the one in which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses or denials. Relying on no-one. Leaning on on-one. Blaming no-one. Just you taking responsibility for your life, your happiness, your dreams and your future.

You can write your own future … it truly is an open book with the pages yet to be written … I wonder what they’ll say …

Destiny

I love this video because so often we only hear half of the story of following your dreams.

You see there is a myth about highly successful people– it’s that they are simply born highly talented. The truth is, you may be talented, but no-one reaches their potential unless they are willing to work hard to get there. Do you know that only four Wimbledon boys champions in the last 60 years have ever gone on to win the Men’s title in their career (Federer, Borg, Edberg, Cash) and only three girls champions have developed into Women’s champions (Mauresmo, Hingis, Haydon). Did you know that more than 50% of millionaire entrepreneurs never finished college (Robert J. Kreiegel and Louis Patler, If it Aint Broke … Break it ! ). There are no shortcuts to success and anything worthwhile.

You see our dreams very quickly turn into hardwork, commitment, perseverence, diligence, mental touchness, sacrifices, chices and so on. And the thing is, when most people think of hard work, they would rather (and in most cases naturally) take the easy path. Getting fit without exercising. Losing weight without watching their eating. Cultivating good healthy relationships without putting in effort to make them so. Playing a musical instrument well without practising.

Muhammad Ali is quoted as saying “The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses; behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance on those lights.”

Winners do not shy away from hard work. In any arena and facet of life. Not just sport. In fact they embrace it. They train harder and dig deeper than others. They learn to derive satisfaction and pleasure from doing things well in the face of something that is hard. They welcome an environment that is stimulating, challenging and demanding. They learn to enjoy the process and the process inevitably includes hard work.

So whilst I firmly believe we should all Dare to Dream and follow our dreams … that is only half the story.

Destiny doesn’t decide your success. YOU do.

My challenge – What are you going to do to make it happen ?