Friday, January 20, 2017

Axiom 92: You Don't Have to Play by the Rules


Back in 2012 I was out of town for work for almost a month. It was the biggest job our company had ever done at the time. It was by far the hardest I've ever worked and the most physically and mentally exhausted I've ever been in my life.

Towards the end of my time away I drove a few hours off one weekend on an outing to Yellowstone National Park. I went into a little shop in West Yellowstone and saw the picture above for sale. There was just something about that picture that spoke to me at the time.

Now hanging in my office at home it says, "The Clearest Way into the Universe is Through a Forest Wilderness."

I bought it at the time because that quote taught me a valuable life lesson. I had been through the past few weeks of the hardest and most stressful work even, but there is no success without failure. There is no pleasure without pain. There is no learning and growing in life without first going through difficulties.

I learned from that day on I should look at problems as opportunities. No longer was I subject to the rules simply as a passive onlooker. Successful people don't play by other peoples' rules. They play by their own rules. Don't get stuck in the forest.