Not letting life knock you down

Inspiration in the random places….

Life is a constant battle. A battle of wits, a battle against others, and often more so a battle against ourselves. Like everyone out there, I have been through my ups and downs in life and have taken something from each experience/person/event that has happened in my life. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it takes years for those reasons to be figured out.

I think as people we should always strive to be the best we can be and we should do what we can to be happy. What most people do not realize is that happiness is a conscience decision. You can choose to be happy, you really can. Its when you let other people’s opinions, stress, words, actions get to you and take away what can be a real happy place. We choose how we are going to let events, people, actions and words effect us. I’m guilty of this and over time have just learned to not let what happens determine my happiness with myself and my life. I’m a fighter and not gonna let you, or anything else bring me down!

One of my favorite movies ever (yes I’m cheesey) are the Rocky movies. If you haven’t seen them… I’m very sorry. I think the first decade of my life at least one Rocky movie was watched a weekend (or Sylvester stallone’s “over the top”). Not only is it one of my favorite series of movies but nothing pumps me up like the movie soundtrack….

I always found all the stories to be so inspirational and encouraging at all the things in life he goes through ( in and out of the ring). A few years ago Sly made the Rocky Balboa movie. I have seen it a million times and my older brother and I had a conversation about it after it came out and I watched it yesterday morning and I was thinking about what my brother and I talked about as well as how much I enjoyed the lessons from the movie. The things I love about the movie (it starts off slow, but that’s where all the good lessons are I think) are endless but to sum it up:

1) The love for his wife that he shows. She has passed in this movie but he thinks about her all the time and how she brought so much joy and happiness to his life
2) The relationship with his son and they progress/lessons they have as the movie goes on
3) Treating others with kindness without expecting anything in return
4) Respecting others
5) Doing what makes you happy
6) Not enabling the hardships in life to dictate your happiness/future and maximizing your full potential

So towards the beginning of the movie Rocky has to go and get a permit to fight again, in which they initially deny him because of his age and this is his reponse:

Rocky Balboa: Yo, don't I got some rights?

Boxing Commissioner: What rights do you think you're referring to?

Rocky Balboa: Rights, like in that official piece of paper they wrote down the street there? Boxing Commissioner: That's the Bill of Rights.

Rocky Balboa: Yeah, yeah. Bill of Rights. Don't it say something about going after what makes you happy?

Boxing Commissioner: No, that's the pursuit of happiness. But what's your point

Rocky Balboa: My point is I'm pursuing something and nobody looks too happy about it.

Boxing Commissioner: But... we're just looking out for your interests.

Rocky Balboa: I appreciate that, but maybe you're looking out for your interests just a little bit more. I mean you shouldn't be asking people to come down here and pay the freight on something they paid, it still ain't good enough, I mean you think that's right? I mean maybe you're doing your job but why you gotta stop me from doing mine? Cause if you're willing to go through all the battling you got to go through to get where you want to get, who's got the right to stop you? I mean maybe some of you guys got something you never finished, something you really want to do, something you never said to someone, something... and you're told no, even after you paid your dues? Who's got the right to tell you that, who? Nobody! It's your right to listen to your gut, it ain't nobody's right to say no after you earned the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do!... You know, the older I get the more things I gotta leave behind, that's life. The only thing I'm asking you guys to leave on the table... is what's right.

I love that part of the movie!

My favorite part of the movie is when Rocky is working at his restaurant Adrian, and his son comes in to try and talk him out of fighting the young heavy weight champion. His son takes him outside and basically begs him not to do it because he is tired of living in his dad’s shadow and that if he loses its just going to make his life harder and why would he want to do that to his son. This is Rocky’s response. I freakin get chills at this scene in the movie I find it soooo true and applicable to my own life

Rocky Balboa: You ain't gonna believe this, but you used to fit right here. [taps on the inside of his hand] I'd hold you up to say to your mother, "this kid's gonna be the best kid in the world. This kid's gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever knew." And you grew up good and wonderful. It was great just watching you, every day was like a privilige. Then the time come for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain't gonna have a life. Don't forget to visit your mother.

I always loved that part of the movie but now that I’m at the place I am in life where I can’t tolerate how people make excuses for themselves and they LET others tell them they aren’t worth it or don’t deserve happiness or “winning” I feel like this is probably the most accurate quote in how I try and live my life EVERYDAY! I freakin love Rocky! Lol well said Sly ( yes he wrote the screenplay). When he’s fighting he takes a heavy blow that almost knocks him down and they slow the movie down and so many things flash through his head and he has a little chat with himself where he is like “ok rock what did you tell the kid! Its not about how hard you get hit but getting back up, get back up, get up…”
He gets up and he finds his inner strength and throws his hardest punches of the fight.

Stallone is producing a new movie called the expendables that’s coming out in August. Its got a ton of stars in it! I’m thrilled. I think he always does a great job acting and throwing in important lessons in his movies… as well as great action and usually a good soundtrack!
http://www.theexpendablesmovie.net/
There is an interview they did with him about the movie in regards to an injury he faced…. I think it just goes to show how he puts his all into his characters, in a very candid way. read it on that link