"All the we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."--Edgar Allan Poe.

There's a fine line between inspiration and motivation.  Inspiring someone will push them to do or feel something creative while motivation someone will stimulate interest or enthusiasm to do something.  If I inspire you then that is an addition to what I really want to do.  Today I want to motivate you, to generate a feeling for you to do something you haven't done before.

Here, right now, I will share with you my experiences.  These experiences arose from things I’ve heard when I watched movies.  These audible ques got me to accomplish tough situations in my life.  It is my call to action in the hopes it will motivate you.

 

Source:  Amazon Prime

“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 hit, 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! “— Rocky Balboa (Balboa)

 

This is the last installment of the Rocky series.  This monologue hit me the most.  It was 2006 and I was living with two of my best friends.  For the past five years, since I graduated high school, I was working and barely making ends meet.  Living off minimum wage, I made one pack of hot dogs and fourteen Ramen Noodles packages last me for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It was all I could afford every two weeks for food aside from house bills and a car note. 

In those five years I developed a system for acquiring alcohol for the weekend party we threw every week.  Someone would buy me a bottle of alcohol so I could drink for these parties and I would “hook” them up.  Due to legal implications I cannot say what they got “hooked” up with.  For five years I was living the dream.  Until I wasn’t. 

One day I woke up on my water bed and realized this is not how I intended to live for the rest of my life.  I couldn’t live like this and if I did, I would wind up in jail or on the streets.  I was sitting on the couch watching TV when the commercial came on for the movie Balboa.  My two best friends and I went out that Friday to see the film.  I came out of that experience with a new outlook. 

Again, I will say that monologue changed my perspective.  For the first time in my life, I felt motivated.  That weekend, I forwent the weekend party and called in to work that Monday.  I typed up a resume and applied at a company for a land surveyor’s position. 

Boy was I hungry those first three weeks, but I have to tell you, my quality of life drastically improved.  I no longer needed twenty dollars for groceries to last me until my next pay check.  I no longer needed to count miles to save on gas money.  It was a lesson learned and I learned land surveying was a great career for me as it consisted of school subjects that I was already good at. 

To this day, I remind myself of this quote I heard so long ago when I need a little something to pick me up and prove to myself that life will not beat me.

Source:  Blu-Ray Authority

 

“When a defining moment comes along, you can do one of two things. Define the moment, or let the moment define you.”

—Roy McAvoy (Tin Cup)

 

I was fourteen when this movie came out and fifteen when I saw it.  I had not a care in the world.  My day consisted of doing all my homework at school so I wouldn’t have any when I came home; so my afternoon and evening were free of responsibility; so my afternoon and evening were all mine and nobody else’s.  It was 9^th grade.  I was listening to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and partaking heavily in the Devil’s lettuce. 

My parents were separated at the time and I lived with my dad.  My father was having a rough time putting food on the table in our one-bedroom apartment.  He often came home late from work, so I microwaved some hot dogs for myself for dinner.  It never even occurred to me that I he had to make dinner for himself.  I rarely saw him eat at night. 

I was floating in and out of reality when Tin Cup premiered on HBO one Saturday night.  I was about half-way through the movie when he came home.  A look of distraught on his face.  He looked in the fridge, then the pantry, then the fridge again.  He sat down and watched the rest of the movie with me. 

I don’t know if it was because I was not sober, but this line came out of the speaker of the TV, and from there on I could not think about anything else but my father and what he was going through.  I got up off the couch and made dinner for him and myself. 

That day I learned that I could cook.  I mean spaghetti and homemade meatballs were nothing special, but I think he appreciated it.  Things got better and my parents are still together never actually going through with the divorce.

Source:  Flixlist

 

“The way it works is, you do the thing you’re scared shitless of, and you get the courage AFTER you do it, not before you do it.”

—Archie Gates (Three Kings)

 

So this was another movie that premiered on HBO Saturday night.  It was 11^th grade and all year I was thinking about Junior Prom.  I am not a fan of formally asking a girl out, not a fan of school events, and certainly not a fan dancing, but here I was.  All year I was full of anxiety, full of embarrassment, full of fear. 

When it came to the opposite sex, I was the shy guy.  Nothing ever came out right.  Nothing ever sounded cool.  My compliments were weird at best.  I actually said, “Your hair looks frothy like a horse during a breeze in the woods.”  I can’t tell you what I was thinking when I said this, but I can tell this was not how I wanted to say it. 

Aside from the mutterings of a lunatic, every girl I ever got the courage to ask to Junior Prom was saying yes to someone else.  Feeling a little defeated a week before, I sat on the couch and watched this movie.  This line rang bells in my head day after day until finally, Junior Prom was upon us.  I was going alone. 

Well I wasn’t alone as there was a group of loners who didn’t like social events like me.  We had a rather brief discussion about it in the parking lot as we passed a piece of paper with “Incredible Hulk” stuffed between the pages.  As I walked inside, I saw the girl I said the stupid line too sitting in a chair by herself.  She looked up at me and the fear spread, but I was reminded of that line. 

I walked up to her throwing out things I was thinking of saying out of my head.  By the time I reached her, I had no thoughts, but words came out none the less.  “Would you like to dance?”  She said, “Yes.”  We danced. 

I stepped on her toes, said some more idiotic lines, and spilled punch on her dress.  Her parents moved and she started school in a different state.  I learned that saying anything, no matter how dumb, to women is better than not saying anything at all.

Source:  CBR.com

 

“Do, or do not. There is no try.”

—Yoda (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back)

 

The point being to these short stories of my life experiences is that motivation can come out of nowhere and show you that you can be more than what you are.  It can show you things that you didn’t know you could do.  You just have to get up and do it.  I chose quotes because I like words.  Some people like actions or music or visuals to get them motivated. 

What has made you motivated in your life and did you gain a valuable experience from it?  Share as I did and help those who need a little push to discover something about themselves they had no idea existed.