#RollOver #KeepRolling #circumstances #goals #success
Roll over!
You may ask a dog to do that as a “trick.”
You may applaud an infant for doing that, as he or she shows his or her first sign of independence.
But when adults “roll over,” they are seen as giving in or, worse, giving up.
Instead of rolling over, keep rolling.
We are often tempted to roll over. Those who wish to dominate us want us to roll over.
They will frustrate us to the point that we, indeed, want to roll over.
If you must tolerate the frustration others impose on you, tolerate it without rolling over.
If you don’t have to tolerate the frustration, find a situation from which the frustration disappears, and you can do what’s best for you without interference.
Alas, it’s so much easier to just roll over. However, successful people don’t look for the easy thing. Instead, they face the hard thing head on. They may indeed roll with the punches, but they do not roll over.
They may not find success instantly. For some, it may take 40 years or more to become an overnight success. In all that time, they did not roll over. They kept rolling.
Todd Beamer told his fellow airline passengers on Flight 93 Sept. 11, 2001: “let’s roll.” The passengers stood up to the hijackers. The plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. But their actions prevented the plane from crashing into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. All those passengers, including Beamer and the flight crew, died. But they did not roll over. They rolled.
Sometimes, circumstances prevail. Sometimes, all the fight and effort we can muster does not get us the results we want. Sometimes, we do not outlive our obstacles.
Still, that does not mean we should PRESUME circumstances will always win. Instead, we keep rolling in the right direction. We roll toward the goal. We don’t stop. We don’t roll over.
Those who want to dominate us – get us to roll over – will insert more obstacles in our way, to the best of their ability.
Some of those obstacles may stop us temporarily. They may tempt us to roll over. But, with every fiber of our beings, we keep rolling.
On some days, we may have to look for the strength to keep rolling. We do that by telling ourselves that every slammed door eventually will take us to an open one. We hope to remain upright to the cause or goal. If we get knocked down, we get up.
To paraphrase an old adage: You will find me either at the top of the mountain, or dead on the side. But I will not go back to the bottom.
In short, don’t roll over. Keep rolling.
Peter