Near 30 years ago this movie Cool Runnings hit the big screen. I saw It in the theater with my brother and my cousin in Montpelier, Idaho, where I grew up.
We all can get motivated and inspired by different things. This one was even funny.
In a nutshell, the movie has 4 young men from Jamaica that want to compete in the Olympics. When their chances at summer games are gone, they turned to a winter sport. They chose the bobsled.
They got a coach, a multi gold medal winner, who lived on the island, and went to work.
They went to Canada. None of them had ever seen snow or ice. They were as inexperienced as anyone on the planet. They had talent but that’s not enough. They had a desire to progress and surrounded themselves with the greatest bobsled teams in the world. With a good coach and discipline, they made a qualifying Olympic time and learned it all with a broken down sled in less than a month. Limited funds, the support from home was zero, but they made it.
The silly, do nothing folks at home laughed and teased and they held their heads up high and competed anyways. They returned home hero’s.
It’s like that in the horse business here in Texas. Whether you are cutting or roping or barrel racing or whatever. The best seem to congregate here and the rising tide will lift all ships. That’s what brought us here. The desire to become better. The atmosphere in Texas is a world of its own. There’s a lot more to “Remember the Alamo,” than the rest of the Yankee world can realize. It’s a frame of mind and a way of life.
Go where you want to go and do what you want to do. You’ll find that the ones who are negative Nelly’s or nay sayers or Debbie Downers will always be that way over anything and everything. They don’t want you to rise above them.
The only way to grow is out of your comfort zone.
These 4 guys became great by working hard and being around the best. It wasn’t the amount of years it was the amount of steps. They watched and learned and through the osmosis of being there, became better.
Progression is the key. To be constantly striving and working towards something better is the key. Beware of those who don’t want to go farther in life. We can’t tread water. We are either sinking or swimming.
There will always be critics, don’t be one of them.
Be a worker, notice I said worker, not winner. Because all winners lose, and some losers win. But in the end the workers are the successful ones. And don’t judge your success by gold buckles.
Because if you ain’t enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.
Work harder. There is no finish line.
From somewhere down in Texas,
Scott Hulme.
