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Today I recieved a message from a reader, the entire message was "I WANT TO BE YOU!!", my first thought was
"No you bloody well don't"...
Sitting here alone in a cheap studio apartment in a developing nation with a bowl of instant noodles mixed with a tin of tuna, with the imminent prospect of going and spending (again) for an hour of heavy weightlifting followed by cardio training for the prospect that I might get another movie role sometime in the possibly distant future and that I one day I really will be good enough of an actor to hit the 'A' grade US market and finally make more money than a student working part time.
Add it all up, this is my life;
- Living in a developing Asian nation and all the 'discomforts' that includes - pollution, flooding, disease, racism, food poisoning, unable to communicate effectively for years, none of the foods you are accustomed to, etc
- Living in the developing nation on a tight budget, previously a VERY tight subsistence budget - sharing a 40sqm (430sqft) apartment
- Having to eat tuna and protein meals every 2 hours, every 2 hours no matter what (except sleep)
- Going to the gym pretty much everyday for an hour minimum
- Having to come home and eat like a starving man for 4 hours after the workout (to recover better)
- Not eating junk - ice cream, butter, jams, pizzas, bread, hamburgers, etc because besides being full of low quality produce it'll make me fat which I cannot afford to do as my income depends on my body
- Always have the constant fear that my means of income can be taken away at anytime, ie Nerve Damage
- Not watching TV, besides that it takes too much of my productive time away, all the shows are in a language I cannot really follow, in a culture that I don't really understand. BEst to turn it off and go outside.
- Not reading the newspaper, glossy magazines or popular fiction as it wastes your life and crushes your self esteem, and again the English language versions are hard to find and well overpriced anyway.
- Having to deal with many socially difficult expats, unfortunately acting be a difficult skill to display unless acamera is on it makes it easy for everyone who has no skills to fake, welcome to the usual expat 'acting' scene
- The opportunity cost of what else I could have done in the previous 20 years instead of chasing a dream, I could have a big house, car, 'nice' computer job earning a very comfortable income, probably management by now with all the perks that involves - health care, dental plan, paid holidays!!! Wow, what a different world
- Lack of a steady income, having to constantly chase and nail down my next job
- Being at the mercy of an unstable political situation (UPDATE: 3 military coups and counting) and the resultant lack of foreign movie work that brings
- Difficulties forming cross cultural relationships, and therefore the difficulty in finding a partner
- Having to continually adjust my posture to avoid future back problems, from being too tall for a predominantly short world.
- Many airlines being pr!cks these days (Qantas) and not giving me an exit row seat during extended international flights and not allowing me to purchase one, then arguing that I cannot book them either (oh how boring are these people)(Philippines, Thai and Delta all do their best to accomodate me - thanks guys), not fitting in cars, not fitting in single beds, bending over all the time to enter a doorway, to hear the person you are talking to, etc again all resulting in an out of alignment spine and resultant back/hip pain (yes, they are connected)
- Being assaulted verbally and physically at school for my height, then again in clubs and pubs as a young man
- That's enough....
I don't want to sound like I am whinging because I am not, my actions and choices have gotten me where I am today, with a little bit of good and bad luck mixed in, and I personally am proud of what I have accomplished so far, coming from a small town to walk upon the international stage.
But anyone who reads my site regularly will see from my earliest posts that being me has been a lot of effort along the way, I had to develop skills and attitudes (and muscle) that I never had as a shy child.
This reminds me of one time driving along with a girlfriend and on the radio the announcer was taking calls asking the question:
"If you could be anyone in the world, who would you want to be?"
I was listening to the callers saying things like Brad Pitt and other celebrities and pop stars when my girlfriend turned to me and said, "I just thought about that, if I could be anyone in the world I would want to be myself" and the more she thought about it the happier she became...
And this is where you should be at.
The successful people in life all have problems too, maybe they don't worry about the money for the electricity bill anymore but then you don't have the media following you around 24/7 trying to get photos of your most personal moments.
But each successful person has had to get out there and overcome their own personal demons, their own obstacles and fears and has come out on top.
All this reminds me of a quote I first heard from Personal Success coach Brad Sugars:
"Don't wish that life were easier, wish that you were better." - Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn is also attributed with this pearl of wisdom:
"When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.”
Put these two together and that is all there is to having the magic life you want, get out there and make it happen. It might be more difficult than the life you lead at present, I know my life has been unnecessarily difficult due to my choices but I think the long term gain is worth it, is the long term gain worth the short term pain for you too?
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