It's a Process.
If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s this:
Everything you need to know about life can be learned from Brad Pitt movies - especially his 2011 film Moneyball, about the late 90’s Oakland A’s taking an improbable shot at the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Just to be clear, I don’t care about baseball, but this film has so many lessons on courage, non-conformity, leadership, frailty and trusting yourself, that I recommend it all the time.
Here are 90 seconds of fabulous life advice from Moneyball so you can see what I mean.
It’s a process.
I love Moneyball because Billy Beane - the A’s general manager - knew big money had corrupted the game so much that small-market teams couldn’t compete.
Rather than complain about that, he leveraged his experience, got a good partner, deconstructed the game and rebuilt his team on a chancy hunch.
I’m not going to tell you what happened, but I will say it went badly for him for quite a while. Everyone roasted him as the team lost and lost and lost. His staff and players fought him, fans booed, pundits destroyed him and nobody understood what he was doing except his right-hand man (Jonah Hill).
In one scene, Billy sat alone in his truck, whispering “What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing?”
Does this sound familiar?
Three Things:
If you are going to choose courage over fear, and do the thing God designed you to do, it’s going to cost you things you can’t imagine. However, most of those things, you were never meant to have anyway.
The process will refine you like fire. Ask me. Ask Billy Beane. Ask Elon Musk. Ask any artist or creator who has decided to make something out of nothing but a wispy curiosity.
The fire is normal and in fact, critical to your growth. The pain is up to you.
See, most of us want to get out of the fire and onto success as quickly as possible. That makes sense because the brain hates uncertainty and will do whatever it takes to drive us back into our comfort zones.
That’s why people are always looking for the “key to success,” as though there is just one key, to just one door that unlocks the whole promised land.
I used to think that, but now I know better.
If there is a key to success, it just opens a door into another room, with another door missing a key. Remember, our evolution is a process, not an event. We need the lessons found in each room and they all take time. Usually, longer than we want.
Do I need to use the butterfly metaphor here?
I don’t want to but it’s apt. Until I went through this myself, I didn’t get it. Even though I’m still somewhere in the mid-pupae stage, I know what’s coming. Someday, I’ll become an beautiful butterfly, and I’ll fly my little half-ounce body all the way to Mexico.
That too will be a process, with brand new challenges.
There are skills and beliefs that you must develop while becoming the creator God designed you to be, and the only way you get them is by trying, getting scared, falling down, getting up and refusing to quit on a crazy little idea you have.
The best way I know to actually observe your progress while you’re struggling through the dying pupae part, is to track little victories along the way. That’s why I have all my clients write down their wins on a daily basis - even if it is “I wanted to quit today and I didn’t.” That’s a win.
So What improbable shot are you taking?
If you’re stuck somewhere in your own process - not sure about the God part, can’t even remember what it is to dream big, or clueless how to execute your vision - reach out and we’ll talk about it.
Go to my calendar and book a time that works for you. The call is free and we can chat about how to can get you moving again.