CHANGE AND HAVE CHOICE

THE DESPERATE AND THE DETERMINED CAN OVERCOME ALL OF LIFE’S OBSTACLES

I heard a quite profound statement about change the other day and it really resonated with me. The statement that was shared with the team was that “to truly change you need to be either desperate or determined”.

The young man who put it forward has had to overcome many hardships in his life and has achieved the things that we can measure success on.

He has an excellent education, a beautiful family, a successful career in which he is progressing well and opportunity where he can focus a creative talent.

The other side of the coin, and the key part of his story, was how he came to be that and to believe that about change. He was an immigrant, a young refugee arriving in Australia with his parents and siblings from his own country that was devastated by civil war.

He recounted how he and his friends had to be constantly on the alert for fighting forces as they found their way to school, which was often closed.

How they would get on a train and on one particular day he jumped onto a later one, finding out as he went that the train he was supposed to be on had been bombed.

He spoke of how many people of his age had missing limbs, blown apart by mines and random bombings.

He was dedicated and encouraged to get an education (as education was the way out), and expected to do well by his parents. His father would make him work in his business from 4am before school so that the family could earn enough money to support themselves, and this was every day.

Arriving in Australia as a young boy struggling with English, all he could see was opportunity.

There was no war, no bombs or shootings. There was nothing standing in his way to achieving his education and building the life he had dreamed of.

He has shared more of his story with me and I feel privileged to have been included in it. It is a story of despair, desperation and of a focused determination to live, love and succeed. An inspiration actually. So when he shared his statement on change I understood exactly where he was coming from.

We are very fortunate in this country and we can get distracted by things that are of little importance, making mountains out of molehills.

If you really want to change use either your determination or your desperation. They’ll both lead you to a path and once you are there you have choices.