Do You Have the Stuff?featured

I’m reading a book about having “the stuff.” The stuff is what makes you a fighter. It’s what makes you overcome the impossible. If you have the stuff you can do it all, even when it feels like you can’t.

You either have the stuff of you don’t. If you don’t have the stuff, you often succumb to life’s obstacles by letting them cripple you.

There’s something interesting about having the stuff. Often you don’t even know it lives within you. It can be harnessed by one simple thing and one simple thing alone. This thing is invisible but one of the strongest things that exists.

It’s called hope.

Hope is what make you fight. Hope is what keeps you going. Hope is what makes you dig deep within yourself and silence all the voices that tell you that you can’t. Hope is what heroes are made of.

Have you ever seen a highly successful person? Scratch that, have you ever seen a highly successful person many people hate?

Yea, that person has the stuff…That person has taken action after harnessing hope. That person has fought so hard to get to where they are that people can’t help but react negatively. These people are often the victims of the world. The ones who refuse to fight and let their circumstance become them. They will forever hate the fighters because they gave up before ever even trying.

I sometimes wonder if I have the stuff. I often question where a lot of my strength has come from in the past.

Was it my upbringing? Was it my mission to prove everyone wrong? Was it my will be painfully independent? What was it and how can I turn that stuff on everyday?

Truth is, hope often appears at the end of a very dark tunnel. Fighters take action when there’s something at risk, something worth fighting everything in the way to get to.

Victims never experience hope. Dark tunnels stay dark. They blame the world any and every occasion they get. They often surround themselves with other victims and dedicate their lives to licking their wounds together.

I don’t know if I always had the stuff but I do know I have been a valiant fighter in the past. I also know that I never blame others for my actions. I own it all. The good, the bad, the ugly. It is all me. I am who and what I want to be on any given day. I don’t make up excuses for myself, I constantly seek ways to improve myself and gain strength through knowledge, experience and hunger.

So where does that leave you? Are you a fighter or a victim?

Do you have the stuff?