Once in a lifetime - busting the myth
I'm not an Eminem fan. In fact, I really don't have any opinion on Eminem, because I have never met him. But, he has a song that I have heard frequently... and I like the song, but I got to thinking about the lyrics, and I don't think I agree with the message at all.
It goes like this: "You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime."
And Eminem is, of course, not the only one promoting this kind of a philosophy. Our entire American society is based around the idea that you have to pay attention, because you may miss the opportunity of a lifetime.
So guess what happens? Most of us MISS the *deal of a lifetime*. But do you know what? We miss the deal of a life time at least once every week.
We miss it, because we're 'out there' looking, being afraid that we may miss it. And then, someone sufficiently markets a concept, product, business, topic, or themself to us, and we convince ourselves that it's the one opportunity.
Guess what? 95% of the time, it doesn't work.
And 20 years later, we find ourselves talking about the real estate we didn't buy, the trip we didn't take, the relationship we didn't have...
Some people succeed, and others fail, right? Wrong. All people fail. Some just fail forward, and they do it more frequently than others. Most of the world thinks failure means going backwards. Successful people realize failure means forward progress, if you take the meaning out from the failure.
And do you know why?
Life is a fail-your-way-to-the-top game. You do NOT only get one shot. You get one shot every minute of every day. And if you miss that shot, which you will, you will get another shot. It may not be exactly the same shot, but it will be there if you want to take it.
Oh, and by the way, you are probably going to fail along the way. And you may blow it. The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is that the successful, when they 'fail', get right back up, and keep doing whatever it is that they want to do. Their "SECRET" is that they keep failing, until they have success. And because of this, some people seem to succeed, no matter what they do.
It's just that they're willing to fail more and fall harder than anyone else.
Eminem's song advises you to lose yourself. The song advises you that you will only get one shot.
My advice?
DON'T LOSE yourself in the music. Instead, FIND yourself in the music, and do it every minute of every day.