Inspiration Direct From My Side Pocket

The other day I bought a new wallet. My old one had become tattered, or more precisely it had become more beat up than one of Houston Alexander’s recent opponents, and its thickness was starting to make it uncomfortable to sit down… bear in mind I keep my wallet in my front side pocket. So after going through the bins at the skate stores at the mall, which happen to be the only stores that I could find that sold wallets, I settled on a slim Element one (FYI – it turns out skate stores also have some of the nicest employees. Props to Zumiez on that). When I returned home and was taking all of the filler cards out of it I was given some inspiration from a very unexpected source as one of the cards had a message printed on it.

“Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt” was staring me right in the face as soon as I pulled out the little red card that had been in the wallet in place of a credit card. Rather than toss it, I sat there and thought about it. The phrase actually represents the way I try to live my life; learn everything and never settle. It’s how I keep myself going on less than six hours of sleep a night. It’s why although I have no clear cut, all encompassing, final goal for everything I do I continue to see reasons to do it. If I don’t no doors will open for me and no solid goal will ever reveal itself.

I took the card and taped it to my refrigerator next to the quotes from Gandhi, “we must become the change we wish to see in the world,” Muhammad Ali, “when you’re as good as I am it’s hard to be humble,” and my double inspirations from GNC and John Milton with a GNC postcard that shows a stack of weights and asks “how’s it going?” while on the magnet next to it Milton queries “but what is strength without a double share of wisdom?” The latter two play off each other very well in my life, I love to work out and I love to read and view both as equal in importance. The Gandhi quote is pretty basic, don’t be a jerk unless you want everyone else to be one, too. It’s very Immanuel Kant, categorical imperative. Finally, Ali was always the king of ego and pride, but if he hadn’t been would he have been so successful and popular? Ali’s quote reminds me that sometimes it’s OK to congratulate myself on a job well done.

The Element quote is now right there with them, a fourth reminder of what life is all about; knowledge and hard work. It reminds me that my dream of one day creating my own magazine may in fact happen, and even if it doesn’t at least I’m attempting to create the right pathways in my life to make something like that happen. With that as the backbone of what I do I know something positive will be achieved. The fact that this reminder came in my wallet makes it no less powerful than if it came from a famous person or piece of literature. Inspiration requires no guidelines. In fact, Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan once told me he could learn from a baby. Seek the knowledge in everything, find the knowledge in everything.

So now I have another reminder every time I walk into my kitchen of what I should be doing and how I should be living. We all need reminders that we’re on the right path, or of how to get on the right path, and it’s nice that some of them can be so easily viewable and quick to digest. It’s far more enjoyable to read something quickly than be on the receiving end of the occasional smack upside the head accompanied by some "verbal reinforcement."