The Importance of Role Models

Who do you look up to?

Maybe this isn’t something you have considered since becoming an adult.  You might think that role models are for children or that finding inspiration in someone else serves no real purpose in your own life.  The dreams of our childhood have long ago left our hearts and been replaced with a feeling of disappointment.  “Reality” killed our youthful ambitions years ago.  Role models…bleh!

Our lives, our reality, resemble nothing we could have imagined as a child.  We were dreaming of being astronauts and princesses, the President, a teacher, a doctor, a firefighter, a policeman, a famous musician, a Hollywood celebrity, a fashion model, an author or artist.  We found inspiration in people who were doing exactly what we wanted to do.  They became our heros, our role models.

Sometimes, things don’t work out like we had planned.  We never became an astronaut or Hollywood celebrity.  Practicality shaped our reality and instead of a princess we became accountants.  Instead of a famous musician, we are mechanics.  So much for being the next Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Carter.

We need to return to our childish idealism and believe that our possibilities are limited only by our ambition.  Find people who inspire you.  In doing so, you will find the desire and motivation to chase your dreams and improve your life.  Role models can empower you to push beyond the ordinary to accomplish great and many things in life.

Who inspires me?

Frugality: Trent at The Simple Dollar

I’ll admit, I don’t always see eye to eye with some of the things Trent discusses over at TSD but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot that I can learn from him.  When I began my financial turnaround, The Simple Dollar was one of the early blogs I began reading.  I found it while searching for books about getting out of debt and read a review of The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

Personal Finance: Dave Ramsey

Reading The Total Money Makeover literally changed my life.  Before reading the book, I was convinced that my financial struggle would never improve and that somehow I was doomed to live a life of constant struggle.  I felt hopeless to change my situation.  Reading The Total Money Makeover made me realize that I was in control of my financial future, good or bad, not the other way around.

Simplicity: Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

In the course of my financial turnaround, I began encountering words like “minimalism” and “simplicity”.  All of my life I had associated happiness and success with material possessions.  Leo changed my mind and I am no longer seeking external gratification through the acquisition of Stuff.

Fitness: Michele Levesque

It might seem strange that I find inspiration from a female fitness model.  Shouldn’t I be inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger?  Either way, Michele is beautiful and seeing how physically fit and strong she is makes me want to get my butt in the gym and work out.

Diet: Tosca Reno

The book The Eat Clean Diet changed my thinking about food.  Before reading her book, I was convinced that diet wasn’t as important as physical activity in being healthy.  I was wrong.  Since beginning to Eat Clean, I have lost weight, have more energy, I feel better than before and I haven’t had heartburn since beginning the diet.  It has really opened my eyes to the importance of eating healthy, not only for weight loss but for health.

Creativity: Marilyn Manson

One of my biggest influences as a teenager was Marilyn Manson.  In a lot of ways, I am still influenced by the impact he had on me all those years ago.  He inspired me to pursue my creativity and individuality, even if it wasn’t socially acceptable.  I wore black nail polish, had fire engine red hair (and blue and green), wore spiked collars.  I was able to be exactly who I wanted to be and didn’t feel pressured to fit into the crowd.  Marilyn Manson gave me permission to be myself.

Travel: Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Non-Conformity

I began traveling a couple of years ago and at some point, I stumbled across a blog about a guy who is trying to visit every single country in the world by his 35th birthday.  His dialogue about creating the life you want was very inspiring to me.  If he could do it, I could too.  Maybe I wouldn’t visit every country by the time I turned 35 but I could travel the world like I had always dreamt of doing.

Who inspires you?

The Single Best Invention of Life

The following is a portion Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address given at Stanford on June 12, 2005:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like:

If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.

It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”  And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.  I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas.  I didn’t even know what a pancreas was.  The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.  My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die.  It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months.  It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.  It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day.  Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor.  I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.  I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades.  Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die.  Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.  And yet death is the destination we all share.  No one has ever escaped it.  And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.  It is Life’s change agent.  It clears out the old to make way for the new.  Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.  Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.