I Want To Be You

Today I recieved a message from a reader, the entire message was "I WANT TO BE YOU!!", my first thought was
"No you bloody well don't"...

Sitting here alone in a cheap studio apartment in a developing nation with a bowl of instant noodles and a tin of tuna, with the immenant prospect of going and spending an hour of intense exercise followed by cardio training for the prospect that I might get another movie role sometime in the not too distant future and that I really am good enough of an actor to hit the 'A' grade US market.

Add it all up, this is my life;

1. Living in a developing Asian nation and all the 'discomforts' that causes - pollution, flooding, disease, racism, food poisoning, unable to communicate effectively for years, etc
2. Living in the developing nation on a tight budget, previously a VERY tight subsistence budget
3. Having to eat tuna and protein meals every 2 hours, every 2 hours no matter what (except sleep)
4. Going to the gym pretty much everyday for an hour minimum
5. Having to come home and eat like a starving man for 4 hours after the workout (to recover better)
6. Not eating junk - ice cream, butter, jams, pizzas, bread, hamburgers, etc because besides being full of crap it'll make me fat which I cannot afford to do as my income depends on my body
7. Always have the constant fear that my means of income can be taken away at anytime, ie Nerve Damage
8. Never watching TV
9. Not reading the newspaper, glossy magazines or popular fiction as it wastes your life and crushes your self esteem
10. Having to put up with negative aggresive westerners continually
11. The opportunity cost of what else I could have done in the previous 20 years instead of chasing a dream, I could have a big house, car, 'nice' computer job earning a very comfortable income, probably management by now with all the perks that involves - health care, dental plan, paid holidays!!! Wow, that must be a different world
12. Lack of a steady income, having to constantly chase and nail down my next job
13. Being at the mercy of an unstable political situation and the resultant lack of foreign movie work that brings
14. Difficulties forming cross cultural relationships, and therefore the difficulty in finding a partner
15. Having to continually adjust my posture to avoid future back problems
16. Airlines being pr!cks these days (Qantas) and not giving me an exit row seat during extended international flights, not fitting in cars, not fitting in single beds, bending over all the time to enter a doorway, to hear hte person you are talking to, etc again all resulting in back pain
17. Being assaulted verbally and physically at school for my height
18. That's enough....

I don't want to sound like I am whinging because I am not, my actions and choices have gotten me where I am today, with a little bit of good and bad luck mixed in, and I personally am proud of what I have accomplished so far, coming from a small town to walk upon the international stage.

But anyone who reads my site regularly will see from my earliest posts that being me has been a lot of effort along the way, I had to develope skills and attitudes (and muscle) that I never had as a shy child. 

This reminds me of one time driving along with a girlfriend and on the radio the announcer was taking calls asking the question:
"If you could be anyone in the world, who would you want to be?"

I was listening to the callers saying things like Brad Pitt and other celebrities and pop stars when my girlfriend turned to me and said, "I just thought about that, if I could be anyone in the world I would want to be myself" and the more she thought about it the happier she became...

And this is where you should be at.

The successful people in life all have problems too, maybe they don't worry about the money for the electricity bill anymore but then you don't have the media following you around 24/7 trying to get photos of your most personal moments.

But each successful person has had to get out there and overcome their own personal demons, their own obstacles and fears and has come out on top.

All this reminds me of a quote I first heard from Personal Success coach Brad Sugars:

"Don't  wish that life were easier, wish that you were better."  - Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn is also attributed with this pearl of wisdom:

"When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.”

Put these two together and that is all there is to having the magic life you want, get out there and make it happen. It might be more difficult than the life you lead at present, I know my life has been unnecessarily difficult due to my choices but I think the long term gain is worth it, is the long term gain worth the short term pain for you too?