I draw inspiration for personal development from the strangest places ...
I’ve previously talked about taking lessons from a movie about cooking (weird, I know), but this is something more up my alley: a Netflix series about a superhero.
In "Daredevil", my favourite character was Kingpin.
He grew up as an overweight, scared boy who was bullied by a father who forced him to stare at a white wall and think about “what kind of man he wants to be”.
The boy starts to toughen up, and develops a passion for improving himself and Hell’s Kitchen (albeit a twisted one).
He becomes obsessed with this dream, and will let nobody get in his way while he’s working to achieve it.
Although I’m not recommending that you follow Kingpin’s life choices (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve watched the series), you can learn something from his drive. In our lives, we have to make a decision about person that we want to become, and then be obsessed with that dream and willing to do whatever it takes to get there.
Kingpin doesn’t let his critics and his enemies (which he has plenty of) get in his way. He plows through life’s obstacles and is driven by the image of himself that was formed by staring at a white wall for long stretches of time.
There are a couple of quotes that come to mind while I write this. I reference these often and use them as inspiration:
- “The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me” – Ayn Rand
- “Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep” – unknown
- “Illegitimi non carborundum (Don’t let the bastards grind you down)” – Latin phrase
It's never wasted time thinking about the person you want to become, and then getting to work on turning that dream into reality (while ignoring the naysayers, like Kingpin did).
If you'd like help becoming the "New You", check this out:
Marc Mawhinney