It’s time to go to work
The similarities between J Lo at 50 and Tom Brady at 42 are real. They both are at the top of their game at an age that had been unseen until now in a world where the dominate youth is the majority. They both have been working since they were young. To be inspired by what they do, at the level they perform at given their age shows what hard work and dedication to your craft can achieve. When age can get you cancelled or made to feel irrelevant but instead hard work is paying off. To anyone who compares how you look to either of these individuals and you haven't also been working on your body relentlessly day in and day out for all these years is self-defeating. These individuals get paid to use their bodies to perform at a very high level.
To all the women out there that compared their bodies to J Lo at 50 or Shakira at 43, I say please don't. However, if you are the first female partner in that law firm, you succeed in that IT department, you've seen countless of your students go on to do great things, as a doctor you are saving lives, you can balance your companies budget and the one you manage at home, you are momming so hard right now getting the kids, your husband and yourself out of the house on time - bravo to you.
Yes, we need the J Lo's, Shakira's and Tom Brady's of the world to inspire us. To inspire our youth to show them that if you start working on something that you love at an early age with hard work and dedication, no matter what it is, anyone can achieve greatness at any age. But they also can inspire those of us that are 42, 43, 50 or 44. Our parents were right. Hard work pays. Dedication matters. You can achieve what you dream but you must go to work. Please don't get mad. Don't get frustrated. No time for that.
So, go to work. Be the best docent at the Field Museum of Chicago for over 25 years. Be the best IT professional at the city of Chicago for over 30 years. Be dedicated to the Local, State and National PTA for over 40 years. Serve your church for over 60 years. Because your kids are watching. They saw you work hard every day. They saw what dedication looked like. They realize at 44 that hard work does pay off. If you have a dream get up & do something about it. Know that your family is there for you. Know that they will always love you.
But you must get up and go to work. Mom so hard. Dad so hard. Balance that budget. Secure your company from cyber-attacks. Win that case. Teach the youth. Whatever it is that you do, that you've done or that you want to do at 42, 43, 50 or 44 start by looking at your parents. If you are around my age then your parents are probably from the same era where hard work and dedication meant you could put food on the table, a roof over your head and clothes on your back while making sure your kids got an education so they could do the same for their kids. So, thank you to Tom Brady, Shakira and J Lo for proving our parents were right. No matter what you do or aspire to do it doesn't happen overnight. It starts by getting up every day and going to work. Hard work and dedication do pay.
I talk a lot about how my kids inspire me every day to be great. And they do. But make no mistake, I wouldn't be the man I am today if it weren't for my parents. Their hard work, their dedication, their love and undying support no matter what I've wanted to do in my life even if they didn't agree with my choices is what inspires me. It inspires me to be a great dad, a great brother, a great ex-husband, a great family member, a great friend, a great son.
Now I'm getting up & going to work because I have seen in my own life what it takes to be great at what I want to do. If anyone ever questions or wonders why I now want to serve We The People all you must do is look at who made me. They are the examples of what it means to serve without expecting anything in return and that is love right there. So, thank you Mom and Dad for the love and inspiration but now I need to stop writing. It's time to go to work.
