“Insert motivational saying here”
It’s funny that often when I try to write this malodorous drivel I have an idea of what I want to say here and how I want to say it then something happens that changes the whole tone of the blog. This weeks blog was going to be entitled ‘Just keep swimming’ – one of my favorite inspirational sayings, but I realized that maybe three lines from a cartoon fish may not be as inspiring to some as it is to me – however let me explain why it resonates anyway.
So I love to fish, my favorite spot in the world pretty much is on the back of a boat fishing in the Bay of Islands, more specifically around Hole in the Rock pulling lures through schools of working fish, catching meat for dinner. I had a white (well it used to be white) golf shirt from the Empire Tavern that I used to wear as my fishing shirt and if you ever saw me out there most likely I was sunburned, covered in blood with a huge smile on my face listening to Hot August Night. Anyway, enough reminiscing. Funny thing about fish (well most of them) is that they need to keep swimming to stay alive. Without a flow of water over their gills (in the correct direction) they are going to die. They just keep swimming. They just keep moving, whether it be directly ahead, circling their prey or to protect from being preyed upon, regardless they just keep swimming. If they stop, well quite obviously, they die.
I am not sure if Dory was telling Nemo to swim or die, or to keep moving forward, or was just trying to annoy the piss out of him but that phrase ‘Just keep swimming’ is one that I believe in and use in my own weird way to motivate myself and maybe others. You have got to keep moving, sure sometimes you have to move in a different direction and sure sometimes it feels like some Orange Faced Roughy may have built a wall in your way but if you stop at that wall and just swim against it then you are dead. Swim along the wall, swim under it, over it, whatever direction it takes but just keep swimming.
I know that sometimes life can give you a huge dropkick to the squishy bits but once you check that things are still where they are meant to be and the pain subsides you need to get up and dropkick that fucker back. By the way, did you know that a dropkick in Rugby is worth 3 points, a dropkick in the"Too Many Pads Football League" is also worth 3 points and a dropkick in kicky round ball is the word used to describe the people playing the game (This whole blog was written purely for that punch line by the way).
Insert motivational saying here….
So maybe you don’t like motivational advice from cartoon characters, fairy nuff. I am not saying you should but what I am implying is that you should at least have one, a go to for when needed. Some go to the bible for inspiration, some look at nature, or some look for motivation in people and things said. More often than not the phrases mean the same thing, the wording is just different. Dwayne Johnson once stated ‘It’s going to be ok’, probably followed by a ‘Can you smell what the Rock is cooking’ because if you preceded ‘It’s going to be ok’ by ‘Can you smell what the Rock is cooking’ then you might want say you ate before you came over.
To quote the artist Jonno Roberts "So I think the biggest piece of advice I can give anyone is enjoy it. Otherwise you are boring". He might have been talking about actors but he just as well could have been talking about life.
Probably one of the most famous motivational comments here in the US is one of the least known outside of the US because of the person who said it. I had never heard of Jimmy Valvano till I arrived in the US but his words, they way they were said, the place and time they were said are probably some of the most inspiring words that I have heard. Do yourself a favor and watch this link:
And as Jimmy V said, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”
Yeah, I know, that was a bit fucking deep James (at least that is what the girls say) but this is just a bit of fun. As usual this weeks blog was bought to you by the letters A-Z being thrown on the page in random order and was edited by the Sales Monkette as The English Major is at some Chinchilla festival near Palm Springs.
So work hard, play hard and find your inspiration
Happy Poets Day
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