I love Rocky movies, they’re a series of boxing movies. And in one particular scene Rocky said, “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” He talked about now sometimes life hits you with cheapshots, but it’s up to you to respond to the unexpected.

Like this coronavirus, I think few of us anticipated it would grow to the scale it has and it being the catalyst of an economic recession to say the least. If something detrimental happens because of one of these cheap shots or curve balls, who is to blame?

If its deferred to someone else, say no more as its not your problem (even though its your life). You lost your job because your company doesn’t know your true value, or you lost that basketball match because the ref made all the wrong calls. But perhaps its because you failed to make yourself an essential part of the organization and when times got tough and “trimming the fat” became necessary, you were the fat. Maybe you failed to put in the hour practicing your hooping while your opponent was not so negligent and that made all the difference.

The former are closed statements while the later forces you to look at your own mistakes, question your action and take responsibility. And that’s the takeaway, statements close the mind while questions force you to think and find a solution. Statement such as “its not my fault’ deflects responsibility while questions like “what can I do better” expands your options. And the second you stop blaming anything, is when you can have anything.

Kingston S. Lim

April 20, 2020

San Francisco, CA