My Reality Check Bounced! - Jason Ryan Dorsey [54]
HIS BIGGEST BREAK OF ALL
I decided I was not going to let one defeat ruin my life. Two weeks later, I was invited to Boys State, a statewide young leader’s conference with over a thousand participants. At this conference, I once again ran for office, but this time I was elected governor—the highest position. It was then that I learned I had received a surprise invitation to meet President Clinton!
Two years later, he offered me an internship at the White House. Sounds too good to be true I know, but it’s not. If I had given up on myself after losing my high school student council race, I would never have taken the risks that led to me meeting the president. I would have missed out on an opportunity that completely changed what I thought I could do with my life.
By the time I graduated high school, I had had over two hundred “breaks.” I wanted to attend college, but there was no way I could physically go alone. So my dad agreed to be my full-time assistant at college, while my mom became the sole financial supporter of our family. This put us in a tough financial position, but my parents wanted me to have the best education possible. They are that selfless.
During high school, I had done some public speaking in my community about living with a disability. But during my freshman year of college all kinds of groups started asking me to speak at their events. They wanted me to talk about my experience growing up but not giving up.
Watching the faces in the audiences go from laughing to crying to thinking, it struck me that every one of us has our own breaks in life. These are times when life just doesn’t seem fair. My message was the same at each speech: Life is full of pain. Suffering is optional. Excuses only extend your suffering.
After graduating college, I realized that inspiring people through speaking and writing was my life purpose. Now I’m in my mid-twenties and have built a successful career spreading my message to audiences around the world. I’ve even gone back to school to earn my Ph.D., so I can take my teaching to another level. Helping people deal with the breaks in their lives is the best job in the world.
And who knew that my mom was right all along? My imperfect body is the perfect vessel for my message. Yes, adults still gawk. My bones still break—but not my spirit. Life is full of pain. Suffering is optional. Excuses only extend the suffering.”
In 2001, Sean proved how strongly he lives his message. That year, he released his first bodybuilding video, co-hosted with the former Miss Fitness USA. Yes, you read that right. The guy whose bones can break when you shake his hand has a video on how to get a six-pack and rippling muscles like him. That’s Sean. His brittle bones might be a burden, but he has chosen to make them a blessing.
CRIERS VS. TRIERS
By this point in life, you know that life is not always fair. But like Sean, you get to choose how to handle the times when life throws you a curve. You can make excuses, point fingers, blame your situation on everything and everybody but yourself. Or you can throw yourself at life’s twists and turns knowing that, win or lose, you’ll come out stronger and feeling more alive.
In fact, every setback you survive and mistake you make teaches you valuable lessons that prepare you for greater success with the next challenge you face. When you make excuses, you deny yourself this golden learning opportunity and instead set yourself up for repeated disappointment. Every hurdle you choose to confront head-on rather than hide from with excuses moves you closer to what you most want.
I first learned life was not fair at age nine, when my parents divorced. My mom moved my brother and me to a small town far from our old home. I seemed so different from the other kids and didn’t really fit in. Then to add insult to injury, my grandmother passed away unexpectedly.