Transcript

Stretching #1144 · From Chad

0:01
Your two choices are settling or stretching.
0:04
There's a story behind that. This is your daily message from
0:07
Chad #1144 to upgrade your mental game today by telling
0:10
yourself a better story. Because the most important story
0:13
you hear is the story you tell yourself.
0:15
This message is dedicated to Bill Lesnar.
0:17
Here's the upgrade. You may feel too old to start,
0:21
but upgraded thinking knows you're never too far along to
0:23
stretch toward the thing you've always wanted.
0:25
Here's the story. George Dawson was born in 1898,
0:31
the grandson of enslaved people, the oldest of a farming family
0:34
near Marshall, TX. He was combing cotton by the
0:37
time he was 4. School was never an option.
0:39
There was too much work and too little money, and a black boy in
0:42
that place in time was not sent to school.
0:44
So he worked. He picked cotton and cane.
0:47
He built levees. He broke horses and worked the
0:49
railroads across three countries.
0:51
He settled in Dallas, spent 25 years at a dairy, raised seven
0:55
children and help them with their homework, even though he
0:58
could not read a word of it for most of his life.
1:02
When other men sign their name, George Dawson could only sign an
1:05
ex. Then came 1996.
1:09
He was 98 years old, living alone in South of Dallas, when a
1:13
volunteer knocked on his door and told him about adult classes
1:16
at the center down the street. Most people would have said the
1:19
door had long since closed to learn how to read.
1:22
Someone once observed how many people die at 25 and aren't
1:26
buried until 75. They stop growing, they stop
1:29
dreaming. They stop stretching.
1:30
At some point they settle into a routine, get comfortable, and
1:33
quietly stagnate for 50 years. George Dawson decided the
1:37
opposite. He decided the reason he was
1:39
still alive after a century of hard labor and injustice was
1:43
that he still had something left to reach for.
1:46
So he enrolled. He learned the alphabet in about
1:49
a day and a half. Within a month, he could write
1:51
his name. Within two years he was reading
1:54
and still going, working towards his GED.
1:58
Then the story got out. A teacher up in Washington state
2:00
named Richard Globman read about his 100th birthday, tracked him
2:03
down, and spent two years recording everything.
2:06
George remembered a century of American history lived by a
2:09
black working man in the South. They turned it into a book and
2:13
George called it Life Is So Good.
2:16
The story spread and he went on Oprah, on Nightline and on Good
2:21
Morning America. A century of a man who had every
2:24
reason to be bitter and the title he chose was Life Is So
2:28
Good. At 98, most people would have
2:31
looked at George and said the title of his book should be Life
2:34
Has Passed Me By or Life Will Soon Be Over.
2:38
He picked Life is So Good. He didn't say it was too late.
2:42
He stretched and the muscle he thought was gone was still
2:45
there, waiting to be used. You're not too old.
2:50
You're not too set. The thing you keep telling
2:52
yourself you missed your window on the instrument, the degree,
2:57
the language, the apology, the start.
3:00
The window is a story and you are the one telling it.
3:04
A stretch is not a Sprint. You do not have to arrive.
3:08
You only have to reach. The better story to tell
3:11
yourself is it's not too late to stretch toward the thing I've
3:15
always wanted. Tell me a story of stretching to
3:18
from chadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and tell
3:23
them it's a not too late for you.
3:26
You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in
3:28
the World by going to from chad.gumroad.com.
3:31
The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are
3:33
always available at www.fromchad.com.