Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Grab that Shoe

I was watching Mr. Holland's Opus last night. It's one of my favorite movies!

You may recall that Mr. Holland is a high school band teacher.

There is a young man that the athletic coach asks Mr. Holland to teach an instrument to. This young man has no rhythm whatsoever.

Mr. Holland tries everything to teach this young many to play the bass drum.

I crack up every time I watch this scene in the movie. Mr. Holland resorts to grabbing the boys shoe and tapping it up and down to the beat of the music being played.

It takes a long while and Mr. Holland puts in a tremendous amount of time to help this boy find his rhythm and learn to play his instrument.

His dedication and commitment changed this young man's life.

Sometimes we don't get something right away. We just can't seem to get the hang of it. In many cases, we quit out of frustration and a sense of futility.

Persevering through that sort of floundering is part of many great success stories. It is something that most people simply won't do.

It's uncomfortable. Sometimes it's embarrassing. Sometimes it's extremely frustrating.

Yet, grabbing our own foot and tapping it to the beat of the music when all else fails, is the way to move past our failures into success.

Being willing to do whatever it takes is the key. No matter what that looks like or how long it takes.