Skip to Content

August

By: Rashard Mendenhall
Huffington Post
August 26, 2014 
 

I wasn't supposed to walk away from the NFL, but I did. I wasn't supposed to be writing television, but I am. I'm supposed to be lost after football. I'm not. I've reinvented myself. This is my first transformation. I'm supposed to be broke right now, or maybe the statistics say five years from now. Either way, I'm not even close. I'm not supposed to be anything but a football player. But really, I'm just a guy who used to play football. There's a reason I'm doing this.

The last few months of my life are a true example of the fact that everything "they" say can be wrong. I believe it usually is.

It's largely assumed that there is only one way to happiness/success. Most often it's some variation of going to college, finishing school, landing a good job, getting married, having a family, putting your personal desires aside and after many years of this you leave whatever you can for your children, retire and wait till it's your turn to go. Now, I'm sure this structure works for a lot of people, but can this exact model be right for everyone?

Any person I've known, met or studied that has done something great and found their joy has done it by following a passion or an idea that felt right to them. Even if they were alone in it, they chased that desire without fear and trusted that things would turn out. They believed so deeply in their truth, that it was manifested and actually became their reality.

 

comments powered by Disqus