I was watching a rerun of the latest American Idol, it was the final-24 episode, and noticed something; before taking the long walk to meet the judges, almost every contestant said that it was their “life defining moment”; it was the “big break” that will change the course of their lives forever.
I’ve personally felt the same feeling every time a major event happened, such as; when I set up my first business, when I had to close a business for the first time, when I won my first competition and so on. It’s true that these events were stepping stones for a bigger event in the future, but aren’t all events merely a stepping stone to something?
Come to think of it, if every single moment of your life adds up and leads you to that one particular “life defining moment”, shouldn’t we treat every moment as “life defining”?
What I have come to realize is that a “big break” opportunity doesn’t just come out of the blue. It comes from the small events that precede it. Sure, Adam Lambert became super famous after his “big break” in last year’s American Idol (I still think that Adam should have won, not Kris) , but this wouldn’t have happened without him practicing his vocal skills and showmanship throughout the years. If he waited on a “big break” without doing anything about the small ones, he wouldn’t get one.
This newfound understanding was like a big slap to my face. All this time people keep talking about waiting for their “big break” to come (but never did). We should stop waiting for our “big break” and instead focus on tackling the small (but equally important) breaks. Who knows what wonders would all of us have achieved if we had realized this and put the knowledge to good use…
