"Promise me you'll try to do something with your life..."
Susan Boyle's mother said that to her on Christmas day 2006 (her last Christmas). Susan Boyle was an ordinary person from Scotland who shot to international fame on April 11, 2009, when she appeared on Britain's Got Talent, singing "I Dreamed a Dream".
Since birth, Susan was labeled:
Susan will never come to anything. So, don't expect too much of her.
I was diagnosed as hyperactive, and I was slower at learning things than other children because I was easily distracted.
Borderline.
As I read through Susan Boyle's memoir, I see a parallel of my life and many lives that I have shared with. We have been labeled and that label stick with us for years and decades and made us feel small and think small, thus do small things. In the comfort of our smallness and ordinariness, we are stuck with the person we are not supposed to be. Most of us do not even realize this struggle unless we are exposed to the extraordinary.
After being labeled, we become disabled. The word able is now attached to a prefix, 'dis', which now makes us having the absence of being able. This will eventually lead to inaction.
In her own words to fight back on the labeling, Susan Boyle said:
"I'm sure they had the best intentions, but I don't think they should have said that, because nobody can foretell the future. What they didn't know was that I', a bit of a fighter, and I've been trying all my life to prove them wrong." I believe that fighting spirit has made her what she is today.
Where is our fighting spirit?
Should we just settle for what we were labeled?
Should we take action and move forward to what we are called to do?
Susan Boyle has impacted lives and I am sure she did not intend it that way. By her going through all odds, roadblocks, fears, uncertainties and ridicules and stepping up to pursue her dream, she has become an inspiration for many. She fought through and I am sure part of her success was tied to her seeking out the help of singing coaches. Her singing coach, Frank Quinn told her years before she became famous, "Susan, believe in yourself. You are the person writing your story."
From Susan Boyle's memoir, I have learnt the following:
You are responsible for your own life, so take actions to fulfill your purpose on planet earth
Focus on what you can do and not what you can't do
You need a mentor/coach to get better in your trade
No such thing as overnight success
Our lives is worthwhile to the Creator, so make it worthwhile and impact others
In the final chapter of her book, Susan Boyle said, "If there is one thing I would most like to think I have achieved this past year, it is to have made life a little easier for people with a disability. In my dictionary there's no such word as 'disability.' Those first three letters imply that you're limited, that fence has been built around you - not by you, but by what people think of you. If you take those first three letters off, then you've got 'ability', and the gate is open."
We have the abilities and our gate is open.
So what steps will you take today to change whatever you can change in your life?
p.s. I recommend Susan Boyle's book 'The Woman I Was Born To Be'
