#13 The Blank Slate

If you actually thought that I was going to do an entire series on Dragon Ball without mentioning our main man Goku, shame on you. I hope you run out of hot water in the middle of your shower tonight. 

But as I thought about all the themes I could cover about this powerhouse of a saiyan, one thing in particular stood out to me: his background. Here we have this guy who was born into a family of low-class nobodies, grows up on a planet nobody has even heard of, and suddenly manages to morph into a legend that gets even the gods to tip their hats to him. 

That’s pretty wild!

There’s a powerhouse lesson to be learned here: who you are right now doesn’t matter. The only thing that actually matters is who you are committed to being, and how far you are going to push yourself to become that person. It’s easy to get caught up in all of the things that we aren’t as we plot our path forward. We all do it from time to time. Heck, I do it almost daily. We say things like “I’m not strong, how could I help them lift that big, heavy object?” or “I’m not smart, how could I possibly go to college?” When we should, instead, say things like “I want to be strong, so I’m going to commit to being strong no matter what!” and “I want to be smarter, so I’m going to keep learning new things til the day I die!” Who we are right now may play a role in how things play out, but the only thing that truly matters is our level of commitment to who we want to be.

Think of it like this: when those doubts come to mind, add the word “yet” to the end of them. Don’t say “I’m not strong,” say “I’m not strong yet.” Replace “I’m not smart,” with “I’m not smart yet.” See this lack of talent as the first step of your journey, rather than a wall that is going to box you in. But I’m not so naive as to say that we can simply be anything. No, a 90-year-old can’t be 20 again, no matter how hard they try. But we can still go marching on in the direction of who we want to be. For example, let’s say I’m really bad at math. I get F’s on every test and every homework assignment that I have ever done. It’s really bad. But if I dedicate myself to becoming math-man and manage to consistently get C’s, I think I deserve the title of math-man. 

The thing about this is that if I continue my path upward, I will just keep getting better over time. I will get into the habit of pushing towards the next goal, and the next goal and the next goal. And I’ll just keep setting next goals after I reach each one. They say that’s what happens to a lot of the kids that were seen as naturally gifted geniuses growing up: they don’t really go anywhere. They hit a peak and don’t know how to grow, how to learn, how to hunger. 

And that’s the art of becoming a Goku. We must wipe our slate clean of all that we are, all that we think we are, and all that others say we could ever be, and simply keep growing. Sure, we may have a few natural talents and advantages that might help, but they will all eventually fall short if we don’t develop them. What matters most is our training. Everything else just tells  us how much training we have to do. 

So take some time to write down all the things that you feel you are. It could be good things like funny, smart, tough, and so on. It could also be the bad things, like that you’re clumsy, bad at pickleball, or really awful at crossword puzzles. And once you have completely filled out this list, go through each item and scratch it out. Don’t erase it, but draw a line through it. Then, make a new list. It should be a small list, just one or two things will do. Because this list will be the things you aspire to be. The things you dream of becoming. The person in life that you want to become if it means going through hell and back to become them. Then, under each of those things, write one or two tangible steps that you can take to become that person right now. Let me give you an example.

I really want to be tough. I’m not talking about “going three days without sleep” tough, but the kind of tough that has the ability to refuse to be a quitter. Even when life gets hard, I want to be able to plant my feet and not run away. Therefore, I don’t give myself permission to quit my job because it isn’t fun anymore. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it. 

Does that make sense? Think about the person you want to be, even when you don’t feel like you are that person, and march towards becoming them. Who knows, you may even learn a few things about yourself along the way. And the more you pursue this goal, the more you will be able to say that you are that thing. Then, after a while, you will be able to let your actions speak for themselves. And that’s an even cooler feeling to have!

I hope this post, and this series, has been fun and enjoyable for you. I love Dragon Ball, so doing this series was a blast! I pray that insight and guidance find you this day, and that your week is wonderfully blessed indeed! Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.