Today is June 21 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “When your life is turning upside down, how often do you remind yourself that the new side might actually be better than the side you are used to?”
Terry Crews knows all too well that the new side was indeed better but he had to learn that lesson firsthand. Crews struggled after retiring from the National Football League (NFL) in 1997.
His initial dream was to have a long successful career playing professional football. That did not happen. He had to realize that playing in the NFL was not what he expected. The transition from athlete to civilian caused him to fall into a depression.
To cope, Crews turned to food. He’d rent a movie from Blockbuster and stay up at 1 a.m., eating burgers, fries and entire bags of cookies. He gained 30 pounds. Eventually he gained control of his weight and started working out on a regular basis. Since he was broke he needed a new career.
As Crews said “I was hungry. Your stomach is growling, and you realize these kids got to eat. And you’re like, man, I’m going to act. I’m going to cry on screen.”
Crews moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and it would take several years of little or no work for him to break through into the industry.
As he recently said “I feel like I’m a guy who’s floating downstream, and I am going to go where I need to go. It’s one of those things where I just say yes. You have to be open to everything. I never thought I was going to be an actor,” said Crews. “I didn’t have it figured out. But you have to go. You have to be willing, and all of a sudden, you’re in somewhere you’ve never been.”
As 13th century Persian poet Rumi noted “Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the new one to come?”
Crews’ life turned upside down but he remained opened to the possibilities. Do you?