Difficult question to tackle for my very first blog homework. I had to think about this for almost a week.
The Celebrity that inspires me the most is former WWE Superstar and hopeful UFC Competitor, CM Punk.
First, some useless trivia. CM Punk aka Philip Brooks, is 364 days older than I am. It's hard being an older person that's asked who they look up to. At 36, I'm supposed to know everything. We're not supposed to be inspired, we're supposed to be the trail blazers, aren't we?
CM Punk is 37 years old. He's made a lot of money in his life (as a professional wrestler), but has stated many times that he STILL doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. Right now, he's a comic book writer, a retired pro wrestler, a journalist for The Nerdist, a husband, and he's training for his first mixed martial arts competition.
The thing that inspires me about him. Most people in his life told him he wouldn't be good at ANY of those things. He never listened to any of them.
He has a bit of a reputation for being unprofessional, as well as a bit of an asshole. I don't know how true it is, but what I can say is being a core professional and playing by the rules ALL THE TIME, doesn't get you very far, very fast.
In his personal and his professional life, CM Punk is Straight Edge. I used to think Straight Edge people were just square, uninteresting individuals who were afraid to live life. In 2011, he did a radio interview where he explained his relationships with people who drank. I was still drinking at this point in my life, but I realized it was ruining me.
In this interview, CM Punk said "I don't hate people who like to drink, and party, that's just not how I decide to live my life.". He went on to say in many ways he felt SORRY for people who were so OUT OF TOUCH with themselves that they had to drink to be comfortable.
That's what I was doing!
He went on to explain how silly most people are treasuring possessions, letting social media determine their own self worth, living their lives based on what society days they're supposed to be like.
That's what I did!
...and I wasn't very happy. I was in a relationship that was going nowhere. I was working a monotonous job that was literally driving me insane. I was drinking just about every day.
Hearing that interview... Seeing that he's a guy that has been fairly successful sacrificing friends, fame, and daily showers to do so, made me think a change was necessary.
Flash forward five years, and I'm here. More successful? Not really. I am however, in a loving relationship with someone who I care about very much. My mental health has improved. I'm helping build a life with a family, and I've never had a real family before, but I'm doing it. I've been sober for a really long time (Unfortunately it was so bad, I can't tell you exactly how long, but at least 4 years.).
I've been told a hundred times that I wouldn't be good at something. I almost always believed them. In 2015 exactly one year ago today, I left my torturous job at The Bank, The reason I gave was "I don't know what I'm going to do, but not this anymore. I need to find myself again.".
I was told this probably the only thing I was good at. After 2 years of being told I was overpaid, under qualified, and NOT GOOD AT ALL at the job. I made a quiet, respectful exit. I didn't burn any bridges. I felt like a man for the 3rd time in 12 months, maybe my whole life. I like to imagine I felt as good as CM Punk did when he left his career job a year before after being told the same shit.
My relationship with the girlfriend got so much better. Financials? Meh, not so much... But I realized I had let a LOT of people walk on me. I realized that's not going to continue because if I'm going to have ANYTHING, it's going to be my sense of self worth. There will be other jobs. There will be things I exceed at, and I'll also have some failures, but I will NEVER compromise myself for the sole benefit of anyone else again.
So today, I'm alcohol and poison free. I'm a bit of an asshole professionally. I don't shower EVERY day, but frequently enough. I don't put myself in situations where I won't be comfortable.
I don't read his comic, Thor. I have no interest in training to fight him in UFC, but between us... I could take him. I have no desire to be a husband. Also there's a much better chance you see ME at WrestleMania in Dallas this year than CM Punk.
None of that would've been as easy without the constant reminder of how well I've had it in comparison to him, and he still makes it work everyday. I find it better to compete with the people that I admire, than to have them on an unattainable pedestal.
Try new shit whenever you can. Maybe you fail, but you learn more about yourself than the people who sit there and say "You'll never be good at (whatever).". Those people aren't even good at guessing.