What Your Tomorrow Should Feel Like

He was hoping to be dead by Christmas. My heart sank when he told me this. We'd never met in person. He told me this over the phone about a year ago. I've been discouraged before, but couldn’t imagine what he must have been feeling.

He had a successful business, but he explained personal disappointments in other areas of his life piled-up, and at some point the tangle of setbacks turned into despair. And over time the unabated despair made a dive towards hopelessness. Everything grew heavy. He lost interest in moving forward. He lost interest in a tomorrow.

I listened, and urged him to see a counselor and doctor.

Sometimes we need help to get back on track. Whatever help it takes… I’m all for that.

Occasionally inspiration works. A reminder of the promise and possibility in tomorrow. And in the days after tomorrow.

Bill Murray, the comedian and Academy Award Best Actor nominee, tells the story of how a painting helped save his life, or at least got him thinking in the right direction.

It was early in his career and after a first experience acting; he walked out of the theater very disappointed with his terrible performance. 

“I wasn’t very good,” he explains. “I was so bad I just walked out on the street. And I walked for a couple hours. And I realized I’d walked the wrong direction. Not just the wrong direction in terms of where I live, but the wrong direction in terms of a desire to stay alive.”

“I ended up in front of the Art Institute of Chicago. And I just walked inside.”

Bill explains that the museum, “used to ask you for a donation,” but that he “just walked right through because I was ready to die.”

“And there’s a painting there… and I think it’s called ‘The Song of The Lark’ and it’s a woman working in a field and there’s a sunrise behind her. And, I’ve always loved this painting, and I saw it that day.”

The painting was done by the artist Jules Breton in 1884, and is of a young peasant woman in a field. She’s gazing into the distance as she listens to the songbird. The sun is just starting to rise in the background, bringing a warm glow to the field and her face.

Bill explains what he saw in the painting. “And I just thought, well look, there’s a girl who doesn’t have a lot of prospects - but the sun’s coming up anyway. And she’s got another chance at it.”

“So I think that gave me some sort of feeling that I too am a person, and get another chance every day the sun comes up.”

Don't think about your errors or failures, otherwise you'll never do a thing. - Bill Murray

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Tom loves building meaningful businesses and technology (with people who care). Reach him on Twitter @thomastriumph  

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