The Impact of Sports on Personality & Perspective (in the workplace & life)

The Impact of Sports on Personality & Perspective

Growing up, we are all exposed to a competitive team atmosphere at some point. For me, playing sports was that venue. I can’t do it justice through a few words, but it’s interesting how they can alter your perspective and personality long after your glory days (yeah, I peaked in high school). It’s just as applicable for me today; in my job and personal life.

Regardless of the sport or competitive activity you’re involved in (assuming it’s team based), the first thing you notice is the particular skill-sets of your peers and teammates. You can deduct strengths, weaknesses, motivations and often times, pet peeves. To be a successful team you need a handful of athletes with this awareness, and the ability to put teammates in a position to play to their strengths while their weaknesses are avoided (until addressed through training, practice or other development). At work, I find myself analyzing the traits of my team as well as the broader finance community that I encounter. At this stage in my career there are many reasons for this. It is important to know who your resources are for information; level of responsiveness, ability, credibility and their preferred method of interaction (this can impact the first variable). Ideally, if discrepancies in some of the above traits exist in your own team, you can help remedy them through short term development, and play to their other strengths in the meantime. Identifying, addressing and developing weaknesses in the broader community require a more systemic approach.  Big corporations are complex, and while the intellect, ability and emotional intelligence of the employee base is paramount to its success, it’s not easy developing thousands of people.  Competitive athletics is the ‘micro’ experience, while corporate America is the ‘macro’ version. The workplace is made up of subsets or communities where the micro experience is the focus, but if you aspire to be a more senior member of your company, it would be in your best interest to look at things through a macro lens. Macro is synonymous with strategic in this sense – how can we reduce risk, remain compliant, develop our workforce, accommodate our customers, be dynamic/adaptable, enter new markets, remain competitive, etc.  Sports don’t provide the answers for the questions above (in fact the questions are philosophical to an extent – they can be elusive to many companies’ detriment), but competitive athletics have given me the mindset to systemically grind to transform inadequacies into strengths.

I’ve always been competitive, but I’ve also played sports for as long as I can remember (think: chicken or the egg dilemma). Competition: not just for your team to grow, progress, and succeed, but for your own personal development. Your team’s success is contingent upon your ability to perform at your best, address and remedy your weaknesses, and improve your abilities as the competition increases. We’ve all heard the saying ‘your team is only as fast as your slowest teammate’.  In athletics, a drive for personal development could be egotistically or utilitarian/selflessly motivated, and in the end it may not matter the motivation. If your selfishness was evident through your performance, that could adversely impact your team’s ability to win, but if limited to your own personal development, it can be a positive trait. I’ve noticed a transformation going from sports into the corporate setting – the motivation feels almost entirely selfish with regard to my personal development. Identifying my knowledge gap areas and formally or informally developing those weaknesses does not make a material impact to the financial performance, products, or services my company offers. There are controls and checks and balances to minimize or entirely mitigate a few inept employees. As a more effective employee I can help my team meet deadlines, reduce risk, remain compliant, etc., but that does not resonate with me as my main personal incentive. For me, I absolutely crave the challenge of learning and want to position myself to be successful long term with my current employer. The former is likely a result of the varying competitive landscape athletics exposed me to. I’m prone to getting bored easily in roles, and tend to gravitate towards the more intellectually challenging assignments. In athletics, this is the equivalent of seeking greater competition to better sharpen your skill-set, or making it your mission to equalize the best player on the opposing team. My job has become my competitive landscape, and in my current role, complexity is my opponent. When I begin managing people, I’m sure my focus will transform more towards psychological aspects, empowerment and development. I won’t get into the complexity of psychological incentives, but I’m personally driven by intellectual growth. I despise the feeling of prolonged comfortability – it’s stagnating and makes me consider a new line of work that will provide a challenge. I want a career that forces me to learn daily, even after 20+ years in the field. This may be egotistical, but my fear is that finance will not afford me this luxury, and I will be regretful, wishing I chose a more ambitious profession that allowed me to reach a higher intellectual plateau.  I’ll blame it on my competitive nature, because that’s easier to declare than blatant egoism.

We aren’t always so aware of our inadequacies, and even if we are, we aren’t always sure how to address them. I try to methodically determine my gap areas – in the workplace and in life. Unfortunately, the gaps I identify in life aren’t easy or short term fixes, compared to the corporate setting. There are more external variables, it seems, in life outside of the workplace. These uncontrollable variables introduce significant volatility to your ability to accomplish some of your general aspirations in life. In some cases, development in work and life are inversely related – a pendulum I have yet to balance. We crave short term victories – to keep us motivated and from becoming complacent, and the workplace is perfect for short term successes.  However, as the short term wins pile up, it’s easy to keep pouring your energy into work, but longer term success and happiness require balance. I blinked and 10 years have passed since I graduated high school and 90% of my peers are married or have kids. I don’t measure myself against my peers (it can create a ceiling much lower than you’d otherwise be capable of – wow that sounded pompous), but this still causes me some anxiety. As much as I like to say I am intellectually motivated, I will see it as a catastrophic failure if I make it to my mid 30s and haven’t found someone to share my life with. After all, what is life worth if you’re only living it for yourself. To summarize, playing sports have conditioned me to identify and remedy my own inadequacies, those of my team, and given me an unrelenting competitive drive to maximize potential. This can be wonderfully exhausting at times.  

Passion

Passion

I want to reiterate to anyone reading these – I throw these together in about an hour. I get them down just to organize my thoughts and work on my writing flow, but many of the topics are personal. Also, I attempted explaining interactions within the brain, and hope I didn’t butcher these – I have researched this topic, but never had any formal classes to explain it.

On occasion I find myself nostalgically reminiscing over past memories. School, relationships, sports, traditions, experiences with family and friends are all themes pondered during this unprovoked walks down memory lane. I appreciate the ability to mentally recall the experiences that have each played a role in the formation of my personality. After all, aside from our genetically inherited biological temperament, our experiences evolve our personality over the course of our life. Susan Cain eloquently explains, “Temperament refers to inborn, biologically based behavioral and emotional patterns that are observable in infancy and early childhood; personality is the complex brew that emerges after cultural influence and personal experience are thrown into the mix” (Quiet, 101). What intrigue me about this recollection process are two things:

1)  Why do we typically remember prior events in a more positive light than when they were experienced in ‘real time’?

A dilemma not uncommon, but not easily explainable.  Our brains store traumatic or emotionally stressful experiences differently than positive experiences, which could effect the recall process. I wonder though, how much of this mental withholding of negative experience is subconscious. We are creatures who rely very much on the status of our egos, and it would not surprise me if we subconsciously paint an optimistic picture of our historical experiences. This would preserve our pride and allow (some) of the negativity to remain in the shadows of our subconscious, allowing us to maintain a constructive remembrance of our stimulus. While this may be a reasonable proposition, I don’t pretend to be remotely correct, but it is something I will continue to research.

2)      Why do I recall instances of unjaded, passionate, excited anticipation, that I no longer seem to find?

Think of Christmas Eve/morning as a kid, or the first day of school, or the start of football or basketball season. Think Prom, first day of summer, shopping for school clothes, summer camp, dating, and the plethora of other experiences that pumped an intense emotional jolt of energy into your veins; those metaphorical butterflies that felt like 10,000 volts of energy. You would feel an emotional high until the event, where you would passionately dive in, without a second thought. I can’t think of a specific period of time where I stopped experiencing this, but it was sometime after high school.

There are three possibilities I can see being the reason for this dilemma. First, it could be interaction between sections of our brain. The amygdala is described as being responsible for emotions, survival instincts, and memory.  It is the amygdala that reacts first to sensory experiences and expresses fear differently for different personality types (extroverted versus introverted). It could also be possible that anticipation, as an emotionally inverse expression from fear, could be initiated by the amygdala. Now, another part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex is responsible for planning cognitive behavior, personality expression and decision making. In the book Quiet (mentioned above), social conditioning can cause the prefrontal cortex to increase in activity, which correlates to a decrease in activity of the amygdala. In English that means our cognitive expression can limit the impact of our amygdala, which limits acting on emotion. Granted, it is important to understand if other variables are introduced such as stress, anxiety or other requirements from the prefrontal cortex to process, its ability to limit the amygdala is reduced or dissipated. If we consider both fear and unbridled, compassionate anticipation as emotional responses, it isn’t inaccurate to assume they are initiated by the amygdala. If the prefrontal cortex has the ability to restrict our action based on input from the amygdala, then our cognitive evaluation in the prefrontal cortex could restrain our zealous anticipation. It would determine this based on results from historical personal experience.

The second possibility is somewhat related to the initial idea. As we accumulate social and cultural experience, we are introduced to the harsh reality of life. As a more accurate picture is painted of our wonderfully complex world, we become realists. Unfortunately, realism tends to equate to a cynical perspective. If the cognitive determinations formed in your prefrontal cortex are driven by cynicality, it is more likely to restrain emotional response from the amygdala (to avoid emotional attachment or investment in an outcome, projecting the odds in a pessimistically leaning stance).  I doubt this is the case, because as expressed above, the prefrontal cortex does not have a monopoly on the amygdala, other variables are often present, allowing the amygdala to influence the host.  This would cause intermittent expression from the amygdala, rather than it seemingly stopping to contribute emotional response after a given point during your life.

The third possibility is difficult to accept, but it has the most upside. It’s possible that if we are willing to evaluate our lives on a particular level of introspection, we will realize the issue is self-initiated. Experiences could have influenced us in a way we avoid particular topics or experiences in general.  The emotional aspects of your amygdala could be constantly hedging against your expression of passion, for it is that passion that resulted in such negativity in your experiences thus far. Your prefrontal cortex’s evaluation of the cognitive situation could be in sync with this determination made by the amygdala, realizing investment of compassion or anticipation typically doesn’t result in positive benefit to the host. Depending on your stance on free will, from here you can choose to evaluate new possibilities, and re-open yourself to the unjaded anticipation or passion you felt years ago. I tend to be a deterministic compatibilist with regard to free will. Determinist, meaning our decisions are a product of experiences which occurred prior; a domino effect of experiences which have lead us to this very point in time. Compatibilists believe that free will fits within this model; while all of our prior experiences lead us to where we are now, we have a choice based on those experiences to choose from a list of options. To circle back around to how this is positive to my third possibility – if we are not biologically restrained from feeling that same sense of naïve passion, anticipation or excitement, then we may choose to pursue something, or someone that does incite those feelings within us. It’s possible that, somewhere along the way, I got into the routine of ‘checking the box’ and moving forward on tangible pieces of mental growth, but lost sight over the emotional expression. We only have a limited amount of time, limited amount of energy to grow particular areas within our lives, and until we make passion or love of life a priority, it will patiently wait until you do (if you ever do). I think it’s so easy to fall into a routine where emotion is ignored, in a world that seems to thrive on negativity and isn’t getting any better. However, high risk also has the opportunity for high reward, and until you drop the defensive walls and pursue something with passion, you will continue your dismal, colorless existence.

Those years where I embraced my passion, didn’t get hung up on overthinking the outcomes, and jumped in headfirst to everything I did, were the best years of my life. That alone should be enough to make me want to start living that way again, because after trying the alternative for a few years, I’ve noticed, the grass is not greener on the other side.  

Growth

Growth

A person's ability to disseminate information through instruction and communicate a process/issue is a direct reflection of their level of comprehension of that subject. The duration of time someone spends in a particular role does not always equate to competence or conceptual understanding / ample mastery of the skill-set needed to excel in that role. Jobs within the finance industry require a relatively analogous set of technical skills, yet there is an assumed ‘barrier to entry’ across finance distinctions. While much of the data, inputs and vernacular are the same, there are definite hurdles that discourage movement across the finance community, even within the same company.

Finance professionals in any setting will unanimously agree that unknown variables introduce risk in forecasting.  This same logic applies to roles in the finance community; the less you know about a different role within finance, the more volatile the result could be considering a move to the new group. Most people are happiest when they are comfortable, and frequent movement between roles in any distinction creates change and disrupts comfortability.

While change may discourage movement for psychological reasons, it should never be a professional deterrent. In order to find success in your career past being a mid-level employee, movement is not only advised, it is required. You cannot attain a diverse enough perspective unless you force yourself into unknown areas of the business. Once the learning curve has been met and you feel you’re getting into a routine - that is actually a comfortable sense of intellectual stagnation setting in. Think of a carpenter working for hours to sand down a rough hunk of wood into a wonderfully ornate silhouette – once the worst has been overcome, the surface becomes simpler to fashion. The resistance has been eroded, giving way to a smooth foundation in which the focus shifts towards perfecting the intricacies of the piece.

Every job requires you to adapt and acquire a specific compilation of technical expertise. In many cases this expertise is different from anything you’d acquired from educational or professional experience prior to the role, but take comfort in the knowledge that this learning curve is felt by everyone in any profession. Jobs typically do not have barriers to enter from a technical knowledge perspective, unless you are an astrophysicist or rocket scientist. I am speaking more generically towards economics, business, finance, and other interrelated professions. The difficulty is not born from entering a particular expertise, it is typically derived from a given department’s lack of 3 things:

1)      Documentation and examples of historical practice, work instructions and informational documents to help facilitate the enculturation process and movement of employees in and out of the department.

2)      Strong subject matter expertise residing amongst the remaining team – conceptual working knowledge of systems and processes,  a perspective of how the particular department interacts with and effects both internal and external customers, the ‘who, what, when, where and whys’ of any given process or procedure, and the ability to disseminate this information to management, new employees, internal and external customers.

3)      Universalized best practices utilized by the company: all similar departments follow a best practice for shared reports, processes, reporting functions, etc to facilitate uniformity and build on an already strong fundamental base of knowledge across a given company.

The three things above seem to be the biggest hurdles, from small nonprofit companies to big corporations.  You’ll often hear people mention, “We are all replaceable.” While that may not be the easiest contention to accept, it is true. The vast majority of people in any given industry, in any given department, are wonderfully replaceable. Many people don’t work to stand out, or to push their intellectual bounds; they work for a paycheck or to ‘punch the clock’. Whether your motivation is to ‘just get the job done’ or you’re lacking intelligence to do more, the fact remains the same – you are replaceable. Everyone in a company is actually replaceable. The number of people in a company employed for their aptitude for strategic decisions, utilization of their unbounded technical knowledge and unsurpassed leadership skills, are less than 2% of the total employees, and even less are given the power to utilize their full skill-set.  Think of a company comprised of 20,000 employees; 2% would mean 400 are key employees (cream of the crop, upper levels of management, etc), and even less than that are given ‘full reign’ to act on their own intuition. This should come as no surprise to say that these 400 are also replaceable.  There are less people attainable with the aptitude required to fill those roles, but as there are fewer roles, they can be competed on a larger scale and attract necessary talent to backfill in any case.

This started off as an informative blurb to what one might expect when changing roles across a company or industry, but then took a turn into the unapologetic, generic nature of many of our jobs.  The important thing at the end of the day is growth. If you are always looking to grow, whether personally, professionally, intellectually or emotionally, you will be building the tool set needed to make yourself an asset. An asset not only to an organization, but to your friends, in a relationship and to the world. If you strive to grow areas in your life you are lacking, you will stand out from the crowd. That type of reckless ambition is so brilliantly refreshing in a world that seems bogged down by negativity and selfishness. 

Determining Whether You Have Developed An Unhealthy Crutch In Life

Excluding the hours you spend at work, what do you occupy your time with? These pastimes or hobbies could be self-justifiable as your attempt at finding balance, but they could be much more.

1)      If you spend more than one hour a day, multiple days a week on a particular activity ask yourself why.  There’s a definite possibility the perpetuated action is non value added to your life.

2)      Compile a list of activities (excluding work for now) that you spend at least 3-4 hours per week doing.

a.       Exclude activities related to continued education. Although continued education can be a coping mechanism in itself, it is a value added activity geared toward the long term enrichment of your life.

b.      Carefully analyze any activities that seem mindless in nature (i.e. Netflix, video games, TV, etc.) Balance is paramount to maintaining mental and emotional stability, but be careful that these particularly mindless activities are not coping mechanisms.  Coping mechanisms are developed both consciously and unconsciously to combat anxiety, stress or other volatile environments. Being drawn to mindless activities can be justified in moderation, but in excess can be your mind distancing itself from particular activities, people, feelings or thoughts. 

c.       Group non-work activities by social and nonsocial. Do you spend an overwhelming amount of time being antisocial outside of your workplace? This is more common in introverts. If this alone time allows for introspection, try to determine why being alone is truly appealing to you.

d.      Now time to look at your job! How many hours does it require you to work per week? A typical full time week is 40 hours, but does your workload cause you to do more? Or, do you keep yourself at work longer than 40 hours, because there’s something outside of work that you’re avoiding (i.e. relationships, responsibilities, or the activities mentioned above in A-C)?

3)      Balance is a universal goal, regardless of culture, industry or marital status, but why is it so elusive? The difficulty arises from the plethora of psychological variables added each time another person impacts your life. The unique mix of stress and anxiety within all of us is all much more manageable as we develop more of an awareness of the inputs that feed our outputs. Meaning – it’s not about the conclusion we have reached; it’s why we reached that conclusion. The end objective after all is to have that perfect balance between passion and productivity (through relationships, career, purpose and other avenues in life).

-C.

Varying Levels of Hope, and Their Impact on Human Behavior

*I write these like diary entries almost - shit ton of comma splices, and terrible sentence structure. I also don't bother editing anything, I just write therapeutically to share my thoughts. Thanks to those of you who read these..

I've always found human behavior interesting. The varying degree of hope someone has of achieving a given thing seems directly tied to their behavior (even when that behavior isn't a true representation of a person's desire).

Now, that probably doesn't make any sense hearing that by itself, but let me explain with examples.

If your one desire is to attain & maintain a career in which you deem helps give you 'success', and through your experiences, you've lost hope in achieving that desire, your actions will quickly change. As we (humans) begin losing hope of achieving a result, we quickly close up, or initiate a defense mechanism. We will attempt to create a facade that we are no longer interested in attaining that result. Furthermore, we will create rationale for that new negative stance, in order to convince ourselves it wasn't worth our trouble in the first place:

"A career shouldn't measure success, anyways."

"Companies only look at you if you have a diploma."

"If it was meant to happen, it would have by now."

Then, we quickly redirect our attention to a similar goal, more attainable, with less chance of failure. This helps us feel accomplished, and forget about failures. 

Another example is in school, attempting to fit in with a certain 'crowd'. If you are different, stick out, or have had a tough time appealing to a certain group, a similar change occurs. People tend to dress or act as if they never would want that acceptance that initially was so high on their priority list. They may purposefully act or dress differently, to stick out and make a statement to themselves and others, that they no longer require or desire that social validation. It's debatable whether that desire for acceptance really ever dies, or if people convince themselves and push that desire back into their subconscious. 

My last example is love. Without getting too sappy, I think at the end of the day everyone wants to feel love(d). We see movies or have this predefined stance on what that means, which isn't necessarily accurate or achievable. However, it's human nature to be drawn to that attachment, acceptance, passion, and purposeful, romantic & emotional connection with someone. Some of us try to find it by bouncing from relationship to relationship looking for a spark or connection, while others find other avenues. Whatever your strategy is in finding this evasive connection, you may, over time grow weary or tired of pursuance. Often times we give up, throw in the towel and reach out vainly for the 'next best thing'. Too often, people turn to sex and desensitize the physical connection. Others can become hermits or antisocial as a result. 

I don't know why this was on my mind, but I find it interesting. Not everyone reacts to situations the same, so the above are not blanket statements, but observations instead. "No fucks given" is usually ironically an example of someone who gives many fucks, but maybe has little hope that the actual result will match the desired result [not talking sexual, but metaphorically]. Also, another fun fact; having awareness of what I've just written, may still not change your behavior once you're experiencing any given scenario. I've learned that your awareness doesn't always translate into 'action' as many of these decisions are concluded within your subconscious, and occur before you even know what happened.

Human Behavior - Exploring Free Will p1

I realize these are incomplete explanations, and in some cases they are ridiculous, but I just wanted to see what you guys think. I will probably do a more elaborate entry for what I believe [the top is closest to what I believe, but I added some BS]. Let me know if you agree with one I listed, or even better, make your own and let me know what you think. If you'd like to see an entry where I expand on this subject let me know and I'll really dive in. I really appreciate reading psych and philosophical books about human behavior, free will, consciousness and analysis of brain activity. I'm curious what you think ;)

CL

Here we go:

Our experience & upbringing are passive influences. Our Psyche [perspective] is formed uniquely; through different reactions our brain experiences [whether it be experience, upbringing, trauma/pain, mental limitation, etc.] All factors affect our outlook, but our outlook is not tied to our behavior necessarily. Behavior is determined by our psyche subconsciously deciding best course of action through conclusions reached from variables above. Free will is evasive [although we do not realize this], for our actions/behavior is governed by subconscious [behind the scenes] brain activity & conclusions reached before we attempt to form a cohesive conclusion based solely on experiences & upbringing. Our behavior attempts to produce the most favorable result for our future, but is limited by chance/fate presenting the right opportunities for our future.

Or

Our experience/upbringing/psyche form our current outlook. Our current outlook dictates our behavior. Our behavior forms our future.

Or

Our experience/upbringing/psyche are irrelevant. Our current outlook is irrelevant. Our future is formed by chance and uncontrollable factors. Our future is set. Our ideas are our own. Our thoughts are our own. Our life is not; we are fated to a specific outcome, and therefore free will is a myth. Though we think uniquely, it will not deter us from our predetermined future.

Or

Our experience/upbringing/psyche form our bias. Our bias is one factor [of many] that determine our outlook. Our behavior is an expression of our outlook. Our behavior sets our availability for potential outcomes. Potential outcomes, presented to us by chance [or fate] give us choice for our future.

Or

Stresses in Your Mid Twenties : Career Calling

Stresses in Your Mid Twenties : Career Calling

First real slap in the face from life comes after you graduate high school. For the first time in your life, you’re now responsible for deciding the next step. All through your childhood the expectation was to attend school or play sports until you graduate high school. However, one of the most overlooked transitions is that time directly after high school (and comparatively after you graduate from anything after high school as well.) Whether you’re graduating with an Associates, Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate, Law Degree, completing certifications or internships the question remains the same, “What’s next?”

That’s the first question, but not the toughest to answer. After any of those are completed, you can easily take the next logical step to begin employment in that distinction. But does it end there? If you graduate high school and begin working towards a greater goal of, at some point achieving a higher level of education, life can often have other ideas for you. As you begin that uphill battle of working, supporting yourself and saving for additional education, distractions are constant.  And, in these distractions, we are sometimes able to find our true calling; they should not always have a negative connotation. It’s entirely possible that your true calling is not at all correlated with the idea you had constructed in your head of how you thought your career would unfold. I urge you to not allow this as a source of anxiety in your life, and I will tell you why a little later.

There are societal expectations, whether tangibly present or not, they exist. Expectations your parents have of you, expectations society has of your productivity and ambition expressed through your ‘career’, expectations about dating, family, marriage, pregnancy, and the list goes on. I often wonder how many college students pursue higher education because they enjoy learning. Or how many people work to earn degrees because they honestly feel drawn to the field they will be entering upon completion of that degree (ex. For me to be an Accountant after earning a Bachelors in Accounting). How much of our career path, pursuance of education, and path after high school is determined by society’s expectation, and how much is truly what you want?

In my experience, I received a Bachelors and accounting certification, and began work in the field of Finance. Although intellectually challenging and mentally challenging, I still question whether or not it is my true passion. I ask the same questions, “Is this what I am meant to do; Is this my purpose; or Is this the best way for me to leave the world better than how I found it?” I do enjoy what I do; don’t get me wrong. I still find myself asking these same questions though..

I guess there are a couple stances on this. First implies you are meant to do a certain thing; fated if you will to follow a certain path. It also sort of insinuates you have a purpose or something to contribute to society (I believe everyone, no matter how small of a contribution, has a gift or something to contribute towards the betterment of society).

The second scenario is that someone doesn't have one way of fulfilling their purpose, but instead has many avenues for achieving the same end result. There isn’t one path, but many alternative options one can take or follow to help contribute to increased standard of living to the human race. In this case, it isn’t about finding the single correct path, but finding the most utilitarian path, or even the path that allows you the most happiness while completing it.

I feel like it is our job as humans to use the life we've been given from our parents, or our caretakers, to leave society [as a whole] a better place than when we entered it. Whether that be through teaching, positive influence, invention, expanding human knowledge, streamlining, focusing on equality of all people, bridging the gap between cultural barriers, expanding horizons, leading by moral example, allowing for differing viewpoints and helping form us into a more advanced, culturally connected and synchronized race, we all have a responsibility to produce an outcome through the course of our life.

That being said, the expectation doesn’t lie in following a path determined or expected by your culture or predecessors, but instead should be formed by your passion and gifts. Each person has gifts, and harnessing and mastering these gifts can be the toughest hurdle to cross. Be confident knowing you have a gift. Knowing what it is is half the battle, so take your time in determining what that gift is. If you feel insignificant or indecisive, you are not alone. Everyone goes through the same stage of panic when determining what path to follow. Don’t be afraid to exercise patience through this stage.

I like to compare life to driving. You can do it two ways. You can constantly stress about when will I get there? Am I in the right lane? Will I be there on time? Can I make this red light? Why is the jackass in front of me (w/ Sonoran plates no doubt) driving 20 MPH under the speed limit? Can I pass this person and still get back into the lane I need to be in? Can I speed and watch for cops so I can still make good time?

Or, you can calmly drive, enjoy the sunrise. Crack the windows and enjoy everything around you. Take in the cool crisp morning air and think about your blessings. Be thankful for your car, because it isn’t riding the bus or walking. Relax and listed to Childish Gambino “Because the Internet” and get your thoughts in order before the work day.

My point is, you could go through life stressing and having anxiety, or you can relax and enjoy everything around you – Often times the end result is the same. The two scenarios above wouldn’t get you to work faster, but your mindset through the experience affected your mental and psychological state of mind. You control those factors; enjoy your experiences and allow yourself time to find that purpose, because once you do the time you spent waiting won’t seem so bad. You’ll have the remainder of your life to pursue that passion, and those 3-4 years in your twenties that you spent stressing over it, won’t seem like anything at all.

Congrats to anyone who just sat through my jumbled thoughts. Hope everyone has an amazing week J