There used to be a time when standing for something stood for something.
Ok, I stole that from a Kettel One commercial. Regardless, I think this simple statement makes a great commentary on the way things are nowadays. It seems that apathy is slowly becoming the new American norm, especially in my generation. A favorite author of mine, David Foster said in his book Accept No Mediocre Life,
"If it is wrong to overestimate yourself, isn't it at least equally wrong to underestimate yourself? Because we haven't learned to balance pride and humility, the paradox of our time is that we can buy more, but enjoy it less. We have more conveniences, but less time; more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge but less judgment; more medicine but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions without adding to our worth. We're obsessed with making a living, but not a life. Medical breakthroughs have added years to life, but not life to those years. We've done bigger things, but not better things. We eat fast food; we suffer slow digestion and shallow relationships. In our quest to get "the good life" we have two incomes, but more debt; fancier houses but broken homes. We take quick trips, use disposable diapers, possess a throwaway mortality, have overweight bodies, and buy pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill. All in a futile quest to get what we already have... love."
A brief glimpse into the past concludes that we are at one of a few historical turning points in the story of the "Great Experiment." Today's issues are not much different than the Progressive Era (1866-1910) and the experience of the greatest generation (1925-1970). We, as a nation and society have again been brought to the edge of oblivion. A shaky economy, monopolistic corporations and special interest groups draining the system of sustainability, a shrinking middle class, immigration problems, national security, industry vs. the environment, political inaction. The ship of the United States has been steered to rough waters and I'm getting the unsettling feeling that the crew is asleep at the helm, much like a frog placed in a pot of water, slowly boiling to death.
I'm not calling for political action, but I think there should be a call to return to principles. "Reality" shows illustrate that my generation is the poster-child for the path society has taken over the last 100 years. Shows like "Jersey Shore" demonstrate our youth's digression to a microwavable mentality; a consumption-driven lifestyle fueled by the latest candy-coated pop song on the iTunes. In the movie, Gladiator the question posed is "is Rome worth one good man's life?" Given the context of history, we are the New Rome, are we worth one good man's life? Many of our soldiers have demonstrated they believe it is worth theirs...
I'm not talking about candy, I'm talking about meat and potatoes; sustenance. Principles of a different wave length than a throwaway morality. Principles that reject mediocrity, pacifism, and submission to the status quo. Principles that set that foundation for a framework of actions that respect consequences, not actions that soothe the current emotional state. Principles worth standing for: Smart work ethics. A teachable spirit. An educated approach to issues. Common Sense.
I challenge mediocrity and MTV's version of what "the good life" looks like. I challenge the notion that every waking moment must be spent making a living, waiting for a time in life when a bank account must be a certain size to support unrealistic enjoyment. I challenge those to act, drawing back from the obsession to make a living and instead make a life. To build that life using principles worth standing for. To be an example and encourage others to stand for theirs. To hope that there are still some willing to play a part in keeping this ship from capsizing. To understand that we can learn from the past, and create an existence where failure does not equate to a chain of regret that we drag with us. To live closer to the edge, away from what is comfortable and stagnant. To be the generation that steers, through the decision to live their principles, and deliver this nation from the brink of implosion to again respresent principles and ideals worth standing and dying for.
So, in closing: Never forget. Never Regret. Live your Life.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
My New Enemy
I hate blogger templates.
I have tried, and failed at finding a suitable template to replace the one I currently possess. Why? Because I am realizing that no one can leave comments on my posts. I also have another enemy. I was going to wait and announce him at the end of the semester but I just could not hold back after today's debilitating onslaught of condescending "encouragement" and perpetually raised brows.
My new finance teacher is a trip.
I think he spends more time telling us how much we are going to get the material wrong on the test than he actually does teaching the material. Now, I could drift and let the integrity of my rant drop somewhere into the depths of ad hominem by procuring acidic insults based on two class periods and a slew of stereotypes. But that really wouldn't make much difference. But you should know that at from 7:30am-8:50am on Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a Travis Corrigan sitting on the back row of an auditorium... slowly dying inside.
I strongly desire to intellectually challenge this man who thinks he's smarter than me because he writes his test questions (I'm assuming) with the highest employment of confusion possible. I want to show him that some of us aren't sheep, easily swayed by the droning of a convoluted man hiding behind the lecturing ego of a furrowed brow.
I must play his game. Show He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named that he's mortal like the rest of us. Shake his comfort zone a bit. But I must remember my place. I do not know it all. I have something to learn from this class, even if it is just a new form of survivial... or patience. I must remember the past times when I have challenged professors early in the semester, only to be shamed by a poor grade, given by poor effort. I can't going around trying to start a fight with everyone who annoys me, any blood-drunk fool can do that.. remember?
But then I think that it's not really a competition, that I really have nothing to prove to this person. He breaths and bleeds like I do. If anything, his arrogance and need to control me through my grade has given away a fundamental flaw in his scheme: his class is not life. I don't care what grade I get. I have much more going in my life than what I receive in some dreaded finance class.
As a dear friend and former professor of mine said to me semi-recently, "Travis, you just need to tell yourself that this is one professor during one semester during a short period of time in your life. Get in, do the work, get the grade, get out."
The point, I am realizing, is this: if I play his game, in hopes of beating him at it, he wins regardless of the outcome this semester. My New Enemy would be myself, for I've taken the bait.
Challenge: have perspective. Do your best not to lose site of it when you encounter those who really get under your skin. Me included (on remembering to have perspective - I know I get under all your skin already). I could also use some help, if someone, anyone, in the blogoshphere knows how I can get a new template and let people post comments just email me... I'm all ears.
I have tried, and failed at finding a suitable template to replace the one I currently possess. Why? Because I am realizing that no one can leave comments on my posts. I also have another enemy. I was going to wait and announce him at the end of the semester but I just could not hold back after today's debilitating onslaught of condescending "encouragement" and perpetually raised brows.
My new finance teacher is a trip.
I think he spends more time telling us how much we are going to get the material wrong on the test than he actually does teaching the material. Now, I could drift and let the integrity of my rant drop somewhere into the depths of ad hominem by procuring acidic insults based on two class periods and a slew of stereotypes. But that really wouldn't make much difference. But you should know that at from 7:30am-8:50am on Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a Travis Corrigan sitting on the back row of an auditorium... slowly dying inside.
I strongly desire to intellectually challenge this man who thinks he's smarter than me because he writes his test questions (I'm assuming) with the highest employment of confusion possible. I want to show him that some of us aren't sheep, easily swayed by the droning of a convoluted man hiding behind the lecturing ego of a furrowed brow.
I must play his game. Show He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named that he's mortal like the rest of us. Shake his comfort zone a bit. But I must remember my place. I do not know it all. I have something to learn from this class, even if it is just a new form of survivial... or patience. I must remember the past times when I have challenged professors early in the semester, only to be shamed by a poor grade, given by poor effort. I can't going around trying to start a fight with everyone who annoys me, any blood-drunk fool can do that.. remember?
But then I think that it's not really a competition, that I really have nothing to prove to this person. He breaths and bleeds like I do. If anything, his arrogance and need to control me through my grade has given away a fundamental flaw in his scheme: his class is not life. I don't care what grade I get. I have much more going in my life than what I receive in some dreaded finance class.
As a dear friend and former professor of mine said to me semi-recently, "Travis, you just need to tell yourself that this is one professor during one semester during a short period of time in your life. Get in, do the work, get the grade, get out."
The point, I am realizing, is this: if I play his game, in hopes of beating him at it, he wins regardless of the outcome this semester. My New Enemy would be myself, for I've taken the bait.
Challenge: have perspective. Do your best not to lose site of it when you encounter those who really get under your skin. Me included (on remembering to have perspective - I know I get under all your skin already). I could also use some help, if someone, anyone, in the blogoshphere knows how I can get a new template and let people post comments just email me... I'm all ears.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Why Not.
"Why Not?" is my new mantra. It's effective date was Januray 1st, 2010. I plan to keep it the rest of of my life.
Wikipedia defines a mantra as a word or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation."
In the movie, Never Back Down, after dealing a substantial blow to the protagonist, the antagonist says, "When you get tagged, your brain registers one of two things: Back the hell up.. or get the hell in."
I love that line. I know that often the worst thing for me to do when I get "tagged" in life is to sit in the middle. I refuse to be ignornant to the fact that retreat is sometimes the better option (more on that later). But starting this year, I am using the mantra "why not" as a personal battle cry to get the hell in.
First, let me cover retreat: Retreat is not Surrender.
Retreat is choosing to place objective clarity over the emotions of ego. Retreat is living to fight another day. It's not being so blinded to zeal that attempting to win every battle causes you to lose the war. I have been in times of retreat, often because it has been my only option and trust me, it's a fight all in itself. Retreat requires more courage and emotional fortitude than charging. Any blood-drunk fool can rush the field, retreating requires an acute self-awareness, a prescence of mind about the reality of the situation despite the adrenaline and the emotion coursing through your veins. It requires strategy because you will need to convert your retreat into a positioning that sets you up for success in the next skirmish.
Unfortunately, there have times when I retreated and instead should have charged. I allowed myself to surrender to the insecurity of rejection and passed on opportunities that could have been life-altering. I want to transform my mind in these situations from retreat to get the hell in... Why not?
My dad, who has been in sales for over 23 years told me this: "You don't get unless you ask." I have realized that all the things in life that I want begin with asking for them. This forces me to have courage in the fear of rejection. I have social anxiety, rejection is a big thing for me. I can only bolster my courage in these situations by making a decision to get the hell in - "why not" is my battle cry.
In an appeal to logic, I use a sort of Pascal's Wager in approaching rejection: If I ask and I am rejected, my life is no different than if I hadn't asked at all. If ask and a door is opened, then I have taken another step in my journey to my heart's soul purpose. Therefore, why not ask anyway?
Here's examples of how I've walked the talk since I started using my mantra to create a transformation:
I ask for more responsibilities during a volunteer project... Now I report directly to the Executive Director of the organization who offers to give me school credit for my efforts, lets put the operations projects I work on in my resume and offers to write letters of recommendation any time I need them.
I am asked, as a class assignment, to interview an entreprenuer. I say "why not" and ask my professor to make an introduction to Rick Alden, a Park City Resident, and 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year for the United States. He's says "shouldn't be a problem", I'm expecting an email in a few days.
A friend recommends that I intern for an $18 million, student-run Venture Capital Fund. I say "why not" and ask the aforementioned professor for help on getting accepted. Turns out he's well connected in the Venture Community in Utah and California, and is willing to help me go after it.
I finally introduce myself to the gorgeous girl that works at a downtown coffee shop I have frequented for months. Later, I say "why not" and go ask her out to dinner. Though she blushes, she rejects my offer. I am still alive and life is no different than if I hadn't asked her.
The Challenge is this: get the hell in. When the situation calls your name, charge straight into the heart of your fears... You'll never know what's in the next room if you don't knock on that door.
Wikipedia defines a mantra as a word or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation."
In the movie, Never Back Down, after dealing a substantial blow to the protagonist, the antagonist says, "When you get tagged, your brain registers one of two things: Back the hell up.. or get the hell in."
I love that line. I know that often the worst thing for me to do when I get "tagged" in life is to sit in the middle. I refuse to be ignornant to the fact that retreat is sometimes the better option (more on that later). But starting this year, I am using the mantra "why not" as a personal battle cry to get the hell in.
First, let me cover retreat: Retreat is not Surrender.
Retreat is choosing to place objective clarity over the emotions of ego. Retreat is living to fight another day. It's not being so blinded to zeal that attempting to win every battle causes you to lose the war. I have been in times of retreat, often because it has been my only option and trust me, it's a fight all in itself. Retreat requires more courage and emotional fortitude than charging. Any blood-drunk fool can rush the field, retreating requires an acute self-awareness, a prescence of mind about the reality of the situation despite the adrenaline and the emotion coursing through your veins. It requires strategy because you will need to convert your retreat into a positioning that sets you up for success in the next skirmish.
Unfortunately, there have times when I retreated and instead should have charged. I allowed myself to surrender to the insecurity of rejection and passed on opportunities that could have been life-altering. I want to transform my mind in these situations from retreat to get the hell in... Why not?
My dad, who has been in sales for over 23 years told me this: "You don't get unless you ask." I have realized that all the things in life that I want begin with asking for them. This forces me to have courage in the fear of rejection. I have social anxiety, rejection is a big thing for me. I can only bolster my courage in these situations by making a decision to get the hell in - "why not" is my battle cry.
In an appeal to logic, I use a sort of Pascal's Wager in approaching rejection: If I ask and I am rejected, my life is no different than if I hadn't asked at all. If ask and a door is opened, then I have taken another step in my journey to my heart's soul purpose. Therefore, why not ask anyway?
Here's examples of how I've walked the talk since I started using my mantra to create a transformation:
I ask for more responsibilities during a volunteer project... Now I report directly to the Executive Director of the organization who offers to give me school credit for my efforts, lets put the operations projects I work on in my resume and offers to write letters of recommendation any time I need them.
I am asked, as a class assignment, to interview an entreprenuer. I say "why not" and ask my professor to make an introduction to Rick Alden, a Park City Resident, and 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year for the United States. He's says "shouldn't be a problem", I'm expecting an email in a few days.
A friend recommends that I intern for an $18 million, student-run Venture Capital Fund. I say "why not" and ask the aforementioned professor for help on getting accepted. Turns out he's well connected in the Venture Community in Utah and California, and is willing to help me go after it.
I finally introduce myself to the gorgeous girl that works at a downtown coffee shop I have frequented for months. Later, I say "why not" and go ask her out to dinner. Though she blushes, she rejects my offer. I am still alive and life is no different than if I hadn't asked her.
The Challenge is this: get the hell in. When the situation calls your name, charge straight into the heart of your fears... You'll never know what's in the next room if you don't knock on that door.
The Price I Paid
A few months ago, I was asked to write about my reflections on the cost of a mistake I had made. It asked me to examine the financial, relational and psychological costs. Below are some excerpts from what I've written:
"To be honest, I haven't accounted for every little price or loss or cost. I work and study and live a productive life- to count every cost, to audit every expenditure in the framework that I have to repay for the worst night of my life is in itself a price I cannot afford to pay. Rather I take stock of my life before, after and onward from that night.
The fact is this: The notion that I have paid a price implies that an exchange has occurred.
Looking back, it's easy to say that I mortgaged my early 20's for a gamble that I lost. That I was overleveraged and the risk was too great to rebound from. But taking snap shots of my life now compared to my life then illustrates that the aforementioned costs have really been exchanged for a life of focus, of discipline, of realism. For I have been forced to deal with my demons, to eradicate my bad habits, and to clear out the cancer of insecurities that plagued my life. Friends lost weren't really friends at all. My situation became a litmus test for the shallowness of aquaintainces and proved the resolve that lies within the people that truly love me. The ones who stuck by me in during the dark winter nights and waited, beck and call, for news of every progressing detail.
I have aquired better time management skills, learned to be more punctual and make better decisions. I traded a life of pretentious arrogance and fashion labels for one of utility and legitmacy. A life of empty promises with no intentions of fulfillment, exchanged for the truth of a harsh but doable reality. Clear purpose and achievable steps to my goals replaced the ambiguity and fear of failure. Where remained a dark, cold emptiness -a looming, bottomless doom beneath my feet- has now been replaced by a solid foundation found only when one has reached rock bottom. I have recieved a stout re-training in the behaviors and tactics to lead a life not jeopardized by temporary pleasures.
I have gained new friends, born as a direct result of my mistake. Friendships that would never have been forged otherwise. People who barely knew me, coming to my aid at my lowest points. People who were willing to enter my life when I had nothing to offer and everything to take.
What price have I paid? $10,000? $20,000? $50,000? It doesn't really matter, for I have recieved my life. And though its not perfect, I am in less debt than before the events that transpired on November night. I have better quality friends. I have the love of my family. A promotion at work. And a humbleness that merely being a good steward of my life is repayment for the countless hours and money that others have spent to continually support me.
And finally, the realization of this inevitable truth: make good decisions. They are no more harder than the consequences of bad decisions. While the changes and progress made has not been for the reasons I hoped for, or paid in the form that I expected, I have certainly profited. For the time and money spent on this mistake and its subsequent consequences have been large, it is a small price to pay in exchange for the person I am becoming and the life I am beginning to live."
Challenge: How do you view the mistakes or problems that you've dealt with in your life? Were they situations to be merely survived or chances to clean house and start right? As I've tried to commnicate in my last blogs, your attitude is one thing that makes all the difference. Instead of hoping to survive the consequences of every negative event in your life, view these as part of the exchange to becoming a purer YOU. A you unshackled by the insecurities and fears that weigh you down and keep you from doing what makes you come alive. For it is then when you can truly make all the difference in your life and the lives of those around you.
"To be honest, I haven't accounted for every little price or loss or cost. I work and study and live a productive life- to count every cost, to audit every expenditure in the framework that I have to repay for the worst night of my life is in itself a price I cannot afford to pay. Rather I take stock of my life before, after and onward from that night.
The fact is this: The notion that I have paid a price implies that an exchange has occurred.
Looking back, it's easy to say that I mortgaged my early 20's for a gamble that I lost. That I was overleveraged and the risk was too great to rebound from. But taking snap shots of my life now compared to my life then illustrates that the aforementioned costs have really been exchanged for a life of focus, of discipline, of realism. For I have been forced to deal with my demons, to eradicate my bad habits, and to clear out the cancer of insecurities that plagued my life. Friends lost weren't really friends at all. My situation became a litmus test for the shallowness of aquaintainces and proved the resolve that lies within the people that truly love me. The ones who stuck by me in during the dark winter nights and waited, beck and call, for news of every progressing detail.
I have aquired better time management skills, learned to be more punctual and make better decisions. I traded a life of pretentious arrogance and fashion labels for one of utility and legitmacy. A life of empty promises with no intentions of fulfillment, exchanged for the truth of a harsh but doable reality. Clear purpose and achievable steps to my goals replaced the ambiguity and fear of failure. Where remained a dark, cold emptiness -a looming, bottomless doom beneath my feet- has now been replaced by a solid foundation found only when one has reached rock bottom. I have recieved a stout re-training in the behaviors and tactics to lead a life not jeopardized by temporary pleasures.
I have gained new friends, born as a direct result of my mistake. Friendships that would never have been forged otherwise. People who barely knew me, coming to my aid at my lowest points. People who were willing to enter my life when I had nothing to offer and everything to take.
What price have I paid? $10,000? $20,000? $50,000? It doesn't really matter, for I have recieved my life. And though its not perfect, I am in less debt than before the events that transpired on November night. I have better quality friends. I have the love of my family. A promotion at work. And a humbleness that merely being a good steward of my life is repayment for the countless hours and money that others have spent to continually support me.
And finally, the realization of this inevitable truth: make good decisions. They are no more harder than the consequences of bad decisions. While the changes and progress made has not been for the reasons I hoped for, or paid in the form that I expected, I have certainly profited. For the time and money spent on this mistake and its subsequent consequences have been large, it is a small price to pay in exchange for the person I am becoming and the life I am beginning to live."
Challenge: How do you view the mistakes or problems that you've dealt with in your life? Were they situations to be merely survived or chances to clean house and start right? As I've tried to commnicate in my last blogs, your attitude is one thing that makes all the difference. Instead of hoping to survive the consequences of every negative event in your life, view these as part of the exchange to becoming a purer YOU. A you unshackled by the insecurities and fears that weigh you down and keep you from doing what makes you come alive. For it is then when you can truly make all the difference in your life and the lives of those around you.
The Road Not Taken
As this is the first official post of "All the Difference", I will be sharing my favorite poem, written by my favorite poet. The poem and the quoted commentary below it are referenced at the end of this post.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all he difference.
-Robert Frost (1874-1963)
"We must interpret his choice of a road as a symbol for any choice in life between alternatives that appear almost equally attractive but will result through the years in a large difference in the kind of experience one knows."
I have had a lot of choices in my life, and like Robert Frost there are times in which I could have traveled both roads at the same time. Sometimes I have been blessed with a choice in which one alternative is clearly better than the other. But what about the ones in which the alternatives are in relative equality? I think about what my life would be like had I never left Utah for California. Had I never returned to Utah from California. Had I never made the mistakes that I have. Had my mistakes been timed differently or made different mistakes altogether.
One of my favorite parts of this poem is that statement of how "way leads on to way". Often in my times of quiet, ususally on the night drive home or when I park in an area that overlooks the valley, I think about how I got to where I am. Which events lead to another that were critical in providing me with the cards I currently have in my hand. I certainly feel like I'm being guided along in the journey of my life. At times its a strong sense of direction, and complete helplessness during others.
But the difference has been the way that I approach my reaction to life's events. Do I let it teach me? Or just surrender to sadness and try to cast blame on others? I have been fortunate enough to have parents and other sources of influence in my life constantly instill a sense of "fight." I am of course, referring to the animalistic fight or flight approach to any event. I strongly believe and have witnessed in my life as well as others, the power of "fight" inherent in any individual.
Reaction is a matter of choice.
And it is one of the few things in life that make all the difference.
Most of my biggest victories have come at the end of a path that began during a moment of crisis, where my reaction would be the very thing that made all the difference... because the course of direction was mine alone to make.
I feel like I have fighting all my life and the mistakes that led to times of crisis in my life is when I decided to retreat from the issues at hand: those things that are crucial for me to master before I can move on to the next chapter of my life. Oddly enough, the failures and crisis -products of path commanded by a chose to run away- have eventually forced me to fight anyway.
This is not to be mistaken as some morbid approach to life, where you suffer and then you die. It's endurance-training. John Maxwell said in his book The Difference Maker that you can judge the strength and character of someone by witnessing how much strife one can take before they start to become unraveled. I feel that each time I choose to "fight", that decision becomes easier to make as problems (opportunities in disguise) present themselves.
As I close this post, I offer a challenge. For a challenge will be offered at the end of each post, something to carry with you into your daily tasks and duties. My challenge to you is this:
View every problem, every situation in which your decision requires you to choose one path among many as an opportunity. Rely on your strengths and talents to influence the outcome of your chosen path, even though you may not know where it leads. Take the road less traveled, opt for an opportunity to trully grow- to take a step (or two) closer to who you were designed to be. It will be uncomfortable. It will be uncertain. But adventures are not lived out in a snuggie or at the bottom of a bottle. They are lived out on the rocky paths less traveled by. Your decisions at the various tailheads of your life will make all the difference.
Arp & Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense. 10th Edition. 2002. United States of America. pg 88-89.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all he difference.
-Robert Frost (1874-1963)
"We must interpret his choice of a road as a symbol for any choice in life between alternatives that appear almost equally attractive but will result through the years in a large difference in the kind of experience one knows."
I have had a lot of choices in my life, and like Robert Frost there are times in which I could have traveled both roads at the same time. Sometimes I have been blessed with a choice in which one alternative is clearly better than the other. But what about the ones in which the alternatives are in relative equality? I think about what my life would be like had I never left Utah for California. Had I never returned to Utah from California. Had I never made the mistakes that I have. Had my mistakes been timed differently or made different mistakes altogether.
One of my favorite parts of this poem is that statement of how "way leads on to way". Often in my times of quiet, ususally on the night drive home or when I park in an area that overlooks the valley, I think about how I got to where I am. Which events lead to another that were critical in providing me with the cards I currently have in my hand. I certainly feel like I'm being guided along in the journey of my life. At times its a strong sense of direction, and complete helplessness during others.
But the difference has been the way that I approach my reaction to life's events. Do I let it teach me? Or just surrender to sadness and try to cast blame on others? I have been fortunate enough to have parents and other sources of influence in my life constantly instill a sense of "fight." I am of course, referring to the animalistic fight or flight approach to any event. I strongly believe and have witnessed in my life as well as others, the power of "fight" inherent in any individual.
Reaction is a matter of choice.
And it is one of the few things in life that make all the difference.
Most of my biggest victories have come at the end of a path that began during a moment of crisis, where my reaction would be the very thing that made all the difference... because the course of direction was mine alone to make.
I feel like I have fighting all my life and the mistakes that led to times of crisis in my life is when I decided to retreat from the issues at hand: those things that are crucial for me to master before I can move on to the next chapter of my life. Oddly enough, the failures and crisis -products of path commanded by a chose to run away- have eventually forced me to fight anyway.
This is not to be mistaken as some morbid approach to life, where you suffer and then you die. It's endurance-training. John Maxwell said in his book The Difference Maker that you can judge the strength and character of someone by witnessing how much strife one can take before they start to become unraveled. I feel that each time I choose to "fight", that decision becomes easier to make as problems (opportunities in disguise) present themselves.
As I close this post, I offer a challenge. For a challenge will be offered at the end of each post, something to carry with you into your daily tasks and duties. My challenge to you is this:
View every problem, every situation in which your decision requires you to choose one path among many as an opportunity. Rely on your strengths and talents to influence the outcome of your chosen path, even though you may not know where it leads. Take the road less traveled, opt for an opportunity to trully grow- to take a step (or two) closer to who you were designed to be. It will be uncomfortable. It will be uncertain. But adventures are not lived out in a snuggie or at the bottom of a bottle. They are lived out on the rocky paths less traveled by. Your decisions at the various tailheads of your life will make all the difference.
Arp & Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense. 10th Edition. 2002. United States of America. pg 88-89.
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