Winning

Well hello everybody!

It's been QUITE some time. I extend my apologies for the extended length without update. My life has essentially been in overdrive. I've found myself at a junction of sorts. Finishing up my undergrad course work, traveling, and bouncing back from a weird slump of sorts has consumed ALL of my time. I really mean it too. My social life has been on the decline and along with that, my online identity.

I'm back now though.

I think it is very interesting and something I've contemplated long since its initial occurrence. There seems to be phases to every individual. I realize this is nothing revolutionary. Everybody has their ups-and-downs. Cliches spring up by the truckload to emphasize this point. Conversely, one thing that doesn't often get discussed is the way in which we consider what catalyzes these phases.

What drives an individual to a slump? What makes them recluse themselves and let the little things permeate to all aspects of their life? I think it all boils down to perception. We color things the way that becomes most convenient in our lives. Pessimists dig their holes deeper, so they're harder to climb out of. Conversely, optimists keep climbing the rungs, so that the fall is greater. Eventually, a greater equilibrium reigns and everything balances out. The ancient Greeks had it right: Everything in moderation.

The world works really hard to keep things on a somewhat even keel. On one hand, the probabilities are low for the average person to break through and become famous or globally successful. This can be dissuading, if one doesn't consider that likewise, you have to be a pretty big failure to mess up things enough to lose it all. Fortune only plays so much into either of those hands. The rest comes from not hard work, but smart work.

That brings me to my next point. I find myself very conflicted by the idea of working hard. Everybody older than me says its the best way to earn happiness as a reward. I don't know that I can agree with it. While hard work is important, what you work hard on is subjective. I think if you work hard on the correct niche things, you'll work a lot less hard, though equally harder for smaller bursts and yield the same, if not greater reward.

I was raised being told that I always had a keen knack for cutting corners. I've since come to realize that I could embrace it. No need to condemn myself when I could twist it positively and utilize it as a talent. Cutting corners is what the person who sees me negatively would portray my character as. Consider me rationalizing a fault if you'd like, but the way I see is is that I find the most efficient path to what I want to achieve. No need to diddle dawdle around when I can just get right  to the core of things.

I'm not perfect by any means. I don't like losing and I don't like being told no. My competitive nature usually permits me to reroute and or persuade at my discretion until I appease my need to succeed. It is a unique situation and a gift I'm eternally blessed to embrace.

So what is the point of all this? I guess I'm simply stating that so often people find themselves polarized. That is to say, stuck on one end of the other of the spectrum. My advice? Start thinking unconventionally. The greatest minds throughout history did so. Haters are going to hate. They'll suggest that it is also the quickest way to failure. How many of them committed so fiercely though? I suspect not very many.

Do what you want to do. Follow your heart. Find a way to win. Always.

TC