I have always prided myself on my athleticism. Virtually any athletic task you might ask me to handle, I can complete with a comfortable level of proficiency almost immediately. That’s not to say I’m instantly the best at anything, or the best athlete in the room; far from it, I just mean that I am coordinated, athletically talented, and I learn quickly. Theses traits allowed me to excel at games of football during school recess, pick-up games of volleyball with friends, and they even earned me a collegiate scholarship playing baseball.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately at this point, we’ll get to that in a second,) college is where the baseball dreams ended. By the time that freshman season of baseball was fading to a close, I was coming to realize my dreams of professional baseball were likely as distant as a star in the dark, night sky. It’s okay though, I am at peace with how all of that played out now. In fact, looking back I appreciate that year as an experience and a life lesson rather than viewing it as a defeat of my original epic dream. After all, Im in the minority of college students that can say that I earned an athletic scholarship! Beyond that, quite aside from deciding to quit baseball, that was one of the best years of my life! I had so many great new experiences!
Side note: a tertiary goal of this blog is to highlight the importance of, and my willingness to try, new things. More on new things in the future!
But now, back to the Dream. After I made the decision to quit baseball I entered the most boring, and most passionless phase of my life. I gave up on so many things for about four years and resigned myself to concentrating on finding some purpose through education. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a sob story about hating my life, I promised you readers that I wouldn’t dwell, and I’m not. I just couldn’t think of any other way to highlight my next point than to preface it with that.
See, the problem with those years of my life is all about perspective. I was concentrating on the wrong things. I resigned myself to focusing on school, which, in case you haven’t figured out already, is something I was not excited about in the least. What I should have been focusing on is the opportunity for new opportunity. Once I was released from the massive time commitment of baseball I had so much more time for new experiences. Unfortunately I hadn’t quite taught my self this life lesson at this point and instead I just hung my head and got on with the daily grind. Now though, hindsight being 20/20, I can see that even though I did not relish them when they were present, my new experiences in those years taught me so much.
Over those years, I learned what academic subjects interested me and which didn’t. I worked several jobs in several industries and learned things from and about each. I learned how employees feel when given certain options and I learned several different work environments. I learned a bit about small business, a little about big business, and a lot about customer service and talking with people. I should have gone into each day ready for those new experiences because each day truly is a new and unique experience!
Something that has become abundantly clear to me this past year is that how you choose to interpret and react to scenarios has a massive effect on your happiness. Your attitude towards an event is your perspective. Period. Change your perspective, Change your life! If you can understand that, you have unlocked the secret to happiness for your entire life!
If you happen across my blog and never read anything beyond these last two paragraphs I sincerely hope that you can learn to change your perspective. That change in attitude alone has changed my life!
I now feel as though I have set the groundwork for this blog appropriately, and I hope I have aligned your perspective with mine. Next time you happen across my blog (or you are one of the the 17 people that my Facebook page indicates that currently follow me) you will see the big reveal. In my next post I will tell the world where I am going! Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
Let’s Chase Epic Dreams together!