Reflections and Bad Analogies

Gauntlet of Goals is going really well, we’re a few weeks in. I started doing it with a buddy of mine which has made it a lot easier to keep in mind. He’s been killing me in the “Lived my Life” section. It made me think about things I could do to improve in this category. I want to have a least a few days where I have 7’s at the end (meaning I hit my goal in every category). It has proven to be a challenge, which is good. It has also showed me that I don’t do many interesting things, which is bad.

After considering how I could change that, I came up with some interesting results. It’s just not that important to me right now. Within this next year, I really want to get a solid foundation going in my career. It’s my main focus right now and I’m convinced there’s no way for me to achieve my goal besides going hard and not looking back. I’ve experienced some pushback from the people around me, which ironically has only made me want to do it more. I don’t mean everybody is being negative. My family is generally supportive. It’s just not a typical desire on my end, so I get why most people don’t completely understand why I’m doing it.

But don’t get me wrong, the pushback has also given me a lot of doubts. My sacrifices have given me a lot of doubts. I see the appeal of choosing an easier path and fulfilling my desires in other parts of my life but it just doesn’t add up. I can’t see it the way other people do. That’s true for all of us, not just me. You can’t see your life from the outside looking in. At best, you can see a reflection of it which is pretty good, but it’s still not the same. This brought back a familiar idea for me.

I want to be in the driver seat of my own life. I know it’s weird, but I consider my life to be like a car on a road trip. I’ll explain a little bit. First, you have the car, which is your body. Then, you have all the possible versions of yourself filling up the seats: the lazy you, the worried you, the strong you, the stupid you, the smart you, etcetera. Okay, at this point it’s more like a bus. You get the idea. Anyway, everybody is in the car and they’re on a road trip to wherever the fuck you’re going. This is where you run into the first problem. Where are you going? Everybody in the car has to agree. If they don’t, you have to make them agree. Easier said than done, I know.

If you’ve ever been on a road-trip, you’ve probably taken turns driving. Maybe not, in which case I hope what I’m about to say still makes sense. At some point, the wrong version of you will take the wheel. This is not good because that version of you sucks at driving. Often times, we’ll let them continue to drive until some stupid shit happens. My advice is to stop letting them drive right away. When the anxious version of you wants to take the wheel, kindly take them back to their seat and tell them to sit down. Then go sit in the driver seat and take the wheel. Get yourself where you want to go, and make every part of you help by playing to each of their strengths. At this point, the driver analogy gets a little abstract, so I want to move on.

The analogy continues with the fact that you need the car to be able to get you where you’re going. You need to take care of your body, especially if you expect a lot out of yourself. If you don’t expect much, that’s cool too, it’s your life. But I just want to send a friendly reminder that if you don’t do much, you won’t get much. Again, that’s fine if that’s what you want to do, but I’m willing to bet that you genuinely want to achieve something within your lifetime. Achieving anything requires sacrifice. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

At this point, you’re probably thinking “what the fuck did I just read” or maybe you think the road trip analogy is dumb, which is cool. You’re probably right. It is dumb. But it’s an idea that has helped me though many rough times. I put it out there in hopes it might help somebody out there. If anything, I hope it’s at least entertaining.

If you haven’t taken anything away from this, here’s what I’m trying to say in its simplest form. Your life will end one day. On that day, you’ll want to feel good about what you’ve done. Each choice you make is either harming or helping your future self, so think wisely. Take care of yourself, think critically, and stop being a loser. Also, don’t forget to laugh. It’s easy to get too serious. Your struggles aren’t that bad and they don’t last forever if you keep working at them.

“Pain is temporary. Suck is forever.” - Jason Deamer on the importance if constant iteration