Stick With It.

If you know me, you know that I have a seemingly very hard time with being content. If you don't know me, I can give you some examples, such as leaving school on a whim without telling anyone and driving back to Pennsylvania at 2am, to then again 1.5 years later leave my job to return to the same school. (not to mention now having been back for 1.5 semesters wishing that I would have kept that job) Or, impulsively selling a vehicle for one that got a better gas mileage just to often wish I had the old vehicle back. There are probably more examples I could give, but these are the two most prominent. So, what's the issue?

Well, after some long thought self evaluation, it comes down to what I call a scaling issue. I'm choosing to write about this because it's been on my mind and I think a lot of people who read this blog can likely relate in some way. What is a 'scaling issue' then, and how do we solve it?

The definition of a scaling issue, and I made this up so don't google it because you won't find it, is a stage of life where you are doing all of the things you want to do, but at a much different (often smaller) scale than you want to do them. For me, this issue comes from a high drive and much too high of expectations for myself at my age. That sounds cocky, but it's true. I have yet to find another 21 year old who not only wants to lead a company, but is actually frustrated that he/she isn't currently doing so. For example, you likely just read that sentence and thought to yourself, "Dude. You're 21 years old. Settle down." and to be honest with you, I have to remind myself that very same thing sometimes. I have friends that often have to remind me as well.

See, I am currently in school and working. That's what most of my time consists of. Considering I want to be someone who learns and someone who provides, you might say, "Well, you're learning at school and you're making money at work to provide and help others, so what else do you want?" I would say you're right, but what I really want is to have a job where I make a difference and that I love going to every day, and I really want to learn what I want to learn, not what the classes that I'm required to take have to teach me. I'm doing the things I want to do, but it's not to the scale I want to do them.

As I said I often have to remind myself that I'm only 21 as dumb as that sounds, but I also have to remind myself that it's a process. IF I was doing everything to the scale I wanted and IF I was being able to achieve all of the things I want to achieve, what would there be to look forward to? (Thanks Brady for that nugget of wisdom) Sure, I could find more to look forward to, but at a certain point you get tired of thinking up things you want. Whether you like him or not, former President Donald Trump has a great book that highlights this issue of seeking after exhaustive wants among extremely wealthy people, it's called Surviving at the Top.

So, how do we solve this scaling issue? Well, one thing I am starting to learn is to just stick with it. Better yet, do your absolute best to find enjoyment in the current journey, because the truth is that things may never scale. I hope they do, for you and I both, but if they don't, we need to learn to be satisfied in doing what we're doing. So, if you're like me and you have a scaling issue that translates to a lack of contentment and sometimes depressive swings, the best advice I can give is just stick with the journey. It's not always fun and it isn't always fulfilling, but it's truly the only way things will ever scale; they may not, but if they are going to it's going to be when you stick with it.

Stay focused and enjoy the journey. After all, you only get to do it once.