MIDWAY

The number one thing that based on my perception that is preventing people from not only achieving their goals but even pursuing their goals is getting caught up in life. In general it seems as though everyone gets so caught up in the day to day operations and that becomes life for them. The regimented schedule of work, home, dinner, TV and repeat becomes what life is about. There is no fire or fury to pursue more and if there is a fire to pursue more, it gets smothered out my the fire extinguisher known as complacency. Also all of the issues surrounding individuals lives become their life. The everyday stress over bills, or issues with a relationship partner or any issue that in the big scheme of life isn't that big becomes their primary focus. Many people I have come in contact with will talk for hours about these issues or perceived problems in their lives and allow these issues to dictate the movements in their life. What I mean by that is that they are allowing these issues to consume them and take the focus off of a goal and put it onto the problem and what happens is that that mental approach becomes a habit and before you know it when one problem is resolved here comes another one to take it's place. It becomes a never ending cycle of complaints and excuses. The excuses stem from the wanting of the end result of whatever that goal is but the lack of the drive to put in the work that is required. The fact is that in order to do something extraordinary you have to put in extra ordinary work. The majority of goals cannot be accomplished with part time effort. If you want to do something that no one else has done then you have to put work in like no one else has. Period. Now don't get me wrong this is not an indictment on anyone but just a statement of reality that I think many people are not aware of or willing to face. We see it everyday people talking about how much they want things and then going home and sit on the couch. The only difference between you and most of the people or lifestyles you want to emulate is that those people made a decision. A decision that they are going to give themselves one option, and that option is to succeed.   

 Are you living or are you existing. To a majority of people those two questions will mean the same exact thing. To most people existing and living are interchangeable. We all exist, if you are reading this blog then you exist, you are alive and will remain alive until your death. But the question that soon follows after we verify that we exist is “are we living?” Do we wake up most days with to excitement only going through the autonomy of life with glazed over eyes, to set our minds and bodies on auto pilot with no thought or expectations of change?  Are we living? Living would insinuate that there is life inside of a vessel. Have you ever heard someone tell an elderly person that they have so much life? What they are referring to isn’t the fact that they are breathing so well but that fact that there is a light and a vibrance radiating from persona. They have a want that is undeniable, a want to enjoy every second they have on this planet. I said this before we only have one life and we get no redo’s.  This world is amazing and has so many things to offer, things that many people don’t get to experience because we are programmed to exist. The American dream is to go to college, get a good paying job, get a house and have a family. Those are all great things but the question I have is who decided that that dream was your dream? Another question is what happens after you have reached the American dream? Is it at that point you fulfilled your destiny so you can go on to only exist until you don’t any longer? Some people live for their kids or their spouse and if that’s what truly brings them happiness and a feeling of fulfillment then at that point they are truly living. I don’t want anyone to misinterpret anything I am saying by thinking that I am condemning the American Dream, far from that. What I want to convey is the question, what do we have that drives us to look forward to another day? I think that we all need to be in pursuit of something that will motivate us and help get the best out of ourselves every day, whether it be the pursuit of a patent, the pursuit of making your spouse smile, whatever it is as long as it is providing some type of value to your life. Living is more than breath….Living is pursuing life.  

Your reality can be like a good book with an amazing ending if you decide what the ending will be

I'm sure we're all familiar with the quote "the loudest person in the room is the weakest person in the room." I've heard this used in various contexts and I think this relates well to this topic. Often times I think we associate the person that speaks the most with being the most knowledgeable or the most powerful. That's not always the case. Sometimes it's the ones that aren't as vocal are the ones you should be taking notes from. They're the ones sitting in the cut, taking everything in and learning. They're learning from others knowledge, experience and mistakes and applying it to their lives. These are the same people that are plotting power moves and building their wealth quietly. I think a certain amount of pride comes along with "running the show" and sometimes these people forget to listen. If they allow themselves to take the back seat once in a while and make it a key to listen and learn, then they can be even more powerful. Silence is not always sign of weakness. If anything, silence can speak louder than words and possess power within itself.

- Take time to analyze the situation for yourself

A good portion of life involves taking risks. Whether it's risks involving relationships, education, relocating or career, at some point or another we're going to be faced with the decision of whether or not to take a risk. Now, we definitely have the choice to not engage in risks. We can play it safe out entire lives and stay within our comfort zone. To me, this would ultimately equate to settling and only constrain our own individual potential. Through risk taking, you learn what you're truly capable of and stretch your individual possibilities to places you may have never fathomed before. For a good portion of my life I avoided taking risks. I think a lot of it had to do with low self esteem and never really fitting in. I remember one of the first times I took a big risk was when I was in the 8th grade. I'd lived in Wallingford, CT all my life and had a choice as to what High School I could attend. I'd heard about a tech school in the neighboring town, Meriden that sounded very appealing. They told me half the year was spent on academics and the other half was spent on a concentrated area of study referred to as a "shop". I knew I was very unhappy attending Wallingford schools all of my life since I never really felt accepted and was bullied quite a bit. But it was all I knew up until that point and as strange as it sounds, I found comfort in that. Whether or not people liked me, I was familiar with everyone and could've accepted staying low key. If I went to Wilcox, I'd be in a completely new town where I knew absolutely no one and would in a sense have to start over. Looking back, I'm actually surprised I took the risk of attending Wilcox since it seemed so out of character. From what I remember, it had dawned on me that there was an equal potential for it to be a great decision as a bad one and if I didn't explore the new opportunity, I would never know what could've been. It ended up being one of the best decisions I've made in my life. I met friends that have become family and placed me in an environment that forced me to grow. I learned to break out of my shell and learn myself and my capabilities. This was a turning point in my life where I started to slowly step outside myself and take more risks. As time has passed and the more risks I took, I continued to learn more and more about myself and started to test my limitations. I've taken quite a few risks that panned out quite terribly, however there's just as many that worked out in my favor. Even when things didn't exactly work out as planned, I took the  as a learning experiences and continued to push on. Already with this blog, I've taken risk with investments of time money and even done things I never pictured myself doing or thought I could do. I'm not sure if this will even take off, however I am confident this will serve as a stepping stone in my life to propel me to where I'm supposed to be.

I would have to say yes, for me personally at least. I've always had an immense amount of respect for individuals that achieved success based on their own merits. It's probably because my parents constantly told me the famous saying "nothing in life worth having comes without hard work". Sometimes it's really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that there are people in this world that have not worked a day in their life yet are literally handed this wealth. Some people inherit it from their elders, others are immediately placed in high positions by family members with no relevant work experience. When I hear of stories like these it doesn't make me think of success as much as it makes me think of luck. Sure, you're CFO of a company making upwards of $100,000 a year, but the only reason you obtained the position is because your father is the owner. That's like me running a marathon and you being chauffeured to the finish line. To me that isn't success. Success to me is all about the journey you experience in achieving your goal. It's the sacrifices you make, the mistakes you make, and the frustration you experience to the point where you're so tempted to give up. It's getting to where you want to be and laughing to yourself about all the times when you questioned if your goal was even possible. It's that indescribable feeling of accomplishment of knowing what it took to get you to that moment. This feeling simply can't be felt by someone that is handed a secured, successful future on a dressed up platter. You're ultimately doing yourself a disservice by having everything done for you. There are essential skills you will not possess without having put in the blood, sweet and tears. Essentially, you won't be able to handle the success because you don't know what it takes to get there. Knowing all of this, I'm able to conclude certain people's "success" is nothing more than a mere gift. 

This is a very debatable topic that I believe doesn't have a right or wrong answer. At first glance I would think automatically that what we learn in school is more valuable than what we learn in life. But at a second glance I am forced to re think that assumption. One of the biggest issues I have about the educational system is the lack of real life preparation. What I mean is in high school you are taught about all this different functions of math and science and whatever electives are available and after we graduate we may only use about 5% of what was learned. I use the word learned loosely because a majority of what was "learnt" was simply memorized and regurgitated only to be forgotten once the test was over. But back to my original thought, we learn all of these different types of math and science but never learn how to fill out a tax form properly or how to apply for a mortgage or even balance a check book. Those are things I had to learn in life through trial and error. Not trying to take anything away from what is learned in school because there are subjects and skills sets developed that has value. But I have yet to find myself in a situation that called for the use of the Pythagorean Theorem. I think schools should cater more to the environment and demographic of the student body. There are many things in life that people in different financial situations may or may not need to know. For example, student loans and good credit, many students who come from a financially stable and secure environment don't have to worry about student loans or keeping good credit because often they have the financial backing or knowledgeable family members who can help mitigate that from ever being an issue. While students in less advantageous financial circumstances don't have access to those resources so they end up taking any loan and don't know to stay on top of their credit score. Some may think that those ore lessons that should be learned at home but the reality is that how can you learn from people who have never learned themselves. The point I am making is that everyone lives in the same country but we are all living different lives, so why are the curriculums structured the exact same. It's great to know what pie equals but if I never use that knowledge again and don't know how to apply for a home loan and how to be aware of loan sharks, how much did I really learn? 

Special Guest: Asia Smith (IG: @_chicgeek)

Midway is officially launching this fall. In the meantime we will have “Road To Midway”, a miniseries to explain who we are, what we do and allow you to experience our journey to the launch of the website. Episode 1 has officially premiered and begins with explaining who Midway represents. Head on over to the site, www.wearemidway.com to watch or click on the link above.