There's a saying that I've heard before but for some reason today it meant more. "Your attitude determines your altitude". It got me thinking a lot.
I am quite an extremist in just about anything I've ever been interested in. I'll give you some examples. When I was into soccer, I literally did almost nothing in my spare time but play soccer. I got to the point that I was playing for the Olympic development team and then my interest started changing to bmx bikes. Then I quit playing soccer and I spent every possible minute on my bike. I rode like my life depended on it. I got pretty good and started getting sponsors and started getting offers to get paid for it. By that point I was partying (although in my teens I was super straightedge and despised drugs and alcohol) a lot but I started talking to Mormon missionaries and decided to change my life. So I gave up my dream of professional bmx in order to follow what I thought God wanted me to do and I got baptized. Up to that point I had been extremely anti Mormon. In fact, I had acquired a lot of information and started writing notes about how I was going to write a book to prove that the Mormon church was false. Anyways, instead of that, I got baptized and changed my life entirely. After a year I went on a mission and did my best to spread the news that the church is true. I considered myself to be a good missionary because my heart was into the work as much as I've ever experienced. In other words, I've been on both ends of many different extremes and I've learned an awful lot by doing so.
It would seem that I've gone off on a large tangent but the truth is, there is a point to all of that. In every example that I just wrote about, my heart was into whatever I was pursuing. My attitude in whatever I did made me successful in said activity/mentality. If my heart isn't into something, then it has never amounted to anything. There is only one time that I tried to do something that I didn't feel passionate about but that isn't something to write about here. That is for another blog post. Suffice it to say that I've never been successful at something that I didn't care about. So the saying that "your attitude determines your altitude" couldn't apply more.
What is your motivation to do what you do? Why are you in the career you chose? Is it just for money? Is there some deeper reason? I daresay that it's impossible to be happy in a career if there isn't some deeper reason than just making money. Also, you limit yourself in your level of success if you aren't happy doing whatever you're doing. There are exceptions to that, I know, but for the most part I think it applies to most people. Your attitude determines your altitude. If your heart isn't in it, you aren't going to be as good at it as you would be at something you love.
Why do so many of us settle for careers that we hate? I don't get it. You spend an average of 1/3 of your life at work. Why do we voluntarily make ourselves miserable for a minimum of 1/3 of our life? It makes no sense. Not to mention that it has lasting effects on the other 2/3 of your life. So long as your able to sleep like a normal person, then you spend another 1/3 of your life asleep. That only leaves 33% of your life to try and be happy! I don't know about you but I want to be happy as much as possible and 33% of my life doesn't sound like what I grew up planning on.
Maybe this whole blog post is only applicable to myself but I realized today that I'll never be a success at anything unless I have a deeper reason to do it than just money. I can't have a good attitude about something that I hate doing. I need to either enjoy the work, or feel like I'm providing an invaluable service or product to someone, or change peoples lives, or something else that makes a difference in the world, in order to really excel.
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