Tag: Men

The Transition Game: Week 12

Welcome back!

Communication, that’s a word that has caused me an unbelievable amount of grief. Although it’s not so much the word as it is my lack of skills and numerous bad habits. Conditioning from unhealthy cultures, trauma from relationships, depression, and lack of education are a few of the contributing factors to my struggles with communication. What did my lack of skills and bad habits bring me? Wasted opportunities, low self-esteem, and a whole lot of trouble. That isn’t a pattern I’d like to continue, so I was excited to dive into this section of the program.

I knew I had issues with my communication, it was made abundantly clear in romantic relationships. However, once I began to pull on that string, I realized how much it had impacted other areas of my life without me even noticing. I never communicated with my coaches, it was only ever “yes coach!” no matter how much I disagreed. I can only imagine where I would be if I had practiced better communication skills and been able to find a better understanding with my coaches. I never spoke my mind with coaches or told them where I thought I fit. I had a coach that we didn’t agree with as a team, we were frustrated as hell and jealous of the other teams in our association. Some guys spoke their mind and sat on the bench, I chose to “smile and nod”, never say anything besides “yes coach”, even though I never listened or did anything that the coach asked of me, I played a ridiculous amount of minutes that year and was named a captain. All of which further reinforced some poor communication habits.

Something that struck me was the lesson on arguments, “You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it, and if you win it you’ve lost some respect.” I have never been one to argue, nonetheless, I had never viewed arguments from that perspective. It is 100% true. I have been on both sides of it many times. I’ll bet that you have too. Unfortunately, in my struggles since graduation, it has happened much more frequently. Excited to get back to my old self (with many improvements of course) would be an understatement. Of course, the listening portion of this section caught me red-handed. I have a few terrible listening habits. I’m always thinking about what I’m going to say next instead of giving my full attention. If someone is talking about something I don’t find interesting, I’ll be daydreaming in about 10 seconds. I’d go on but, I already sound like a horrible human being. These are some of the things I have been practicing a lot. I’m happy with my progress, I’m much more patient with my communication and it’s paying off. This will be another section I revisit frequently.

Esty

Road to Beijing 2020: An Athlete’s Story – Who Are You?

Who Am I?

Who are you?

This week I took a look inside my mind to find myself. Who am I, what do I stand for and believe in? Self-image is a very important piece of the puzzle to having a positive mindset and self-confidence. How we see ourselves and how others see us… well for those who have been following along, you probably already know it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of us. What matters is how you see yourself and that you believe it.

All my life I dreamt about being a world cup downhill ski racer. For as long as I can remember, my dad (Glenn) would bring home VHS recordings of all the World Cup races that season. I would watch the famous Kitzbühel downhill over and over, thinking “one day I’ll stand on the world cup podium, just like them”… Forwarding through the years, more and more outside influences had me questioning myself and my abilities.

“You’re too small” was one of many criticizing remarks I received, along with…

“You’re too old “

“You aren’t strong enough to be a Downhiller” 

My personal favourite – “You are Glenn’s son, you should be winning by a bigger margin” 

The list goes on and on, unfortunately, I have experienced this throughout my career. Lucky for me I learned at a young age to believe in me, both my parents gave me this gift. Whenever I was really struggling with something, I was always reassured and given the choice to think for myself. Was I wrong sometimes, and got injured or failed… of course. But that is growth, I will proudly say I would not be who I am without experiencing failure or enduring such hardship. I am very grateful to have learned this when I did.

Society is tough and judgemental. I have to admit, I’ve opened up Instagram a few times and became jealous of others. Comparing myself to others and then putting them down in hopes to make myself feel better or lift myself up. I am willing to bet many of you have also done something similar. Casting a shadow on another… or throwing shade as the kids say nowadays, doesn’t brighten us. 

In last week’s section, we talked about attitude and how others are not in control of our attitudes. We are solely in control of how we feel about everything. The same theory applies here with self-belief. 

Others can have a huge impact on you, criticizing who you are, what you’re capable of and believe in. Talking you out of dreams or ideas and putting pressure on you hoping you will fail. Yes, it is very hard to block these outside influences, but at the end of it, you choose your thoughts so you can choose what to believe.

I say believe in you! and encourage others, Smile, be kind and enjoy life.

If you have a chance this week, check out the movie “Cool Runnings”. This film is filled with lots of great reminders to always believe in ourselves and stay true to who we are. 

Finding The Line – Roles

So, after completing the Roles chapter, I have had an a-ha moment or two. I’ve learned that what I struggle with most is allowing my ego to control my perspective. I have allowed it my whole life. I’ve been able to breeze through life, getting every advantage and leg up possible, but my ego has continuously told me it’s not good enough, that I deserve more. As a result, I have never fulfilled a role well. I’ve been dropped from teams, fired from jobs and only now am I realizing it was all my own doing.

I genuinely connected with the quote “The Happiness we want to experience in life is denied because of how we feel about our role in it.” This could not be truer for my life experience. My whole life I’ve been a square peg in a round hole. I’ve never felt like I belonged, and I’ve never felt happy. As a kid, I used sports to escape my anxiety and troubles at home. When that coping mechanism took on a life of its own as I grew older, I used alcohol and drugs to further deal with my anxiety and negative perception of the roles that I was in.

Now, as an “accomplished” adult with a family, career, et al, I am realizing that my ego is still running the show. The booze and drugs are gone, but the unhappiness and discontent remain. Purely stemming from my ego and my resentment towards the roles I play in life.

The Roles Chapter was ground-breaking for me because it is allowing me to pigeonhole the source of my unhappiness; my ego.

Finding The Line

So, I guess I’ll start with why I’m taking the Success Strategies Program. Before the pandemic, my career motivation has been dismal at best. I’ve been in the same role at work for five years now. I feel drastically underused and underappreciated. Work is too easy and provides little to no challenge for me. Instead of being grateful for my cushy job, I feel burdened and guilty. I feel like I am not doing enough, I’m not contributing enough, I could be doing more, etc. I’m the former star player who is now on the 4th line just collecting a paycheque.      

The boredom has caused me to lose focus. I sleep in, miss meetings, don’t cold call. I am often distracted by social media, women, Amazon, you name it. I envy the younger guys that I meet out in the trade. They are motivated and hungry. They have that fire I used to have.  

The pandemic has only exacerbated these feelings. I work less and now, thanks to Covid, have a full-blown excuse for it. Instead of admitting to my shortcomings, now I get to chalk it up to Covid.  

I sought out Bob because I want ownership back of my life. I want to feel like I am in control again. Like I am the master of my destiny. I have sat on the successes of yesterday too long and I want that fire back. I want my motivation back to go out and live to the fullest. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  

– Trevor, Success Strategies for Men Client

The Transition Game: Week 11

Welcome back!

 

 

I have been doing a lot of work with my goal setting and now since completing the imagination section of my workbook, I’m seeing how much the sections tie together. It’s exciting, but I find it intimidating too, I know I’ll have to use everything I have learned thus far to get to the places I imagine myself in the future. I have been a bit run down and unmotivated again lately but I know a lot of that comes from letting some of my new habits slide as well as some uncertainty in my life. Even just getting back to practicing gratitude daily, just writing down three things I’m grateful for once a day has a huge impact on my mindset. Another realization I have had is that I still need to lean into my support system more, with all the great people around me it’s ridiculous to try and do everything on my own and then be frustrated when I get lost.

 

 

One of the first things asked of me in this section was to imagine my ideal life in 5 years.

Here’s what I have so far:

  • Making $100,000 per year
  • Ton’s of freedom/flexibility, never missing out on family or friends because of work
  • house with a yard
  • steady job/jobs that I enjoy
  • Two dogs
  • home gym
  • I’m in great shape with healthy and consistent routines
  • love myself and feel pride in where I am and who I am
  • Consistently eating time into my hobbies (dirtbikes/motorcycles, working out, guns, beer league, etc.)
  • I’d like to be living in Cochrane or Canmore and working at the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary

 

Looking at what I wrote made me realize that I need to focus and set goals around discovering what path I might like to walk in order to get to that place, from firefighting, personal training, marketing, working at the Wolfdog Sanctuary, or who knows what else! I need to bite this off in small chunks and just chip away until I’m there. Staying positive and grateful is going to be a sizeable challenge but I know it’ll make the journey immensely more enjoyable and rewarding. 

 

 

Another exercise in this section that helped settle me down and feel less stressed was answering these four questions:

  1. What is your dream? “To be free”
  2. What holds you back from pursuing your dream? “My fears and doubts”
  3. How can you grow the optimism and courage to make your dream become a reality? “Practice! Practice everything in this book consistently, practice positive self-talk and gratitude, envision my dream every day, and use those SMART goals!”
  4. What will your life look like when your dream is achieved? “Peaceful and bright, fulfilling and free”

 

The pictures in my head created by this little exercise lift a weight off my shoulders and provide extra motivation to get to that place I see so clearly in my mind. It’s little things like this I need to do a better job of remembering when things get hard. I have always had a great imagination and I used to let it guide me a lot more, time to get back to that.

 

 

Write you next week,

 

 

Esty