Cabarrus Cheap Seats

If the boy is father to the man, then I was raised by a profligate dunce - Joe Carter

I turned 30 last month, here are five things learned in that short time that are worth sharing.

5. Everything pays dividends - At this point, where I am has more to do with the choices that I made than those that were made for me. The better ones were made when I wasn’t thinking about what I could get immediately; but which one would open the right doors in the future. 

This works both ways. 

Positive: “Hard Work Pays” - In college: I was willing to do work that other students weren’t that lead to a string of jobs to the one that I’ll be showing up at this morning at 8AM. 

Negative: “High School is Never Over” - I recently got a lengthy e-mail from an old girlfriend giving me grief about some decades-old situation.  If only 18-year-old me could have gotten a lecture from 19-year-old me.

What you invest in today starts paying dividends as long as you’re alive - whether you like it or not.

4. The world makes more sense when you appreciate dynamism - Heraclitus said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”

You’ll never be more than about 7 years old.  Well, at least any part of you won’t.  As you read this, your body is killing and creating new cells.  Even your nerve cells - whose number were pretty much fixed from the time of your birth - are having their piece parts replaced.  You’re reading this and the words are creating new connections between the various synapses in your brain creating new pathways. 

We’re all in a constant state of flux physically, mentally, and spiritually.  That’s an easy enough truth to believe - so, why do so many of us dream about being “set”?  We think if we have attain a certain state than we won’t struggle so much or that we’ll be happier if something about our current state (jobs, spouse, kids, living situation, etc.) reached some ideal. 

Admit it - how many times have you been jealous of something someone has?  Plenty. OK, now how often have you been jealous of where someone is going or their “potential”?  Not as often.

When you realize all of the matter around you is decaying; growing; fading; merging; exchanging ions, isotopes, and sub-atomic particles with the rest of universe - how much sense does it made to contrive a path and a plan to some far off destination that exists today; but won’t tomorrow? 

It seems like focusing on maximizing the next opportunity is the best any of us can really do.

3. Nobody cares how smart you are - John Maxwell said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care” 

Probably one of the most awful lies we’re told to us is when we’re in school - that our innate abilities predetermine our future.  Then that idea is taken farther by designating the smarter students as being “better investments”.  People who get this designation get special treatment and often internalize some sort of idea of superiority and entitlement.

I could go on ad nauseam along the line of thinking; but I’ll cut to the chase by telling a short story.  When I was a student, I got more kudos for driving a truck full of our equipment from Kansas City to Charlotte than I did for any of the complicated technical problems I solved.  I worked hard to solve a need for a group of people.  You can do that without having to sit through Differential Equations.

2. Life is best lived with a sense of urgency - This became painfully apparent to me when Palmer grew to a point where he liked to be held differently.  Not a huge deal; but little eras in his life come and go without me even knowing it until it’s too late. 

There a so many things that you’ll miss if your priorities are all screwed up.  People think that living with sense of urgency will lead to some mad rush and stress - quite the opposite:  you’ll learn to make your days count for what’s really important.

1. The risk is rarely as great at it seems - We can usually answer this question: “What’s the worst that can happen?”  The three that we normally not as good at:

• “How likely is the worst-case scenario?”
• “What will probably happen?”
• “What’s the potential reward?”

OK, here’s a political example that’s a little less “earthy crunchy” than the preceding part of this post. 

Last May, I was pretty sure I was going to lose a run for Treasurer of the Cabarrus County Republican Men’s Club.  I took the risk to look like a fool losing an election (that was rigged, by the way) in order to counter a corrupt influence.  With the help of some friends and some poor organization by the powers-that-were: I won.  8 short months and a series of weird events later: I was presiding over a meeting where a new slate of officers were replacing the old ones. 

The point is that the best victories are in the margins and ignoring the odds is what it take sometimes to make a difference when it counts.

See y’all Monday.