“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill<\/p>\n
\u00a0“Yesterday\u00a0I was not the same person I am today.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For most, that statement is probably very vague and ambiguous because most people\u00a0change over a period of time. I don’t mean\u00a0just physically, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually also. People may not always\u00a0change for the better and\u00a0it may not be noticeable. People may not even recognize they’ve changed, but the truth is that\u00a0people change. Which is why, that statement for me\u00a0is everything.\u00a0Knowing every day I am new is\u00a0my building block to a life worth living; days without fear and nights full of dreams. When I reflect on that statement\u00a0I think of the minor tweaks I’ve made in my behavior, attitude and habits.\u00a0Friends whom I’ve recently met would hardly be able to fathom the flaws in my\u00a0character prior.<\/p>\n
Those who knew me no longer know me.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A year ago,\u00a0the words Confident, Determined, Passionate, were traits I would use to\u00a0characterize great athletes or musicians; the rich and famous but never myself. A year ago,\u00a0I was unsure, afraid, maybe even slightly depressed. Voices of family and friends echoed\u00a0throughout my\u00a0thoughts\u00a0constantly.\u00a0“You have so much potential” or “I know that you’ll do great things Alex” rang in my mind over and over again. “But how did I end up in this position?” “What happened?” “Where did things go wrong?”. These questions became the haunting ghosts in my life I could never get rid of as I mowed grass for a full-time job, joking with my friends how it felt like\u00a0I was doing slave’s\u00a0work trying to hide the embarrassment that my life hadn’t developed the way I dreamt it would.<\/p>\n
“Where did things go wrong?” There goes those thoughts again.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It’s funny, how people cope in life when they’ve hit rock bottom.\u00a0People will tell you to get back up but they never tell you how.\u00a0What happens then\u00a0is people turn to drugs and alcohol to cope. I can’t say I avoided that path completely. My greatest\u00a0outlet however\u00a0wasn’t using drugs or\u00a0drinking four days a week because it’s\u00a0“Boozeday Tuesday” or “Thirsty Thursday”. No, my greatest\u00a0outlet was\u00a0music.\u00a0Music was my\u00a0escape from\u00a0reality. I needed music to drown out the voices in my head. I listened to music 7-8 hours a day, everyday.\u00a0Then one day\u00a0a friend offered me an alternative and said “look, you can listen to the same music continually until this life is over, or, you can invest into yourself and start listening to speakers and\u00a0podcasts.”<\/p>\n
At the time\u00a0I hadn’t much to lose in life\u00a0so I began listening to\u00a0different podcasts.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe it was destiny, the hero’s path which we all must take to conquer the infamous dragon which so often lives within us. Maybe it was luck of being around the right person at the right time. Either way, the podcasts I substituted music with began to change my life. I became less afraid to fail, realizing it’s necessary to grow and move forward. My thirst for knowledge became unquenchable. I quit living in fear, as fear is fabricated only in our minds, an outdated survival mechanism rooted in self preservation instead of self transformation. Most importantly, I understood that change is not only inevitable, it’s essential, and as our lives continually change we must accept the truth that we have the ability to create the reality in which we choose to live in. I found my north star and whenever I began losing my way, it guided me.<\/p>\n
Day after day I tweaked my life always reminded that today I am not the same person as I was yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Confident, Determined, Passionate, all were\u00a0traits I would use to characterize great\u00a0athletes or musicians, the rich and famous, and now, myself.\u00a0Yesterday\u00a0I was not the same person I am today, and\u00a0tomorrow I will continue to\u00a0hunt down the flaws in my character. I will continue to slay the dragons that live ever so deeply in my heart’s towers until I have fulfilled every great task presented to me. The only difference is instead of doing another 180\u00b0 turnaround, I am already trekking down the right course on this unbeaten path. I know that tomorrow I am a new person again. A year ago I came to the realization that if I do not change now, I will die.<\/p>\n
A year from now I do not know how I will view myself, but in this moment, I know that I am the pioneer of my life and as long as I continue to pursue my dreams and aspirations fearlessly, I will have lived a full life.<\/p>\n
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Here is a link to my all-time favorite podcast episode:<\/p>\n