Your parents would bang it into your head over and over again. "What do you want to do after you graduate? Which college do you want to go to? Do you know what you want to major in?" But it just went in one ear and out the other. You know what I wanted to do? Go drink beer with my friends and see if I could makeout with someone... Preferably a female.
If you take the college route, you either do two things- buckle down and bust your ass with your future in mind or dick off until the threat of failure leers at you. I took the latter route. I don't know when the switch turned on but I got accepted to the University of Washington in '04 and just subconciously decided to try for once. To that point, I never did the homework, I just aced the tests, so I always ended up with mediocre grades. Med-i-ocre. Thankfully my SATs helped support my argument to those in charge of letting me into the collegiant halls.
Well I got in and just started the routine. I worked near full time as a waiter five minutes from my apartment that was essentially on campus and I lived by myself. That is until I enlisted Shady and 50 into my studious guild. Side bar: Shady is sleeping on the chair not 2 feet from me, while much like his name sake, 50 got caught slipping. Only he was not as fortunate as Mr. Jackson. But I digress. I stayed to myself and worked hard because I knew that progress is all I could ask for and you don't move forward without any effort. (Unless you're in space and someone pushes you from behind)
While at UW, I got recruited to help with the Literary Journal where I ended up being co-editor and contributor. I made the Dean's List more times than not and I stayed at it even through summer and finished 3 months earlier than everyone. Did I want to stick around for graduation to sit in the hot sun while they called 2,000 individual names that I don't recognize to a stage for a fleeting moment? Nope, I went to Italy "for work" and had the time of my life. But by now, there was no more wasted effort. Everything I did was to make progress.
"How is a trip to Italy a move of progress?" You ask.
Well I'll tell you. I worked for an Italian restaurant and we visited many wineries and had private tours and tastings with the owners of the vineyards; Some that were hundreds of years old. When I got back, my basic knowledge from the experience mixed with my self-proclaimed silver tongue led to HUGE WINE SALES. Money is progress, believe me. This is when I realized work could still be enjoyable if you actually liked the work.
Upon returning from Europe, I realized I had accomplished the goal of a college degree that l I had blindly chased for quite some time. I didn't have any grand plans for what to do next. I just knew I had to keep working. So I kept my job as a waiter as I started looking for "college graduate jobs"... Turns out, everyone else is looking to do that too? Weird. Cut forward to May of '08. I had gone through two "college graduate jobs" and hated both of them. All the while, staying employed at the restaurant to ensure I was making progress. The other jobs gave decent pay but they just didn't fit me. By this time I've rekindled a relationship I had thought about constantly since 2002, asked her to marry me (she said yes by the way) and I had an interview at a place that sold bedding stuff. BOO-RRING.
I got the job.
I started as an assistant to the purchasing department. I did the bitch work. But it was at this time where I finally had the clear motivation; a soon to be wife, plans to buy a house, plans for a family, student loans, etc etc etc... With those motivations, it's easy to stay busy. I kept my head down and busted my ass. My wife did the same. We live a humble life and have never stopped our forward motion. We've both moved up the corporate ladder and there still seems like plenty of room to climb and I just had a Powerbar.
Up until now it felt like we were in a ditch we could never dig out of. Tangible progress was a decade away. But here we are in 2014 and the progress is finally starting to show. The whole time you work and work and work and feel like you're never going to get on top of things, but you do.
I no doubt inherited my value of hard work from my Dad. I've never met a guy so dedicated to integrity and hard work. It was a little daunting to be honest. We may not have always had the newest stuff but we were absolutely never lacking; That's a pretty high bar when you're looking at tens of thousands of dollars in student loans while getting paid shit. But he always said "just work hard and it'll come." He recently passed away and it's a little annoying at how some things he always preached didn't really click until it was too late to give him the credit for the lesson.
There's always going to be obstacles, hardships and new goals. That's by design. We seek things we desire, which requires effort to obtain, and it's just a matter of prioritizing your desires. But I'm just writing to say that as long as you're doing your best and working hard, you'll eventually see all the progress you've made and are making and life instantly becomes a little less rigid. You don't want to work your ass off for nothing, so it's natural to want some tangible evidence that you're working for something... Just don't take 'tangible' so literal and I think you'll find it too if you're doing your best.
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