NFL: New Found Love
Consumed by all the social conformity, it’s hard to know your place outside that bubble. Questions circulate. I’ve managed to yearn for something special.
The acronym worked in my favour today. The picture really has no resemblance to the blog. But NFL, you couldn’t imagine any different photo appearing here. The Dallas Cowboys are an American football team and play in the National Football League (NFL), for context.
Anyway, my new found love. It’s something I’m proud to demand and strive towards. It takes a lot of self-care, appreciating myself and understanding my place. It’s truly special.
What is my new found love?
Balance. Balance. Balance.
A balanced diet will keep you fit and healthy they say. We all try and keep to one but ice-cream and pizza make it difficult. No, this is not the balance I’m talking about.
I’m not even talking about a balanced life. Managing social and work life.
These things are easily controlled. I’m after the demon. The bane of my existence and yours too.
The balanced mind.
Our brains are wired to be productive. They also are wired to be lazy. Knowing that you’ll be lazy somedays and productive others — helps to maintain a balanced mind.
Encompassing within this is success and failure. Being successful, as arbitrary as it may be, will not last a lifetime — let alone 15 minutes as the old saying goes. Failure is always around the corner. Fearing failure isn’t bad, I think it’s healthy but understanding that it’s inevitable… well that’s what helps you grow.
There isn’t anything called ‘too good to be true’, that’s a myth. It’s the balance of what you perceive to be ‘too good to be true’ against your vision of reality. What might encapsulate that for you won’t for another person.
Comparing yourself is fine too. I hate when people make it sound so easy to not compare yourself to others better or worse than you. We live a competitive environment where everyone is trying to get one up on each other. It’s natural. We’re not all monks and can’t all hone our inner self at every moment. If you compare yourself to someone, just know that they are doing the same.
With every action, know the reverse. Be aware and have deep thoughts about it. I’ve been doing this recently. For example, today I tried to smile at strangers. Sounds weird but it was for a good purpose. When I smiled at people, I got one of two reactions. Either they’d smile back or give me the evils. My success rate was better than I thought. I’d say 40% smiled back.
This is in London. One of the most unfriendly places to commute. I’d say all isn’t lost.
I balanced my smile with the thought that they might smile back but also what might happen if they don’t. I didn’t feel bad because I expected it. I evaluated and accounted for it.
You can’t control everything. You can try and influence as much as possible.
Looking at both sides of the story, understanding why people do the things they do — that’s how YOU grow.
Learn the world around you and you’ll be unstoppable.