Waist-Deep in Thought...

“We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.” - Buddha

As I encountered 2010 it was clear to me that for whatever reason this year I would encounter many challenges. I was stuck in the in-between of "adulthood" and college. An emphatically obscure time in my life. There were innumerable notions streaming through my mind. Am I going to end up running the family business? Do I settle for the first job offer I get even thought it's not exactly what I want? Do I move to a city I truly don't want to live in because of a great job offer? In the midst of all this confusion there was an apparent challenge being presented to me for this year. "Selfishness". I've encountered more exploitations of vainglory this year than I have ever before.

With that said....After a sensational night out last night with some of my closest friends from college the alarm interrupted a much needed nights sleep only 4 hours after I had laid my head down. Not only was it 5:00 AM but it was raining. Not necessarily starting the day off with the winningest attitude I got ready and trudged off to the soccer fields where we would be having our  soccer classifications. As I pulled into the parking lot I was the ONLY one who had arrived on-time, adding to my wonderful state of mind. I begrudgingly began to piece together the soccer goals all while thinking how all I wanted to do was be in bed.Freezing and soaking wet, I took my place on the field to observe the teams so that I could properly place them in the correct brackets for the Area 10 tournament. While teams approached the fields I noticed an athlete walking towards my field with a seeing-eye dog. At this point I thought to myself, how does an athlete with a seeing-eye dog even compete? As I was watching the games making notes as to which teams had dominant athletes, strong goalies or forwards....it happened. The athlete, Brian, who has a SEEING-EYE dog scored the first goal of the game....the pure bliss that immediately ensued over the entire field and ecstatic reaction out of Brian can't even be put into words. At that moment I realized that I was out having a great time last night and poor pitiful me had to wake up early on a Saturday and put together a few soccer goals but the joy that these few menial tasks ended up bringing to this athlete is irreplaceable.

After cleaning up the soccer classification we headed to Plano for our gymnastics competition at WOGA (Nastia Liukin's gym). It was a long day, again I was tired, ready to go home. Towards the end of the competitions I was given the duty of awarding the athletes with Nastia, something I have done numerous times now. I was sort of just going through the motions putting no real enthusiasm into it. Awards finally came to a close and I was cleaning up the medals ready to be on my way. As I was packing our medals back up thinking about all the things I had to do when I got home I felt two arms wrap around my waist. I turned around and it was one of our athletes, Heather. She looked up at me with the five medals hanging around her neck and a huge smile, the kind that is infectious and said "I just wanted to say thank you, that was the best day ever!".

We all need to step back sometimes and realize that the world doesn't revolve around us and that the SIMPLEST of efforts sometimes can make the BIGGEST difference in someone else's life. If it means staying an hour later at the bar so you can properly wingman for your friend even though you have an early morning the next day, do it...because when the tables are turned you'd have wished you had someone that would be SELFLESS enough to return the favor. Not to mention it'll uplift your own mood knowing you made someone's day or night and a sense of accomplishment. My career happens to make a huge impact on the lives of some pretty incredible people but it doesn't have to be anything that big, it can be as simple as going to see that movie you have no interest in seeing with your Dad because you know he has no one to go see it with.

My goal this year....selflessness.

Xo Ya Digg?!