Ch 2: Life Skills

Hey guys,

It is currently 12:47 AM. Technically not Wednesday night, but can we pretend? I had a tough time getting up this morning. Plenty of items that I could say contributed to this, but now's not quite the time to get into it all. Bottom line is I got out of bed, went to school for four hours, had a break at home, then 7 hours of work. First day of school + work.

At school today we discussed characteristics, ethics, and like the title of this here post says . . . Life Skills! We set short term, intermediate, and long term goals. I will be honest with you all and say that when I set goals I'm not often specific. Today we had to write down dates, percentages, and much more. I like to stay quite in classes. ALL classes. I don't like volunteering my answers. I almost always doubt myself or feel like I will end up being humiliated. This could be from childhood experiences, but I'll save that for another time (maybe). But in class I shared a lot. A section in our workbooks asks us to "List the people who are in your rear-view mirror that you have counted on and will continue to support your legacy." I shared the individuals I wrote down, but that's not the most significant aspect. I added that I have such few names because over the past good handful of months I have realized people changed. I can't change who they are in relation to me due to definition, but I can change the way in which I view them. This was the part that got my classmates clapping. I felt like I had just said something life changing. Well in my case it is.

My instructor posed a question. Why is the rear-view mirror smaller than your windshield. I'm sure the first thought you have is along the lines of ummm so you can see where you're driving, duh! That may be true, but I decided that the rear-view mirror is smaller because it is more important to look to the future, what's ahead of you, than to reflect on your past. The past is the past, you can't change it. Although sometimes I think we all wish we could change the past. I know if I could change the past the last 8 months would be incredibly different. This may sound like common sense, but I think everyone should take a minute to think about what this means to them and apply it to their lives.

I hope you took this to heart.

ALG