Kind of a slump around here lately. Not much going on – been kind of busy with Halloween stuff the last few days.

For those of you that are wondering, no progress on a new car or my car yet. I still have to take the car to Dave to put back together and I haven’t even had time to do that. I’m hoping to get around to it this evening so I can get it out of the way.

I have a rant, though.

Something that has been bothering me lately is the way some people have this skewed and superficial way of thinking about their future. What I mean is that they have no sense of drive or will to become something potentially better than what they are today and if they do, they are just really good at talking about it with no action to follow through. It’s simple – to get the ball to the other side of the court, you need to swing your racket. No swing means no change. But no swinging is not a bad thing – maybe some people don’t want change, they like “sameness”. However a lot of people want change, they just don’t want to work. The “IDEA” of going to University and graduating then landing a 6-figure salary job that involves little-to-no work sounds brilliant. The “WORK” you have to put in is a little more complicated. The problem is that some of the people I meet are so fascinated with the “idea” that it becomes their expectation. Hold on a second… what happened to the “work” part? Oh that’s right, they don’t want to do it.

I don’t believe in many things. I don’t believe God will help me through difficult times. I don’t believe God gave me the good things. I don’t believe my good fortune is because I gave the homeless guy money. I don’t believe in someone watching over me and I certainly don’t believe in waiting for something good to happen. And Karma? Coincidence. However, I do believe you can change your circumstances. With every action there is a reaction. If you work hard, people recognize you. If you are creative, people acknowledge you. People – friends and family – can open the doors of opportunity for you but ultimately, you drive the ship. Independence is knowing the difference between handing the keys over and taking the backseat and designing your own route to your goal.

Focus, persistence, optimism and patience – these things are my drivers. Knowing what you want, pushing towards it, understanding that it will come then waiting for it will always work. Not everyone will get their life handed to them on a silver platter. I hate that. But I don’t hate the fact that it’s not my life. Looking back, all of those shitty part-time jobs I did sucked… They really did. I carried groceries out for people at Sobeys. I put on an apron and a visor and made pizza and hot dogs in the theater. I sat behind a desk during the evenings taking phone calls for 5 years at a nursing home. I performed eye examinations. All of these jobs that I despised so much shaped who I am today and I think that’s what people forget. You don’t do these jobs for nothing, you do them to build your bases. I got my first tip from a lady driving a Cadillac at Sobeys. I learned how to deal with difficult people at the theater. I learned proper desk job etiquette at the nursing home. I learned professionalism at the eye doctors. There is no way in hell would I have been hired today if I didn’t know any of the above, and I certainly wouldn’t have learned it sitting on my ass complaining about how my life sucks and how nothing good happens to me.

There is always going to be someone that is better than you, and you can’t hate them for it. You can only work harder to be better than them. And once you’re better than them, you’ll find someone who is better than you again shortly after and you work on being better than that guy. Be better than that guy.