Stronger

You have heard that saying "what does not kill you will make you stronger"? 

Well I am here to tell you that is complete load of shit.  If you survived an ass kicking with no real knowledge of how to navigate around the next one or avoid it altogether, you just have not done much at all.   A lot of people confuse having a hard head with strength.  I can attest to the fact that a hard head does not make you stronger.

We all endure those gut wrenching periods of confusion, self doubt, and stress.  When this happens (and it happens to all of us) the goal should NEVER be to just endure those times.  The goal is to learn to recognize them and learn how to navigate them better EACH TIME.  You have survived these times before, learn to recognize them and how you successfully navigated them.

You are learning what all very successful people learn.  You have challenged yourself and have high expectations of yourself.  That will always come with a price of sorts.  You will have those periods of doubt and stress more frequently than those that do not.   The upside is that you will always achieve a great deal more personally and professionally than people who do not. 

Learn that the doubt and stress, while very normal (it really is) is generally self imposed.  We are our own hardest critics.  Learning to forgive yourself and let some things go really goes a long way towards shortening those times of stress and doubt.  You will find that almost always you are the last person to forgive yourself and let things that people have long forgotten go.  Try to remember the last epic fail from any one of your friends..it just does not seem like much now.

I will tell you with a great deal of pride that you are light years ahead of where your mom and I were at your age.  You always manage to impress the hell out of me.

The things that have made me stronger never did come close to killing me.  The things that came close to killing me never made me stronger,  

Love Dad