A week of introspection

This past week I’ve been in limbo a bit. It’s a health-related issue that didn’t actually last more than a few days, and I won’t go into too many details here, but the need to be flexible and look inward has been tremendous. To pay attention to what I am capable of doing and feeling at the moment has impacted my decisions this week more than I usually let it. Some days my major accomplishments were seemingly minor things such as eating a normal meal, exercising and getting out of my apartment. Seeing life in a different light can be a humbling experience. And I find looking inward very important, especially when faced with decisions and choices to make. I was recently told that nothing can better determine the outcome of current decisions better than our past decisions.

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One of the things that occurred on Saturday was my dad’s guitar show. He plays at Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop for fun about once every other month. My dad has been writing music and playing the guitar since he was very young, but just this year he started performing. It’s been something he’s wanted to do his entire life. While at his performance with family friends, I had the same ideas that I have had multiple times in regards to my dad’s playing. I’d like him to play at other venues as well…maybe similar atmospheres, and I think he should have a blog or something to direct fans to (if that comes in the future). I’ve taken photos while at the show and he has an email set up, but I sort of have the desire to be his agent in a way. I think it would be fun, and a lot easier for me to manage than him. What do you think?

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The Creativity book by Csikszentmihalyi has gotten me thinking about my youth a bit lately. I’ve been thinking about things that I naturally enjoy (like volleyball) and evaluating whether they might be careers. Currently, I’ve had a hard time remembering these interests and why I no longer am interested in them. I really can see why I no longer do some things that I once was good at, such as math. In this case, I was in upper-level classes and had a lot of really math-smart friends. Although I also was math-smart, I didn’t have the time/energy to be the best at math that I could have been. I had other priorities and interests.  Such as broadcast jouranlism - another interest I’ve had since I was young. I love the whole process. And, I was really good at it in high school and college. I also had a teacher who really believed in me. He motivated me and told me that I would go far. Maybe this was part of the reason why this field was and has been so important to me.