Quotes of the Week from Me:

“I never really knew the most fulfilling changes are the most difficult challenges.”

“Think of all the beautiful things.”

“You can and must endure.”

“How is your family?” – a good self-check-in before and after big decisions.

Quotes of the Week from Others:

“Confidence isn’t walking into a room thinking you are better than everyone; it’s walking in not having to compare yourself to anyone at all.” – Unknown

“How easy for those, who have no sorrow of their own to talk of exertion!” – Jane Austen

“I envy paranoids, they actually feel people are paying attention to them.” – Susan Sontag

“He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach – that it makes no sense.” – Philip Roth

Quick Optimism:

One of the best ways to ensure progress is prioritizing deadlines over your mood. If you give yourself a deadline, you are more likely to meet it. Then, even if you don’t, you’ll be much closer to where you wanted to go in the first place.

Elon Musk once said, “If you give yourself 30 days to clean your home, it will take 30 days. But if you give yourself 3 hours, it will take you 3 hours.” We can all push our own efficiency a bit more at times.

This is another reminder to be consistent. Consistent work, workouts, investments, and quality foods will compound. I have said this. Hundreds of others say it every day. But it’s a great reminder to keep finding ways to achieve it!

Questions of the Week:

Happy Super Bowl Monday everyone! Did you watch the game? I definitely did and as a must, I filled up completely on chicken wings. But that’s not the question or the story of the week.

Hopefully you had a nice weekend, and if you had a few too many, I am thinking of you as you work your way to the other side of a hangover. Thankfully I skipped that part of the Super Bowl this year, but this week I ran into my own obstacles, which led to my question of the week:

How has your identity changed over the course of your life?

This was a heavy hitter for me. I thought about it a lot over the weekend. And while difficult to fully grasp some of the realities, I am sure I wouldn’t want to be anything or anyone else than who I am today at 29 years old.

It doesn’t always feel this way, but certain bright spots can make life feel more manageable, especially when you are feeling uncertain.

Sometimes, other questions follow:

How did you get to where you are now?

What have you held onto, or let go of over the years?

I had a difficult time answering some of these questions fully. But then I watched Trash Truck, my son’s favorite cartoon, and stumbled upon an interview between James Corden and Jay Shetty. The Trash Truck episode and interview were both about balloons.

In the opening scene of Trash Truck, the main character finds a shiny coin. He begins to daydream about all of the things he could buy with it. He decides against ice cream, the movies, and the arcade. Then he sees a balloon stand. The rest of the episode is about all of the fun things the characters do with the balloons, and eventually they let them fly away, high into the sky.

Like the episode, James Corden dives into the analogy of having a balloon as a child. Corden and Shetty mention how we are programmed to think that once we find something good, we will do everything we can to keep that good forever. Corden continues explaining that we hold the balloon tight, tie it around our wrists, and do whatever we can to never let go of that balloon.

But, he continues, if we hold onto the balloon too long and drag it with us everywhere we go, it will eventually start to lose helium and wilt and shrivel up. He says it is better to let it go, enjoy it leaving, and gaze at it while thinking about all of the good times you had with it. Then as you watch it go, you can get excited about the next balloon you’ll have in life. It might be a different size, shape, or color, and it’s something to look forward to.

It’s important that we are able to shift our embrace, or learn to let go of things we once tried so desperately to keep. Whether our balloons or identities, some will be more difficult to watch as they float away.

I hope you can find some time to start your week by sitting down to think about your changing identity. Just give yourself 10 minutes and work through the highs and lows with a loved one or on your own.

Ask yourself the questions above, and finally, think about your favorite balloons and what kind you want to hold onto for a while next.