Entry #6: Using Old Skills

I hope my thoughts have given you some kind of help or calm. I can't count how many times I would have loved to have any advice going through my chaos. I'm not some kind of guru; just a guy that's been through a few too many crisis'. If I can give anyone even a fraction of what I needed when I was there, I'll be happy. Knowledge and experience aren't worth much if we don't use and share it.

That being said, just because you are starting over doesn't mean you've got nothing to work with. No lack of money, support, or time can take away the experience and skills you've gained up to this point. It does get hard sometimes to remember, or even realize what those are when we're in the middle of chaos, but what got you here can get you where you are going. The hardest part is not dismissing things because they are "not a big deal."

There are two barriers I see when people try figuring out what they are good at. Not realizing how something they do every day can be leveraged into something completely different. Even if it's not a 100% crossover, the foundations are there. So now you're just fine tuning. The other miss comes from discounting the "basics." We've gotta change how we look at what we can actually do.

We take a bit of our last discussion and break down the necessities. If you can write with a pen, brush your teeth, or tie your shoes, then you can handle chopping and cooking food. If you can manage resources in video game or keep track of your fantasy football team then you can manage a budget. And if you can organize your backpack or purse, plan that trip to a music festival, or make game night a success, you can put together the steps to make this change work for you.

People spend a whole lot of time trying to convince us that anything we've done that wasn't directly related to making money is worthless, and by proxy we are worthless too. Ignoring the fact that anyone that says things like that is to be immediately ignored, they are also wrong. There is so much more that goes into life. Hell there is so much that goes in to "making money" that no one has the right to tell you anything is worthless.

At different points tin my life, I have made money, playing video games, doing children's crafts, sneaking around, staying awake all night, driving a car and I'm sure a dozing other "useless" or underappreciated skills. And yes, people told me I was wasting my time learning half of those skills. Now that I say that, I was told I was wasting my time doing half those jobs. 

I know I've talked about rest being part of the process but so is eating, taking vacation, and spending any amount time living life. It's those experiences, as much as any time "doing something worthwhile," that inspires us, keeps us focused, and shows us where we need to be. So, use it. Lean into it. No one can live your life for you. And the life you have already lived has given you plenty to work with. Even if all you've done is survive one bad thing after another, you survived. That's a skill no one can really teach.

I'm sure I could carry on like this for longer than we'd all like, so I'll leave it at this. So many parts of life, from the smallest biological bits to mastering any amount of this craziness we call life, have features that arise that no one could expect. We can look at a pile parts and could never imagine, cars, or computers or even the human body. In science they are called emergent properties. So take a look at what you've actually got and see what emerges.