Welcome.
My name is Darrel and I'm a workaholic. And I'm certain that you are too.
It feels like every conference, phone call, or business meeting that I step into, everybody is competing to be the busiest person in the room. I'll save you some time:
It's an 8-way tie for first place.
For the past 8 years, I've been in the realm of non-profit ownership, professional athletics, and serving in the US Military (all concurrently). In hindsight, the hourglass was going to run out and I would have to face the real world.
Fast forward to today -- as a result of overcommitment, willpower, and (what I believed to be) determination: I'm tired. So tired.
I was recently asked to give some advice to the younger (and more handsome) version of myself, so here it is:
--
"Darrel,
You'll figure it out."
--
Virtually useless advice.
You see, if I were to do it all over again, I would -- I would choose that project that I knew wouldn't work out and that relationship that ended in heartbreak.
You're no stranger to the advice of doing things the "right way". To take any alternative route to my current life wouldn't be a path that I would choose for myself, nor would I choose it for you. I (and you) needed for things not to work out - just like I need things to continue to not work out. Every ounce of success is owed to every time that I just couldn't get it quite right. Run with that - as hard as you can, for as long as you can, and with as much hope as one can have.
Spoiler alert: you can change, for the better, in the exact spot that you're standing. Nobody is coming to save you.
I hope that you choose to take the right way, every time.
DW
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