Month: April 2011

Keeping it in Perspective

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Happy Easter everyone! I’ve always celebrated Easter, but I’ve only grown to really appreciate this day of thanks since leaving Hawaii.

Keeping with this theme of thanks, a couple days a go, one of the blogs I follow published an interesting article on the concept of seeing the cup half full or half empty. For a long time, I was a complete victim to this syndrome. I think the reason for this probably stems back to my days in Hawaii, where I felt that if I didn’t do something great, there’d be no chance for me to leave for better opportunities on the mainland. There was a real sense of urgency to outperform. Certainly, that drive and ambition pushed me to over-achieve, but I’ve realized it’s also important to take a step back and truly appreciate what’s happening in the now, and what’s already been achieved.

This focus on the present is something that I’ve never been good at, though I’m trying. Thinking about life in terms of “what is” rather than “what isn’t” really makes living day-to-day that much more enjoyable, for me at least.

 

Well-being

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A little over a year ago, Gallup published an interesting book on Well-being. The authors decompose well-being into five elements: career, social, financial, physical, and community well-being. I learned about this book after taking Gallup’s “Strength’s Finder 2.0” test that identifies an individual’s five top strengths from a list of 25 different strengths. Mine were: deliberative, learner, focus, restorative, and achiever. Anyway, back to well-being.

I like Gallup’s Well-being framework because it captures everything possible that we may derive value and happiness, though certainly some people may naturally derive more value from one of the five elements than others. In addition, I find this framework useful in how I structure this blog going forward. Over the next couple days, I’ll discuss my thoughts on each of the five elements. Over time, I hope to use this blog as a way of chronicling my efforts in achieving well-being as a twenty-something currently based in DC.

 

 

One Foot On Sand – The Journey Begins!

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Me, blogging? Again!? I know, I know, some of you may be thinking why blog, and why now?

Well, to express myself – obviously. In addition though, I’m blogging as a way to improve my writing, to discuss my thoughts and opinions, and also to get your feedback! Sounds like a typical blogger. Perhaps? But here’s why you should follow my blog…

For as long as I can remember, I often found myself sounding either too formal, too convoluted, or simply at a loss of words. I’m hoping that by reading this blog, you’ll be able to get a different perspective of who I really am, my interests and passions, and what I’m really thinking about.

So what do I plan on writing about? A number of things. But first, I should probably talk about what I won’t be writing about – namely, my day job. Although it’s great, this blog will be used as a sounding board of my thoughts and ideas outside of work.

So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I hope to use this blog as a journal of sorts as I continue my journey in developing my mind, body, and soul as a twenty-something. Hope you stick around and find out! Thanks for reading!