It’s not “this generation!” I will admit, I have gripped and complained about the current generation, and maybe for good reason. They are the first generation that is set to under perform the previous generation. But instead of just getting mad about it, I started researching it, I started asking questions. The main question is, “why do we have an entire generation that doesn’t care?” When I say they don’t care, I mean they don’t care about anything. This was frustrating and concerning. So I started trying to figure it out. Here is what I learned. 1. They are not as ignorant as we think 2. They want to care but have no trust in the systems we are handing off to them. 3. They are angry 4. Screen time does have an effect upon them, but it’s not the screen itself, it’s that they are more aware of the corruption and nonsense of the world around them and it makes them give up hope. The issue with this generation isn’t them, it’s actually us. Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers. We are handing them systems that are corrupt, broken and simply don’t work. We know it, us adults complain about it all the time, guess what, they know it too! Adults learned about it in their adult lives, this generation learned about it while they were still kids. That look in an adults face when it looks like the soul has been snatched out of them because life has taken it’s toll, that’s the same look in the eyes and face of an entire generation. Here’s the question, how can we get mad and frustrated at an entire generation when we are ourselves feel the same way about the systems we have? We were not like them at this age because we simply did not know any better, this generation does and instead of getting mad, maybe we should fix it or at least try to understand it? #generation #hope

The obstacle can be the very thing that stands in our way that becomes the very thing that we must overcome to be worthy of the thing we want on the other side of it.

I recently spoke to a coach and explained to him the difference between standards and expectations. Standards are what are in our control. Standards are what we can choose to do today. Expectations are us moving ourselves into the future and trying to control outcomes, which are not in our control. This is extremely hard in today’s world because we are constantly bombarded with information that pulls us into future tripping on what could or could not happen. What can you do today? That is the question.

No one is really addressing how we have reached the point we are at in society. Depression rates are high, anxiety rates are high, and suicide rates are increasing. Maybe the modern world with all it's comforts and conveniences have eroded our ability to find good in the struggle? As the world gets more and more technologically advanced, there is a corresponding rise in mental and emotional disorders and distress. This is why it is a slow fade. Over the decades we get more and more tools in which to make our life easy, but this also makes our internal world harder to navigate. There seems to be a point where comfort and ease no longer serve us but actually becomes a hinderance to us. When we choose the path of the masses we will inevitably reap the same. We have to be intentional about walking a different path. One less traveled, a path that is more ancient than it is modern. If we want to keep our sanity, this is the way.

Fear can expose us. This was April of 2020. Covid was ramped up and I was 5 months in on a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. I am holding my 1 year old son in this picture. The fear level was high due to the diagnosis, the threat level was through the roof because of Covid. I was deemed one of the most vulnerable people on the planet. Immune system compromised and taking chemo. I tried my best to drown out the noise but Covid was everywhere. Everywhere you turned it was death tolls and unknowns. Navigating that was a wild ride mentally and emotionally. But fear was ramped up everywhere and I’m not sure we as a society have truly ever bounced back. But those times taught me something. We talk about being fearless and fear is a liar, but I learned fear isn’t always lying. If we pay attention it is teaching us something, something about us. I think we get so caught up in fighting against it that we don’t learn what it is trying to teach us. It can teach us about ourselves. Where we are cowards, where we lack conviction, where we hide and shrink back when we should rise. We learn that maybe we are not as solid and steadfast as we would like the world around us to believe. But these areas for growth, tough conversations with ourselves. These are areas that don’t get exposed until they do. #fear #growth #expand