When I was 22, I remember an entire week where my diet consisted almost entirely of Ginger Snaps and water. No, I did not have an eating disorder, I had a money disorder…the disorder was that I had very little money.
At the time I was still in college, I wasn’t particularly sure about what I wanted to do with my life. The struggle of having no money, at that time, had virtually no purpose or reward, because the struggle was not in service of anything other than cost-effective survival. However looking back, now that I have a clearly defined set of goals and a deeply held purpose…I can appreciate the lesson learned.
I learned how to survive and be satisfied with very little.
Did I want sushi back then while I was eating Ginger Snaps? OF COURSE. But I learned very quickly that was not an option, and I lived on a tight budget until I could get out of the hole. It was a necessary struggle.
If I could go back and talk to 22 year old me, I would give myself the following talk:
“Use this time to discover your passion and your purpose. Find a career path that you can fall in love with again and again. Don’t let the struggle be for nothing.
Embrace the hardship, embrace the struggle because while it’s important to play the game of life as a daily event, it’s equally important to remember that there are often many more innings than we’re capable of conceiving today. Play a long game.
Learn to be satisfied with less so that if you need to shed all that is unnecessary in the future, in order to give yourself a better shot at the future you want, that you can do so with relative ease. Be willing at all times to struggle if necessary, it will only make you stronger.”
I’m giving a guest lecture today at St. Joseph’s University. I think I’ll close with this advice.