I’m just getting in to my prime, so I’m sure my perspective will change. My “biggest challenge” has been an amorphous, poorly defined mess. One month I think it’s one thing, the next month another thing. To set the table, I’m very fortunate to have my basic needs met and then some. But, since I graduated from university I’ve had less of a sense of personal progress.

My emphasis after college was to work hard at my job and to finally experience the life I was promised. Now that I’m a decade separated from my college graduation, looking back and reflecting on what I’ve accomplished in my life separate from my job, there’s not much. Yes, I’ve checked some boxes that people check, but I wouldn’t call those accomplishments.

I know that I’m the kind of person that has an aversion to routine. It’s particularly troubling because I’m a busy body who likes to plan. I love everything about planning right up until the execution. Once I’m supposed to actually sit down and do the thing, I fall apart. I have this voice in the back of my head that tells me “Why bother?,” because I don’t feel like I can trust myself to actually do it. I’m not that type of person.

Funny enough, I recently watched season 1 of Ted Lasso and that changed everything for me.

(Pause for dramatic effect).

Yes, really.

The show Ted Lasso was way better than it should have been. A TV show based on a silly commercial from last decade was destined to be a silly cash grab…until it wasn’t.

Believe in yourself is something I have heard and do hear all the time. Sometimes it represents itself in different forms (like in elementary school in the gym, the poster on the wall saying “aim for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars”). Yet, when working my way through this season of Ted Lasso it really clicked.

I don’t necessarily need to believe in myself to get something done and believing in myself doesn’t in its self make me any better at doing the thing, but what believing in myself does do is it dramatically increases the chance of me showing up to the starting line and carrying through with the thing.

Since watching that season of that show I have plastered signs with the word BELIEVE all over my life as (not so) subtle reminders. They’re in my bathroom, on my phone home screen, in my car and even behind this very computer screen taped to the wall.

Since establishing this belief explicitly and positioning all these cues around my life, I have noticed a shift. I’m trying more things and I’m having more success at things I’m trying.

Who knew that believing in myself was what I needed to take that next step. Who knew that the answer could be so simple? And, who knew that the answer would come from Ted Lasso of all places? I guess that Apple TV Plus free trial was worth it (emphasis on the ‘free.’ I won’t pay for it until season two comes out as there’s nothing else on there worth watching at this point 😅).

Of course my journey isn’t over. This answer is just the beginning.

Thanks for reading,

-Michael

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