Saturday, June 29, 2019
Attitude
I was talking today with a clerk at a local store, a young woman about to start her senior year high school. It developed that she works two summer jobs, up to 13 hrs/day, saving it all for college. She seemed rather satisfied with what she's doing. I told her she is doing exactly the right thing.
The attitude she projected about this was quite positive. She is building endurance, professional skill, and self-confidence... all before starting college. This is the key to success.
The gulf between her attitude and the "I want free stuff" attitude that certain of our politicians are trying to inculcate in us is enormous. She's building strength and self-reliance; they ask us to adopt helplessness and dependency, the route to individual failure and national disaster.
I was sufficiently impressed that I mentioned this to one of my colleagues. He responded "Good social norms have huge staying power. Unfortunately we are still doing our best to undermine them. Just think what the talk about debt forgiveness is doing to her incentives..." Yes, although I think the attitude and behavior of the clerk aren't social norms. They are individual -- they exist at the individual level, and if one wants to be successful this is the attitude and behaviors one must adopt, social norms be damned. Even as society is falling apart (perhaps especially if) the key to success is to set good goals, then work hard, consistently, and competently to achieve them. Be self responsible.
Speaking of working towards goals, I took four days off from running for recovery purposes (did some easy hiking, walking, shooting, and a death-defying kayak trip down the Gallatin with Jeff "Kayak Geek" Ross to celebrate his birthday). Today I ran four miles; highlight was 4x0.25 miles (400m) intervals, just to push my aerobic conditioning and leg strength. I'm faster with better recovery than last year, I'm pleased to report. I also did 130 pushups and 70 deadhang pullups to round out the month. Onwards!
The attitude she projected about this was quite positive. She is building endurance, professional skill, and self-confidence... all before starting college. This is the key to success.
The gulf between her attitude and the "I want free stuff" attitude that certain of our politicians are trying to inculcate in us is enormous. She's building strength and self-reliance; they ask us to adopt helplessness and dependency, the route to individual failure and national disaster.
I was sufficiently impressed that I mentioned this to one of my colleagues. He responded "Good social norms have huge staying power. Unfortunately we are still doing our best to undermine them. Just think what the talk about debt forgiveness is doing to her incentives..." Yes, although I think the attitude and behavior of the clerk aren't social norms. They are individual -- they exist at the individual level, and if one wants to be successful this is the attitude and behaviors one must adopt, social norms be damned. Even as society is falling apart (perhaps especially if) the key to success is to set good goals, then work hard, consistently, and competently to achieve them. Be self responsible.
Speaking of working towards goals, I took four days off from running for recovery purposes (did some easy hiking, walking, shooting, and a death-defying kayak trip down the Gallatin with Jeff "Kayak Geek" Ross to celebrate his birthday). Today I ran four miles; highlight was 4x0.25 miles (400m) intervals, just to push my aerobic conditioning and leg strength. I'm faster with better recovery than last year, I'm pleased to report. I also did 130 pushups and 70 deadhang pullups to round out the month. Onwards!
