Left field.
This premise has been happening to me recently. Honestly the last year has been one of the more arduous times of my young life, mostly because of the amount of events that have come out of left field. Though they have been absolutely brutal to endure, they have also been influential in their timing and exponential in the amount of wisdom I’ve gained from them.
The beauty of the left field is that it’s so easy to cruise through the innings. Everything could be going perfectly fine, then out of left field, a fly ball is hit inbound, up to the fence, and it's the bottom of the ninth with 3 players on base. You don’t have much time to react, and if you do take your time, you will end up losing the game. That being said I’ve had probably four of those experiences this year, in which it has completely restructured the way I’ve had to approach certain moments in time.
The beauty of being forced into these left field scenarios, is that you have to dig deep to get yourself out of them. Often, it’s as simple as putting your head down and relying on the systems you’ve set up around yourself to pull yourself together. But, for me, some of these systems were broken, often leading to mistakes and painful lessons. I think life throws you these curveballs so you have to endure the feeling of getting caught lacking in left field. It keeps life interesting, and often teaches you more about what lengths you are willing to go to get yourself back into that state of comfort. This is what entrepreneurship, relationships, health, and whatever else hits you out of left field are all about. It’s about picking up new systems and revising old ones to help combat the situation you never expected to find yourself in the first place.
What I’ve learned about being in left field is that the rules are stacked against you, and it’s for you to decide how to react. This is like the light and dark side of Star Wars, it’s so much easier to join the dark side because spewing excuses, blaming your environment, and burrowing the underlying problems are so much easier than the alternative. Joining the side that doesn’t back down is often a void of feeling lost and confused with the direction you are meant to be going. Yet, as you continue to trust yourself and know that everything will eventually work out, invisible tokens that unlock new character traits are given to you. For me, this has happened a number of times, and often in the most unexpected ways. Whether that be meeting friends that inspired me through their resilience in their own hardships, or putting myself in new environments that completely restructure the way I see the world.
Left field moments are just passages of time, and with enough mental and physical acuity, you can never lose the game.
Thanks for reading.
With love,
Kai
Weekly Poem:
It’s hit high
It’s hit wide
The baseball is gone with the wind
As he rounds the bases, he just admires that blissful state
