“Knew she was New Jersey, but said that she was Anaheim” – Lupe Fiasco
Evil doesn’t always visit us in the form of a red tail wagging thing with a pitchfork in it’s hands — that would be too obvious. More often than not, it comes in the form of those we love and that which we seek. Only when your faith is absolutely at it’s sharpest can you dissect the difference between a New Jersey Devil and an Anaheim Angel before it’s too late.
Example: Since I moved up here, to New Jersey nonetheless, things have been going good and bad. Good in the sense that my company and career are pointed in the right direction in just two months and I’ve seen growth that I know for a fact would have never happened if I stayed home. The bad, well, let’s just say the list is long. All the natural things that you can expect when a 22 year old is taken out of his element and lives in a space where he has basically no one to help him with anything.
Naturally, unsolicited advice starts to come in from all angles. “Maybe you should just go back to school”, “maybe you should just move back home”, “maybe you should go get a job”, etc. All great suggestions if I was to look at them on a surface level. All things that would make life so much “easier”. But there lies the problem; I’m not seeking easy. I’m actually chasing difficult. I’m chasing impossible. How is the easy road ever going to get me to the impossible? The answer is that it won’t. The easy road, taken by so many, will lead me to a lifetime of regret and resentment for those who encouraged me to take it.
What I’m basically saying is to always be cautious of what is being handed to you. If you’re on a path, stay on it until you yourself feel it’s time to change course. I’m not saying to disregard advice and opinions, that would be silly. I’m saying you should quickly be able to filter if advice is being given to you from a perspective that furthers your goals or disrupts them. A simple test is to assess the person who it’s coming from. If they’ve never experienced what you want to experience, never been where you want to go, don’t even come close to seeing your vision, then chances are high that their advice isn’t for you — even if you love them.
