My dad and I make one call every other month that tends to last about 2 to 3 hours. During our most recent marathon phone call, my dad delivered one of the biggest compliments he has ever given me.
“Atiyya, you’re so much like me because you love to learn and read and collect knowledge. But the biggest difference between me and you is that you actually did something with what you learned. I let it slip away, but not you. You’re taking action with it all.”
I know. Brought me to tears too.
Let’s add some context.
The Context
This conversation started because I shared with my dad the fact that I’m writing online and my strategy for how I plan to make money from it.
I’ve actually only just started making my first couple of dollars online last month. So I’ve obviously got a long way to go.
But my dad was shocked. Unlike several people’s parents, he sat back and began cheering me on, saying inspiring words.
Yet what I heard him say was not just the difference between him and me.
It’s the difference between our two generations, showing a gap that is wider than we think.
Gen Z Started Loud Quitting
Everyone wants to talk about how cute it is to “quietly quit”. To barely show up to work and not care.
Gen Z said, “why would I do that when I could turn in my two week notice and say ‘Stuff it’ to my boss?”
That’s the difference between my dad and I.
My dad is from the generation of quiet quitters and I’m from the generation of, you can’t tell me nothin’.
A great example is my wife and I wanting to do multi-family real estate and both being ready to never return to the classroom in the Fall of 2022.
This venture failed, leaving me back in the classroom. Yet, my wife is still terrified to come back.
And I remind her of the same thing: it isn’t forever. We’ll get out of here as soon as we can.
But there are teachers who hate waking up and coming to work everyday but don’t know what else to do with their lives.
They’ve “quiet quit” their current jobs but don’t have the ability to take action into the next phase of their lives.
Like my dad said, I’m all about action. My wife and I are working this job to get to our next level of life. How about you?
Action Taking As A Practice
Remember how I mentioned multi-family real estate above? Well the major lesson that I learned from that $39,000 coaching experience gone down the toilet is that I have to take action if I want my life to change.
We’ve gotta stop sitting on the sidelines and allowing life to happen to us.
Instead, step onto the court of life and start playing in the game. Don’t let the game happen to you. Be the gamechanger in the midst of the madness.
Tony Robbins once said that you should never become addicted to learning. It’s crippling. Instead, become addicted to taking action, using your knowledge in order to improve your world or the world as a whole.
Taking action is the only hope we have in a different world.
The Destination vs. The Journey
In my journey to becoming a full-time writer and creator, I know that this is just the beginning.
This is the beginning of my great biography in the making, the underdog story of the century.
But I’m not going to get to tell that story if I give up and stay where I’m at. Instead, I have to push myself to remember that it isn’t about my destination.
It isn’t about some airy, dreamy future that sounds like it’ll hold all my wildest dreams.
Instead, I have to focus on the journey. I have to keep my eyes steady on the murky steps before me. As soon as my focus drifts to the future, I get stuck in the steps of today. Instead, I look toward the future with hope, knowing that I’ll only get there with one foot at a time.
Or with one stroke of the keyboard at a time. Hopefully, you’ll get there too.
…
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
 |
 |
 |
 |
—–
Photo credit: Štefan Štefančík on Unsplash
