How a Saskatchewan Winter and a Concussion Helped Me Refocus

As you may have already read in my previous post about why I am writing this blog, I like to try new things, especially when it comes to sports. This winter, it was Flag Football. Flag Football is traditionally a non-contact sport, but sometimes things get heated when it comes to playoffs.

So let’s set the stage. Week 2 of the playoffs, our team is playing against one of the top teams in the league with a birth in the finals at stake. We are down a touchdown late in the first half, and we have the ball. The play call is a WR bubble screen to me, and I catch the ball, make the first guy miss, go to juke the second guy, and… we crash head-on-head. Both of us have a huge gash right above our eyes, in the exact same spot.

Since I am a competitor, and there is a spot in the finals at stake, I think let’s patch this thing up and get back out there. Well this is where shit hits the fan, I get back into the game and play a few drives in the second half. With 30 seconds left in the second half, we are still down a touchdown. If we score and get the one-point conversion, we win. So, in the drive’s first play, our quarterback tosses me a quick slant. The pass is a little high, but I make the catch, and the defender takes out my legs. I land on my head and my gash reopens. I am out of the game, and we end up just a little short of the win. On the ride home, I feel sick to my stomach, but I assume that I just feel bad about the loss the night before.

One sleepless night and a trip to the doctor later, I find out that I have a concussion, and since I am a remote worker and sit in front of a screen for 40 hours a week, I have to take a week off work. Also, it is still winter in Saskatchewan, and I cannot go outside to do things. Another thing about me is that I am an eternal optimist, and I always try to see the bright side of things. So what did I end up doing? I rested, took the dog on some self-led walks, listened to some audiobooks and podcasts, and most notably, I spent time reflecting on all of the things that I learned in my 20s.

One of my passions that has stuck with me since my early 20s is personal finance. There is an incredible amount of information on how to properly manage your expenses, be efficient with your money, or save for retirement. While I believe these are essential prerequisites to financial success in life, a few critical steps come before this, related to your lifestyle, and the why behind your financial goals. To me, this is finding your whys in life and the reasons for your hard work.

In the past few years, gosh there have been many days where I have felt like crap, not wanted to work, or not wanted to have any sort of responsibilities in life. But every single day, I sure as heck try to take steps in the right direction towards the life I want to live. I believe that this is driven by finding some core beliefs and a strong why.

So during that time off, I thought deeply about my why and tried to boil it down to what has made me tick in my 20s. I landed on five reasonably simple tenets, and they are as follows:

1. Think deeply about the rhythms and flows that you desire in life.
2. Find what is enough for you (or your Boulders).
3. Build the life that you want to live.
4. Stop caring about what other people think.
5. Focus on what you can control.

I want to highlight that, depending on who you are and where you are in life, these tenets will be unique to you. And in ten years (or maybe even in a year lol), when I reflect back on this post, I have a feeling that I will have a different world view, and I may not even agree with myself. What I do know for certain is that I will be proud of the fact that I spent the time in my 20s thinking about and trying to set my family up for the future. I want to go deep on each of these Tenets in future posts, but that’s it for today, blog post #3 in the books!