Brady Need – @BradyNeed
After the completion of my junior year at Purdue, I was headed south for my summer internship. I found myself living in a new town where I knew only a few people, none who shared my passion for fitness. This would be my first summer living away from my hometown where I knew everyone and had my choice of gym friends daily. I would not have my garage full of all of the equipment that I had become used to using in an environment where I was comfortable. Instead, I would have one power rack, some bars, and half of my weights in a back garage along an alley. I still had plenty of equipment to get the job done and had no real excuse to let my training fall off, but my environment and everything I had come to know had changed and that made me uncomfortable. It took me a few weeks of struggling to fully realize the impact it had taken on me. Not just my training had been affected, but my personal relationships, my daily routines, and my inner happiness all saw the effects that this move had on me.
Now a month into my summer, I am truly enjoying every aspect of my life. I am once again happy in the gym, embracing the relationships I am blessed with, and find myself happy at a days end. And what drastic thing changed all of that for me? My outlook on my position in life. I spent those first few weeks complaining and highlighting all of the negative things that were happening to me even though I had a mountain of amazing blessings in my life that I should have been thankful for. I thought the world was revolving around me and there was no reason that I deserved to be unhappy. But once I took a step back and thought to myself “dude, you’ve got so many great things going for you so whats the deal” my outlook completely changed. Instead of focusing on each negative thing that happened I started to highlight the positives. And once that change hit me, it was like it was a whole new summer. Yeah, I was still living in an unfamiliar town and didn’t have all of the comforts of home, but I chose to now look at this as a new opportunity as opposed to a dreadful summer internship.
I never thought of myself as someone who gets down easy. I try to always be a positive guy and focus on the bright things in life. That may be why it took me a month of complaining and unhappiness to finally realize that all I needed to do was suck it up and embrace my position in life. Once I embraced my position, I found happiness in my discomfort.
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