Where is my small pond…
Have you gotten the memo about Neil Pasricha international bestseller, “You Are Awesome”? Well if you want to propel yourself to the next level of your life, it’s a must to perform in 2021. I’ve been going through his book a little bit more slowly than the others, first because I’m a slow reader but a fast listener. Second, I need breaks to absorb the fabulous wisdom he delivers brilliantly.
Don’t get me wrong, I still audio read when I can’t sit still as I go about my day which allowed me to devour at double the speed the audiobook,” Your Body Is Not An Apology" in one afternoon. I do recommend this book for the radical self-love teachings it provides and how it help me deepened my compassion. There’s no such thing as too much love in this world.
Now, back on the topic of small ponds, what does it mean? Through the priceless advice of John H. McArthur (founder of a Canadian Fellowship program that helps Havard students in need of financial support), the author’s own experience and research made on the subject, when you work in an environment where you’re one of the best-qualified people around you improve your academic self-concept for the rest of your life. In other words, as you accumulate small wins, you more comfortably achieve bigger victories over time. Our monkey brains like that stuff --little treats to motivate us along the way. The idea is that you want to be the bigger fish in a small pond in the begging to develop your skills and confidence.
Then dots started connecting. If you’ve been reading me in the past few weeks you know my ambition is to go back to school to study the human microbiome. My two biggest challenges right now are having to start from scratch redoing all my math and science high school courses I totally forgot about and, most importantly, cover my living expenses as I embark on a 10-year study journey. I’ve been dwelling, researching and compiling different ways to address my financial needs and this idea of a big fish in a small pond may have just done that. At my stage, acquiring the basic course to build my academic foundation to enter a microbiology department doesn’t require that I attend a prestigious school. If where I study is not as important in the first 3 years, what about going to a smaller university to start than complete my program in a more renowned institution by the end of my curriculum? Not only living in a more affordable small city where I could fulfill my dream of having a garden and urban chickens would give me a better quality of life at an affordable cost, and it would also place me in a less stressful academic environment so I can get into the rhythm of higher education. I was already considering moving to a more affordable province to reduce my expenses but I’m pushing the concept one step further. I’m excited at the eventuality of living in an unusual study town. What would it be like to be close to nature and educate myself all at once while improving my quality of life at multiple levels?
I’m not making plans to move yet but from an inconvenient monetary constraint, I may be stretching into a creative win-win solution that gives me joy butterflies. A feeling of adventure in sedentary, that’s fun!
Of course, to be continued as I like to say. I will do proper research and give this idea time so I can see if this is actually a viable option. Shifting cutting costs from a place of fear to cutting costs from a place of growth — It seems Scott Sonenshien's stretch philosophy is sinking in.
