Monday, October 30, 2006
Re-lighting the fire - non poker
So I got a surprise call on Friday Evening. I’m in the den, feet up, game 5 of the World Series (featuring the Detroit Tigers) on the teley (that’s a British term I picked up while living in England that means “TV”), a $1/$2 limit H.O.R.S.E. game on PokerStars that I’m killing for about $20 profit, kids in bed,…. It was shaping up to be a good evening.
My old high school buddy called me. We both went to school in Roseland Nebraska, population 512, and have sporadically kept in touch throughout the years as both he and I have moved around a bit.
We have attempted to keep alive a tradition of calling each other on our birthdays. Mine was Friday. His was Saturday. It’s the one day of the year that I’m older than him (as he often reminds me). To be honest, we have not been real successful at our attempted birthday call tradition (I’m guessing that we are a combined 10 for 24 in the years since we graduated high school). That’s right, it’s been 24 years since high school which puts me at 42. Side note: I’m now eligible to play in the senior’s bracket at Hoop-it-up. I just need to find 3 other 40+ers that can play worth a damn.
Anyway, what was interesting is that both Bill and I have cycled through various intense, passionate hobbies, one after the other, starting almost directly out of high school. In high school, I took up somewhat passive hobbies of sports, chasing girls, and drinking bear. Nothing serious. Then, after HS, I picked up a hobby (body-building) that I completely immersed myself in. This was followed, in order, by college, golf, career, basketball, and now Poker. I think Bill’s interests included body-building, powerlifting, 4 wheeling, entrepreneurship, and now motocross (I’ve probably missed a few).
During each of these phases, I can distinctly remember how captivated I’ve been by the hobby. I tend to think obsessively about it – in the shower, on the drive to work, in church (not that I’m going anymore), at the dinner table, etc… I read all that I could about the subject. I tried to associate with others who share my interests. I even entertain fantasy ideas that some day, I might just be able to make a business out of this particular hobby.
The one hobby that has actually paid pretty good dividends was my intense, nothing-elsed-mattered, focus on my career in the early 90s. I was able to string together a pretty good run of promotions, pay increase, etc… even if there were some negative consequences resulting from the neglect of my personal life. I can relate this single mindedness I now have related to poker back to those days and focusing on my career. The difference being that I have been able to strike a little better balance with the family these days.
The lesson: I need to find a way to “light that fire” again with respect to my career. I think I’m coasting a bit right now. The key to all of this is the big “C” – COMPETITION. I think the underlying motivation that turned all of these hobbies into full-blown, bona fide passions of mine was the presence of competition. I must have some sort of basic human need to compete and win at something. I remember when I was focused on my career, the competition element involved getting promotions faster than my peers, solving business problems that were not solved by others, etc… It always had to do with competition. So the key here, find away to interject competition back into my workplace. I’m a gonna give that a go, so LOOK OUT!
