michaelmistretta.com

It’s funny how we learn sometimes. Strangely, I find that I don’t learn when I do things flawlessly. I learn when things go wrong. I learn when I see something that disgusts me, and I say to myself, “I never want to be like that”. In a way, I am a product of mistakes and bad experiences that have repelled me into who I am.

The more I think of it, the truer it is. Sure there are people in my life that I admire and look up to, and strive to be like. However, there are far more people that have disgusted me and turned me off to their way of thinking. It is those people who have been far more “influential” in defining who I am and who I will become.

I have begun to ask myself which method is more effective. To be influenced by great leaders and role models, or to be driven away by hypocrites, and forced to create my own path for my life? In order to succeed, I believe that you must strike the perfect balance. To have the influential people in your life that help you lock your mind onto your goals, while not imitating or obsessing over them (which is something I’ve done many times). While at the same time being driven from all the world’s evil paths, and forced to create for yourself a new path; a new journey to tread. Something that you must create for yourself in order to reach that goal - that dream that you’ve envisioned.

If there are too many people you look up to if your life, you will waste your whole life trying to be an exact replica of them. On the contrary, if you are around too many people that pull you down, you will fall short of your purpose, and live your life to the world’s standards.

Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint one personality trait or flaw in a person that you want to learn from, but you know that you would dread to have the same trait linked to your name. Experiences like that keep me on the path. Keep my eyes on the goal.

Don’t settle for an ordinary life. Tread your own path.