Be Cool (Ice Cold)
The key to any success in life is based around mindset.
What separates the good from great is how you choose to handle situations.
We all possess the ability to simply decide how to respond to whatever happens to us.
Throughout my life, I've chosen, more times than not, to view my circumstances with optimistic default.
I’ll forever credit playing football as a crucial teacher of how to reflect and improve after a loss. It taught me how to persevere through adversity and reinforced my optimism.
But before football, my default was still naturally in my DNA. One of my earliest memories of choosing to respond to adversity positively was at Parkview Elementary School in 3rd grade. I got a new pair of red Nike shoes with yellow laces.
They were different. I knew no one in Dillon, MT would have them.
It's always been a core belief of mine to stand out and be different. Being different also comes with its fair share of being uncomfortable and vulnerable.
I choose to endure those feelings to be my authentic self.
While wearing these shoes at the beginning of the school year, a 4th grader made fun of my shoes calling them "Ronald McDonald shoes." I was completely embarrassed. But it was in this moment.....I chose to make the shoes cool (ice cold) and lean into the fashion statement instead of feel insecure.
Aside from a two year stint in Dillon Middle School, I’ve always been one of, if not the, shortest man in the room. In late elementary/early middle school I came to terms with this fact. Genetics are simply the deck of cards you're dealt and you have to play with what you have
There were two options.....be mad about being short and have "little man syndrome." Which is a road of bitter angst and insecurities. Or, I could choose..... and it wasn’t without a lot of internal dialogue, that I was going to lean into being small. Own it.....and make it cool (Ice cold).
At 5'5", a height I've been since 7th grade, I'm proud to be a "short king" and use it as a unique signature of my personality.
As a young man, I started to get comments about my thinning/balding hairline. It took some time, but I began "phasing out" my hair over a 2-year period cutting it shorter and shorter with each haircut. When I finally shaved my head (which felt like a HUGE leap) and went to work at North Idaho College, I asked my coworkers....."so....what do you think?" They didn't know what I was talking about....which meant I had made the proper transition.
At 22 years old....I decided that I was going to make shaving my head and being bald…. cool (ice cold).
None of the above scenarios were perfect. There were a lot of moments of feeling sorry for myself, sadness, insecurities, anger, bitterness, etc.
But I was able to address these feelings head on which helped me work back to making the best of the situation to be my authentic self.
We all get to choose how we feel about ourselves.
And I've decided........
I'm cool (ice cold)
-- Alex de Golia