The Roots

(Originally posted: 3-25-16)

Two weeks and one day ago I sat in the VP of Marketing’s office, with what I can only assume was the most dumbfounded look imaginable on my face. I asked for the meeting to talk about three marketing positions that had become available. Even though it wasn’t a job interview, the tone quickly turned that direction.

He began to ask where I wanted to fit in the organization. To sum up my responses to this series of questions: “Anywhere but where I was”.After all of that, the most pitiful look of my career stemmed from a question I think most people would have an easy time answering:

“Where do you want to be in two years?” 

I drew a complete blank, which terrified me. I stammered and stuttered something along the lines of contributing anywhere I could. He followed up with:

“What are you passionate about?”

and

“What do you do for fun?”

Once again, I was stumped. I had lost my passion for running (my favorite pastime for years) in recent months. I was never much for hobbies, other than reading. I had only recently begun camping and hiking. I had recently started seeing my current girlfriend so things with her family consumed a lot of my weekend time. I really didn’t have a strong answer to any of the questions he had asked.

It was at this point that the tone of our meeting changed from an informational session to a life coaching/mentoring session. He encouraged me to think about what I have to offer that is unique. We wrapped things with him giving me a few reading suggestions, most notably The 4-Hour Work Week. 

I started on the recommended reading right away, but other than that I tried to block out how terrible our session had gone and just forget about it. That is until 2 weeks and 1 day later. I started to develop my list of what makes me, a 32-year old college adviser living in a one-bedroom apartment in Phoenix, unique.

Today is when I had the epiphany that uniqueness is not like a snowflake. You don’t have to be 100% unique. You really just need to possess things that most people in your position do not. This is what can make someone, who considers himself boring, interesting to others. So here goes:

1. Freedom from obligations
2. A 4-day work week (more importantly 3-day weekends)
3. 5 weeks of paid vacation time
4. Adventurous spirit
5. Spontaneity
6. Willingnes to accept ambiguity
7. A girlfriend (Jenn) who is just as spontaneous but together we’ll make sure our spontateity doesn’t get us killed
8. A pop-up tent
9. A new found love of the outdoors.

This combination is the foundation for this blog and the source for this weekend’s trip to Payson, AZ. Jenn and I have no idea where we’ll be staying and we started planning about 2 hours ago after finding out her boys don’t have basketball games this week. The car is loaded with the things I can remember and we’re ready to hit the road. It’s time for my new favorite pastime: Traveling with no expectations. I can’t wait to see what this weekend and future trips has to offer.