I recently found myself listening to the Total Life Freedom Podcast hosted by Vincent Pugliese through a strange series of events that happened this past weekend. It all started on Friday night when I received a Facebook friend request from Vincent Pugliese. He has been on podcast episodes that I have listened to in the past and I thought it was very strange to receive this notification from him because I had absolutely no reason to be on his radar. I thought it would be interesting to see his life through the lens of social media, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to accept his friend request thinking nothing else will ever come of this. Saturday morning rolls around I wake up to a message from Vincent. Seeing that really jolted me awake for the day because I had no idea that I was going to be interacting with someone that is big in the personal development world. We exchanged some messages and he is a wonderfully pleasant guy as I figured he would be just from listening to some of his interviews he’s given.
One I was done being star struck, I checked out his platforms to see what kind of content he was producing. I was aware of the book he published but didn’t know he had a podcast. I went to his podcasts to look into them and noticed they were very short episodes. Initially I didn’t think I would enjoy that format since I am traditionally used to hour length, interview style podcasts. However, since I had a great interaction with him via messenger I decided to download the first several episodes. Getting ready in the morning turns out the be the perfect time to listen to the short episodes he produces daily. There was a quote from his Oct 24, 2019 episode called The Crossroads. In the episode, he talks about having the opportunity to go to a conference in New York City that could further his personal development career or photograph a Pittsburgh Pirates
Playoff game, which was his more traditional career. He eventually came to the decision to go to the conference because that’s where he saw his future going. And in closing the episode he said “Choose what your future is and now what your past was”.
When I heard the quote, I immediately got out my phone and wrote it down because it was one of those sayings that really got me thinking. Over the course of my life, the greatest crossroad I had endured was not getting into pharmacy school two years in a row. It was one of those moments of complete despair and embarrassment that I had to live through twice. Some may call me crazy for not throwing in the towel after I didn’t get in the first time but being a pharmacist was the only path I saw for myself at the time. Being two years removed from pharmacy school, I can profoundly say not getting in those two years was best for me. Being in the class I was ultimately selected for led me to my internship due to a recommendation from one of my classmates. Then that internship led me to my current position. It was during that time of humiliation of people knowing that I didn’t get into pharmacy school again, that I had my strongest conviction of being pharmacist. I knew that once I got into school, I would do well and I did but I will continually say that the hardest part of pharmacy school for me was just getting accepted.
Now over the past couple of weeks, I have done a lot of self-reflection on my goals not only for the year but for the decade shaping me both personally and professionally. Their purpose is to keep me motivated and focused on what’s ahead for me and referring to the quote will remind me that reflecting on the past is important but it doesn’t define you. Looking to the future and seeing what’s ahead for me is where I need to place my focus. We stumble upon crossroads everyday but keeping the future in mind will help us determine which path to follow.
Thanks!
Steven | Rx for FIRE
Rx for FIRE 