Blinders On 😎
Hi friends! Welcome to Full Stop, my daily attempt to live with outward honesty: to speak in truths, to learn, and to examine life. Thank you for your presence here.
💜 It’s Tuesday
Welcome to day 5 of Full Stop! Somehow, we have almost reached the double-digits of April. 😳
Yesterday’s “Routine Deserves to Be Broken” received an instant influx of texts. I am SO HAPPY I have such incredible friends who unapologetically live their lives.
One was en route to Vermont to watch the eclipse, completing their Thermodynamics exam in the backseat of the CAR. That’s some dedication. That’s some Full Stop. living right there.
Yesterday was a fever dream; a total vacation-headspace-type-of-day. Spending even just a chunk of it on the Main Green was like being back on Spring Break, chilling on the coast.
🌞🌗🌑 It’s About Contrast
The cheap paper glasses are pitch black and useless…unless you look at your main target, the sun.
The clouds, the tree in your periphery, the people whose voices you hear become inconceivable.
Blinders are on.
There will be ten thousand and one literary pieces published about the experience of watching yesterday’s eclipse, so let me avoid the cliches and speak full stop from my own raw, personal experience.
Looking at the little bright dot through flimsy cardboard reminded me of what it means to have a singular priority. To have an unfettered focus in one direction. To commit fully in its pursuit. To avoid the distraction that enters the periphery.
Only when we put on the glasses can we enter a space of clarity, where the stark contrast elucidates that which is important, and that which is… not.
I used to be obsessed with Katie Ledecky– an American distance swimmer, whose career broke out in the London 2012 Olympics when she won gold as a 15 year old underdog. Going into the race, Britain’s Rebecca Adlington was the clear favorite – a hometown hero and existing world record holder.
Ledecky’s secret to retaining a calm, clear race strategy, and executing upon it?
Put the blinders on.
When the crowd screamed “Becky, Becky!” she heard “Ledecky, Ledecky.” Crystal clear focus.
Unshakeable sense of priority. Unhindered confidence in its pursuit.
What would happen if you intentionally put on your eclipse glasses, in whatever domain of your life needs refocusing? What is that bright sun you are looking at? How are you consumed by the periphery?
Today, put your blinders on and see where it takes you.
Then take them off, because the periphery is pretty awesome too.
🔥Today Will Be A Win
Morning writing view: the after math of the main green. Instant mood elevation simply sitting in the sun. Today already is a win.
Tuesdays are heavy class days (reading for my 9 AM has yet to be fully completed 😬) but they are followed by rewarding evenings and a feeling of satisfaction when I pass out at a crisp 10:30PM 😅
🙏 My Wish To You
What are your priorities in life right now? What does putting on the blinders mean in daily practice?
My Ask
Thank YOU for being here today.
Please let me know your thoughts on Full Stop so far – text, email, reply to this, harass me on the street (or gym) 😅 I want to make this as fun, accessible, and insightful as possible.
I am 22, and I have no absolute certainty about where my life trajectory is taking me, whether it be in medicine, entrepreneurship, a combination of the two, or neither. Welcome to my process of discovery. Thank you for letting me learn on this journey. I hope you can too.