The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing. – Socrates

This week will mark my first full year working at Dovico and I can honestly say that it has been a life changer so far. Working at Dovico is not just another job, it is an experience; an experience that I wish everyone could have during their working careers. I am surrounded by leaders, not only in their related fields of expertise, but leaders in life. I am continually inspired to grow professionally and personally. That being said, one of the biggest and most humbling lessons that I have learned over this past year from this group of leaders is that I know absolutely nothing.

I’ll be honest. When you realize that you know nothing in context to the world and the people around you, it can be very frightening. Once you get over that initial fright and realize that because you know nothing, you then have the ability to grow. Before I came to Dovico, I thought I knew everything. I really believed that I had life figured out. I thought I knew everything that I needed to know. I had become a fixed mindset and unbeknownst to me, I was sinking fast. I was failing.

You see, during my years of being stuck in a fixed mindset, I believed that I didn’t have to spend time learning anything new and improving. I would spend countless hours, days, weeks, months and years wasting my precious life on things that would not encourage any kind of growth. I would continue to eat garbage foods and never exercise but expect that my body would continue to be healthy and energetic. I would always cure my boredom with spending my time in front of the TV, watching other people’s lives. But hey, I knew everything! Why would I bother expending any constructive energy to change a life that I thought was complete? The world was passing me by and I was becoming increasingly unhappy yet content on being that way.

When you surround yourself with people who strive to squeeze every last drop of juice from the lemon, you realize that you have been wasting away. You see the consistent happiness that these people have and the genuine contentment they have at striving to be who they want to be. Like a seedling in rich soil, they want to continue to grow, not content with living in shadow of the bigger trees around them. Sure, not everyday is perfect in a growing mindset world, in fact one could even say that you never have a “perfect” day when you are consistently living outside your comfort zone. But when things do get complicated and tough, you quickly know what to do in order to get things right. You also learn that through a commitment to health and knowledge, it leads to contentment.

This past year has been quite messy for me, but I could never be any more clear on what I need to do in order to succeed. I have had a lot of highs and lows just trying to figure out just who I want Jeff to be. I will continue this growing process but I need to continually remind myself is that in order to learn anything, I need to realize that I really know nothing.

458 / 1000 KMs walked | 24 / 50 blog posts | 11 / 10 books read