Life isn't a straight line

In today's Globe and Mail, there was an article about former CFL running back Jesse Lumsden and his success in bobsled.

He is going to the Olympics in Sochi and will be on both the two man and four man teams.

It is a remarkable as he had expected to still be playing football but that dream was cut short by injuries.

For someone who grew up playing football and expected to play football as an adult, he has found something different that he loves and excels.

For me this is the reality of our lives and why we shouldn't be too quick to push our children into things.  Sure, some people know what they want to do and manage to do it for their entire lives but most do not.  I would fall into the second group as I've wandered from being a lab technician, researcher, and shipper/receiver to my current position as a pseudo project manager in the field of shared value/sustainability.

The only reason I managed to get to where I am and where I will be is by having a diverse skill set which allows me to write, research, navigate technology, and understand much jargon.  This is what we have to help develop in our children, a cross-section of skills that allows them to adapt to many situations, and not limited to a narrow set of possibilities.  Always keep learning, whether it be in a formal situation or informally.

I am currently taking a communications course - mainly business writing - in which being concise and accurate is emphasized.  Now for those that poo-poo arts courses, it is interesting how my history courses were quite valuable in terms of writing for business.  In some of these classes, a five to ten page article had to be summarized in a 250 word precis.  This can be incredibly difficult to isolate the main points of a long article and to bring it to conclusion.  However, this is exactly what needs to be done in some business communication.  You can't write an essay for every email.

So, even if you don't fully understand why you are being taught something or if you'll ever need it, perhaps it is important not to disregard it.  You don't have to invest your full attention but don't ignore what you are being taught.