My top values from the list:

These are just a few of the values that stood out the most to me in this list of values. To me these particular concepts/values are some of the ones that I hold most dearly and try to act upon in my every day life. I could easily go into pages of details on my thoughts of each and every one of these values and why they influence the choices I make every day.

To Choose One

Choosing just one of these values is very hard for me because all of them seem to have such an important place in my life and my concious as a being. I have already touched on quite a few of these ideas in my writings since I have started DBC so I will pick one that I feel I have not yet covered. I am going to write a few sentences about 'influence' and what that means to me and my life. The word 'influence' means "the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself". I think one of the keys to that definition is in the second word 'capacity'. To have the capacity to have an effect on someone does not necessarily mean anything, but to have the capacity to have a positive effect on someone means a whole lot to me. Effecting others with positivity, motivation, ideas, etc. takes a very special person. Throughout my life I have been influenced by many people (for the good and bad) and have seen how powerful and life-changing influence can be. Then next part of the definition talks about having the actual influence on the 'character, development, or behavior'. These are very powerful words in their own that speak about human-beings on a very deep-set level of conciousness. In speaking about 'good' influences, the ability to change someone else's character, development or behavior is a pretty amazing idea. This is basically changing the way that their brain is wired and how they perceive reality. Back to the point of why this is so important to me is that, all of the 'good' influences in my life (and sometimes bad), are the people and ideas that have shaped me as the person I am today. Whether it was great parenting from my mom and dad, great advice from my friends, to great inspiration from my idols and heros, other humans and their actions have influenced all of us throughout our lives. To finish it up, it is so important to me to be a great influence for kids and those who look up or depend on me. Throughout my snowboard career I have tried to influence people to follow their dreams, shoot for the stars, treat others how they would like to be treated, give out compliments more than you receive them, etc, etc. The satisfaction from being a good influence on someone elses life/reality is one that cannot be compared to very much, it is one of the most sensational acheivements that can be done. I hope to continue to influence others 'positively' for the rest of my life and to encourage others to be themselves and live the lives that they deserve!

How much do I try and live up to these values?

You Want My Advice?

The last time someone asked me for advice, hmmmm. Lately I have found myself asking others for advice more than I have been asked. This is mainly due to having a few exterior issues in my life that I was having a hard time dealing with so I went to see a psychologist who gave me some of the best advice in my life thus far. Advice is very similar to 'influence' as we talked about in the last section of this blog. I think one of the keys to giving great advice is not always being asked for it, but knowing when it is appropriate and needed. Many people, whether it's because of a fixed mindset or fear of judgements, do not ask for advice when they need it the most. I myself am guilty of this and do not ask for it often times when I am in need of it the absolute most. The last topic I would have to say was actually yesterday on my last drive home from work with my friend Manuel. He began by saying what a fun summer it was working together in Gateway and how much he enjoyed our talks on the way home every day. Manuel had a rough childhood growing up in a lower socioeconomic situation in the ghetto's of Phoenix, AZ. His mother died when he was just a teenager and he fell into the gang life and drug addictions. When he was in his early twenties he was sentenced to three years in prison. After prison he moved to CO with his brother to start a new life and get away from the struggles that had gotten him in trouble in the first place. Since then Manuel is now a master carpenter that runs entire construcion crews, has his own house that he rents and pays all of the bills, learned how to snowboard and wakeboard, is clean and sober, etc. Manuel was never able to finish high school and feels that he is not as smart as others. Every day on the ride home him and I would have Q&A sessions about things that he wanted to learn about as well as my ideas and outlooks on life and confidence. Yesterday as he told me about what a great summer it was and how much he enjoyed learning together with me I could tell he wanted to hear my advice one more time about happyness and making your dreams come true. With only ten or fifteen minutes left on our drive I spent it reminding him how far he has come in his life, how much he has grown and how amazing he has made this second chance at life that he has gotten. I reminded him that we can all acheive our dreams if we have the confidence, passion and motivation and that he could own his own construction company in no time if he saved a portion of his paycheck every month and keeps working as hard as he does. The last concept I reminded him of is to continue having a growth mindset like he does and continue to 'learn' on every project he works on and not just have the mentality of 'getting it done'. In our society we have taught children to 'finish school' or 'finish their homework', sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in finishing that we skip the remembering part and never really learn anything.

Final Thoughts

I already feel that I dove in quite deep on this cultural blog with examples and maybe a little excessive on my thoughts but this is because of my current personal learning. When I think about my values I feel very strong about them. Every one of the values in the list up above is very powerful to me and make up my character. I think that every one of these values help me get through every situation I come across and even more specifically every day that I live. When faced with stereotype threat almost all of these values can help me to overcome it. Confidence is one of the strongest values I hold in my life and can help overcome any stereotype threats because of the power it brings to one self. Creativity, because it is creativity that makes us all different and unique individuals. Integrity, because even when others do not treat you well, it takes a much stonger individual to take the high road and kill with kindness. Lastly, challenge, because everything worth doing in life is a challenge and if you think that you can achieve success without challenges then you have been very lucky so far. The past few months I have been seeing a psychologist who has helped me begin to better 'me' as a person and teaching my how to deal with stress in healthy productive ways. Without rambling on about it I have learned many techniques for dealing with stress, anxiety and depression that will help me at DBC. Some of these techniques are meditation, 1-2-3 breathing exercises, object-awareness, mindfulness, excercise, journaling, etc. These have all helped with my self-awarness and happyness in general and I know they will all come in handy at DBC. Lastly, I would love to get out and catch some waves at least once a week, when I am on a board (snowboard, skateboard, surfboard, etc) I am truly at peace with the world and can enjoy that feeling that every human searches for to the furthest extent, "living in the moment"!