The Pitt Factor

Class reunions are unique social occasions. After about five minutes, we remember why we don't hang out with these people on a regular basis. The most attractive element of any reunion is that it indulges the obsession with comparing. Comparing is a futile exercise but it doesn’t stop us from doing so. 

 The big man on campus is now a nerdy balding accountant.

The class president and prom queen now looks like Honey Boo Boo’s mom.

If we're getting off on the schadenfreude, what does this say about us?

The Academy Awards are a celebration of the past 12 months in the movie industry. While it is a very exciting and rewarding time for those nominated, there are significantly more on the outside looking in with FOMO, wondering if they will ever have their time under the spotlight. 

In the choose your own adventure of life, while some starting points may be the same, the paths we take are completely different. The fact that you went to film school with Bong Joon-ho does not mean the three Oscars he’s holding belong to you.

 But yet we apply this logic all the time.

Even if I had only taken that job at Google/Facebook/Twitter/Netflix instead of Pets.com/Theranos/Lyocs/Yahoo! my life would be so much better?

Firstly, how do you know it's true?

Secondly, what can you do about it now?

Thirdly, why compound the mistake by stewing in your own pity juices?

When Brad Pitt won his Oscar, I hope no one was thinking, well if I had his film roles, I’d have his career.

This is Rusty Ryan, Benjamin Button, Aldo Raine and Tyler Durden we’re talking about.

Tyler Durden!

Forget your Simon Sineks, Brene Browns and whomever else is out there.

Tyler Durden is the ultimate life coach.

This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.

Tyler knows we only have one life and that it doesn't come with a rewind button. So what is the point living it looking back and wasting the precious minutes we do have on regret, wondering what people think of us, upset that our social media posts don’t get enough love, and not letting the people in our life know how much they mean to us?

There is no perfection. When we grasp and understand how little control we have of our life, we will spend so much less time worrying about it and so much more more living it. 

You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis.

Furthermore you are not the salary you earn, you are not a business card, and you are not the amount of twitter followers you have.

Who you are is the person you are in adversity and when times get tough; you are defined by the amount of love, generosity and kindness you bring into the world; you are the amount of anticipation people have when it comes to crossing paths with you; and you are the amount people feel better because you're in their life.

When you realize all this, you may stop getting frustrated by your inability to achieve things you probably don’t even want and a huge burden will be lifted.

Can you feel it?

See you at Fight Club ;)

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