Category: Growth

See Life Through Different Lenses

Published on by erikcpanzer

Each and every individual in this world views life from their perspective, from their personal lens. Your family, friends, colleagues, teammates, classmates, they all view the world in a different way to you. Individual perspectives and opinions create diversity and without this diversity, our world would be one sided and boring. No this isn’t about conflict, this is about each individual having something to believe in, something to live for through what they see. This is about people taking a step back before making judgement and looking at someones situation from a different lens to your own; perspective taking. It’s about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for a second and allowing them to be them, and believe in what they believe.

This isn’t easy. It is often difficult and frustrating as differing opinions can create conflict or difference, but with a little empathy, we all have the ability to step back and just respect what others see and let them embrace their perspective. With this empathetic understanding of others opinions, we will still have our diverse world with individual perspectives, however embracing this difference instead of creating conflict will lead to a more peaceful world.

Personally, I would say I am a strong minded person, and I have my opinions about things in this world. But I know that others are also strong minded and they also have opinions about things that may be very different to mine. We all need to realize that this is what makes life unique and interesting, that we can all believe different things, but still get along. We don’t have to agree on something, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to get along. Embrace others for who they are, and what they believe in, even if it is different to yours. Your friendships and relationships with people will be forever richer because of it.

Life Is Full Of Learning And Growing

Published on by erikcpanzer

Learning never ends in life, or at least I don’t believe it does. Learning is a crucial element to life, to continue to adapt to this ever changing society we live in. Each and every individual has the ability to learn, about themselves, about their environments, about this world, it is whether or not the individual is open and willing to learning. As previously mentioned in my ‘The 12 Lessons Learned While Chasing My Dreams’ article written 6 months ago, one of the most important lessons I shared was the importance of learning. Learning in every situation, every experience, whether it is good or bad is so important to ensure you grow from it and use it in the future.

I shared the importance of learning with 550 High School students last Monday during my speech as the guest speaker at Garin College‘s Colors Awards ceremony. It was the focal point of what I wanted these high school students to take away, that success or failure isn’t the key, it is the learning in the process and experience that is. For students, I believe that their learning should not be restricted between the walls of a classroom, nor should it be restricted to the walls of their home. Most of the greatest education I have learned has been outside of these walls, interacting with new people, learning about new cultures, and most importantly, getting outside of my comfort zone to learn more about myself. I encourage all of the students to get out and explore the world and learn about themselves, and I encourage you all that read this to do the same. Learn to become a better version of yourself!

My journey has been one of many ups and downs, and this was something that I wrote down awhile ago, and I feel it is appropriate to my life over the last few years:

“Succeeding isn’t just about achieving, it’s about learning, and when it comes down to what I have learned, I have succeeded” – Erik Panzer

And on the football pitch this week, my teammates and I continued to learn. Learning and understanding how our style of play is to counter the oppositions, however we learned a harsh lesson in our game, and that was that of the desire and will to win. Although we had a game plan which we had learned, we only partially executed it, but the greatest let down was our desire to win. It is a lesson that we need to learn as we continue to strive for the levels of performance that we expect from ourselves. Back to training this week to grow from it and put things right this coming week.