Getting bullied made me a better person

From the ages of 10-13 I was purposely excluded from all my peers

It was so bad it landed me in counseling at the age of 11

But looking back on those years, it taught me timeless lessons that made me the person I am today.

Reality of Life

Today's society has created a bunch of wussies that can't even handle a negative comment from twitter user x1234432.

But, the world is filled with bullies and targets, predators and prey, winners and losers.

Part of the reason I got bullied was because I sucked at sports during that time. (my jump shot has gotten much better)

I quickly learned life is hard and is filled with people who don't have your best interests at heart.

The sooner we learn this lesson the better:

Everyone DOES NOT get a trophy and nor should they.

Emotional Intelligence

I didn't realize until recently, but this period taught me what emotional intelligence was.

Everyday I would rack my brain to find a reason why I was being treated this way.

I mostly came up with dead ends, but I learned the importance of separating emotions from thought patterns.

We can all benefit from separating emotions from thought rationale.

Always Be Someone's Positive

You truly don't know what someone else is going through.

It's cliche, but couldn't be truer.

I have vowed since then to be as inclusive as possible.

The world can benefit from more of this thinking.

Spend more time putting out good energy, and it will be returned in time.

You will never control how others treat you

No matter how badly we want to control every aspect of our lives, people will never be one of them.

Some will treat you great, others like shit.

99.99% of the time, how someone treats you has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them.

Don't let this knock you off your game.

Take every interaction with a grain of salt.

It's not personal.

Find 4 quarters, not 100 pennies

4 true friends are 100x better than 100 fake ones.

It seems obvious, but most people think the more friends the better.

Sure, build a good network.

But only trust a select few.

Real ones are the people you can call with good, bad and everything in-between.

Your group of people will change over time

If you have the same group of friends for your entire life, one of the following is true:

1. you've grown together

2. you've both not grown at all

Most people fall into the second category.

You close knit group SHOULD change over time because you will outgrow others.

The best sign you're moving in the right direction: your 'friends' start saying you've changed.

Don't let others try to bring you back down to their level.

Your growth is simply highlighting their lack thereof.

The darkest times build you the most

If you wanted to hit a game winning shot, it would need to come from the most clutch player.

Why?

They've been through the bad times and succeeded.

Your life isn't any different.

If you want to become a resilient person, you need to experience negative periods.

It's literally impossible to become strong without going through adversity.

Nothing that comes easy is valuable.

Embrace discomfort to create the life you want.

Sure, I hated being bullied but I can confidently say I wouldn't be the person I am today without it.

If you take nothing from this, just remember:

It's a lot more fun to have a crazy life story, then live a completely vanilla life where you never had to overcome anything.

Everyone wants easy, but that leads to complete and utter boredom.