Hi, I’d like to open a discussion about Jocks/Athletic Prodigies being Chads in adolescence. Below is my reasoning, and my ideas are open to criticism. Lets have a discussion about this, hopefully we can find something new.

My first proposition is that experience is what indicates your value. It’s what fosters confidence and allows you to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Imagine you are a stack of marble. Every experience you have, chips at the marble, and eventually reveals an image.

You will never know how high you can jump, if you don’t try.

You will never know how smart you are, if you don’t try.

You will never know how athletic you are, if you don’t try.

It should be your life goal to fully understand, and to chip away into the unknown. It would be a tragedy to never uncover talents you may possess, and tragedy may overcome you if you don’t uncover your weaknesses.

The athletic prodigy only understands a limited perception of himself. However, he understands a lot more than his peers. How the athletic prodigy plateaus, is an idea for a future post. Though, this understanding of self-worth is what leads to confidence, and confidence is the projection of self-worth.

My second proposition is that self worth is externally indicated by the relationships one has. Now, by relationships, I mean all relationships, not just romantic. Mutual relationships occur when two people perceive each other as equals, or near equals. I feel, common interests serve as the catalyst for those relationships to develop.

Now, quantity does not equal quality, and if you were curious and wanted to humble yourself. Take a look at your relationships, you are the average. I feel we all know this truth intrinsically, it’s why we chase celebrities, or try to hard to become friends with people we perceive to be better than us. This is an unhealthy outlook, let relationships form and end naturally, and remind yourself that those relationships only indicate your value, they do not make up your value.

To conclude, I’d like to propose that Jocks are Chads only because they know more about themselves than their peers. They aren’t ashamed, and their confidence comes from their successes. In adolescent this is powerful and can lead to pride. Pride is the feeling that makes you think you are better than others and adolescents aren’t exactly in complete control of their emotions or actions. However, in adulthood we see a shift, it moves from Jocks to the Entrepreneurs or the Professionals.

This is all I have for now, I’d love to have a discussion about these ideas in the comments. So feel free to post your opinion.