Be optimistic!

Growing up, I was always focused on the bad things that happening around me and how can things turn out in a bad way in the end. I was constantly pulling my self between naive optimism and stark negativity to balance my motivation. In 2009, I graduated high school and I thought "hey there is a program which is offered by Nexen Yemen corporation to study in Calgary in Canada and potentially get the chance to work in Yemen with Nexen post-graduation". First thoughts were "well I may not be good enough? Canada is too cold, and people live in igloos... I can't speak fluent English or French, there might be better qualified students, I will lose my friends". I eventually applied and got accepted after a rigorous selection process (my high school average grade was 96.5%).

 
Going through university, I was flattened by the level of effort I had to do to keep up with university, catch up on the news of loved ones, keep up my healthy habits, and do well. I had to relook into myself after 2nd year and say, "I will focus on what I can control and do small, good things to get the bigger win". I used this as a rule, from there... anything I try, if it does not work and I can't control it, I am content. If I can control it, I try to change it or improve it. For reference, in my 2nd year of university, Yemen was going through the Arab spring demonstrations, and I lost a family member in those demonstrations. That lead to me rethinking my strategy in life and what I can control.

Living with the simple rule of changing what I can control did help me achieve a lot of small wins in my career and looking back it was a really good win to strategize with that mindset. I still use it to this date, to deal with any setbacks. The world does not revolve around me, and everyone has their share of challenges, and if I can't get an opportunity another one could be out there, but I have to look and persevere. Life is indeed too miserable without hope :) be optimistic!

–Maged, Calgary/Yemen