Behind the Curtain: The Storm Behind the Calm

The older I get, the more I realize that there is a bit of a disconnect between the perception of me by acquaintances and the perception of me by those who have gotten to know me at any depth. This blog series will attempt to bridge the divide between those two areas.

People who do not know me very well or people who only see me in a professional setting view me as a very calm person. I am slow to anger, slow to raise my voice, and reticent to respond in any manner other than one that is devoid of emotion or irrational behavior. I have been praised many times for my “calm and stoic demeanor”. I appreciate that characterization, but it amuses me because it is not completely accurate.

Part of the reason I can portray such a calm outward front is because I have mastered the art of compartmentalizing the numerous components of my life. Put simply, I place value on each area of my life. I remain unaffected by the areas that affect me minimally or the areas in which I place little value. If a student acts up in my class, I know that it has virtually nothing to do with me personally and has everything to do with myriad external and internal factors. As a result, I do not let it bother me. Kids are going to be kids. I don’t sweat that stuff.

At any given moment in my life, there are 2-3 things that I am extremely passionate about. All my emotion goes into those things, and I pursue them to a manic (some would say obsessive level). If you talk to me about any of these areas, you won’t see the calm. You won’t catch the quietly confident Jakob. In its place, you will see someone who is scratching and clawing, always doubting himself, chronically over-thinking, and ALWAYS feeling as if he has something to prove. The more I want something, the more my insecurities manifest themselves. I have self-sabotaged many relationships in my life because I simply could not leave well enough alone. I pushed myself to an obsessive level (I will cover this more in my next post) because I have a very difficult time abiding by the timelines of life or the timelines of others. My closest friends and confidants probably characterize me as the storm because I often come to them for advice as to how to clean up my most recent mess.

So, which Jakob is the true Jakob? Am I the calm, or am I the storm? Truthfully, I am probably both. The calm works for me in the areas in which I need it to work. Perhaps to some the calm might come across as blasé, but it works for me. In most areas of my life, I act calmly and rationally and never let the ship get too far off course. But I would be lying to myself and to all of you if I said that the storm didn’t exist. The storm is very real, and as long as I am living I will probably have to figure out a way to weather it. As long as I care deeply about things, I am going to have to fight the urge to obsess and attack them at a manic level. I am going to have to fight the feelings of self-doubt and the chip on my shoulder. Will I ever fully calm the storm? I don’t know. But I will keep trying.