Some explanations

You may be wondering about the title and description of my blog.  

"gold-hatted, high bouncing lover" comes from a poem by Thomas Parke D'Invilliers a.k.a F. Scott Fitzgerald

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;

if you can bounce high, bounce for her too,

Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,

I must have you!"

The interpretation kinda sucks because it's talking about a man that needs to use a lot of flash and/or "bling" to impress a girl.  But as it applies to me, I often feel like I do a lot to prove myself.  I try to take on a lot of things, be a good friend, look nice, dress well, be funny - all to basically make people say "I must have you!" in whatever the case may be.  One of my greatest fears is mediocrity and not taking advantage of every opportunity available to me.  So I will wear gold hats, and bounce, and love until I am satisfied and until you are satisfied.  That makes me sound like a terrible people pleaser, but it's not really like that.

Speaking of opportunities...that brings me to my title!

The Halo Effect is a psychological phenomenon related to a quote by Sun Tzu: "Opportunities multiply as they are seized."  Basically, the more accomplishments you achieve, the more likely it will be that you will achieve more.  For instance, if I receive an award and put it on my resume, then people evaluating my resume will see that others have decided that I am valuable in certain ways, and add that value to their perception of me.

So whenever we do something interesting, useful, prestigious, or different (even if it seems totally unrelated to our goals) we increase our chances of seizing new opportunities in the future and gaining what we want out of life.

That may have bored you and I apologize.  However, I think it applies to my life right now because I am taking a detour.  I'm teaching even though I ultimately don't want to be a teacher.  I have a Psychology degree even though I don't really want to be a psychologist.  Eventually I'd like to go to law school.  And culinary school.  And many other things that seem unrelated.  But I think that as I go along and collect evidence of my various interests, my true passion will come to me.  And I'll be prepared to seize it.