MISSION

I’m Gentry Fry, a filmmaker on a weight-loss journey and PTSD advocate. I share my story on YouTube to inspire others who are as hopeless as I was.

THE “WHY?”
Defining Purpose in Suffering
Voicemail From a Viewer

What is BVIAS?

Founded on New Year’s Day 2020 in Miami, BVIAS (pronounced “bee-vayas”) is both an acronym and a goal: To strive to become the “Best Version of our Integrated, Authentic Self.”

Not ‘Be Your Best’

BVIAS is not the same as ‘Be your best.’ While well-intended, ‘be your best’ is a vague cliché. It rarely affects lasting change, and usually makes us feel more guilty than we already do for not doing better in life.

‘Be your best’ inherently implies that the current version of you sucks. Otherwise, why would someone be telling you to ‘be your best’ in the first place? If you were currently ‘your best’ they would have kept their mouth shut. But they said ‘be your best.’ Which can mean only one thing: Currently, you suck.

And then to add insult to injury, you’re given no advice on how to rescue your self from your own suckage. ‘Be your best’ just reminds you that you suck right now. And that’s that. Gee, thanks.

Suicide by Mediocrity

What I call ‘suicide by mediocrity’ isn’t a miserable death. It’s a miserable existence. It’s a painful life lived so far below our true potential, we secretly wish we were dead. I know how it feels to live that way. I did it for most of my life.

Until we can embody BVIAS, I submit we are all doomed to suicide by mediocrity — just with varying levels of awareness of it. We abandon our dreams, and unwittingly become addicted to comfort. We want a comfortable life. With a comfortable job. A comfortable home. And a comfortable retirement.

But alas, we forget that we are not placed on this earth solely to experience comfort. We are here for something greater. Our purpose. And in pursuing a comfortable life, we remain tragically unaware that comfort breeds mediocrity. To achieve BVIAS, we must be willing to go outside our comfort zone.

Close, But No Cigar

This image below is a rough sketch I created the night BVIAS first came to me, back in August of 2019. Using a dartboard as an analogy, I propose that until we embody BVIAS, we can never set the right goals for ourselves. We can never hit the center bull’s-eye.

As the old saying goes, “Close, but no cigar.” Like suicide by mediocrity, this is another key component of BVIAS.

Want vs. Calling

The above sketch also addresses another key BVIAS element — the distinction between our wants and our calling. I submit that until our wants and our calling align, we can never fully embody BVIAS. We’ll be condemned to waste precious years of our lives striving to achieve the wrong goals. Fulfillment will remain elusive.