Archive for Inspiration
Getting a Bang Out of Life with Less
Posted by: | CommentsAn article from National Center for Political Analysis states that 64% of Americans worry at times whether they will be able to pay for family expenses. Since 2007, Americans lost $5.5 trillion in net worth, mostly from real estate.
If we have jobs, we can be thankful, but surveys show a high percentage of workers would change jobs if the economy were better. Those without jobs or are under employed make up at least 18% of the population by statistics, but my bet is that it is much higher
This creates a new reality for Americans that we are not only coming to recognize, but dealing with on a daily basis. Other than the top few percent, most people have started cutting back.
But there is a light shining through this window. Most people will stop seeking happiness from acquisition and upsizing their possessions. More people will start spending more time with themselves, their families and friends. More people will stay closer to home when they have free time.
This is a great time to build a better relationship with nature. Most activities in the outdoors is free. This is a better time to start creating some discipline in our eating and fitness habits. This is a great time to find satisfaction in expressing ourselves in more ways with training, writing, cooking, hobbies, charity, and learning.
The further we get from buying our happiness and the closer we get to personally building our happiness, the more long term satisfaction we will get from each day. I started my downsizing trend in 2005 by selling my house at a time I felt the real estate market had peaked. I was in the real estate business and could feel the upward push coming to an end.
Since, I have steadily pruned my spending to stay within my income. I save a little each month. I engage in more activities that build fitness and cost very little. I spend more time expressing myself in writing, surfing, cooking, and eating healthy.
My goal is not as great to buy things and more inclined toward furthering my human potential. I want my body, mind, and spirit to be stronger to deal with today’s situations and those that may still await us.
I find I am much happier bringing my interests back to my own growth. I have lost 45 pounds over the last five years, now surf an hour and a half a day, write most mornings, and eat very healthy. Life can be simpler. If you are working, you can squeeze important activities in before and after work.
Rather than worrying all the time about one aspect of our lives, we can fill in our free time with positive behavior that will give us more strength to face our trials. At the end of our days, we don’t want to recall all the time we spent struggling. We want to think about the progress we made in developing our passions.
Passions are what make life worthwhile. Passions can be people, hobbies, sports, or even sunsets. Passions can be developed so that we have competence in our activities. Engaging in activities in which we have competence creates flow or being in the zone. These states generate dopamine which neurologists say is our happiness chemical.
So put the crowbar between survival and happiness. Balance out your thoughts between getting into the savings mode and creating fun activities. Find a reason to smile at the end of every day and at the beginning of every morning.
How to Keep Life Exciting
Posted by: | CommentsLife occurs in the mind.
What ever you think of it becomes your reality. If you think your life is great, it is. If you think your life is boring, it is. If you like some parts and hate others, you could work to bring up the low points.
One of the tricks we fall back on is to stimulate the mind by shopping or eating something that is probably not great for us or consuming alcohol or drugs. Thinking about sex certainly stimulates the mind and even seeing someone attractive of the opposite sex stimulates the libido for a second.
Sometimes our need for excitement turns into addictions that create more difficulty in getting our life on a positive track. It is better to work on positive stimulants. Challenging ourselves to improve who we are and expressing ourselves where there is risk can create a lot of adrenaline.
Man’s happiest state as defined by neurologists when the brain is pumping dopamine or serotonin. This state is called flow and we also know it as “being in the zone”. It results from engaging in activities that we have practiced and become competent. In the zone we can engage in the activities and shut out all outside distractions.
In the zone we are not thinking about judgment or reward. We are in it purely for the pleasure of the activity. I certainly enjoyed running daily and at my seven minute mile clip, the world melted away. I was keeping track of my breathing and monitoring my pace and soon I had runner’s high.
In my daily surfing, I soon get into the zone. After I have ridden a few waves and feel the pace of how the waves are breaking and measured the line up, the challenge is to get as many rides as possible and get as much carving out of a wave as I can until I am too tired to pop up.
But we can also raise the bar on our daily activities. In my writing, I am always taking on new projects that are going to require research or challenge my thinking. In my little businesses, I am trying to create uniqueness and market share in my niche.
Our health and fitness can always be improved to create better bodies, brains and spirit. Having the discipline to add good foods and avoid the bad foods is more than most people can manage. Increasing exercise to newer levels is a discipline that often gets dropped after we join the gym.
Reading new materials and getting interested in foreign countries, science, history, art, cooking, horticulture, or any of a million topics stimulates the brain. The brain has plasticity which means we can learn up until the day we die. The brain forms new patterns when new information is received and would allow us to take on new hobbies or new careers at anytime we choose.
Forming and improving personal relationships is very stimulating to our libido. Making new friends and putting ourselves in situations where we have to talk to strangers is a challenge that raises the bar from living in our comfort zones.
Getting out of our comfort zones creates risk and risk creates adrenaline. Adrenaline junkies in extreme sports live outside the comfort zone. We don’t have to risk life and limb to get the adrenaline, we just have to keep raising the bar and engaging in new or practiced activities in the pursuit of perfection.
You don’t have to be in the army to be all you can be. You can rise every morning and set a challenging agenda that creates personal risk and promises satisfying new plateaus.
What Can The Ocean Teach About Spirituality?
Posted by: | CommentsThe ocean is a microcosm of the Universe.
The ocean provides everything we need on earth. It provides enough meat and greens to provide for a nation. It absorbs and gives off heat. It has currents that circulate the globe like the winds in the stratosphere. The plant life releases the majority of our oxygen. Its energy could power machines. You can reach every land by navigating its surface. It can rear up and swallow you and never give you back.
When we think of God or the Universe we think in terms of unlimited. When we sit at the beach and gaze at the ocean, we have this feeling of unlimited. It may be the largest vista we can ever see if we are not on a mountain top or in an airplane. Why do people feel relaxed just by sitting on the beach? In times of stress, why do we think of going on vacation to an island?
In a recent storm from New Zealand that pounded the beach with 12 foot waves, every spectator was awestruck. You could feel and hear the energy of the waves pounding the beach. If you were on our local pier, you could feel it tremble as the waves crashed into the pylons. Standing on the pier and watching the waves roll by underneath was like looking into the mouth of a viper that was separated by a double pane of glass.
I recently was held down in the impact zone of a 7 foot storm wave and when it released me I figured a 10 foot wave would probably kill me. I didn’t feel panic and I didn’t feel remorse. I felt surrendered to the outcome because I had ventured into the situation on my own volition. Afterward I was moved by the feeling that I had been swallowed and spit up by the loving Mother.
Being in the ocean is also like being in the hand of the creator. It can caress you and give you a feeling that you are one of the blessed creatures under his care on earth or it could crush you with no more thought than accidently stepping on a bug. You can query a handful of people and half are afraid to go very far into the ocean. Going in is tempting fate.
Anyone with experience in the ocean can tell you that it is always changing and it can always be dangerous. The more experienced watermen like life guards, surfers, and fisherman have more respect for the beauty and the danger. It has a yin and yang and you tempt it with your presence.
There is this sense of surrender when you enter the ocean to surf. You are looking to have the best time of your life. You are looking to be renewed by an hour in the water. You are looking to find yourself in your skill to harness the waves. You are surrendering to the experience of any outcome you might not have anticipated.
Does the ocean remind us of the womb? We lived in embryonic fluids for nine months. Three and a half billion years ago our DNA lived in the ocean. Do we remember?
Recently a baby dolphin came within ten feet and surfaced to stare at me. Dolphins are mammals that once lived on land and evolved to be sea creatures. Amphibious creatures came from the sea and evolved to be dinosaurs. Do we hear the call of the sea sirens seductively urging us to come back? When dolphins come close to surfers, push stranded sea farers to land, or come up just to look at us, do we realize how closely connected we are on so many levels?
Success May Come When You Hike the Failure Rate
Posted by: | CommentsMy life has been fueled by the motto of never quit and never give up. Sometimes its good to cut the rope or evolve into the next thing.
I listened to an interview of Donald Trump speaking in front of an audience of students and at the end when asked what is one thing he might impart, he said “Never Give Up”. I apply this to learning new things. I have learned how to build simple web sites and how to develop some ability in snow boarding and surfing.
When I have seen others give up after a few bumps, I have persisted through the pain of hitting obstacles or hitting the ground. I also live by the motto that if you never quit you never fail. Goals have to have large targets like happiness or financial independence and that leaves room for missing objectives along the way but not necessarily failure.
I also believe what Tony Robbins says about achieving goals. “If you don’t reach your objective, change your strategy.” The LA Times has a great article about a 26 year old computer wizard, Diego Bardakin, that exemplifies all these mottos. He has worked hard, tried different strategies, started many companies and tastes success and failure along way.
“Every mistake you can make, I’ve made,” Berdakin said. “Every dumb company you can think of, I’ve tried to start. Every wrong hire you can make, I’ve done that, too. But it was all really amazing because if I failed, it was OK. I was just a kid and if something didn’t work out, I’d just try again with lessons from the mistakes I’ve made. Not being afraid to fail, that comes from my parents.”
His parents “stressed the importance of having a strong work ethic to him and his two brothers. But Berdakin said his folks also created an environment in which he felt comfortable taking risks and didn’t fear making mistakes.” LA Times Nathan Olivarez-Giles
In these difficult times it is not beneficial to fear failure, because it could be easy. It is better to focus on finding success through new strategies and knowing when you have given a strategy as much time as it deserves. One guru, Kathy Ollerton, used to say that every wall has a door.
How to Increase Your Passions
Posted by: | CommentsLife is best when lived with passion.
A single or many passions can create that zest that makes life wonderful.
Some people say they don’t have a passion or wish they could find one. Some say they have too much on their plate to find something new and they don’t love much that is on their plate now.
The stress of the daily grind can wear down our enthusiasm to find life exciting. We have a few people we love to see, but they have their own lives even if it’s our kids. We often are left to the Friday night blow out or the frequent visits down the excess food or drug trail to elevate our serotonin.
We get high on food, alcohol, or drugs to relieve the tremendous stress as we watch our security erode or worry about our future security. Too much stress blocks our ability to get into flow. Anxiety and stress are the products of too much Beta waves in our brain.
Flow is the result of the correct amount of Beta that is followed by dopamine production and the feeling we call happiness. The resort to alcohol, food and drugs blocks out our beta waves and brings on the alpha of the right brain to settle us in to a more creative, intuitive, dream state.
To get dramatic change, we have to change up our structure. We generally have a passion for something at which we also have some talent. One of the fastest ways to create dramatic change is our lives is to take things off our plate. This leaves us room to find something new.
My first dramatic change was taking out bad foods and putting in good foods. Over a four year period, I have become very good at this and I continue. Having lost 45 pounds, I now have a passion for staying lean. It feels very good.
I had a passion for TV. I watched CNN every evening and too many football games. I took TV out of my life. It left a big hole. TV turns your brain to mush even though it feels like its giving you a rest. I still love the news but I get it on line. I read more. I stay outside longer or find new things to do in the evening. It makes a big difference.
Staying active feeds on itself. There are lots of ways to exercise. There is the gym, walks, hikes, bikes, stretching, and classes. It can be social if you join groups which then support your efforts and make it more fun.
There are the quiet hobbies like writing, reading, cooking, crafts or collecting. A little time each day makes you better. My day is filled with things I like to do. Luckily I have the opportunity at this point in my life. I start the day with writing, then go to exercise, then reading and in the evenings cooking and socializing.
Even if you had a work schedule, you could feed these items in if you took other items off your plate. The more positive activities you have that are building your skills, the more enthusiastic you will be about the next day.
You might even get passionate as you see your skills improving.
Why We Love and Hate Routine
Posted by: | CommentsIn a Face Book conversation recently with an old friend I commented that I had never been good with routine.
Now I live by routine. What I didn’t like in the past was the predictability, the thought that I would be doing the same exact thing for the rest of my life. It would make my skin crawl and create the desire to bolt and run as fast as I could.
Now I love the predictability of routine because I associate it with improvement. I have been writing almost every morning for a year and a half. I have struggled and triumphed. It has become easier in many ways. It has become part of me. Many of my friends who could not write could not get into the routine because there was too much thought in the way.
I love to surf. In the mornings, I see surfers join at the top of the stairs over looking the beach and decide whether it’s a good day. Wanting to improve, I often joined in their judgments. That means I wouldn’t surf on many days. Now I have learned to just go in. The surf is always a surprise and more than it appeared.
I know exercise is important in my life and want to continuously get stronger. The process of exercise makes me feel better and continues to turn fat to lean. I know in the process I am making every part of my body healthier. I do my morning stretches and then later a warm up, then surf, and now in the afternoons a run.
I don’t really think about whether I want to do it or whether it is a good day for it. It’s just part of my commitment to becoming better and healthier. In the background I am continuously improving my eating. I have the challenge of feeling strong enough every day to complete my routine. I need fuel and recovery. I eat the best foods for each and take the most important supplements.
Having passions is great fuel for enjoying life. Learning for me is a passion. I read continuously and sometimes fear I will go through my local library and have no books I like. But I find my routine of going each week to change out my books allows me to find new ones that I would not have thought I liked.
If the routine means improvement we will continue to experience change.
Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You
Posted by: | CommentsI rarely do book reviews although they are often the source of my ideas.
Reading four books a week, I come across a lot of ideas. I like history and it is full of courageous stories and heroes. I am just finishing a book by and about Lisa Leslie who you probably know as a great female basketball player.
Not all tall people become great basketball players. When a female is 6 foot tall before she is ten, she faces a lot of cruel chiding from her school mates. When she grows up without a father and moves from relative to relative while her mom tries to create a better life, she can feel some alienation.
If you are a female or have a daughter you might experience what it is like to grow up in a male oriented world. It doesn’t get easier in athletics. As my daughter looks for her post graduate first job, the effort to utilize or find a place for your talents in this economy is no easy task.
Lisa had the blessing of having a loving mother. She had the blessing of growing up in the U.S. which affords opportunities not available in developing countries. She had the blessing of having great guidance from those who bought into the vision she initiated.
Everyone can have a dream. To make this dream come true is everyone willing to rise at 5 a.m. and work long days to make it happen? This is where most of the successes have divided the road. Given talent and a vision, the successful people we know have been willing to put in the hours.
It is said that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. From Roger Federer to Peyton Manning to Mozart and countless people we know and don’t know, the successful ones put in the hours. There are very few short cuts to becoming great. Even if there are great advantages from contacts or lucky breaks, at some point the performer has to stand on their own and meet all comers.
You can buy a new book from Amazon starting at $.097 and ship for $3.99. I bought one for my daughter. When ever you think your life is tough, you can find someone who overcame more odds than you.
“Lisa Leslie, Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You.”
Drive is an Asset that Can’t Be Purchased
Posted by: | CommentsWhat creates the drive that some use to propel their fortunes?
When I say fortunes, it doesn’t always have to be money. Sometimes a fortune is achievement. Sometimes no one really notices but a few in a person’s circle. Not everyone can be famous or notorious. Yes criminals have drive too.
Some grape vines in Germany are grown in rock strewn hills that make the vine struggle through hard ground for nutrition. These vines struggle and produce some excellent quality grapes. Unlike their lucky brethren that are nurtured in Napa Valley, these grapes have to work harder.
What creates the spark that makes the human will unbendable in a drive for recognition? Sometimes the drive is for self realization. Sometimes it’s for external acknowledgement of worth. It is the drive like a seedling to push through the earth and bask in the rays of the sun.
Seth Godin today writes about the mystery of success and how we like a story that creates the success and the legend. We like it better when the going was tough and faced seemingly unbearable obstacles.
I am currently entranced by the story of the Judds and how the single struggling mother Diana who became Naomi created the beautiful flower of two voices harmonizing in love, joy and triumph. It is also the story of Christina who became Wynnona and discovered a joy and talent at 12 that required years of polishing by expert stone cutters to become the diamond we enjoy.
Gabrielle Reese was abandoned by her mother at an early age and grew tall too fast to become an object of ridicule by her school mates starting at the age of 7. Always a rebel and fighting for some normalcy, her drive pushed her past normalcy to stardome.
There is talent, opportunity, hard work, and the need that creates some of the finest talent in all fields of endeavor. There are outstanding athletes, politicians, lawyers, musicians, chefs, writers, social workers, police, and parents that have stories to tell.
God felt no need to make things easy. Very few species on earth enjoy an easy life. The earth itself is continuously tormented with ground shaking rock eroding forces. There is a Will available in the Universe that can be harnessed to create mind bending, mythical, and legendary achievement. It’s more than caffeine.
We should never cast aspersions to achievement that people were born rich, they have looks, they were lucky. There may be all that, but there are just as many with these attributes whose pedals never see the light of day.
Are You Fulfilling Your Role AS Predator?
Posted by: | CommentsEven though man is a meat eater, we don’t hunt our meat anymore.
We have a reptilian brain that reacts to fight or flight. Some predators are the prey of other predators and need to have offense and defense. Animals that are prey have only defense.
The world acts on us from the time we are little. I am reading a book about the Judds the mostly mom and daughter singing duo. Naiomi was a single mother and then a single mother with two girls. She never had money and had to fend for herself.
Her good looks were a boon and a disadvantage as it opened doors and then made her prey to male employers. She was a waitress in the day and studied to be a nurse which she was eventually at night. But she always had dreams of a better life. Music became her path so then she had three pursuits in addition to raising two daughters.
When I surf I feel I am the predator looking for the right waves. Sometimes I am the prey as big waves trounce me. On some days I win most of the battles and on some days I lose most of the battles. Then I go out again the next day to win.
The world acts on us with global warming, the economy, taxes, and life’s circumstances. We often get beat down by so many battering winds. The human will is indefatigable. In the army and marines, Special Forces personnel are trained to withstand the most trying circumstances that few humans could endure. They are trained to perform in the most exhausting and stressful situations.
We really have no idea of what we are capable of achieving. We often give up before we find out. We become prey and we stop acting like predators. Dreaming and visions are the light at the end of the tunnel. They are the path of the predator.
What ever you want may be worth pursuing even if you never reach it. It is part of the human spirit to be a predator; to chase dreams.
Why Failure is Never Necessary
Posted by: | CommentsIf you don’t quit, you haven’t failed.
I also look at goals as the end result of a series of objectives. I keep working to make progress or “kaizen” in Japanese. If I don’t reach my objective, then I had the wrong strategy.
Let’s say I wanted to lose ten pounds and I went on the Adkins diet. I set an objective for 60 days. At the end of 60 days I gained two pounds. I obviously had the wrong strategy and so I decided to try another strategy. I haven’t failed my goal of losing ten pounds, but I didn’t reach the objective of doing it in 60 days.
So I pick another strategy. I decide this time to eliminate my two biggest offenders. They are drinking considerable amounts of alcohol and eating hamburgers or pizza while I am doing it. In one week I noticed I have lost three pounds. I am on my way.
What I used to like doing is pick a physical goal and a second goal such as business or career to accomplish at the same time. I set a goal of running five miles instead of my normal one mile and a business goal of increasing my revenues by 20%.
As I increase my running, I have to win the battle of the mind which does not like the extra work or pain. When I make the next step to a mile and a half, I feel triumphant. When I dig into my business goal, I know that I may have to do something uncomfortable like call on more prospects. Just as I didn’t quit running when the going got tough, I have to keep on working when I would rather quit. Once again, I will have to triumph over my mind.
The mind is the real key to success. Developing control over its tendency to want the easy way out is the key to making progress when the going is tough. Changing strategies when one clearly didn’t work is the key to reaching goals.
Finding a passion and never quitting is the way to find out who we are and forge a strong self identity. If we desire to be lean, finding a way to get lean is as great as going to the moon. If we want to run a 10k from our current sedentary life style, finding a way to get there is a giant triumph.
I have never been great at staying at one job for a long time. I get restless feet. I have to keep setting new goals that are worthwhile to me. I have several pursuits right now that include surfing, writing, website building, staying lean, reading great books, and writing e books.
Setting goals that are meaningful and can take a life time is also helpful in giving ourselves time for several strategies. Trying to achieve something major that may be impossible in 30 days, may not be realistic and is a test more than a goal.
The goals are open ended. I don’t quit and most of the time I am making progress. I have learned that it is often necessary to overcome short term disappointments or set backs, but if I never quit, I have never failed.
Being passionate about the pursuit is helpful. Then the activity is the reward and the goal is not necessary. If we love doing something it is not work, work. It may be toil, struggle, frustration, and exhausting, but it is investing in ourselves and so the sweat equity does build residuals.
Pace is important. If I over train I know I get very tired and often have to stop my routine for days. If I hit the wall on a project, I know I can give it a rest and come back with a fresh mind set and look at it again. What is important is to keep attacking. Nothing can stop the human will.
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Learning to Surf and Finding Your Passion
Posted by: | CommentsThose who love to surf identify themselves as surfers.
If you ask them what they like to do or who they are, surfing is going to be key.
If you ask most people to state who they are they will begin with their job or maybe the fact they are a parent. After that they will get into some personality traits. It might go like I am an electrician, a father, a good friend, a generous person.
Why is surfing which becomes a passion so tied into our identity? I backed into it by moving to the beach and wanting to include it as part of my fitness routine. I had no idea what it was really all about although I had surfed in high school and a few times in Hawaii.
I certainly had forgotten the paddling, the struggle with the surf on a sand bar beach, the wipe outs, and the thrill of being on top of a board pushed by Mother Nature. If you add the environment of water, sun, blue skies and being outdoors, you have a great mix.
It became an instant challenge. I could go either way. I could say this is more work than I wanted. I could get hurt. This is going to test part of me that has never been tested. I could fail. Or I could do this and become one of the people who are out there having an unbelievable time and coming out of the water completely exhilarated with a self satisfaction that they had won.
Now, when I come out of the water, I feel my day has been made. For whatever reason God put me on earth, I have satisfied my own need of fulfilling my life by the simple act of pitting myself against Mother Nature’s waves.
When I come out of the water, I am thinking of the next time I get to go in. I have to pace the energy demands so that I can go each day and my routine of exercise, nutrition, yoga, aerobics are all focused to keep me healthy and surfing every single day. I only miss a few days a month.
Surfing not only challenges me to succeed, it challenges me to get better inch by inch. There is always something you can add. There are always bigger waves. There is always better conditioning that allows you to stay out longer or go more times in a day. There is always me against myself to find the ceiling.
What other kinds of pursuits can totally wrap up what we are and fire us into the fray like coming out of a cannon? People have lots of passions. There is certainly work or trying to build a business around something you love and want to share.
There is certainly being an artist, writer, chef, musician, teacher, or social worker. Each one is an opportunity to see just what the total combination of our mental, emotional, psychological, and physical traits can paint on our canvas.
Some may be determined to do something in the public spotlight or that public recognition creates the level of achievement. A quarterback or politician needs accomplishment and votes to establish the highest tier of success.
Others need their own self stamp of approval to acknowledge that they have achieved what they were looking for. In most experiences we are looking for a feeling. In finding a mate, love is a feeling. In having children, pride is certainly a feeling. In our careers, a net worth might deliver the feeling.
Finding a passion is often finding something that delivers the feeling we are looking for. Or in reverse, it is finding something that delivers the feeling that we want to experience over again.
A passion does require us to lay it on the line. Even if no one else knows, we know whether we made the grade. If you want to pursue mountain biking and you decide it is too tough or dangerous, no one would judge you poorly. Only you know what happened.
If you enjoy finding your physical limits, connecting with nature, living outdoors, being in the water, then surfing delivers a lot of the feelings you find gratifying. Gratitude is the end result of finding and enjoying your passion. You are thrilled you have the opportunity and you want others to have their opportunity to feel the same way.
Do We Set Our Own Ceilings?
Posted by: | CommentsAs a newer surfer, I have worked hard to learn the skills and build my capacity to surf more waves.
I observe most of my surfer comrades even in their 20’s who are excellent surfers but do little extra to build strength, stamina, flexibility, and mobility. It means they are in excellent condition to surf the waves they want, but have to be selective because they want the best waves, but have limited amount of paddle endurance.
On great days they will be extremely satisfied with their four or five waves, especially if there is a big line up, but reach their endurance limits before maybe they would like to.
My participation in recreational sports has always been an effort to get stronger and play longer in addition to learning sport specific skills from practice.
Do we do the same in our daily lives? We work at our craft by putting in the expected hours and trying to make the most of them. What would it take to go the next two or three steps? What would we have to learn and what would we have to practice, or what classes, lectures, online seminars, books would we have to engage to get the next step learning?
For surfing I improve my diet, my supplements, do yoga, core work, upper body exercises, and stretching as well as watch videos, read books, and watch other surfers.
I don’t remember this extra curricular activity when I was engaged in a career, but in the pre melt down, industries didn’t disappear as fast. With greater change and disruption in the current horizon, I think it behooves everyone to be more and to start forecasting the emerging and dying trends.
It will take more fleetness and preparedness in the future to remain viable. .
Winning in the Surf Line Up is Like Life
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s a lot like life.
Have the experience, expertise, the confidence, the sense of entitlement, respect for others, and the fitness to finish the mission.
Surfers in the line up can sense when someone is entitled to their turn at the next great wave. They become more sensitized when the waves are few and far between or the good ones are separated by a lot of close outs.
Paddle for a wave when you have a chance to get the inside position and catch it at the apex. If the day is crowded, the surfer at the apex is most likely to have the right of way. You can’t help it about the long boarders who might be able to start much further out than everyone else or get there first.
It is up to the long boarders to share as well or people will be cutting them off and dropping in on them. It is also not a great long term strategy to take every wave when others previously backed off for you. Some surfers kick out early so they can get back in position, but that doesn’t entitle them to every shot.
The bigger waves move faster and fewer people can actually catch them. After a few waves, the line up knows who could actually utilize the big wave and not waste it. If you waste a few, you will have lots of company on the drop in.
If there are too many people at the break and it becomes dangerous with everyone running for the same wave, it might be advisable to move to a safer place or one that is in greater accord with your wave catching skills. The alpha surfers are most likely to win out at the best breaks on crowded days.
The scene also becomes more intense when there are not enough waves for everyone because too many are close outs or the wave interval is too far apart with too few waves per set. Some people enjoy the hassle and some would rather just come back another day.
Winning is emerging safe and not ruining your day with too much frustration at not getting enough chances for good waves. Everyone reads the surf reports and estimates the best times given their obligations and free time. It amazes me how so many surfers show up at the optimum time during a session.
I find that there is usually one best window a day and that’s the one I shoot for. I may arrive a little early and have it to my self, but when it starts going off, I will have lots of company. Surfing with buddies or knowing the crowd in the line up is great because you are more likely to get your turn and more courtesy when you paddle for a wave.
If it isn’t fun, it isn’t worth it.
It’s Hard to Make Sense of What We See
Posted by: | CommentsIf we pick up a newspaper or go online in the morning to view the news, we see a myriad of reports.
Things are going up, things are getting better, things are getting worse, someone died, Villanova won their tenth game in a row, Vitamin D is good for you and so on.
One of the reasons we cannot get to the truths that matter is that there is too much stimulus. Our lives are spent chopping wood and carrying water, but the meaning in our lives is at a different level.
If I got in a rocket ship and sped to a 100,000 miles from earth my view would be much different than if I stood on a corner in downtown Manhattan. In downtown Manhattan I would be worried about being run over by a Cab and in space I would wonder at the silence and unlimited expansiveness.
In Manhattan, I could be aware of my vulnerabilities and almost insignificance in a city teeming with chaos. In space I could contemplate where I came from and why was I unique and what was my highest purpose. With no distractions, we can contemplate bigger truths.
We spend very little time bifurcating our thoughts into both meaning and daily pursuits for survival. We tend to use our daily pursuits as the ticket to take us to outer space.
Our trips to outer space should dictate how we see our daily lives.
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Your Curve Can Always Be Upward
Posted by: | CommentsThe only thing that cannot survive loss is the Spirit.
The most powerful tool in our arsenal is the “I can do” wrench.
It is important to either have a vision or to improve ourselves on a daily basis so that we are always blossoming out. Either one is a powerful driver.
The “I can do” comes from confidence in ourselves. There are many ways to feel that we are entitled to happiness, fulfillment, and purpose.
Originally, I backed into my self entitlement by working on healthy eating and fitness. My self realization replaced my always working from motivation. In the past, I would take a job or assignment based on the upside potential of remuneration. I traded my skills and time for helping someone with money to reach their goals.
Getting paid allowed me to buy the things that should make me happy. It’s a good system and works right up to the point that you realize you are continuously feeding the consumption machine without getting the sustained happiness payoff.
Getting better connected to my persona helped me realize that I was a complete entity and happy already. I could continue to feel better and better by ingesting healthy food and making my body work up to and past its capacity.
The confidence that I could control my appetites and mind’s relentless requests gave me discipline and direction. I could now decide what I wanted to do to sustain my happiness by self expressing myself. My self expression has had daily payoffs that money can’t buy.
A second great avenue to an upward trending curve is increasing spirituality. When you get a feeling that you are connected and God is in you, you are never alone. You can be lonely at times, but never alone in the Universe.
I got my final spark from the “God Code” by Gregg Braden which gave me the handle for which I was searching. Up until now, I have been very spiritual and thankful that the external God seemed to be watching out for me, even if bad things happened.
The God Code conveys the message that the creator is really in everything because of the basic few elements that are the foundation for everything. Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon are responsible air, water, heat, earth, our bodies, and DNA.
It’s a more lengthy process how the author’s 12 years of work connected God to the elements. I got the connection that God is in me. So now I don’t say thanks for watching out for me, I say we dodged another bullet.
I am a co-creator of my destiny. I am therefore perfect in origin, entitled to be happy and purposeful, so I just need to make it happen. All the bad things that are continuously happening around us are part of the Chaos Theory out of which the Universe was created and the creative process at work for creating new order.
I feel bad when I see misfortune, but it isn’t an uncaring absent Creator, it is the creative process at work. I need to initiate and drive my own creative process so that I can influence the order. Chaos works for the better or worse through continuous negative or positive feedback loops.
A negative feed back loop might be considered a 100 foot wave that appears out of 40 foot seas or a hurricane or tornado. A positive feedback loop might be “pay it forward” or a kind act that leads to another.
Each of us is a butterfly flapping its wings and the theory asks if that could cause a tornado in a distant land. It is our destiny to add to the positive feedback loops.
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New E Book “A Life of Peak Performance and Flow”
Download the Free Part 1 ” The 9 Steps of Moving ‘I Want’ to Happiness and Purpose”
See Resources for books to explore your potential
See Speaking to give your group a glimpse of creating potential in working together
See Life Management to explore your personal potential and happiness.
See Organizational Peak Performance to accelerate achievement
Kaalm Media Group
Dedicated To Delivering Insights and Life Transforming Ideas Daily
through 8 websites, E Books, and Newsletters
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