Category Archives: Motivation

The year in review

December 22, 2013 8:52 PM , 2 Comments ,

Facebook put out a “year in review” feature.  Anything to generate hits I suppose.

But it is appropriate given the time of year to reflect.  As I’m December born it’s one of the things I always do at this time of year anyways.

I would call the theme of this year “waking up”.  So many things that I’ve held in check for one reason or another have happened this year and are continuing to happen.  I think in some ways the year has forced me to step up and be more proactive.

My father had serious health problems in the Spring and that made me confront the fact that I really couldn’t put off life any longer.  Those plans, ideas, projects that I kept putting off for “one of these days” had to start happening now.

Despite my added responsibilities I have found time to explore the arts and some of my interests.  I’ve found that Houston has a lot to offer and that I can still enjoy it.  I have places and events that I am looking forward to this next year.

I planned and made some home improvements that were desperately needed.  I have others that I hope to execute this coming year and it excites me to think that I am crafting this space to suit my needs and tastes.

I took a vacation that was long overdue and for the most part it went off as planned.  I just don’t have any words as to how much it was needed after the stresses and strains of the last few years.  The time off has given me much-needed relaxation and a chance to reassess my life for the long-term.  I am fervently hoping for another vacation this year.

Of course it wasn’t all good news.  My father’s illness was troubling, I had some health and financial issues of my own.  But I have to take the long-term view about these things.  I can despair and not get anything done or I can meet these challenges head on and do my best.

I feel guardedly optimistic about this coming year.  Being proactive and not waiting for things to happen and instead orchestrating events feels good.  This is the person that I want to be.  This is how life should be.

Posted in: current events, life in general, motivation

sick

December 21, 2013 8:41 AM , 2 Comments ,

Who likes being sick?

Don’t answer that.  I don’t want to know.

In a sense I am fortunate that I don’t get sick that often.  I have escaped the flu season without taking shots for so long that I don’t even remember my last flu vaccination.  I can weather most colds at work and soldier on without a pause in my work rhythm.

But when some malady grabs hold of me, it really knocks me down.  I get listless and dull.  I get apathetic and nothing seems to matter much.  These last few days I’ve been down with some sort of food poisoning and haven’t wanted to do a thing.  Luckily most of our clients have the “Christmas disease” and I haven’t had much to do so it hasn’t affected my work performance that much.

Earlier this Summer though I came down with something much worse.  Triggered by insect bites, poison spray, and too much stress I came down with a case of hives.  This is a severe skin allergy with no specific cause.  The skin turns a bright red like a bad sunburn and It is itchy to the point of being painful.

I went to see my regular doctor and skin doctor and got conflicting medical advice.  One said I should cut down all my activities and avoid irritating the skin by overheating or sweating, the other said go on with my life as normal.  They both prescribed immune suppressant drugs and sedatives which forced me to go with the former advice rather than the latter.

This inactivity just raised my stress as I worried about my physical state more and more as I was laid up doing nothing.

Finally after almost 2 months, the tie was broken by a third doctor.  An allergy specialist said to go on with my physical activities and prescribed heavier sedatives.  Although I was groggy I returned to my physical activities.  In time the hives subsided.

But I have to admit the damage has been done.  Before the illness I was doing 6 to 7 days a week of running or exercise.  I had a good rhythm going.  My weight goals were progressing on schedule in a predictable manner.

Since the illness I regularly miss 1 or 2 days at a time.  This causes me a lot of worry.  I have been able to arrest any weight gain resulting from my inactivity and stabilized my condition but I have to admit I’m stuck.

The holidays haven’t helped things either.  My time isn’t always my own.  When I think I am getting into my routine again I suddenly have to do some holiday related chore and exercise time has to be put on hold for “another day”.

I am hoping that with this new year I can wipe the slate clean and really refocus my efforts.  I so need to do this for myself.  Apart from the physical benefit to be gained are the mental benefits or disciplining my mind and body to a regime of actions which will benefit me in many other fields.

I’ve made too much progress now to slip.  My goals are so damn close that I can taste them and that makes this endeavor that much more important.

Posted in: holidays, illness, life in general, motivation

Withdrawing or engaging life

December 10, 2013 7:50 AM , Leave a Comment ,

It’s easy to get disheartened these days.  We hear so much bad news coming at us from every angle that I don’t wonder when people tell me that they’re distressed or depressed.

It seems that we can’t trust our government or big business.  They seem to be out to spy on you or “get you” and many of the institutions that we have come to rely upon seem to be turning against us in every conceivable way.  If they’re not turning against us they seem to be failing and disappointing us.

One solution is of course to pull into ourselves like turtles and try to block out the world as much as possible.  We can throw up our arms in despair and say that there’s nothing to be done and we have no choice in the matter.  We might as well just go along with whatever life has in store for us.  It’s a very seductive path in that you don’t have to expend any effort to follow this path and you get a moderate reward for following along dutifully.  Not everything that you want but at least enough or almost enough.

The other path is much harder of course.  You can choose to engage life and try to shape it in the ways that you want it to go.  You can look at the inequities of life and try to redress the balance in your favor.  You can plan and work towards that economic status that you want by seizing every opportunity and not squandering your resources on petty things.  You can affect change by supporting those causes that you believe in.  You can talk and try to persuade people to your point of view.

It’s a much tougher path to follow and it doesn’t always lead to success.  Indeed you stand a decent chance of failing if you follow that course.  But let me ask you, even if you fail don’t you think that this is going to be a more interesting path to follow?

Would you rather be bored out of your mind waiting for something to be handed to you, waiting for life to happen to you at its own pace or would you rather go out and make life happen?  Find out how things work, how those people who you read about in newspapers, magazines, and on websites make their lives into what they want them to be.

Which type of life would you rather have?

Posted in: future, ideas, life in general, motivation, thought

into it

October 27, 2013 7:03 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I’ve never been a fan of….well several things.

Math, that’s a good example.  I could, by pushing myself, extend into the realms of higher math but I never really got into it.  My problem solving skills in math are formulaic at best and I don’t have an intuitive feel for it.  As I recall my last dalliance with higher math gave me a headache back in college.

Music.  Playing I mean not listening.  I was lucky enough to go to an elementary school where music instruction was compulsory.  However that doesn’t mean I was ever any good at it.  Which is odd because I really wish that I was good at some instrument, and although I knew the keys and I could work the instrument my music always sounded mechanical and forced.  I was never able to make it flow forth as it should,

Of course there’s more examples that I could go on about but I think you get the picture.

It’s usually the way of things that if we don’t or aren’t able to commit to something that your efforts will be less than satisfactory or just plain terrible.  It’s not that I find these things difficult to do or that I don’t understand them.  I believe some mental block prevents me from doing these things the way that they should be done.  I find it irritating that I can’t.

And it’s not just skills but interests as well.  Some interests that I know I should like I can’t really get into and it’s worrisome to me that I don’t like these things while friends might.  I suppose it’s the same for friends when I go on and on about some sci-fi topic or book or tv show and they’re doing their level best not to keel over from boredom.

In some things I have to accept that I will never be that good at or be really interested in.  In others I think it’s just a matter of being exposed to it long enough to develop the skills or interests.

What’s the thing that you would like to be good at or would like to be more interested in?

Posted in: ideas, life in general, motivation

The wisdom

September 10, 2013 7:56 AM , Leave a Comment ,

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

– Reinhold Niebuhr

I was always given to understand that this was the U.S. Army Ranger prayer but recently I found out that it wasn’t and that in fact it’s part of a prayer used by Alcoholics Anonymous.

I suppose it’s good for both cases.  Both sets of people face daunting challenges after all and everyone can benefit from the good advice given.

The Serenity

When I was younger and more bright-eyed I believed that any and every problem was solvable not just by the world at large but by me in particular.  What a shock it was to find out that it wasn’t.  It felt something like being punched for the first time to find out that you have limitations.  You want to get back up and try to make that change but some things in life are not going to turn out the way you want them to.  You can make yourself miserable by trying and failing over and over again at the same task.  This misery can metastasize into a feeling of futility about not just that particular problem but about your life in general.  Somewhere along the line I learned that in some things I have to let go.

The courage

In the original version I heard this was the “the strength to change the things I can“.  We all need to realize that yes we have to accept some things in life as unsolvable.  Not everything is going to work out the way you want it to but first we need to look deep inside and see if we do have the strength to make things better.  Many times when we get pushed and pushed to our extreme limits we find that yes indeed we do have that inner core of strength just waiting to come out.  Deep inside lies the untapped potential of our being just waiting for the opportunity to come to our rescue in our darkest hours.  Realize that it is in all of us to make our situation better.  We don’t have to accept every situation as is.  Remember that line from the Pet Shop boys.

There’s a lot of opportunities
If there aren’t, you can make them  – “Opportunities”

The Wisdom

This is where most of us trip up.  how can you tell which is the solvable problem and which is not?  That I can’t say.  Each is unique and has its own characteristics and there are no easy answers.  A part of wisdom is persistence.  You have to look over a problem from every possible and impossible angle to see if there is a solution.  Part of it is courage.  You have to look deep inside yourself and see if you have the will inside of you to carry out a solution no matter how much it may cost you personally.  The last part is the serenity.  You have to sometimes accept that it’s okay to walk away.

Posted in: life in general, motivation, religion

Success. Pushing and being pushed

September 1, 2013 7:50 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I’ve been advising some folks lately about their life situation.  Something I like doing because it gives me a peek into their lives and makes me feel I’m doing something useful.  In particular I find that while folks are generally talented that they lack the motivation to do whatever it is that they do.

I spent some time reading up on motivation techniques and seeing what works best and how to push someone to just release their inner fire and do what they can do.

One of the points that really resonated with me in my research is the effect that successful people can have on people around them.  I don’t just mean like your immediate boss or knowing someone who’s situation is slightly better than yours, but a truly successful individual.  That person that seems to be doing exactly what they want to and seemingly does so without effort.

Something about having a successful person in your life makes you want to try harder just by their being in your life.  When you know that person that had a dream and went after that dream and made it happen something wakes up inside of you.  A mental block is suddenly removed from your mind and you realize that you can do that thing you wanted to.

Have you ever noticed how successful people tend to cluster together?  You go to some ritzy party or art gallery or museum and you find the doers and shakers and people who are making a go of it mingling, talking, exchanging stories and ideas.  Maybe even inspiring more success.  Do you think that it’s by chance that they group together?

On the other hand you go to some dank dive bar and you find the losers of life sitting together in the dark complaining about their failed businesses, relationships, and lives.  Generally depressing the hell out of each other and making any sort of progress just short of impossible.

So what’s my advice for these folks?  Well firstly stop hanging out with the losers of life.  Start looking for those people with dreams similar to yours.  Realize that a transformation in your attitude is the first step in improving your life and that it’s not something reserved for the wealthy or lucky or “special”.  Anyone can make this transformation.  You just have to allow yourself to do it,

Posted in: life in general, motivation