Tag Archives: life

Simplify Your Life, is it a Myth?

Simplify. Simplify your life. Simply your product. Simplify your mind.

I am feeling overwhelmed with information on how to live a better life. And to compound this feeling, I’m feeling rather mis-aligned with this knowledge I now have. I’ve read the books, I’ve taken the notes, had the conversation, identified directions and milestones, but… I’m still not feeling aligned. Action is much louder than figments of my imagination.

This is a contradiction and a paradox of our modern [digital] life, and I really do want to strip down the barriers and align with the simplicity.

I think what gets me anxious is my sense of urgency, or simply put: my instant desire and my inability to accept change takes time. I am reminded daily by infographs or inspirational quotes that tell me it’s just a step away, that today is the day, that change happens now.

In all sincerity though, I believe this is a romantic idea of what a happy life really looks like. There’s something logical and calculated that I believe holds me back from immediately taking that step towards this romantic idea, and I think it’s this that becomes overwhelming.

Am I distracted? Perhaps it’s getting to that point.

I’m currently reading The Art of Happiness where the Dalai Lama puts it bluntly about his thoughts on romance. Now, this may just be because as a monk he’s sworn to celibacy, but he believe that the whole idea of romance isn’t healthy for a human to believe in as it leads us up to false ideals and misconceptions built upon commercialized concepts and unattainable, unrealistic lies we’ve been fed. One that plays on one of our most primal instinct as an animal in finding a life partner.

I’ve been thinking that perhaps the Dalai Lama is right, that the infomercials that look really nice and pretty that I’m trying to believe in are not really that attainable and it’s leading me straight down a path of disappointment.

Perhaps it’s this fact compounded with the fact that this path is never supposed to end, not dissimilar to the path to enlightenment.

What do you think? Are you also feeling overwhelmed?

Just One Time

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Just one time. A one time fix.

Quite a novel idea isn’t it?

I guess this is also equivalent to the quick fix, the get rich quick scheme, speeding…

Sure, there are lots of things that we need to fix in this world but are they ever a one time fix? I changed my bike tire last season, so does that mean it’s never going to be needing a fix again? My father last year had 2 caps on his teeth re-capped.

Whenever I hear the words just one time I instantly recognize that the only thing that’s going to happen one time is me having this conversation with you and what you’re selling, cause I’m not coming back. I don’t want just a one time fix, even if it does exist. It’s an over sell, an over promise.

To be fair, there may be a piece of the pie that can just be replaced once and it’s good for the rest of the life of the product. What I’m trying to say is that when I’m finished with an item or a product or a solution I want it to be so ratty and taped up and zip-tied that somebody who looks at it just one time will laugh at it, physically or literally.

Point is, I want a lifetime. Not just one time. I want to easily be able to fix it. I want to initiate a relationship that will last a good long time. I want to have that trust, and I don’t want to waste my time.

It doesn’t take just one quick fast to change a lifestyle or a health choice, it takes an infinite amount of just one quick small choices. I’m not going get my intestine removed just one time to help me on my weight loss program. I’m not going to buy a computer (tv, smartphone, tablet, etc.) just one time and it’ll be the fastest and bestest and I’ll never have to ever buy another one again.

Even my oven, a seemingly solid and long lasting item. Last year I had to replace the bottom heating coil on it, on this one time buy.

My relationship(s)? You got it, I want to continually and consciously be building it and tweaking it and nurturing it, not just one time promises.

Are you one-timing it, or are you life-timing it?

Nurture, not Nazi

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Any environment, whether it’s work, school, sport, or collective of some sort, thrives when each member effectively nurtures each others strengths, and adapts to their weaknesses.

There is nothing to fear about this. This is awareness and acknowledgement, this is working in a dynamic environment capable of growing into a very dependable organization.

How does this look?

When new ideas are introduced into the organization, the first question is why. Once that is explained (and explained twice to the people who don’t understand it the first time) and any logical opposition is ruled null, everybody says yes instinctively and eagerly.
Each member of the organization understands their role and volunteers solutions for problems relating to it.
Definitely no questions asked by managers: “What is your agenda today?” or “What are your action items today looking like?”
Questions like: “Is there anything I can help you with?” or “Do you have any suggestions for solutions to my problem?”

A well oiled machine knows how it runs and knows why it’s running.

A dynamic machine (your organization) is a well oiled machine, but also adjusts to needs, picks up the slack, eagerly attacks new projects, is creative in solutions, and makes everybodies job feel easier (or at least more enjoyable). As an added bonus, every single person in a nurturing environment grows and becomes stronger.

And then there’s the Nazis.

For those of you that have forgotten, the Nazis were fearful, meticulous record keepers, didn’t trust different or new (that wasn’t directed from the top down), and most interestingly, made a very depressing world/environment for anybody that wasn’t yelling the orders (from the top down).

How are you running your family, venture, team, class?

I hope you’re nurturing.

I’d love to hear how in the comments below.

Live Your Life

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“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

~ Chief Tecumseh

Stress, Complain, and Get Upset

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We live life. This isn’t ever going away until the day we die. So that is fairly set in stone.

As we live our life, each day is met with events: second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day. Good events, bad events, sad events, happy events.

This is our day. This is our path. There is no escaping this. It is our scheme how we let each event lead into the next event; this is our master plan, our grand illusion.

The way I see it, we have two choices. We can love each encounter and event, seek to share and exchange energy, and waltz through each moment of the day…. or we can get stressed, complain, and upset when the events don’t go as expected.

It’s your choice really.

Two Maps (Or Multiples Thereof)

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There are two situations that can hold us up in life, that I’d like to talk about.

The first is hearing from people about how we should be doing this or that, which we evaluate this or that, and then decide from that evaluation how to proceed, continuing on a path driving forward and breaking into new territory.

The other is coming up against a wall and saying: “Oh, I can’t climb that wall. I’m afraid there’s evil beasts on the other side, or that there might be danger at the top, or that I might fall, or that I’m not even allowed.”

One of these situations is hindered by fear. The other one, though fear may be acknowledge, it is forged by knowledge and introspection.

We live life without a map. Many people will tell us there’s a map, and show us a map, and become satisfied when we follow their map, but if we look back in 50 year intervals over the past 300 years, we’ll see that map ever changing. These map makers, one can deduce, are just making it up for their benefit it would seem..

Pick a map that intrigues you.

Peace, Inside and Out

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One of my deepest questions I think about frequently is about happiness in life. I read constantly about people being blessed, having the best life, doing awesome things, going on vacation… having the good fortune to do things like sitting all day by the pool, cruising in a boat, head down to LA for the weekend, partying at the coolest club. I always hear the words: “I have the best friend in the world,” or people saying they’re so lucky because they’ve got the latest iPhone before it’s been released onto the market for general consumption…

Source: Ned Tobin | www.nedtobin.com

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Positivity

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Stay positive. It takes a life time to achieve the things you’re looking to achieve. This road your going down is not a temporary change of mind, this is a life altering mindset that is going to change your whole outlook on life.

Be prepared to make some drastic changes to the way that you live, but always believe that it’s for the better.

Do not get discouraged when after a week you don’t see any major changes. Some changes will be so slow that you hardly notice them until one day you wake up and look at the goals you had set a few months ago and realize that hey, I am on this track now.

Even if you’ve fallen off the track, today is a new day, get right back on that track. You can never give up in this quest.

This is your life.

As long as you’re alive, every second of the day is a new opportunity to become what you want to become.

Passion

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Passion is what life is. No two people have exact same passions, but many people can have similar passions, which provides some sort of connection for us with other beings in this world; some sort of grounds to communicate on and relate.

The secret is to understand what your passions are, study them, learn from them and grow with them in a positive environment.

For myself, to find what my passion is, I need to really understand what my goals are, and what I am trying to do with my life. In reality, the goals and passions kind of sit hand in hand. When I start thinking about these things, my mind naturally flows into the areas of my most passion. Curiously, there are always ideas and thoughts that my passion digs up that are out of this world, while others are logical, standard, and perhaps even productive with any luck!

Without that main effort though, the initial thought: “What is it that I want to do? Where does my mind lead me when I think of tomorrow?” there is no chance at even understanding your true passion.

Passions aren’t just a girlfriend, or love, passion involves hobbies, quests, goals, and accomplishments often summed up in a personal mission statement. They involve anything that when thought about, all other troubles in the world seem to fade away. One believes that to just follow this journey along the passion quest to the end, the world will be complete and fulfilling.

Me? Yes, I truly believe this. An example for me is when I think about photography. Initially it started with a wanting a digital SLR (DSLR) camera, picking out which kind I wanted most, and then having to keep using my old point and shoot camera until I could gather up enough money to get my DSLR. Then it turned into going places to get spectacular photographs that would blow the doors off of National Geographic Magazine. After this, my passion soon turned to how to edit these photos, which format I should be capturing the images in (RAW, JPG, TIFF, etc.) and how to edit them. Learning Photoshop and testing out Paint Shop Pro and all the various builds of each of them was also involving, learning layers and levels and brightness and contrast all turned into one big giant passion soup, something which I enjoy immensely.

For me, it’s easy to identify a passion; it’s something that consumes all of my time. I naturally fall into searching out new ways to do what I’m passionate about, how to become successful; how to grow.

I firmly believe that to be inwardly happy; to be proud and supportive and attentive in every day of your life, one needs to pursue their passions. Once the passions have been categorized or identified then is when the real work starts with brainstorming ideas on how to actively grow and build and master that passion. This takes a lot of focus and positivity to stay aligned with your goals that come with it. One thing to definitely not be afraid of, is when you learn more about your passion, when you grow with your passion you may find that your goals tend to change slightly to align more effectively with your new path, or train of thoughts.

A quote I will leave you with from Gandhi is: “No matter what it is, I make judgment based on the best of my knowledge. If that knowledge shall change and my stance also changes as a result, I will be the first to admit my mistake, and proceed aligned with the new knowledge.”

Balance

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Life requires balance. No matter which way you look at it, too much of a good thing is bad.

To me, this translates to too much indulging and not enough committing is a bad thing. And vice versa: too much commitment and not enough indulging will make a person go crazy as well.

The secret is to balance life’s pleasures with its pains to gain the balance we all need to succeed, to stay positive, and enjoy oneself in this journey.

To create three pictures of these lifestyle choices, let’s start with the funner of the evils.

Take for example if you choose to spend all your time going to the club, socializing with friends, placing aside your bills and family for a life with total spontaneity; randomly taking trips to exotic destinations, and staying committed to no one in particular.

Yes, as a fairy tale; a sort of Alice in Wonderland luster-lust relationship, is very appealing at first glance. After all, a story that fills dreams of young children’s sleep is by no means a distasteful existence, but in reality, even Alice was getting a bit confused and muddled by the end of her journey.

Does this path provide sustainability?

It does require a lot of positive thinking , but it really doesn’t allow the journey’er to hold a balance in one’s life. However, who am I to say whether one way through life is better than another? For most of us, we do not come across larger than life creatures and queens with giant heads in our days; we are faced with grocery bills, the boss, and parents.

Then there is the overtly tight, narcissistic, OCD riddled humanoid that simply must have a strict regime and daily tasks in order to go about their day with the least amount of restraint on their mind as possible.

Although this does require a lot of focus,which nobody can argue, it does require a lot of restraint on the creative mind; what about letting the wind to run through your hair (what about the sunscreen, and a hat to protect the scalp, and are we going the right speed). Flash-backs of a recent picture I’ve seen of an office completely covered in tin foil appear vividly in my mind (yes it was a prank).

Can a happy balance be found, taking the good from both of these polar opposites?

Can a person find some serenity in having certain tasks that they perform every day methodically imprinted in exact order?

Some simple things like taking a shower every morning, coffee, the same blend for breakfast, and the same route to work are all methodically imprinted in ones routine that it’s hard to realize that they are an actual routine. They seem rather something that is more necessary than choice.

But then there are things that one does in their day like lunch-time. Where shall we go today? Somewhere new? How about a walk in the park? Or what about tackling the day’s work in the opposite order than usually taken? Does work offer such a luxury?

I think that it’s hard to get one’s mind out of sub-conscious programming of daily monotonous activities, and challenge the mind to think of new, creative ways to take each step forward; but I task it to you, the reader, and myself, the writer, to analyze these supposed standard routines and see what we can do to provide some excitement to them, but still hold a balance to the routines that we as humans crave.

Maybe this mere fact is what truly makes us individuals in the end: to become victims of monotony, but I like the challenge this norm. Every once and a while it is fun to add a little excitement to the day!

Do any of you have any tips on how you find balance in your life?