My kids do this thing, where they think that their numbers, I have four kids, qualify them for an attack on Dad. One kind of starts it and then solicits the other for the attack. I think that their goal is just to pin me to the ground and if they ever get me there, I'm not so sure they have a plan as to what they would do next. My best defense is to attack back individually before they collaborate their attack at the same time. Now I don't want to hurt my kids even though they may use some pretty aggressive measures. I tickle them and that does all that is needed to thwart their plan. Some times this results in a falling to the floor in laughter as was the case with my daughter recently. When that happens, I feel the need to prove that Daddy's got them and continue to attack with tickles! So much so that in this one instance my daughter is laughing so hard that she sputters out in segments between laughter "... I ... Can't ... Breathe!" I know that when this happens, I can let it go one of two ways. I can continue with my tickling and soon to follow will be tears, no longer of laughter but of crying and fear. Or I can stop for a moment, let her catch her breath, which I did, and shortly after she joins right back into the game!
I have been running recently. Well, I guess you can call it running. It looks a bit more like a seizure with my legs moving and I only do that for like a minute and a half then I walk for two minutes. I do this on and off ... until I reach the refrigerator! LOL! No, I actually do it on the walkway by the river near my house in town, but it is a run/walk program to help train me to run three miles straight ... eventually. My problem right now isn't that my body forgets how to run, but more like it has forgotten how to breathe. When I start running I have this image of myself, like the advertisements I see with this well trained runner looking like its so easy. So my head starts up, my shoulders back and my stride long! I feel like I look good! Then, my body forgets how to breathe with in a few steps and my posture hunches, my arms whale a bit and I can't keep my head up as it bobs around gasping for a new breath. I no longer feel like the attractive runner that I started out with as the image in my head. All I can focus on is when I can walk again and catch my breath.
We take breathing for granted. It is an involuntary act that our body does and therefore we forget about it. It happens as we sleep even without us intentionally making ourselves take each breath. We don't really realize the importance of pausing and focusing on breathing until we can't. We lose our breath, we gasp for air and we panic. Once that air comes back, we stop, gather ourselves, slow our breathing down and compose ourselves relieved and grateful for the returned passage of air.
Ancient cultures could see the importance of breathing and with how important this invisible mass entering and exiting your body seemed to be, they even spiritualized it, giving it a supernatural or more important quality than many other things in life.
We run our lives crazy and busy. We have so much to do with so little time. Kids to deliver, feed, discipline. Finances to keep track of. Friends, family and spouse to make sure have our attention and are shown love and support. And of course a million other bits of nonsense that we never count but still take so much time. So many times, we forget to breathe. We forget to stop, enjoy and be grateful. The kids grow up fast and we spend out lives in panic, stress and high blood pressure. With just a bit of a pause each day, we can breathe, refocus, love, be thankful and release. A few seconds or a few minutes can transform your whole life. Take a few deep breaths and re-calibrate.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
Black Water and the High Jump
"Jeremy?" says Austin, a fellow coworker and friend. "This song? It's by Three Dog Night, isn't it?"
"Yes!" I said confidently!
"Yeah, Jeremy, it is Three Dog Night. I'm sure of it!" says Austin.
The thing is ... I had no clue! I was born in the 80's but I know nothing about 80's music! You see the song was actually Black Water by The Doobie Brothers. And after writing the statement about 80's music, I looked it up and it was actually written in 1974, not in the 80's. LOL
Because I was so confident in my answer, I transformed Austin's wavering mind to solidly, yet incorrectly, believing this song was by Three Dog Night.
I used to high jump in track when I was in high school. Don't get me wrong ... I was terrible, but when I first started, I was much worse! The thing is that I am as flexible as a 2x4 and I never really loosened up. When I first lined up for the high jump I asked them to lower it, but they said it was the lowest it would go. I had the hardest time clearing it! I could dunk a basketball, but I couldn't clear this silly stick? I would try so many time and just couldn't get it. My coach told me, "You have to believe that you can do it or you will never get it." Thanks coach, no new techniques, no physical pointers, just a mental one. I figured that I must really suck if that's all he had for me. The next day I thought about it and kept envisioning what a high jumper is supposed to look like. I envisioned it as though it was me. I began to believe that is what I looked like and that I seriously just needed to believe in myself. That practice, I walked up to the high jump took off in as good of form as you are going to get from me and I cleared it! Grant it was not pretty nor looked anything like I envisioned it, but coming to horizontal pole raised in the air my confidence kept me from buckling at the last moment and I actually could raise the bar a little after a few more confident jumps.
Both of these situations were immensely effected by the confidence exuded! My manager used to get on me telling me that I lacked confidence and that's why I wasn't selling as many cars. Even though I knew all the information the customer needed, I would second guess my ability which left the customer lacking confidence in me.
It is amazing how a little mindset change can drastically improve results! I don't know what you are dealing with or what you are working on. In your job, family or with your friends, confidence can transform your relationships, performance and ideas! The impossible becomes possible, your weakness becomes strength and exciting things happen!
Be strong, be confident and find success!
"Yes!" I said confidently!
"Yeah, Jeremy, it is Three Dog Night. I'm sure of it!" says Austin.
The thing is ... I had no clue! I was born in the 80's but I know nothing about 80's music! You see the song was actually Black Water by The Doobie Brothers. And after writing the statement about 80's music, I looked it up and it was actually written in 1974, not in the 80's. LOL
Because I was so confident in my answer, I transformed Austin's wavering mind to solidly, yet incorrectly, believing this song was by Three Dog Night.
I used to high jump in track when I was in high school. Don't get me wrong ... I was terrible, but when I first started, I was much worse! The thing is that I am as flexible as a 2x4 and I never really loosened up. When I first lined up for the high jump I asked them to lower it, but they said it was the lowest it would go. I had the hardest time clearing it! I could dunk a basketball, but I couldn't clear this silly stick? I would try so many time and just couldn't get it. My coach told me, "You have to believe that you can do it or you will never get it." Thanks coach, no new techniques, no physical pointers, just a mental one. I figured that I must really suck if that's all he had for me. The next day I thought about it and kept envisioning what a high jumper is supposed to look like. I envisioned it as though it was me. I began to believe that is what I looked like and that I seriously just needed to believe in myself. That practice, I walked up to the high jump took off in as good of form as you are going to get from me and I cleared it! Grant it was not pretty nor looked anything like I envisioned it, but coming to horizontal pole raised in the air my confidence kept me from buckling at the last moment and I actually could raise the bar a little after a few more confident jumps.
Both of these situations were immensely effected by the confidence exuded! My manager used to get on me telling me that I lacked confidence and that's why I wasn't selling as many cars. Even though I knew all the information the customer needed, I would second guess my ability which left the customer lacking confidence in me.
It is amazing how a little mindset change can drastically improve results! I don't know what you are dealing with or what you are working on. In your job, family or with your friends, confidence can transform your relationships, performance and ideas! The impossible becomes possible, your weakness becomes strength and exciting things happen!
Be strong, be confident and find success!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Everybody wants a Cardboard Box!
You know, Thursdays are pretty ordinary for me! At the dealership, there isn't much that goes on. That's why we schedule half of the sales people their day off on Thursdays. Thursdays can get long and drawn out. A slow day, kind of like watching a pot boil, though a pot boils sooner than anything happens here on a Thursday, LOL! It's just kind of boring, even depressing.
"Woo Hoo!" my daughter exclaims from the other room. "Yay! Wee!" she continues on. At this point, I figure, she has got to be getting into trouble. I go back to check on her and she is tumbling around in a larger box that I had placed back there. To be honest, I don't remember what she made the box out to be, a roller-coaster or swimming pool, but I know that she was having the time of her life! I mean, it was just a box! A pretty ordinary box at that. There wasn't even colorful attractive printing on the outside! Yet, for some reason, for her, it was the most extraordinary thing in the house!
How is that possible? How can something so ordinary become so extraordinary?
It's all a matter of perspective. How we look at the cardboard box determines the value and therefore the excitement of it. My daughter chose to view that as something more than just an ordinary box. She used her imagination and looked at it with a new perspective!
You can do it too!
We have a problem and it is socially an epidemic. We have words for the negative thoughts running through our heads and that seems to make it acceptable to address things as such. "Ordinary" is one that is part of this plague. We can go through life, looking at the "ordinary" as blah, mundane, and even annoying. A rainy day, for example, I look at so many times as dreary and annoying. Rain, however viewed as ordinary, really is extraordinary! The cycle of water evaporating, rising to the sky and then falling on the earth is amazing when you really think about it. In ancient culture, before smart phones and blogs :), rain was exciting and even praised! Their ability to live was determined by the rain cycles and therefore their perspective was different then you and I.
When we stop and think about it, things change!
The man made tools, vehicles, fixtures and shelters become amazing and ingenious works of science and art! The natural becomes supernatural! The ordinary becomes extraordinary! The cardboard box becomes a space ship, time machine, Jacuzzi!
You can do it and I guarantee it will change your day ... your week ... your life!
Now ... Don't you want a cardboard box?
"Woo Hoo!" my daughter exclaims from the other room. "Yay! Wee!" she continues on. At this point, I figure, she has got to be getting into trouble. I go back to check on her and she is tumbling around in a larger box that I had placed back there. To be honest, I don't remember what she made the box out to be, a roller-coaster or swimming pool, but I know that she was having the time of her life! I mean, it was just a box! A pretty ordinary box at that. There wasn't even colorful attractive printing on the outside! Yet, for some reason, for her, it was the most extraordinary thing in the house!
How is that possible? How can something so ordinary become so extraordinary?
It's all a matter of perspective. How we look at the cardboard box determines the value and therefore the excitement of it. My daughter chose to view that as something more than just an ordinary box. She used her imagination and looked at it with a new perspective!
You can do it too!
We have a problem and it is socially an epidemic. We have words for the negative thoughts running through our heads and that seems to make it acceptable to address things as such. "Ordinary" is one that is part of this plague. We can go through life, looking at the "ordinary" as blah, mundane, and even annoying. A rainy day, for example, I look at so many times as dreary and annoying. Rain, however viewed as ordinary, really is extraordinary! The cycle of water evaporating, rising to the sky and then falling on the earth is amazing when you really think about it. In ancient culture, before smart phones and blogs :), rain was exciting and even praised! Their ability to live was determined by the rain cycles and therefore their perspective was different then you and I.
When we stop and think about it, things change!
The man made tools, vehicles, fixtures and shelters become amazing and ingenious works of science and art! The natural becomes supernatural! The ordinary becomes extraordinary! The cardboard box becomes a space ship, time machine, Jacuzzi!
You can do it and I guarantee it will change your day ... your week ... your life!
Now ... Don't you want a cardboard box?
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