I sat in the office a eighth grade student with all the hope of a student that was graduating from junior high being promoted to high school. I was waiting to speak with the counselor. This year I would get the chance to choose my electives, this was an exciting time!
While I waited to speak with my guidance counselor I read the posters in his office. One poster really resonated with me so much so that I can still remember what the poster looked like and its tag line. A young man sat at the cliffs edge on a hang glider and thge tag line read “If you think you can or you think you cant you are right”
Attitude is more important than we can ever imagine. Today on Monday lets understand that we can do anything if we out our minds to it!
I took my kids to the movies to watch the Pixar instant classic named WALL-E. The name WALL-E is an Acronym short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth class. WALL-E is one of the main protagonists and a robot. Earth is so full of trash that it can no longer support human life. Humans are living on a space cruise ship waiting for WALL-E to clean up the planet. The humans have been gone so long they have unlearned botany. The captain of the ship learns that earth can support them and he teaches himself botany kind of… His learning of botany is where the title for this post comes from. “We will grow Pizza.” The captain says this when, he is speaking to a child about earth. He understands that planting and sowing is how food is made on earth but pizza is kind of complex and as of now there is not a pizza seed or plant.
When we plant seeds we are setting up ourselves for the future. Living now and planning for the future is a fine line. We should not spend all our time planning for the future so that we do not enjoy now however we should know that the future will come and if we haven’t planted anything we may not eat.
“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Planting seeds is a good choice and action. It is doing good things now that will give us good results in the future and allow us to enjoy now. There is never really a wrong time to do good.
So lets all do as much good as we can today and I guarantee tomorrow will be brighter and better for everyone.
I’ve never eaten an elephant but I imagine that you would eat the massive majestic almost magical beast one bite at a time.
I used to teach new web developers how to create websites using the ASP stack. The course was a boot camp style course and a lot of information was thrown at the students at one time. Some students would start coding and I could see and sense the feeling of being overwhelmed that’s when I would ask. “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer was always one bite at a time.
“We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Lately the world has thrown a lot at people. It seems like a chore to just exist and that is because it can be. The good news is that you can handle anything and if you feel that you can’t you probably have others that will help you if you ask. Just take a breath look at what is going on right now, and deal with that. Once you finish dealing with now acknowledge and celebrate and move on to now again. You can really do way more than you think you can you just need to put one foot in front of the other and lean forward.
Next time I wish for a million dollars I will plan out how I can accomplish this. I mean I might as well seeing that my brain has the lobes active and running simply with the wish I am making.
forces us to confront all the parts of the wish or goal
Planning is the first step to making a wish a reality. Werther we admit it or not we are always planning sometimes it seems like an unconscious act. We set alarms and plan to wake up a certain time everyday. We schedule appointments with people and make reservations at restaurants.
How many hours are required at my current salary to earn a million dollars?
what are my expenses?
what is my net income per month week hour?
How long will it take if all net income is saved?
Are there other income sources?
How much income?
You may or may not save a million dollars but, planning makes us ask and answer some hard questions and then take action concerning these questions. Take time today to plan and engage with your wishes and dreams.
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
I have some ideas… I have been told by many people that the ideas are crazy and not practical. “That will never work, it’s a pipe dream, there is a reason it is done this way or that way, don’t reinvent the wheel”. I have heard all of the reasons people have for not pursuing my ideas. All the thoughts that have been given to me have been code for no. People saying don’t do it for some reason or another and I am ashamed to admit it but I have often listened to these people. As I got older I have caught myself on more than one occasion being one of those people. The person who tells someone no.
Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.
Eleanor Roosevelt
There was a movie called “Envy” it starred Jack Black and Ben Stiller. The two characters were neighbors. The neighbors worked together and carpooled together. Jack Blacks character always had ideas for new inventions and offered the ideas and investment opportunities to Ben Stillers character. Ben Stilllers character refused and Jack Black got wealthy from one of the ideas.
If it is your dream or idea you are the one who must bring it to fruition and you are the one who needs to believe in yourself and say yes. Asking for advice is good and giving advice is also good however I truly believe that the saying “there are no bad ideas” is and should be true.
I wonder how many life altering, universe shaking ideas were shot down by well intentioned friends and families? Let’s lift ourselves and each other up. The world needs it more than ever.
What are your dreams? Dreams can be thoughts and imagines in our minds when we are asleep, and or, cherished aspirations, ambitions or ideas. In Max Barry’s book syrup the protagonist mentions that every adult has at least 3 million dollar ideas a year. A million dollars is truly life changing. Their idea is a dream. Only five percent of the United States is inhabited by millionaires. What happened to all the ideas or dreams?
Some people pursued and reached their dreams, some pursued and failed and others didn’t even start. Why not start? Lots of reasons, no opportunity, bad timing, and worst of all, lack of faith.
I encourage everyone to try and fail. You will have the experience and maybe when you try you will not fail and then you will have the money. Try often too, the analysis of experience is the best teacher. You may do something bigger than earn a million dollars your idea or dream could change the world.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dream
We have all been there, a situation comes up and we want to do one thing but allow our selves to be convinced to do another and then we regret the not going with what we originally thought we should have done.
There is nothing wrong with stopping and taking stock of a situation and making a decision. The average person will make about 35,000 decisions a day. Most of the decisions will be small and the outcomes of the decision will seem inconsequential however there will be some big ones that you will need to make and the outcomes will make a huge difference in your life. For those decisions you should make a sound judgement in your heart and then go with it. If possible always do the good or moral thing. Never let criticism or judgement of others be your guide find the truth and do that.
Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
When you wake up and the morning and go to bed at night you are left with yourself and that is the person that you must make sure is ok with whatever decision you have made. It seems like people have strong opinions about the actions of others and will always be critical no matter what happens.
The best thing you and I can do for ourselves is find the good decisions and make them at least 35000 times a day
I was young on the playground and hanging on the play ground equipment. I felt safe even though I was in the air above the concrete. I began to swing and the safe feeling was replaced with terror. The terror stemmed from what I was about to do. I had decided that if I got enough momentum I would be able to swing my body and if I let go at the right time grab onto the other play ground equipment. I did it and the terror changed to complete exhilaration. Fast forward 25 years, I am in the drive way with my two sons and a skate board, I get on the skateboard and ride around the drive way for a while, my joy is once again filled with fear as I decide to attempt a jump on the board. The jump fails and fear is replaced with pain and laughter from myself and the the two boys.
When you go out of your comfort zone you are expected to experience some fear but keep in mind that some of the best things that have ever happened to you have come when you were uncomfortable. Asking your person out to dinner, your first time driving a car or motorcycle, the list is endless. Notice the use of the word comfort and not safety. Fear is important and can keep us alive too. Stay cautious and safe but try to at least once a day get uncomfortable and grow as a person.
It is the 8th day of Pride month in 2022. Pride month is, an month long celebration of the LGBTQ community, a celebration and remembrance of the Stonewall riots which occurred at the end of June 1969.
Right now as the nation celebrates Pride month there are representatives that have and are working to pass legislation that will make it impossible for students to discuss or learn about families from the LGBTQ community. The term for the laws is “Don’t Say Gay” laws.
These “Don’t say gay Laws” are discriminatory hateful laws made with with the intention of teaching children that LGBTQ families are not as important or legitimate as other families and that is shameful.
There was a graduate at the Pineview public school in Florida who was chosen to speak for his graduating class. The speaker was the class president and because of the hateful inhumane legislation passed in Florida the speaker was told that he could not mention his experience as being a gay student. When we prevent someone from expressing themselves in a polite non profane manner a message is sent and that is that that person is not welcome. Many people feel this way about the LGBTQ+ community.
People will say things like “I am fine with everyone but I don’t want to see two people of the same sex kissing”. They are lying to you and themselves. Instead of the lawmakers addressing their own bias and hate they are redirecting this hate to our children.
Kids that are not part of the LGBTQ+ community will not learn tolerance through and quite the opposite they will learn that it is not ok to be gay. I have to tell you this. IT IS OK TO BE GAY.
LGBTQ+ children need to learn this at home, and at school. Life is tough especially if you are part of a minority and the last things our children need is for the law to make their lives tougher.
Let’s make sure that we teach all children that it is ok to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex or straight. Let’s focus on teaching our children that every family that is rooted in love matters.
Watching a man spin plates was one of the coolest things I have ever seen on stage. The man had these poles mounted to the stage and frantic music played while he moved quickly with a stack of plates from one pole to another and started spinning each plate.
The spectacle was a chaotic frenzy and I was a 12 year old who loved watching it. sometimes at work and at home we may feel like this man. There is even a name for it.. Multi tasking, this is not sustainable. I have said it before and I will say it again life and career are infinite games.
The man can spin the plates because there is an end to this. You cannot multitask because there will never be an end. This article details how one should focus on deep work as opposed to multi tasking. Basically deep work is focusing on one task at a time and eliminating the task.
There are many facets to life and work and no matter what we think we cannot focus on multiple things at once it is impossible. This article titled the myth of multi tasking goes over why multitasking doesn’t work and seems to be the source of long term damage.
For me it seems that multitasking takes away the moment and the importance of it. When we are concerned with the plates on the left right and center we can often overlook the moment we are in and that is a bad thing. Before you loose touch and start multitasking take a breath an live in this moment.
The Corrigan Encore 