Living Life

What's your outlook?

I believe people are predisposed to a certain type of attitude.  I have minimal scientific evidence for this, but observation suggests that some people are always happy, no matter what, and some are less than happy, no matter what. 

In looking at myself, after active duty I seemed to be high for about 8 months.  I had energy, time, a new lease on life, and nothing could stop me.  But now, almost 2 years after, I'm back to feeling busy, somewhat stressed, and things get to me. Nothing's really changed since I retired, yet my outlook is different.  I wonder if I'm one of those predisposed to feeling less than happy?

Also, in my observations, I've learned we can train ourselves a bit.  This month I'm facing some challenges at work, handling projects that require lots of buy in, negotiation, and are high targets for criticism.  I've been waking up not really looking forward to facing the challenges these projects present. 

Today, however, as I felt that doom and gloom, I reflected on a colleague's words that suggested I have time to dwell on the negative, and therefore I do.  With that reflection, I asked myself what positive things I could dwell on.  I started thinking about my my coworkers and how I can help them.  I started to think about being a benefit to all those I contacted.  In less than a minute, my outlook changed and now my projects were challenges to take on, instead of failures to dread.

Many things in life aren't easy, but I think we can change our outlook to make them seem easier.

I met the world today

On my run this morning I met the hawk, the ground squirrel and 10 rabbits (any of which might meet that hawk later), a plum tree, sage bush, the sun, the wind, people out living well, and a school resting to get ready for Monday.  The world I met today is one of harmony, love, and peace.  Those who are motivated to malice and anger, regardless of how righteous their cause is, miss seeing this world.

It is what it is

Focus on the runway ahead of you, not the runway behind.  Happy Thanksgiving all!

Just a thought

Goal setting

Goals can be good for you and motivate you to an end, but can also be a source of negative self talk.  If you find yourself not hitting your goals and getting demotivated, I find that shifting the goal to participating in an enjoyable activity can often provide great results.  Rather than worry about losing weight or running a certain speed, set a goal of running regularly or eating right.  In this way you win if you participate in the activity, and you don't lose if you don't hit your time or goal weight.  The advantage of this is the activity can keep you on track and eventually will get you to those previous markers that were challenging to hit, but all with fun and a positive self image.

Memorial Day

As you move about today, remember those who have sacrificed to give us our way of life.  Have a safe holiday.

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Nothing new

I was reading a latest post in Jason's blog and was struck by one of his comments.  He was explaining some advice he was receiving from Chris Lieto, a professional triathlete, and he made a statement of: "nothing new, but for some reason makes a lot of sense right now."

It's amazing how many times we'll read, hear, or see something that is marketed or perceived as new, but is really something repackaged, and not new at all.  I can't tell you how many times I've relearned lessons that make a lot of sense NOW. 

This tells me a couple of things.  First, when we learn or discover something for the first time, our frame of mind or perspective affects what we actually take away from that event/lesson.  We may  fully understand that lesson in its current context, but relearning that lesson in a new context later reinforces or changes the application of the lesson.  So, realizing this, when you learn something, think on the possibility that you may not have learned everything associated with that lesson at that time; later it may be a whole new lesson as it "makes a lot of sense NOW."

The other thing I realize is refresh is good.  It's okay to pull those old books down and re-read them.  It's okay to review notes of projects long gone by.  You never know what you may have forgotten that may be useful in the future, and you may end up re-learning some of those valuable lessons in the context of a new NOW.  This happens over and over again to me in martial arts as I review, relearn, re-remember, or re-apply basic, beginning techniques of my training.

Good luck and keep your brains and bodies moving.

Getting to the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory

I saw this quote on the cover of a book about Ed Viesturs, a fairly famous high altitude climber.  While this may have a few meanings for different people, what I immediately gleaned from this is a concept of living (working?) through challenges with a focus on persevering to the next challenge.

What is today

Take a few moments and ask yourself, at the end of today, what do you want to look back on and feel good about doing?  Now that you're at the beginning of your day, start lining things up to fulfill that accomplishment.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Best wishes to everyone for their dreams and goals.  Praise others, never talk bad about yourself.