The Snail Made it to Noah's Ark

When I was young and naive, I thought that getting somewhere meant getting there now. What I lacked was patience. Lots of patience. I thought that getting there last meant that I had not succeed, but someone always used to tell me "The snail made it to Noah's Ark too."

Back then, I did not know that what they were actually saying was beyond wise. Today I do. Success does not require that you be the first or the fastest. Success happens when it happens and even if you are the last one to get there, you still made it. We should be proud of the fact that we made it. There are many people that give up before they get there, and many that never even try to begin with. Sometimes speed is an advantage, like when there is one worm then yes the early bird gets the worm. In life though, there isn't just one opportunity, there are many opportunities.

The snail had patience. It watched the cheetah, zebra, lion, peacock, elephant, giraffe, duck, frog, horse, ardvark, rabbit, canary, bear, deer, monkey, ........, and even cockroach walk on board. Most people would get discourage and maybe even feel that there is no point anymore. Patient people don't. They won't give up, and not only that they turn it around and get inspired. They see others make it and they use it to spur themselves on.

In the world we live in, cluttered with instant coffee, microwaves, fast food, instant messages, and automatic teller machines, soon is not quick enough. We are taught to detest patience rather than respect and cultivate it. The snail is not our hero, he often is really not even worth a second thought. This is detrimental to our future, because instant can't happen all the time. Honestly, instant rarely actually happens at all. The things that really matter are worth waiting for. It sounds cliche, but when you've made it and the storm comes and washes out those that gave up it becomes a meaningful expression.

If you are living in memories instead of moments...

you are no longer really living at all. Remember how good things were back then, how uncomplicated and easy life was? Well cut it out!

This thing we are all experiencing, called life, its not about sitting around and missing or wishing for something in the past. The past girlfriend (the one that got away), the past high school or college friend (the one who could always get your crazy side out), the past success or failure, the past anything. They all have one thing in common: THEY GET IN YOUR WAY. Because when you are thinking about that girl that you let go, the girl that's perfect for you is staring you straight in the face, and when you are thinking about that past failure you can scare yourself out of your potential next success.

Today is a new day, and every morning you get a fresh start. Its a gift, don't throw it away. The more we sit and look back, the less we are moving forward. A professor of mine once said that when we are finding ourselves we are all in a forest. We can look at every tree and maybe even climb some and decide what we like about eat one. But then, we walk out of that forest one day and what we find is a cliff, a big huge scary one. We have three choices: run back into the forest, sit still on the cliff, or JUMP. Only one of these choices is living and unfortunately, its the scariest, riskiest and hardest choice, but the reward is worth it. We get to become our self. That inner thing that you spend your whole life trying to find. Well guess what? Its not impossible, there are just many things in the way to actually finding it. Things like the past.

Its easy to live in the past, its comfortable and it makes us feel good. This is partially due to the fact that we choose how we remember. All those things you love about the past you can choose to remember them most and so when you sit in the middle of the road looking back everything looks rather pleasant. If you turn around to the future, you can't see a thing and actually you are pretty much going in blind. BUT there is so much beauty hidden in the future. So much beauty hidden in LIVING and you can find it one moment at a time.

All you have to do is CLOSE YOUR EYES, TAKE A DEEP BREATH, AND JUST JUMP.

Judging a book by its cover...

"Don't judge a book by its cover"..well we have all heard this before, whether it was from our mom, friend, or teacher its bound to have been brought up at some point. Hopefully, you know we aren't really talking about books, but metaphorically speaking. Really, if we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, then what the hell is the cover even there for? Obviously the editor/writer of the book spent some sort of money and time designing that cover. Therefore, that cover must serve a purpose; that purpose is that you don't have the time to read every book in every book store and we need a way to decide which book to give our time to.

So we still aren't really talking about books here; we are talking about people. The same principles apply whether we like to believe it or not. Obviously, not every person has the opportunity to choose the cover, but most of us do. This means the guy wearing the "fuck bitches and hos" t-shirt is likely not boyfriend material and the girl working at the coffee shop with her septum pierced is probably not the most conservative. I'm not saying covers are never wrong, but really they are there for a reason. We love categorizing things, we love saving time, and HELLO book covers help us do both.

Ignoring covers can be messy. I mean, if we are driving down the road and we see a hitch hiker, why not pick him up? It's on your way anyways and maybe its good conversation so whats the problem? The problem is you don't have time to read the book (in this case the hitch hiker) and its a risk. He could be the greatest guy in the world but do you know that? NO. So you could pretty much flip a coin on the whole he's a nice guy he's a murderer thing. There are less murderers in the general population, but do you really want to find out?

There are two points to my rant:
1. The whole "Don't judge a book by its cover" is a load of crap. I'm not saying use the cover to make all decisions, because really that's just as stupid as not looking at it at all. 99% of people dress and act in a way that they would like to be perceived. The cover should be a guide, it's there to help you and in the fast-paced world we live in we could use all the help we can get.

2. The cover matters, and guess what? you have one too! So take a moment to think about exactly what you are portraying. People are making decisions based on it. Employers, future friends, and day to day acquaintances all make inferences from your cover. Not only that but your cover includes so much more now that we have internet sites designed around representation. Some of you are judging my blog as a reflection of me at this very moment as you read it. So make sure people are looking at what you really want to represent!

So I'm starting a blog..

Why? Because I think a lot. Whether or not someone cares what I think, well, we will have to wait and see.

Today I am thinking about Resolutions and just why people make them. The New Year was 10 days ago and, I think that I can safely say 10-15 people that I know have confessed that they have already failed to keep a resolution. Well whats the point then? 10 days, I mean if we can't last 10 days how do we expect to last an entire year? The most troubling part is that resolutions aren't really about lasting a year they are actually about making a change that lasts a lifetime. Well are we being too unrealistic? Are new years resolutions supposed to be something that we really can't or don't want to accomplish. What we really need to do is stop making new years resolutions in a spur of the moment this is what I think type of way. I mean, we all want to lose weight and stop smoking and cherish moments BUT!!! those aren't really plans. Plans involve much more thinking than that. Like a resolution to go to a cycle class at the gym every Monday and Wednesday morning at 10am. That's a plan and if you know there is a cycle class at that time on those days and you happen to have it off well then all you have to do is commit to it. When we say lose weight that can be done in a million ways and we can put it off because we have no times, no dates, and NO PLAN. How can we expect ourselves to do something if we have no details?

So this is what I propose: take whatever your new years resolution was and create a real plan on how you are going to do it. Use dates, times, locations, and as many details as possible. People don't just change their lives overnight. We are creatures of habit and sometimes that means bad habit. So if your resolution is to eat less fast food then plan a grocery list and some recipes for the next couple of weeks. If your new years resolution is to volunteer more of your time to a good cause, then find the cause and call them up and set up times that you can come in. Your new years resolution should have a thought process behind it.

So go out there, set it up, and do it!