Challenge

People say they like a challenge, it keeps life interesting. Still the majority of people underachieve, play it safe, and settle. A challenge is a conquest and the stuff heroes are made out of. So in a way its a fantasy; we all want to be heroes.

Yet we still behave in a way to limit challenges. Because although they are fun and exciting, they are also scary and dangerous. Success trumps challenge far too often. So we run the races we know we can win, and we apply to the jobs we feel we can confidently succeed at. Unfortunately, we succeed, just like we knew we would, and so we are rewarded for being safe. Which then makes us avoid challenge even more so that we can get that feeling again.

We are happy, but just happy enough to be satisfied because there is always that maybe in the back of your mind. The maybe you could have had more, done more, or gotten more. We can pretend that we don't want the challenge but the truth is we do. We want it but we don't allow ourselves to go after it. We are designed to assess possible outcomes. So the pros and cons rule our decision-making because we are logically thinking beings.

I'm not advocating for the absence of logic. We have this ability because it is useful. All I'm saying is believe in yourself as unstoppable, tie that thought into your logic. No mountain is too high. So yes think before you act, but when you do, think about succeeding even the biggest challenges.

I thought this was life...

When I graduated I heard people saying- "Now you start life" or "Welcome to the real world"...but my questions is .....Did I stop living while I was in college?

To me this time has been the most I ever lived. I found myself and I learned to have faith in myself. I went through some of the hardest experiences of my life and I built inner strength from it. I took risks and if that isn't life then I'm not sure what is.

For me there is no "fake world;" it's all real. The most learning that occurred while I was at Cal Poly did not happen in a classroom, it wasn't about business management or psychological human functioning, and I didn't get graded on it either. The most I learned in college was about myself: what I am capable of, what I want out of life, and just plain random knowledge everyone should know......

I decided to form a list...some of it serious...some of it funny...all of it true
WHAT I LEARNED FROM COLLEGE
-being on your own is priceless...even when it cost every cent you have
-parents did a lot more for you when you lived at home than you had ever noticed
-in reality no one cares how much money you have unless you talk about it
-sleep isn't always necessary
-friendship only means something when you give it meaning
-choosing between beer or real food is harder than you think
-you get out just as much as you put in....this goes for anything
-even the most devastating situations look like nothing in hindsight
-death happens: so say your "I love yous"
-blessings are everywhere
-the grass is only greener on the other side because you are too busy looking at it to water your own
-there is no such thing as too much laughter, too much love, or too much knowledge
-everything is beautiful...not everyone has the ability to see it
-instinct and intuition are usually right
-you have to take a risk to move forward
-the best things in life aren't free, but you don't buy them with cash or credit either
-you can say so much without saying a word
-with God you can make it through anything
-you can always change yourself if you aren't happy with you anymore
-there is no wrong way to play beer pong
-credit cards aren't really magical
-we need people in our lives
-if he has your number and he didn't call..its cuz he didn't want to so get over it there are plenty more guys out there
-you have to live life one step at a time
-you will regret it if you say "no" every time someone invites you out
-we are all powerful
-learning shouldn't stop just because you aren't sitting in a classroom
-when you believe in yourself no one else needs to
-people are attracted to people who love themselves (a healthy self love though)
-don't believe everything you read/hear/see
-mistakes are necessary
-and the list goes on and on and on.....because every moment is a chance to learn something new about life.

Thank you to all my supporters who I am blessed to have. I thank God everyday for those of you that taught me lessons, learned lessons with me, and held my hand during the learning process.

Fear

"A Ship in a Harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are made for"-William Shedd

We wake up 40 years from now and realize everything we didn't have the time to do. Except that we did have the time and we did have the opportunity, but it's a lot easier to pretend we didn't than to tell ourselves the truth. What's the truth?

The truth is that we were afraid. That we lived our life thinking about everything that could go wrong and instead of deciding to take a chance we didn't stand up for ourselves. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, and even fear of success. We let fear get in the way. We let fear hold us prisoner.

We have a term for this...it's called a mid-life crisis and it is very common. Not everyone has one, but if we made up a term for it chances are most people do in some sense. The biggest problem is that by the time that crisis occurs and we start to blame all the "should of"s on fake reasons like time, its too late to truly fix the problem. Although many try: the brand new convertible, 20-something year old mistress. or other fillers that can temporary placate the emotions we feel about our "failure to live" don't actually satisfy the needs they are pretending to fill.

Why is it that we are a people controlled by fear? We are controlled by fear because we must protect ourselves and if something is scary we label it dangerous as well, even when that is not the case. For example, hitting on someone may result in getting rejected that's scary, I get it, but is it dangerous? Will it prevent you from living the rest of your life? and what exactly is the cost of not hitting on them? Because when you really break it down...living a life alone is just as scary as one person rejecting you, isn't it? "Lonely hearts are never broken" but they are still lonely. Associating negative consequences with danger or harm is just not logical.

What if you fail? Does someone die? Well maybe if you are a heart surgeon or Airplane Pilot, but liekely the answer is no. What happens is you fail, boo hoo, and then you pick yourself up and you try something different, or you find the mistakes that led you to fail and you fix them. The problem comes from our perception of failure, and when we change our perception we change our life.

The quote I began this post with has been one of my favorite quotes for a long time. I can't remember the first time I heard it, but I have seen it several times since. The message is simple, and yet most of us, including myself, ignore it. Safety takes priority and we don't do what we are made to do because we are so caught up in keeping ourselves away from risk. In a study of 80-90 year olds, 84% indicated that their biggest regret was that they didn't take enough risks. BIGGEST REGRET.. approximately 4 out of every 5 people. That doesn't mean that the 5th person doesn't have that regret too it only means they have another regret that is bigger.

So you have two choices: (1) live your life now, courageously face fear and fail, get rejected, get embarrassed, and make mistakes. Sounds scary, but there is another side to that because you also get to succeed, live a life, and make progress. or (2) you can wait until you are old and gray and relive your safe life over and over in your head wishing you could have been just a little more brave.

I'm not saying its easy, as a matter of fact, I am saying its hard. And anyone who knows me knows I am the queen of fear, so of course its hard for me as well. It's supposed to be hard because that's what makes it worth it.

The only fear we should let run our life is the fear that we will wake up one morning and realize we never really "lived"

If boys knew how to be romantic

We live in a world where women made up the rules of love and romance. Men, boldly attempt to follow the rules, but realistically FAIL MISERABLY. Which then gives us an excuse to complain and make up even bigger more complicated rules about how to fix things after they have messed them up.

What if boys knew how to be romantic? What if they were born with the ability to do exactly what we picture they would do? Well the truth is, we would make up more ridiculous rules that they would then fail. I know that this theory I have sounds odd, but let me explain my thought process.

I believe, that girls do not necessarily want flowers, expensive dinners, chocolate covered strawberries, and candlelight. Well scratch that of course we want that because it sounds so awesome, but why do we want that from men? why do they constantly have to prove their love with these little things? Well I think it is because what we want is a guy who is not like every other guy! Unfortunately, they are still a guy and they will still forget anniversaries and buy valentine's cards that are funny instead of romantic.

WE SET THEM UP TO FAIL! We make sure that what we want is the stuff most guys forget so that when they do remember it ends up making them ONE-OF-A-KIND. Even if it doesn't happen everyday, most men aren't completely clueless and will send flowers for no reason or light candles when you come home. So we keep making the rules and letting them get broken daily, because the days we get exactly what we want...WE GET TO BE A PRINCESS WHO HAS FOUND A PRINCE FROM A CROWD OF TOADS.

I wrote this in the 5th GRADE!

The Pursuit of Happiness?

We are littering the streets
with dreams and self-authored tales
Yesterday, I saw basketball star
behind the convenience store.
This morning Prima Ballerina
was on 1st and Main
choking on sewage in the gutter.
Crumpled up and barely shimmering
in the street lights.
We don't even notice anymore
as we drive by to our 9 to 5.
We are racing to the flimsy paycheck
that does disappearing magic tricks
and leaves us behind
the way we left President and Musician
so long ago.
We the people
have the right to pursue happiness,
but what about to attain it?

Believing in the invisible.

I was 9 years old the day I decided God existed. I was on the playground and Daniel H. kicked down a sapling tree and it broke in half. Being the environmentalist that I was, I ran to Ms. Johnson's classroom, grabbed duct tape out of her drawer, and returned to put the tree back together. It was a Friday so I was going to have to wait until Monday to check on my patient. That Monday morning I removed the tape little by little, revealing the sapling's two pieces completely connected. I decided that I had witnessed a miracle. The only one I had ever heard of before this was the birth of my baby sister, and since I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, this tree became the first miracle I believed in.
This morning, I was stopped to fill out a short survey on science as proof against creation. I refused. The gentleman quickly replied, "These are facts, you can't ignore facts. If you want to keep on believing in the invisible that's fine, but it's obviously wrong."
What is it about human nature that requires an answer for everything? Why is believing in the invisible seen as ridiculous? Science gives you answers, physical answers, whether they are right or wrong or interpreted correctly doesn't seem to matter. Still, science can't answer everything; FAITH can.
In my manuscript, Believing Windmills, I use the analogy of the windmills I used to watch on long trips with my family. The wind is in essence invisible until we see what it does, how it flows through the trees and through the windmills. We believe in wind don't we? Faith is believing that what you see is the result of the invisible as well as the physical. Faith is not needing facts to define the world around you.

Next time you pass a windmill, you can use a scientific measure of force and get out of your car to discover what is causing it to move, OR you can just BELIEVE.

It's been a while,

Mostly I just thought people weren't really reading this, but also I have been very busy!!!
Unfortunately, I had a thought (it happens), and I felt like typing it out and getting it out of my system.

This morning, I read a posting about collecting comments to find the top 20 reasons LA sucks. When I looked at the comments that were being left, 87% of the people had an LA zipcode that left reasons to hate LA. So I got curious, as I usually do, and I googled top reasons I hate living in.... What I found was lots of people hate where they live. I think I went through about 18 pages and then I got the point, we aren't satisfied.
If we are given the free-will to move anywhere we want, why are we all living in places we dislike? I mean in reality nobody forces you to live somewhere. So my question is, do we choose to live in places we hate or do we end up hating places in which we choose to live? and if the latter is true, then why don't we move? Is it an endless cycle that routine contact leads to discovering every negative aspect of something? In social psychology, we learn that the most difficult part of a relationship is from 6 months to 2 years. This is the point in the relationship where negative aspect of the other individual become most apparent and difficult to hide. We don't end every relationship at 2 years because we weigh the good and bad, and sometimes despite imperfection we find reasons to have lasting relationships. Just like people writing about why they hate Minnesota, the Bay area, Miami, small towns, big towns or New York still choose to continue to live there. So maybe what the list should really be is "The things about my town I hate having to deal with just because I love living in it".
No matter where you are from, you can find things about it that aren't good; if there were a perfect town out there it would eventually become so overcrowded that we would hate it for its perfection. The average individual is never satisfied. Instead of writing lists about everything that is great about where they live (I'm sure there are also plenty of those lists though), we choose to focus on negativity. What is it that is inherent in human beings that causes us to want what we don't have and find reasons to discriminate against what we do have. Do we just enjoy complaining?

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!