Month: October 2021 (Page 1 of 4)

One of the reasons why I enjoy the early mornings so much, even though I really wouldn’t consider myself a “morning person,” is I love to watch the sunrise.

Usually it’s pretty quiet and with it I’m able to find a moment where peace, calmness, hope, a feeling of freshness and warm colors, that not only fill the sky but my body as I contemplate what’s possible. And most of the time, it feels like anything and everything is available to me.

Too often we can get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the day and forget about that rising perspective that inspires us to follow our true compass. It would seem the tasks and activities of the day drown out the muses we held in the awakening hours.

Maybe it’s here, in these golden hour moments where we can finally hear the small quiet voice within us that is guiding us to our true purpose in order to engage in a purposeful pursuit of what is meaningful to us rather than a string of useless activities and tasks which we convince ourselves are important.

Maybe, just maybe, we’ll find it in our sunrise state of mind.

Have you ever notice after you purchase a car how many other cars on the road are the same make and model as yours. Sometimes even color too. Why didn’t you see that before you purchased your vehicle? Were these same cars always on the road? Why hadn’t you ever noticed them before?

When we look for something – whether it’s a type of car, a specific product, a situation or a kind of person you run into throughout your day – you’ll most certainly find it. So, the question is, what are you looking for? A way to be offended? An opportunity to use excuses? A time to take the easy way out? The chance to validate your anger towards someone else? Or a moment to shine?

As a wise man named David Walker once said, “No matter what perspective you choose, you’re always going to be right.” Which means, if you choose to be angry throughout your day and make sure everyone you encounter that day knows it, you’ll be right. You will find ways to justify that behavior and . . . be “right.”

The question is: Is that what we want? To be right? To stroke our ego? I’m not so sure.

As Qui-Gon Jinn (Star Wars) once said, “Your focus becomes your reality.” This is true for so many reasons. So, then it begs the question once more: What are we focusing on?

The beauty of it is this: the sky’s the limit!

What say you?

We seem to spend most of our younger years trying to fit in with the crowd, in addition to looking for the approval of others. We spend a lot of time, effort and agony searching for that approval. As we move through life, we hopefully come to contextualize this “approval” and put it in its’ proper place.

When we stop looking for the approval of others and begin to follow our own path is when we find our true selves. This isn’t about being selfish. It’s about loving and nurturing the self. Those are very different concepts.

The only approval we should seek is our own. Based on our character, the choices we make and how we treat other people.

What someone else thinks about you is irrelevant to your journey. We must follow our compass within us whether it makes sense to others or not. As long as our intentions are true.

There’s a book by Trevor Moawad called, “It Takes What It Takes” in which he goes into detail about how “staying neutral” in every situation in order to manifest the best outcome possible.

As a mental conditioning expert, Trevor goes against the grain of most other mental professionals in his field who tout the idea of staying “positive.” Trevor’s approach is to arrive to every situation with a neutral mindset. This is something he as been working on with Russell Wilson for years in order to maintain his edge as a starting quarterback and arguably a future Hall of Famer in the NFL.

What does “stay neutral” mean? For me, staying neutral is an opportunity for us to NOT bring any baggage from the past to the current moment from that may taint or skew your point of view – either positively or negatively. There is a disadvantage to both.

We often times go into situations where there have been similar circumstances with an attitude that matches the last time we either failed or succeeded. We unconsciously or even consciously bring that energy and mindset to the current task and apply it, even though it’s not benefiting our overall goals.

We must find the neutrality of the situation and bring our preparation to the scene with a knowing it will all work out.

Another words, stay neutral.

I’m interested in people that want to look at their past experiences as a young and upcoming student of life -in any field- and analyze their mistakes/bad movies/first screenplays and novels and even failed business ventures that didn’t make in order learn what worked and what didn’t.

This is where the gems lie. But, if we’re unable to watch one of George Lucas’ first movies from film school because he is too concerned about how it makes him look now as a successful filmmaker, how are we ever going to know where we came from and what we learned along the way?

This is where we must understand, everyone starts from somewhere. And yes, it may look a little ugly and that’s okay.

All too often we believe we need to hit it out of the park at our first at-bat. It’s unrealistic to have those kinds of expectations. I’m not saying we don’t want to swing for the fence, but don’t let it stop you from getting up to the plate next time. The reality is, we will probably strike-out much more than getting hits. Remember: A major league hall of fame baseball player roughly gets a hit 3 times out of 10. Which means he is “failing” 7 times out of those 10 at-bats.

We must pay attention to what we consider “failing.” Gaining knowledge after going through an experience -whether we failed or not- is called wisdom. And how can we ever get to this place without diving in and taking reps.

After all, the future hall of famer doesn’t quit playing baseball after his first strikeout, nor his 66th or 356th. He goes back to practice to make adjustments to his swing. The good ones will continue to do this until they retire the game.

Never stop learning. Never stop making adjustments. But mostly importantly, stay in the game.