Quote - Glenn Turner - Rocking Chair

 Love this quote. I'm not the type to worry about things, I find it's wasted energy I can put someplace else. So when I read this quote I was glad to find someone else thought so too.

“Worrying is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere.” - Glenn Turner

The only thing, a rocking chair can be relaxing, worrying is not...

Avoidance Controlling Lives

In trying to be more aware of my own actions I noticed one pattern. Then I started looking at others thought process and I noticed the same pattern as well. And this pattern was less evident in a few persons.

A lot of our choices are based on avoidance instead of eagerness to experience. This avoidance pattern tries to elude us from unknown experiences or experiences we predict as being bad for ourselves or simply to avoid the experience which will require an effort from us.

This is a perfectly normal sub-conscious behavior, one day in the past we had a bad experience and our sub-conscious mind as taken note of it. We can't do everything consciously and our sub-conscious mind tries it's best to make the best choices for us based on experiences. But leaving all our choices to our sub-conscious mind mean we'll never experience new things. If we cease to experience new things we'll stop improving ourselves. Life will become boring and repetitive.

As a little exercise, for the next 24 hours, try to ask yourself why you take mundane irrelevant choices. For example, there are two paths to get to the washrooms from my office, why do I take one and not the other? To avoid boring chatter in front of the elevator maybe? Try to put a little consciousness in all those little actions you do during your day and when you don't find a logical reason to your sub-conscious choice, try another option.

Step outside your comfort zone. Experience life differently. New experiences are not limited to bungee jumping and eating ethnic food. Little tiny experiences are part of what we are every day.



P.s.: As opposed to my last blog on uncertainties, I'm not saying the date and time of my next post. You'll have to live with mystery this time!

Quote - Eliminating Doubts

I realized I haven't posted any quotes in a while. I also know that since I'm typing with one hand I haven't posted many entries in general. Of all the inconveniences of having an injured hand, I think not being able to type my thoughts with ease is what I miss the most.

This one comes from my bank of saved quotes. If I remember correctly it's from Paulo Coelho's blog. Piggy backing on the master's work.

“Modern man tried to eliminate life’s uncertainties and doubts. And in doing so he left his soul dying of hunger; the soul feeds off mysteries” – says the dean of Saint Francis Cathedral.

 It's true that we thrive to make everything certain. We purchase warranties because products should not fail. We try to predict tomorrows weather. We try to control the flu viruses. We try to estimate the size of the universe when we don't even know our neighbor. We ask a groundhog if spring will come early. We try to make every single interaction we have with anything as predictable as possible...

So my next blog entry will be Monday, February the 13th at 1pm Eastern time and I'll be discussing avoidance.

No mysteries for your soul today! Or maybe not...

Is it worth the risk?

Recently I had a major sport injury. I broke some bones in my hand and dislocated a finger. It was an horrible sight, but I had to look at it at some point. It's my hand and it's attached to my body. After some pain, long waits in hospitals and surgery I'm back to "normal" life, if trying to be functional with one hand can be considered normal.

On my side everything is fine. There is a considerable amount of adjustments to do to my daily life. For example, I can't put peanut butter on my toasts in the morning without a yoga ceremony. But I kinda like the new life, it's challenging and it forces me to re-align certain things.

People often seems more discouraged about my situation than myself. And the one question that I got many many times and which puzzles me is:

Was it worth it?

Yes. Of course it was. I'm not sure I completely understand the question. Was that particular game worth playing? Or was it worth playing sport all your life? I have to admit that if, let's say, God came to me before the game and told me that would happen, I would have side lined and watch the game from there.

But if God would have told me "In your life, if you play sport you will one day break a whole bunch of stuff in your hand." Then I would have still played. Why? Because that's simply life as it is. There are risks in the game of life, if you want to enjoy life you have to face risks. It's inevitable. Using very conservative numbers, I've calculated that I've played well over 10000 hours of sports in my life* saying those hours were worthless would be like saying I had a miserable life so far. Those hours provided me with too much fun and pleasure to be tossed aside because of a single injury.

What now?

Right now, I'm enjoying my new life. I don't like typing at turtle speed with one hand but I manage fine. I have to accept the fact I'll be like that for two months. I'm taking it positively, embracing the challenges that come with it. Trying to think about the solution instead of focusing on the problem.

Will I play again?

Yes. And I sincerely hope that nobody will stop themselves from engaging in fun life activities because they saw my injury. Life exist to be enjoyed and not to be sidelined (notice how I stick to the blog theme? That's cool writing, don't you think?) out of fear.


* If you want to compare there is 8760 hours in a year.

Video: People Are Awesome 2

As promised, here the video I had in store for January.

To start the year, how about a video of people pushing their limits to the max. I love these videos. If after seeing what those people are doing you still don't believe you can lose 5 pounds in 2012 or stop smoking you need to figure out a way to motivate yourself and fast. These people are doing the unthinkable so you can believe in your own ability to improve.



I've posted a similar video in the past, in case you need extra motivation.

Writing Motivation, The Secret - It's Been Too Long

It's been too long. When people randomly ask you if you are still writing you blog, you know it's time to get back at it.

Most of you are probably familiar with The Secret. If not, I can't tell you because it's a secret. But a few Google searches will tell you all about it. There's is also a movie which will tell you all about this well guarded secret. Also millions of book copies on any book store or library shelves explain this secret in every little details. You can also ask the people beside you, chances are they know all about it.

Part of The Secret is to think about what we want and it'll manifest in some way. So many people randomly asking me if I'm still writing my blog obviously are thinking about my blog hence for it to manifest, I need to get my act together and write. That Secret thing is putting pressure on me!

So, why did I stop writing for so long? You may be asking yourself.  To be precise, 18 days without writing a blog. I don't have a clear answer to your question but I intent on keeping maintaining my blog. I have a whole bunch of blog entries in "Draft" right now which I can (and will) finish up. One of them was even kept in Draft so I could publish it in January for the new year. Stay tuned for that one, a cool video which is a follow up to a previous video I've posted.

If you made New Year Resolutions, don't give up there's only 349 days to go, thanks to 2012 being a leap year you have one more day to discipline yourself.

If any of you want me to write about particular topics, feel free to leave a comment with your feedback. I have a lot (I think it's the first time I've ever written "a lot" correctly on the first type. For some reasons I always write "alot" in one word.) of topics to discuss in 2012, I have a constant flow of ideas but sometimes just don't have a computer on hand to write it down. I guess you can put the last part to the past tense since I now have a Macbook Air which lives on my lap 24/7. Almost.

Wishing you all a great year!

2012: The Year YOU Are At YOUR best

This is it. My last post of 2011. It's been a great year. I've matured in so many ways. I've also kept my blog alive all year long, improving along the way, which was one of my 2011 resolutions. I want to thank everyone who has read my posts and given me feedback. You are the reason I keep writing my entries.

For great inspiration from 2011, search #2011highs on twitter and read the great things people did in this great year.

(http://twitter.com/#!/search/%232011highs)

But enough of the past. One can't stop when he has attained a goal, the journey must continue. What will be 2012 for you? Do you see a great year ahead? Do you see changes? Or do you see the same old routine again?

I'm not going to tell you what would be a great resolution for you, you must find that yourself. Loosing weight, stop smoking, eating healthier... these are our society's resolution. Dig deeper and find your own.

One piece of advice. I've mentioned this quote in one of my very first blog entries. It's an advice I got from Neil Strauss a long way back and it stuck in my mind like Wile E. Coyote sticks to an Acme Corporation giant magnet.

"It's not enough to just be yourself, you must be your best self." - Neil Strauss

If you apply the best self principle to everything you do, great things are going to happen in 2012 no matter what your objectives are.

I wish you all a great year.