Changing Times

Posted on November 26, 2018 by admin

Routines are comfortable. They are familiar, predictable, reassuring, and they allow you to act automatically and with little thought. The more you can act on habit, the more energy, both physical and mental, you can reserve for other tasks. Most people develop a number of daily routines for each area of their life and could easily bring them to mind with a bit of thinking. 

However, life continually puts you in new situations. Maybe your best friend gets a new job in another state and moves away, preventing you from seeing each other regularly as you’ve done for years. A place you go to dance and have fun can be suddenly shut down. Interactions within the same groups of friends can vary greatly over the course of a year. Some of these changes can be upsetting, but other changes are welcome. There’s a great sense of relief when a loved one wins their battle against a dangerous disease. You could get a new job that you prefer and which pays you more than your previous job. Or, on a simpler level, maybe you discover a better way to structure your daily activities. 

Some people prefer routines and are hesitant to accept change. They enjoy the comfort and familiarity of knowing what to expect in life, which helps them prepare for the future. Other people are more open to change and less comfortable with routines. The unknown and the possibilities therein excite them and interest them more than sticking with what they know. While each side has its merits, focusing too much on either can easily lead to being stuck with the worst of that one and missing out on the good of the other.

There is a balance between routine and change that allows you to get the best of both while simultaneously minimizing their negatives. I’ve developed routines that have improved my communication skills. I work on them in my usual circles but I’ve also found them useful on trips. My communication routines help me relax and feel more comfortable around other people, especially when I first meet someone in a new place, and make me feel that the exchange is going to go well. This makes it easier for me to have the courage to travel more and try new things. Since change is inevitable in life, it’s important to accept it and make the most of it, and bringing in a bit of routine helps out a lot with that.  

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Learning Spanish

Posted on November 25, 2018 by admin

Since February of this year, I’ve been working on learning Spanish. There are many resources for language learning and I chose to use a great app called Duolingo (that link takes you to the web version but there are also links to app versions on the home page). There are numerous benefits to knowing multiple languages and I’ve learned a lot since I began this journey.

Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world; if I travel to a place where it is the primary language, being fluent or at least conversational in it would prevent me from needing a translator and allow me to have a much better time. However, I don’t even have to travel outside the US to find lots of people who speak Spanish. There are many native and nonnative Spanish speakers alike in Florida. Some of the customers at my job speak little to no English but are fluent in Spanish, so I could serve them better if I could speak to them in a language we both know. Also, the fact that it’s one of the most commonly spoken languages makes it incredibly useful for business purposes. 

Outside of communication, knowing several languages also benefits your brain. It helps protect you against dementia, keeps you mentally flexible, and gives you more understanding of people who come from different cultures. Learning something new, whether it’s information or a skill, helps keep your brain sharp, and learning another language is great mental exercise. 

Practicing with Duolingo every day has gradually made it easier to read, speak, and think in Spanish. I’m not fluent or even conversational in the language yet, but I’m getting there. While I remembered some Spanish from school, I had also forgotten a lot. Either way, my skills have significantly improved through consistently using the app and I now know more Spanish than ever before, which is exciting and encouraging. Since people who are immersed in a language seem to learn it quickly, I’d like to start having conversations in Spanish where I can. Fortunately I know several people who are fluent in the language and have offered to help me, so I hope to take them up on that soon. I don’t remember what prompted me to start learning another language, but I’m glad I did and I look forward to seeing where this takes me in life. 

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The Magic of Thinking Big: Getting Your Mind to Work for You

Posted on November 24, 2018 by admin

Your mindset affects everything you do, so having the right mindset is essential for accomplishing your goals. The Magic of Thinking Big contains a lot of great life hacks and this excerpt is one of the best. It shows you how to get your mind to work for you instead of against you. Without further ado, here’s how to do that: 

Here is a basic truth: To do anything, we must first believe it can be done. Believing something can be done sets the mind in motion to find a way to do it. 

To illustrate this point of creative thinking in training sessions, I often use this example: I ask the group, “How many of you feel it is possible to eliminate jails within the next thirty years?”

Invariably the group looks bewildered, not quite sure they heard right and thinking they are listening to a real fuzzy-wuzzy. So after a pause I repeat, “How many of you feel it is possible to eliminate jails within the next thirty years?”

Once they’re sure I’m not joking, someone always blasts me with something like “You mean to say you want to turn all those murderers, thieves, and rapists loose? Don’t you realize what this would mean? Why, none of us would be safe. We have to have jails.”

Then the others cut loose:

“All order would break down if we didn’t have jails.”

“Some people are born criminals.”

“If anything, we need more jails.”

“Did you read in this morning’s paper about that murder?”

And the group goes on, telling me all sorts of good reasons why we must have jails. One fellow even suggested we’ve got to have jails so the police and prison guards can have jobs.

After about ten minutes of letting the group “prove” why we can’t eliminate the need for jails, I say to them, “Now let me mention here that this question of eliminating jails is used to make a point. Each of you has come up with reasons why we can’t eliminate the need for jails. Will you do me a favor? Will you try extra hard for a few minutes to believe we can eliminate jails?”

Joining in the spirit of the experiment, the group says, in effect, “Oh, well, but just for kicks.” Then I ask, “Now, assuming we can eliminate jails, how could we begin?”

Suggestions come slowly at first. Someone hesitantly says something like, “Well, you might cut down crime if you established more youth centers.”

Before long, the group, which ten minutes ago was solidly against the idea, now begins to work up real enthusiasm.

“Work to eliminate poverty. Most crime stems from the low income levels.”

“Conduct research to spot potential criminals before they commit a crime.”

“Develop surgical procedures to cure some kinds of criminals.”

“Educate law enforcement personnel in positive methods of reform.”

These are just samples of the seventy-eight specific ideas I’ve tabulated that could help accomplish the goal of eliminating jails. WHEN YOU BELIEVE, YOUR MIND FINDS WAYS TO DO.

This experiment has just one point: When you believe something is impossible, your mind goes to work for you to prove why. But when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your mind goes to work for you and helps you find the ways to do it.

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Review of The $100 Startup

Posted on November 23, 2018 by admin

The $100 Startup is a great business book that I read earlier this year. Author Chris Guillebeau offers a lot of advice on generating ideas, marketing, testing things out, launching products, and other related subjects. Guillebeau pulls a bit from his own experience but primarily focuses on dozens of successful entrepreneurs and the things they did to achieve success in business. 

As indicated by the book’s title, Guillebeau makes the case that you don’t need a fortune to start a business. There are a number of ways to get your foot in the door without breaking the bank or putting your future on the line, especially since the rise of online commerce. Most of the people Guillebeau profiles in the book worked at a conventional job and spent their spare time gradually building up their business. Many of them then quit their jobs to become full-time entrepreneurs, but others ran their business while continuing to work reduced hours at their job. And, while some of them knew from the start that they wanted to be entrepreneurs, others simply tried out an idea just to see what would happen and wound up making it into a profitable business. 

It’s certainly possible to grow a business to gargantuan size, but Guillebeau focuses on small businesses in this book. He advocates keeping your business within the limits that you set for yourself based on your goals in life running rather than recommending that you necessarily stay small or go big. His focus is on how you can use use entrepreneurship to increase your personal freedom. Running your own business lets you avoid having a boss, allows you to set your own schedule, and provides you with income so you can do more of what you want in life. Keeping a balance between work and play is a central theme of the book, and everyone Guillebeau profiles has found and maintained that balance.

Some books provide a great deal of motivation but are lacking in practical ideas. The $100 Startup contains both. This book comes close to being an all-in-one guide to starting and running a business. It’s answered some of the questions I have about starting a business and given me a lot of ideas on what I can do and how to do it. Even though I managed to get it for a fraction of the normal price, I’d be happy to pay full price for all the useful information it contains. I’m going to reread it all the way through several more times and study specific sections as many times as necessary. I know that it will be an invaluable resource in the pursuit of my dreams. 

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Failure and Mistakes

Posted on November 22, 2018 by admin

In anything worth doing, there is no success without failure. Everybody who’s excelled in some area spent a lot of time making mistakes on their way up. Despite this, many people are afraid of making mistakes. A mistake isn’t the end of the world; rather, it tells you that something didn’t work and, usually, gives you an idea as to why.

Most people want to avoid a major failure, which is perfectly understandable. However, it’s possible for someone to overestimate the impact of any given failure and think that they’re done for if they fail once, causing them to avoid even low-risk behavior. To remedy this, aim to fail small instead of failing big whenever possible. Research things, test them out on a small scale, ask for help, etc. Mistakes should rock the boat, not sink it. Know what you’re getting into but don’t let fear or endless research and analysis prevent you from taking action.

It helps to have a teacher or an instructional guide to walk you through something new, but you don’t always have easy access to either of those. Sometimes the learning process comes down to trying something, seeing if it works, trying something else if it didn’t work, and then repeating that process until you figure it out. Mistakes are bound to happen as you go through this process. Don’t intentionally make mistakes, but learn from them when they happen and use them to eliminate possibilities as you work toward accomplishing your goals.

I’ve made more mistakes than I could ever count and learning from them has helped me get closer to where I want to be in life. Most of the early mistakes I’ve made in learning physical skills were due to a lack of experience and muscle memory. As I progressed in these skills, the mistakes were caused by other issues (not paying attention, lack of practice, rushing, etc) and became fewer and farther between. With facts, concepts, and other non-physical things, I’ve learned a lot by getting things wrong in discussions, asking for corrections from people who know more about something than I do, and having a desire for knowledge that outweighed my fear of messing up. As I tend to do with these posts, this one is largely intended as a reminder to myself that making mistakes and failing small is ok and even necessary for progress. That’s something I’ll have to keep in mind as I plan to get a business going, take the road trip of a lifetime, and work on my idea for helping people in need. I’ll come back to this post for motivation whenever I feel hesitant in any of these things, or with any other area in my life. I hope it proves useful to you and helps you fail toward success. 

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Encouragement

Posted on November 21, 2018 by admin

If you take some time to think about the people in your life whom you most appreciate, you’ll probably find that they are all encouraging. Everyone needs some encouragement, whether they’re going through a rough time or a smooth time. In the former scenario, encouragement helps people get back on track; in the latter scenario, encouragement helps them stay on a good path and take care of themselves. 

The most successful people in the world have had coaches, support groups, or simply people who saw their potential and the possibilities they could manifest and encouraged them to follow their dreams. Who knows how many people decided to stop harming themselves, started one or more successful businesses, or stood up for an unpopular yet important cause because they received encouragement from someone close to them? And think about all the other people who benefited from their positive action; they wouldn’t have gotten those benefits if not for the encouragement given to the initial person. You never know how much impact you can have on another person with even a small gesture of encouragement.

It’s amazing what an encouraging word can do for someone. I’ve heard it phrased as “speaking life into people” and I love that. I’ve seen two versions of a great quote about this and each one is attributed to a different person. I like both, so I’ll include the one attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson here:

“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.”

And the one attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe here:

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”

Everyone responds differently to encouragement but I’ve never seen anyone feel worse after receiving it than they felt beforehand. If someone didn’t appear to feel better after receiving some encouragement, it may just be that they felt it but didn’t show it, showed it differently than most people, or showed it later on once that good feeling had had time to settle in and take root. 

Encouragement is sometimes overlooked until it is absent. Nowhere is its absence more apparent than when spending time around draining, discouraging people who always bypass the positives and go straight to the negatives (even if the negatives are imaginary). After being around discouraging people for even a small amount of time, an encouraging person is like a breath of fresh air and provides welcome relief from the negativity. 

I like encouraging other people because I enjoy seeing them succeed, particularly when they didn’t think they could. I have many encouraging friends and I love the feeling I get when they speak life into me. Having the chance to give someone else that feeling is a wonderful way to pay it forward. Additionally, speaking words of encouragement to others also encourages me and motivates me to shoot for the moon. Part of this comes down to my desire for my words to match my actions and another part comes down to the fact that we as humans start to believe the things we say the most. If I’m regularly saying positive, encouraging things to other people, then it’s easy to keep my thinking aligned in that same fashion. In closing, I’ll leave you with these questions: who has been a major source of encouragement in your life, and what are some ways that you’ve used to encourage the people you know? 

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100 Posts and Some Reflections on the Journey Thus Far

Posted on November 20, 2018 by admin

This post is a special milestone in that it is my 100th blog post. When I started this blog, I decided to make one post each day for as long as possible. And, just as I had planned, I have not missed a single day since I started blogging back in August. I’ve learned a good bit from the journey thus far and I’d like to talk about some things I’ve noticed.

Writing about my ideas has helped me remember them in everyday life, especially when it comes to life hacks. Whether I’ve found something on my own or learned about it from someone else, I can recall useful things more easily once I’ve sat down and thought them through. This is helpful in stressful situations as those are the only times when I need life hacks, so having easy access to them is essential for getting back to a good place. I’ve always known that writing something with a pencil or pen aids in remembering it later and it’s nice to see that this is also the case for writing on the computer. 

Except for the time I was in Georgia for Classic City Swing 7, I’ve written something every day; I wrote and scheduled a bunch of posts in advance so I wouldn’t have to write anything during that trip or go without posting for that span of time. No matter what I’ve had going on in my life, I’ve found time to think of an idea and flesh it out into a blog post. I’m surprised that I’ve managed to accomplish this because, while there have been a few occasions in which I’ve had a plethora of ideas, there have been many more times in which I’ve struggled to either come up with an idea or figure out how to express it. Still, I’ve always found inspiration somewhere and I’m glad that I’ve stuck to my goal.

Something that motivates me to keep writing is the feedback. I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback about my posts. Several people have told me on multiple occasions that they enjoy reading my thoughts, find value in some of my ideas, and appreciate my writing style as well as my consistency in posting. It’s one thing if I benefit from the stuff I talk about here, but when other people find value in it as well, that tells me that it truly has value and I’m not just tricking myself into thinking it works. Since I’ve long wanted to leave the world better than I found it, this positive feedback has been wonderful to hear and lets me know that I’m on the right track.

Now that I’m 100 posts in, I have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing and I plan to keep going for as long as I can. My writing should improve over time but that will be the only change in the foreseeable future. I’m still going to keep writing about things I enjoy and make my life better, and I’m going to continue putting up a new post every day. I do benefit from writing out my ideas as I mentioned earlier, but what I truly love about having a blog is that it lets me easily share my ideas with other people. To everyone reading this, whether you’ve followed along from the beginning or jumped on board somewhere along the way, thank you. Thank you for reading my ideas, for giving me positive feedback, and for telling me how some of my posts have benefited you. I’m grateful that you’ve joined me on this journey and I look forward to seeing where it takes us next. 

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Tracking Progress

Posted on November 19, 2018 by admin

I’ve learned a variety of different skills in my life. Some of them were fairly easy and took little effort, while others required years of practice before I felt comfortable with them. Since most of these have been physical skills, it’s been easy to see and feel the progress over time. I can feel a juggling pattern get easier and more natural, notice how swing dancing has gradually required less conscious effort, see the time it’s taken me to solve a Rubik’s Cube steadily decrease over the years, and so on. When it comes to self-improvement, though, I find it more difficult to remind myself of my progress than I do with physical skills. Thinking of self-improvement as just another skill at which I can improve over time has helped me a lot.

When I think about any area of my life, I’m reminded of how much better each one is now than it used to be. Everything from my finances to how I interact with other people to how I take care of myself has improved significantly over the past year. This isn’t always easy to remember when I’m feeling stressed, though. That’s when I tend to forget my progress and fall back into old, negative mindsets and habits. Reminding myself how far I’ve come encourages me to keep going during the difficult times. I’ve started making extra efforts to do this when I first start feeling negative, which often gives me just the right boost to stop the negativity in its tracks before it has a chance to take root and drag me down.

Taking note of my progress has also helped me see where my efforts could be improved. I’ve made more progress in some areas than others, so being aware of my standing shows me where I’m doing ok and where I need to devote more attention. This doesn’t mean thinking badly of myself for falling short in these areas, which is something I used to do a lot more than I do now. It simply means acknowledging that I’ve made a lot of progress in every area, that I still have room for improvement, and that I can and will do better. 

My view of self-improvement has changed a lot over time. I originally saw it as something that other people can do but I couldn’t and now I see it as something at which I can make continual progress as long as I continue working on it properly. Like every other skill, sometimes I make a lot of progress and sometimes I make very little, and there are occasional lapses where I feel like I’ve regressed. At this point, though, I’ve learned enough life hacks to keep me mostly on a good path and get me back on track when I lose my way. I’m going to continue tracking my progress so that I can keep in mind how much I’ve improved and use it as motivation to go even further in the future. 

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Nights of Lights

Posted on November 18, 2018 by admin
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The Tini Martini in St. Augustine, Florida decorated for Christmas

Every year, St. Augustine, Florida is decorated extensively with beautiful Christmas lights in a celebration called Nights of Lights. There is a special ceremony at the start of Nights of Lights in which the lights are first turned on and lots of people flock to see it. I was fortunate to see it firsthand yesterday. Here are the highlights from the experience. 

The main event was in the Plaza de la Constitución Gazebo. They had a band playing Christmas music and counting down to the big moment when time drew near. There was additional entertainment earlier on but I arrived after it had already ended. A lot of lights were already glowing as I made my way to the gazebo, so I was confused and wondering if I had missed it. However, once I got to the right place, I saw that there were still many lights that had yet to be lit up. After the countdown, the switch was thrown and everyone cheered and applauded as they admired the lights. I spent a long time walking around the gazebo and taking pictures of anything cool that I saw.

When I was through exploring the gazebo, I wandered down several other streets and admired their lights and decorations. I rarely take more than a pictures when I go somewhere and I often end up taking none at all. It’s usually not something I think much about and I have several friends that take good pictures when we go out together. When it comes to Christmas lights and decorations, however, I always enjoy photographing them. I made sure to capture a lot of things I wanted to remember later on, my favorite of which I included in this post. Once I had done all I wanted to do, I went back to my car and headed home. 

I had been hoping to see some friends and do a bit of swing dancing that night, but things took a different turn (literally, as you’ll see in the next few sentences). Because they had closed off several streets, it took me much longer to find a parking spot than it normally does down there. Eventually, I got a place to park with the help of a friend who messaged me and made my way over to the festivities. I was either too late or in the wrong place to meet up with my friends who were down there, so I didn’t end up dancing that night. Despite this, I still greatly enjoyed seeing all the lights, listening to the music, taking pictures, and walking around the city. It was a nice night and I’m glad I was there to enjoy what it had to offer. 

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Tribute to Jim Henson

Posted on November 17, 2018 by admin
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Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog

Most people today are probably more familiar with the Muppets than the man who made them. That man was Jim Henson and he did a lot in his short life. By the time he died from pneumonia in 1990 at the age of 53, he had created a colorful cast of Muppets who touched the hearts of everyone who watched them. 

Born in 1936 in Greenville, Missouri, Henson started working with puppets while still in high school. After making several successful television commercials, he created Kermit the Frog, one of the most recognizable Muppets, in 1955 out of ping pong balls and an old coat that once belonged to his mother. A few years later in 1958, he started what would later become the Jim Henson Company. Unlike many other puppeteers at the time, Henson used the camera to define the boundaries of the action instead of building a physical frame in which the characters would perform. He designed sets and used camera angles to keep the puppeteers out of sight while still allowing them great freedom of movement with the characters. This, along with the ways in which the characters were performed, made them more lifelike than most other contemporary puppets. 

Henson’s first major success came in 1969 when he was hired to work on the show Sesame Street. The show became popular largely because of the characters he helped create and perform. Over time, the show’s success allowed him to get out of making television commercials and focus more on his own projects. These projects include, but are not limited to, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and a number of movies starring classic Muppet characters. 

The Muppet productions made during Henson’s life featured enjoyable music, realistic characters, great comedy, fun adventures, and touching life lessons. While the Muppets are well known for their comedy, it can be easy to overlook the sad moments where all seems lost and their hope is gone. These moments tug at our heartstrings because Henson figured out how to tell engaging stories with puppet characters so brilliantly that we forget they’re puppets. Each Muppet has a distinct personality and feels like a fully-formed, relatable character. This makes it easy and natural to laugh when they laugh and cry when they cry. We want to see them succeed because we see ourselves in them. Fortunately, there are many wonderful moments in which they do succeed. My favorite Muppet moment is when Kermit sings “Rainbow Connection” in The Muppet Movie. I can’t explain why exactly but that song means a lot to me and perfectly matches how I’ve always seen my role in the world (plus Kermit is my favorite Muppet and I see a lot of myself in him). I remember crying happy tears at that song when I first heard it well over a decade ago and to this day it still makes me tear up.

Jim Henson may be gone, but his heart lives on in each of his Muppets. Whether or not we grew up watching his work, we all have plenty of opportunities to enjoy it and the many wonderful characters he created. His works are great for wholesome, touching, quality entertainment for people of all ages, which is why I greatly admire him. I’m glad I grew up watching his works and have the chance to share them with all of you in this blog post, and I look forward to sharing them with my future family someday. 

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