I May Not be an IronMan, But…

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. ― Napoleon Hill

I believe everyone is capable of doing great things. We just don’t realize it is within our ability. We observe great things by others, knowing for a fact we can not do what they can do.

A friend of mine completed an IronMan race last year. We were all impressed by her strength and endurance. She swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran another 26 miles. It took something like 15 hours. Just watching her run the race on Facebook was exhausting.

I wanted to be inspired. I wanted to be able to experience the epic awesomeness of completing such a feat. I knew there was no way I could do what she did.

I thought to myself, if I really wanted to run an IronMan race, what would I have to do to bring my physical ability to that point? What could I do today to increase my ability, my stamina and strength so one day I could complete something so amazing?

The easiest answer was to go do a run around the block. Then after a I have built an endurance, run around the block twice. Eventually I will be able to go around three times, then four times, then 5 and so on. I will start competing  in 5ks and then 10ks. Finishing a marathon would be a feat worth celebrating. 

I would have to start swimming and riding my bike. I might find other people to train with and soon I will be able to compete in triathlons. 

Who knows if I will ever be able to compete in an IronMan but the accomplishments I will make in the pursuit of that dream will be great. 

Get Busy Living

“Get busy living or Get busy dying” -Stephen King in The Shawshank Redemption 

My favorite author has always been Stephen King. Today, saying that, seems like a cliché. Everyone has read Stephen King at some point in their life. He has a lot of important lessons to teach us through his books. The biggest of which is live life while you have it to live, before you get destroyed by a giant psychic spider.

If we don’t start living, getting out there and doing things that change the world and changing  other peoples lives, we will probably whither away and die.

I remember when Charles Schultz made the statement he was about to draw his last Peanuts comic strip. The week after that strip came out in the paper he passed away. We have to continue to be useful, to make a difference in our world even if it’s just amongst our friends and family. If we’re not, I think subconsciously we stop living and eventually our bodies follow suit.

Get out there and do something. Follow a dream and help others realize their dreams. As long as you stay busy, you will be living. Make what doing worth the effort, allow it to help as many people as possible. Build your legacy around that and enjoy immortality at its finest.

A Little Bit of Kindness

If you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. ― Conan O’Brien

I think it’s interesting that being kind can make the difference between two people who work really hard for something they want. It makes amazing sense. If you work really hard but you’re a jerk to the people around you, things have a way of falling apart. On the other hand, if you are nice to those around you as you work really hard, those people will help you achieve what it is you want to achieve.

There are times we forget this fact. We forget to be nice to our coworkers. We forget the people we work with are also human beings. They have feelings. They live their own lives with their own families and their own troubles. Just because they work beside you does not mean work is all they have on their minds. When you’re mean to people, they find ways to be mean to you even if it isn’t directly.

I see so many companies that treat their employees like cattle. They bring them in and send them right back out without a thought of who they are. They put them down and tell them how bad of a job they’re doing. They threaten them and hope those threats will entice them to do a better job. The same people would do a better job if they were passionate about the job they were doing. If their coworkers are not nice to them, being passionate about your job is extremely difficult.

Take a moment to think about the people you work with. Look at their lives. Look at how they do things and why they do things the way they do. Ask them questions and try to understand who they are. Be nice to them. Explain to them what is expected without the threat of the loss of their job. Explain that they are a desired member of this workforce, this community. You will find if you are nice to them, they will be nice to you and it will start to feel like your team is more of a family. You will take care of each other and help each other grow. You will build a company to be proud of. You will find more success because all of you are happy just because of a little kindness.

Live Fearlessly

Your life is short. You have no clue when this ride will end. Stay present and live fearlessly. – Brenden Dilley 

I wonder how many times we see stories on the television or our local internet news feed where someone just falls down dead. Maybe they had a heart attack or some kind of seizure or the sugar level drops so low that hurt their body can’t handle it.It happens more often than we would like to admit. 

The fact is we never know when our time is going to be up. We never know how much time we have to love those around us and to accomplish the things that will fulfill our lives.

I think we all know this lesson. We understand it but I don’t think we always remember to implement the lesson. We forget that we need to live life like tomorrow may never come. We forget to love our families and friends. We forget to never leave angry. We forget our fear of doing something may strip the last opportunity we will get to achieve it.

I think quotes are a great way to remind us about living life to the fullest. I think quotes remind us that our life is short and the people around us are extremely important. It is a good idea to post quotes about “grabbing the bull by the horns” or “swallowing your fear and running for the goal” around the house, in your car and at work. Remind yourself constantly to be in the moment and push towards the things you want.

I hope that everyone lives to be 130 years old. I think everybody should live as long as they possibly can and experience everything this world has to offer. In my opinion, we only live once and we should make every moment count.

Forgive Your Enemies

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. ― Oscar Wilde 

This is a fun quote. I have used it many times at work when dealing with difficult managers. My favorite time was when I would walk up to a manager who had just called me and I knew he was not happy about something. I would walk up to him with my hand outstretched and a big smile on my face and I would say, “how can I make your day better?”

I’ve done that to him several times. That manager actually chuckled at me. He could not let me have it the way he wanted to let me have it. He had to step down a notch and give me direction in a tone that was not as harsh as what he had planned on giving me.

I know many people would not react the same way. Some would get more angry with me and make me stand there while they yelled at me about one thing or another. But it’s always a good idea to keep a level head and to pleasantly respond to them. It’s not your fault that they want to attack you in this way.

If somebody did something wrong to you and you felt it was unforgivable, it might be possible to change their way of thinking by forgiving them anyway. If they can see that you care about them enough to forgive them then they may think twice before they do something like that again.

It doesn’t always work, but it does lighten your mood. It does create a sense of peace within your own mind and soul. If you can bring a few people with you to that happy place, to that sense of harmony, then maybe they can pass it on to someone else. That way, maybe, we can make the world a better place.

Is a Bug Out Bag Really Necessary

Think about your backpack when you were in school or your briefcase when you went to the office. And each of those you had what you needed to perform the tasks of the day. If you were going to school you had your textbooks in your notebooks and your pens. If you were going to the office you might have a presentation or a laptop or your calculator.you carried all the things that assured  you would make it through that day.

A bug out bag does for an emergency that your backpack did for surviving school. I can see you packing your lunch and snacks in your backpack to get you through the day, to give you the energy you needed to take a test or push through till the bell rang. 

Imagine what you would do if you were stranded somewhere without your bug out bag. If you didn’t have a bag with the supplies you needed to eat, drink and keep warm for at least a day, if you were stranded it’s possible you could get sick and die. The likelihood is someone would come by and find you and take you to safety but do you want to leave your life in the hands of someone who may never show up. This is why a bug out bag is so important.

Imagine you were forced to leave your house at a moments notice only grabing a thing or two on your way out. If you had to leave because of a fire or because the waters of a flood were rising, would you be ready to leave. Would you have the things you needed to survive till you were able to get yourself and your family to safety.

You might be able to grab a bottle of water and a bag of groceries from your fridge but who wants to carry around something like that for hours as you hike to the nearest point of safety. If you ended up having to camp out because you could not get to the nearest Shelter would you be able to start a campfire. Would you have enough food to eat, to sustain your family for 24 hours? You would probably survive a day but if that day stretched into 3 to 4 days would you know what to do, would you have what you needed to survive?

Your bug out bag contains what you will need in the event of an emergency. These things will include water and simple foods like power bars or potato chips or beef jerky. You want to eat things that will give you the energy you need to keep going. You will want things like a pocket knife and a way to start a campfire and possibly a change of clothes or at least a pair of socks. Walking around in wet socks for hours is one of the worst experiences you could have to go through.

It can be as elaborate or as simplistic as you want it to be. I personally don’t want to carry a bag that is 50 pounds heavy. I want to carry something that is easy to grab, easy to throw into the backseat of my car. I want to have a change of clothes and enough food and water to survive three days. I want to be able to start a campfire. I want to be able to communicate with either a cell phone or a ham or CB radio. 

There are all kinds of other things I could include in this bag but I’m more interested in survival and ease of travel. The main idea is to survive with minimal effort. I want to survive. I don’t want to suffer. I don’t want to have to lug around something I may never use. So yes I believe a bug out bag is necessary but I think it should be simple. 

I think it should be easy to carry and easy to grab and an emergency. I might even go and say your bug out bag should be useful every day even when there’s not an emergency. You enjoy a power bar just because you’re at work and you’re hungry. 

You might be able to grab your pocket knife if you need to cut a piece of rope to tie off a mattress to the roof of your car. A bug out bag can be useful in many ways. Adjust what is in it to meet the needs of your every day life and still be useful when you have to bug out.

Here are 21 Things You Need in Your Bug Out Bag.

Spend Every Waking Moment in Pursuit of that Dream

I was watching an episode of “How I Met Your Mother”, the episode called ” How Your Mother Met Me”.  In this episode, the mother takes home a man named Mitch who we remember as the naked man. Watch the episode if you want to figure out what that means.

In the course of this scene Tracy tells Mitch she is lost and doesn’t really know what to do with her life. He tells her a story about when he was lost. He realized that he wanted to teach music and he spent his life following that.

He asked her no matter how crazy it might be, what did she want to do with her life? She said she wanted to end poverty. Then he challenged her “Every decision you make from here on out should be in service of that.”

Even though it was in a sitcom, and the person who said it was naked holding a cello, the quote stuck with me. I think everyone should ask themselves what it is they most want to do with their life.

For some people it might be to raise beautiful, smart and successful children. For others they may want to travel around the world. For others they may just want to play video games and be the best at Pokémon Go.

It’s important to change your thinking. It’s important to realize that if you want to be successful, to make a change in the world you have to focus on what it is you want to change. You have to make every decision count towards that change. You have to live that change.