Blowing It

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020

Not Proving Doubters Wrong. Avoiding Blowing It #254.

Proving Doubters Wrong Is One, If Not Thee Best Source Of Motivation.

It’s what pushes you to that next level. You hear it all the time in professional sports. Championship teams love their underdog status. They love proving doubters wrong.

Doubt me?

Okay I’m going to play better then you ever expected. My mission is to prove your assessment of my abilities was so far off base. That you will pay for such a thought. I will go so much farther then you ever thought I could. That will show you. You completely misjudged me.

This is the thought process of some of the elites among us. No one gives us more motivation then the doubters.

It’s the people that challenge us the most that push us far beyond what we might have thought we were capable of. Or we may have thought we were capable of it but just needed that little extra push.

It’s another log to fuel the fire.

Recently a basketball player who had his best night of the season. In his post game interview he thanked a tweet from someone he had never met. Because that person said it looked like he lost the fire in his eye for the game of basketball. These moments are all around us.

Use doubt as a motivator. Find someone or something anything that represents their doubt and reminds you of that fire burning inside you. And use it to just keep adding logs to that growing fire inside.

Welcome their disrespect with open arms. If someone tells you it can’t be done. That is when turn on the jets and show them it can be and you will.

Never give in to what negative beliefs others may have of you. Prove to those doubters that they just made the biggest mistake of their lives betting against you.

March 2, 2020March 3, 2020

Putting Dry Ice In A Swimming Pool. Avoiding Blowing It #253

Dry Ice Is Pure Carbon Dioxide. First Breath Knocks You Unconscious, Second Kills You.

Over the weekend at a party in Moscow. A few people thought it would be a good idea to put dry ice in a swimming pool. If you ever witnessed dry ices smokey vapor billow from it’s interaction with a glass of water. You would deem it’s cool looking science. You could unwittingly surmise that it would be much cooler on a grander scale. I believe that thought may have crossed the minds of the party goers in Moscow. And three people died because of it.

If you have ever worked around CO2 you know that it is a very dangerous gas. In a brewery for instance you’re taught never to put your head into a fermenter or bright tank if CO2 could be present. There are CO2 detectors all through out the brewery. Why? Because CO2 is so deadly. As the saying goes the first breathe will knock you unconscious and the second will kill you. Carbon Dioxide is heavier than air so it settles to ground level. So when you do ultimately pass out you’re blanketed by the gas once on the floor.

So if you put it in a pool right where your head bobs out is a thick layer of deadly gas. Just small breathe of it is like a punch to the face if you can survive the knock out blow. Get out of there immediately. A pool is actually a multiplier of the danger. You hold your breath to go under water when you come up the first thing you want to do is take a big breathe and bam like that you’re unconscious. Hard for anyone to save you because you would need a oxygen tank just to breathe while exerting yourself in that environment. Others would parish too without it if they tried to jump into to the pool to grab others.

Just err on the side of caution. If you want a smokey pool rent a smoke machine. And take gases very seriously if you don’t know how they affect the body don’t use them. The fact that you have to be 18 to purchase dry ice should signify the dangers but maybe we need even more warning labels.

February 25, 2020February 25, 2020

Not Asking For Help. Avoiding Blowing It #252

Asking For Help Gets You An Extra Set Of Eyes And A Whole New Perspective On Problems You Might Have Had Trouble Solving.

Self reliance is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. To be able to be accountable and reliable in all situations you are put into is always the goal. Sometime we just can’t do everything though. And asking for help is not a bad thing. It shows character and maturity. When we reach our limitations we need to ask for help. And the beauty of it is when you receive that help. You elevate your understanding to a new level. That sets your limitation bar that much higher for the next time you come across similar problems.

If you’re having difficulty in a relationship and your communication keeps leading you back to the same problem. Go and get a third party administrator, a counselor, or an impartial friend or family member. Someone who is going to give you new perspective on an old problem as well as a new way to look at it and the best solution to recover from it. It’s very important to seek help in these situations.

A Prime Example.

There was an incessant squeaking in my vehicle’s door. For weeks I thought it was in the handle. I took apart the handle piece by piece, greased it, taped it screwed it back on. And with each “fix” still more squeaking. Yet you could mess with the handle in a certain way and get the sound to stop. I was convinced it had to be the handle. So I would try “fixing” a different part of the handle still to no avail.

Finally I got someone to ride with me to get a second pair of eyes on it. What did we find out? Obviously it wasn’t the handle after all but the door panel itself and when you pulled on the handle it pressed against the panel to stop the noise. But my cognitive bias told me to keep focusing on the handle.

This is the problem we face all too often. We obsess over the wrong problem and it isn’t until we get fresh eyes to point out something so incredibly simple that your mind skipped over while you were looking in the complete wrong direction. That’s why asking for help is so important. How long do you want to be travelling in the wrong direction before you finally get the right answer? You may never find your way back if you wait too long.

February 20, 2020February 20, 2020

The Momentum Diet. Avoiding Blowing It #251

The Momentum Diet Is An Idea To Focus Strictly Gradually Building Momentum.

Let’s call all diet or life change what it really is. And that is simply willing your body and mind into building momentum. The initial phase of the momentum diet is the most difficult but as you get going it gets easier and easier till you’re chugging along like a freight trains and and that point it becomes difficult to stop you.

The Momentum diet is about never breaking the chain. We have all heard the story of Jerry Seinfeld chain method. Get yourself calendar and day one when you start your change put a x through the date each consecutive day you do your intended change put another X through the date. Soon you’ll have a chain and a process.

The best way to build momentum is gradually at first. Work up to the monster goal so you don’t get overwhelmed. If you want to run a marathon and have never ran a day in your life you are not going to lace up your shoes and simply run 26.2 miles day one. You might start with one mile, then two and so and and so forth.

With a new diet you might cut out one food group first. Or you could start minimizing intake of that food group until you can fully cut it out. Maintain the plan and structure checkpoints to add a new challenge. And once you have that under control add the next, just never break the chain.

Remember it’s about building momentum don’t try to do everything at once. You don’t need cheat days if you do it gradually. Cheat days break the chain and if you tie enough of those together soon you have momentum going in the opposite direction for you.

I will say when something has taken full control of your mind as in the case with drugs and alcohol. Moderation quitting will not work. You have to commit fully to never touching the stuff again. This is your momentum it just comes with maximum force in the beginning. Know the harder the addiction the more work it will be. With that pain comes far deeper rewards.

Want to quit social media or unnecessary screen time? Set a timer. What can you limit yourself too in one day? Is it one hour, two, maybe three? Find a good starting point with a plan to continuously minimize. Many times it will feel uncomfortable at first. You’re breaking years sometimes decades of bad habits. But the best way to succeed is to focus on the momentum you are gaining.

February 18, 2020February 18, 2020

Ill Reputable Individuals Ruining Bathroom Privileges For Us All. Avoiding Blowing It #250.

Leave It To A Few Bad Apples To Ruin Bathroom Privileges For Us All.

Remember growing up when bathroom privileges seemed universal. If you really had to go you could simply jump into almost any nearby store front. Use their restroom real quick and either be on your way. Or do some shopping while there.

Now you have to drive all over town asking every clerk for the right to use the bathroom and often your greeted with, “sorry we can’t let you use the bathroom. Due to excessive vandalism our bathrooms are now close to the public.” If you’re lucky, you’ll get the quote, “our bathrooms are for paying customers only,” and you simply buy something small that you didn’t really want just to use the toilet. Maybe to prove you are reputable enough to use their toilet. And to possibly offset the fraction of a cent for toilet water, a dash of soap and a sliver of paper.

Even still most bathroom locks have key codes now and some even have a magnetic buzzer system to buzz you in from the front register. Like we’re inmates to monitor. Someday we may lose all privileges all together if we don’t find a system to prevent the very small subgroup of society that thinks it’s okay to vandalize restrooms or sleep in them or use them as their own little drug den. These are public spaces that we should all do our part to respect. Before we have to start paying to enter all bathrooms.

We have to create a process that only punishes those who abuse the system and not the entire array of users. How do we do that? Some countries charge a minimal fee to use the public restroom. Which is a decent idea but still not enough to punish abusers. People could pay and still damage things. There are a number of different ideas we could come up with. Regardless we have to do something soon before we’re left to just go on the streets.

February 15, 2020February 15, 2020

Beating The Back Of A Passenger’s Seat Because They Reclined On A Flight. Avoiding Blowing It #249

It’s Frustrating, It’s Annoying, You Can Silently Rage In Your Head, But You Can Never Lay Your Hand On Another Passenger’s Seat. You Are Effectively Hitting Them In The Process.

Seats recline on planes it’s how they are built, use it. And if you weren’t allowed to recline your seat on a flight, they wouldn’t make them that way. Just like how they took the cigarette ash tray out of the seats after you could no longer smoke on planes.

But they do recline and you have every right to use that recline. If you purchased a seat on a plane you have that space. You do not own a 6 foot radius around that seat.

If you booked the back row and your seat doesn’t recline that is on you. The seats in front of you don’t have to accommodate you. They paid for their seat as well and they were fortunate enough to buy the ones that actually recline. And it’s within their right to do so.

Just because the back row can’t, doesn’t mean they rest of the plane has to sacrifice. buy a better seat if you can’t handle it. So if the back row can’t recline and they want the person in front of them not to recline does that require the row in front of them to do the same and so on and so forth. It is a flaw in design that makes it so the back row can’t recline it. The seats only recline about two inches anyway not sure why they couldn’t add that.

A lady recently video tapped a man beating the back of her seat aggressively because she chose to recline her seat. Now she is looking to press charges against the man. And I think good for her. I’m not one to support abuse of the system the claims she is making are a bit over exaggerated but he should be made an example of. You can not hit someone in the back of the seat, it is an assault. Just like if you didn’t like the back pack I was wearing and you ran and gave me a flying kick in my back pack while I was wearing it. It’s not an assault on the chair or the backpack it’s an assault on the person.

There are all these fictitious made up flight etiquette rules that no one seems to actually know. Like middle seat gets both arm rest. In my experience middle usually gets the shaft on both. Unless you take it before anyone else and never move your arms off. This no recline thing is outrageous. If you want to recline, recline. It’s about making yourself as comfortable as possible within the tight confines of the seat you paid for. Can’t stand it, buy a first class ticket.

February 13, 2020February 13, 2020

Making Excuses To Quit Before You Have Reached Your Goal. Avoiding Blowing It #248

Never Make Excuses, Just Always Compete, Never Give Up, Get And Then Keep Your Momentum.

We often toil over if we made the right decision or decisions in life. And if we should continue forward on the path we’re on. If it’s a good path but we don’t “feel it” we fire up the excuses mechanism in our brain. We might tell ourselves any number of things that we’re impostors, that it’s not the right fit, that we’ve out grown it. Sometimes it’s necessary to throw in the towel but it you have set yourself a goal and you’re still along ways away for achieving that goal. It is no time to quit. It is time to dig your heals in and work that much harder.

Kobe Bryant recently passed away. The man was an ultimate competitor, hands down. It showed in every arena he played in not just in basketball but also life. He left so many priceless gems on what it takes to compete at the highest level and one of the best I’ve seen is a text message he sent to John Antobelli another passenger and friend of Kobe who passed away along side him and his daughter in the horrifically sad helicopter crash that took 9 lives in total.

After John, a coach of a college baseball team, experienced only a two game losing streak. Kobe said to him in a text, “By all means, Feel sorry for yourself, By all means make excuses. By all means feel discouraged. By all means don’t play like this game is the most important thing to you. By all means entertain yourself with other sh*t because the game of baseball will be here forever and you will have infinite opportunities to play this game. You will [have] infinite opportunities to put on your gear, feel the glove, the ball, etc. The game of baseball will wait for you. Life will wait for you. It’s not as life can be taken away from you at any moment. Nooo that would be crazy, that would be cruel. Right? So, by all means, play the game as if [you] will have all the swings you can dream of and when the day comes when you realize baseball, that life doesn’t work that way, you will understand that the best [way] to play is by ANY MEANS necessary. By any means. No excuses. No waiting. F*ck patience. F*ck injuries and f*ck THEM. PLAY as if every at bat may be ur last because it very f*cking well could be. So let’s make every single f*cking one count. Lets go get these f*ckers!”

That is and always will be some of the best life advice one can receive. We don’t have unlimited at bats in the game of life. We have to make the opportunities count while we’re still here on this earth. Lets work to constantly work to improve, to develop ourselves because that job is never done.

This site and my writing on it has been dormant for weeks. Why, because I chose to tell myself with a name like blowing it I’m attracting that into my life. It was an excuse to stop working. To think about calling it quits. To move on to the next project before my goal for this one was finished. But it’s bull crap this site is not about blowing it. It’s about success, its about recovery, it’s about trying to get better, it’s about falling on your ass and getting right back up again. Not sitting dormant making excuses on why not to do something.

Throughout writing I have attracted so many beautiful things into my life. I’ve consistently been on a journey of self discovery. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from others as well. This site has and always will be open to all. It’s an invitation to join in that for yourself, to expand the conversation, and to not make excuses for giving up. To constantly push through failure and arrive at the success you desire on the other side.

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020

Always Wearing Airpods. Avoiding Blowing It #247.

We Have Found Yet Another Way To Always Avoid Everyone Around Us. Constantly Wearing Airpods Everywhere We Go.

It wasn’t enough for just our eyes and mind to be always occupied by our screens. We needed more senses to be involved in our distraction. Add hearing to the list of new ways to check out of societal norms with Airpods. Comfortable Blutooth headphones that fit into each individual ear. Without cords to obstruct, people are using them as permanent accessories.

We’re only a few steps away from never ever having to talk to another individual in our lifetime and that’s a terrible thing. We need connection, simply listening to others connect on a podcast or watching a YouTuber talk to the camera is not sufficient human connection. It’s really no connection at all.

We get so addicted to these devices because it’s so much easier then actually connecting. We’re predisposed to take the easy way it’s hard wired into our DNA for survival purposes. Even though it’s not always the best thing for us and it’s usually far less rewarding. So we bury ourselves in our phones and think it’s our only access to the outside world. Even while we’re completely immersed in the outside world. We’ll still succumb to our devices where we think we have more connection. It is ruining human interaction.

So Many People Now Are Wizards At Texting Yet Complete Wet Noodles At Face To Face Interaction.

Where was the wizardry lost? It’s probably because they have no practice. They have no idea when to speak and when to listen. And it will only get worse with each technological advance that eliminates the need for personal interaction. As well as eliminating another sense. I’m sure next will be augmented reality glasses. Where you can create a completely fictitious world around you. Eliminate all the real people from view so you can finally check out into oblivion.

Be present. Turn off the screens and take your head phones out in the presence of another. Talk, even if you’re bad at. Maybe your a great listener, encourage others to talk. Let’s stop using technology so much to escape authenticity. And just know if you’re constantly wearing Airpods everywhere you go. You are kind of an ass.

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020

Annoyance Or Disdain For That Which You Want To Achieve. Avoiding Blowing #246

You Can Not Hold The Opposing Views Of Wanting To Achieve Something. And Then At The Same Time Have An Annoyance Or Disdain For That Same Thing.

We may not know we do it. You have to take close examination of yourself to truly see it. But every time we struggle in an area, there, bright as day you’ll see it. If we look hard enough we find annoyance or disdain for that something. And although we want it, we’ll never achieve it if we don’t correct and solve our underlying issues with it.

Take money for instance we all want more of it. But if we don’t have it, you can be assured we harbor some resentment towards it somewhere in our thoughts. Maybe it was never there when we needed it most. Maybe it caused conflict somewhere in our lives. Possibly it was the cause for your divorce or your parents divorce. The conflict we have with it needs resolving in order to get that which we want.

Do you struggle in marketing or sales? How do you feel when someone tries to sell you something. Do you look upon them with scorn? Or do you bask in the glow of there talent for persuasion?

Do you see marketing as an annoyance? An interruption to your work or enjoyment? Or do you see it as a creative art form that is so alluring and pleasing? One that needs celebrating as much as the Mona Lisa. And do you know why the Mona Lisa is one of the most famous art pieces in the world? Because of masterful marketing. For anyone who has ever blessed their eyes upon it, knows that it just might be the smallest painting throughout the entire Louvre. Yet millions of people every year flock to the museum in Paris to catch a glimpse. That is because of great marketing that has gone viral to the people. When it’s that good the guest become the evangelist over time.

But it first takes that brilliant mind that wants to help people make the best possible decision. So they market what that is to us with heart. Yet some may see marketing as an interruption. Maybe that goes back to childhood when commercials interrupted your favorite show. So you now learned over time to look at it as a nuisance, one to avoid at all cost. Then one day you want to market a product or brand that you love and feel it will help other people. But your marketing is complete garbage because you have harbored that disdain for so many years.

Look within yourself. If you are struggling in any area find that annoyance or disdain and turn the tables on it. Find a way to love the beauty in something. Look at it as an art form. Even making money can be a art form. You can even use your art to form a larger bank account. It all depends on how we look at it. Either way we can never be successful with views that oppose success.

January 5, 2020January 5, 2020

Sunday Sadness, Sunday Blues. Avoiding Blowing It #245.

Many Of Us Are Often Unpleasantly Hit By The Notion Of The Impending Work Week Ahead And Sunday Sadness Creeps In.

This is a fascinating phenomenon and it happens to a lot of people. Society is structured in such a way that our routines over time signify Monday as the beginning of the week. Back to school, back to work, back to simply being somewhere you don’t necessarily want to be. It’s no wonder over so many years of doing this automatic routine a Sunday sadness begins to creep in near the end of the day.

After you enjoyed a delightful weekend where you had the freedom to do as you choose. As Sunday hits, you’re struck by the notion it’s all coming to an end soon. And you know as the fleeting hours tick by Sunday evening, the blues are soon to set in. And you start feeling that familiar Sunday sadness. Worrying about your impending week ahead, and that control of it might not be in your hands.

How To Not Blow It With Sunday Sadness.

Each time we subscribe to this conventionality and structure set for us in life. We reinforce the possibility of this expectation. And in order to hopefully make this not become a normal event. We have to shake up the status quo every once in awhile.

If you can’t shift your week schedule, shift how your weekends look. Make Sunday your happiest day of the week. Shift your mindset, meditate on how great your week ahead will be.

If you can, change up your schedule. Do so in a way that the concern for the week ahead always falls on a different day. So your body doesn’t develop addiction to this sadness. Diffuse it through osmosis by spreading out over different days.

Find pleasurable work so you always look forward to the week ahead. Maybe in that case a Friday sadness sets because you have to leave your work that brings you joy. But I highly doubt that happens. Humans will always love their freedom and autonomy even if we only get it for two days a week.

Never take a day off. Work on that which you enjoy every single day of the week. Maybe even do it if you don’t always enjoy it. At least you’ll be building that mental strength against the desire to not doing something and the sadness that sets in because of it. Today is Sunday and I already feel better for writing these words. Maybe tomorrow I’ll treat myself with more.