EMC World 2014 - Forward Motion

"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears." - Cesare Pavese

The product I support for our company is called VNX. It is a storage system that I have seen evolve from the early days of 1987 when old traditional storage was simply "too old" for what the industry needed. During those days, we developed a SCSI disk array that managed to take several disks and basically band them together to present one pool of storage to host computers.

Relative to the time, those disk arrays were pretty FAST given the technology. But then technology moves on and over the years faster and more intelligent disk arrays become even faster and more intelligent storage systems. The only way we can move forward is by taking the good and smart things we have learned, discarding what went wrong and moving the technology forward. One example is the our company partnered with the Lotus F1 team to change and accelerate their success.

This is how we advance our products and our lives.

The same can be said for our lives. We start out with what we know and generally do pretty well. As we move forward, we take what we've learned and apply it to better our lives. Yet sometimes we hold onto the past. We hold onto grudges, hurt, pain and pride which slows us from making our lives better.

If we are to truly have a great life, what some call your best life, is to lay down those things that are slowing you down. Pain of broken promises, or the hurt experienced by some event will only keep you planted in the past. If you are holding a grudge due to a real or perceived incident, let it go. Forgive yourself by forgiving the other person if only within yourself.

Move yourself forward to a better life and a better way of living.

As each of you in attendance at EMC World 2014 are learning about some very cool and FAST ways of deploying, managing and growing with your storage needs. Take some time to learn, to REDEFINE your own life. Grow out of the old way of doing things and accelerate your life to a great life.

And stay inspired my friends!

Life Too Fast

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” -Eddie Cantor

Okay, I admit that I cut my ear while shaving. I'll have to go find my owners manual and relearn how to shave before I end up really hurting myself.

But just how in the world does one cut their ear while shaving their face? It is actually pretty easy from what I just recently found out. It requires a sharp razor, an early morning hour and just being in too big of a hurry.

To be in a hurry in life doesn't allow us to see all of the little things. We miss the fact that we have a razor in our hand swinging around our face. We 'race' down the road in our car, missing the little things along the way. We miss the small interactions with other people that add up to a lot of great things.

I know that one of my issues when traveling is that I move too fast. I jump in the car and the objective is to get from point 'A' to point 'B' as quickly as possible. So many times it results in missing great things which lie between those two points.

To slow down and experience life will result in fewer missed opportunities. Those are the ones that are there but we fail to see because we simply race on past without seeing them. Slow down and allow the details to become more clear in your life. Slow down and realize that the razor in your hand could possibly cut your ear.

Slow down and see so much more in life. Don't go through life like the Keystone Cops.

Twenty One Days

"Never let life impede on your ability to manifest your dreams. Dig deeper into your dreams and deeper into yourself and believe that anything is possible, and make it happen." -Corin Nemec

The twenty-one days are over. I have completed a fasting that lasted those twenty-one days and the human that I am; so glad it is over. This was not a full on no food, just water type of fasting. What I did was skip one meal a day and no caffeine. Yes, I will say that again, no caffeine.

There will be folks that would forsake all food rather then to give up their Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts morning coffee. Mine happens to be Racetrac coffee and Douwe Egberts office coffee and Folgers coffee made at home. I even made sure that I stayed away from any type of caffeine. I only drank herbal tea the entire time.

Some would have tried to sneak in de-caffeinated coffee, but not me. I stuck with my plan and now it is complete. This morning, day twenty-two, I have bought my cup of coffee. It is decaf though, for some reason I decided the full on shock of caffeine might not be a good thing.

You might ask why I put myself though this?

I put myself through it in order to challenge myself. It is part of a wider event our church held (as do thousands of others) but I took it as a personal challenge. If I can do without something personal and self-concerned, maybe I can focus more on having a greater connection with life.

Sounds all new-age and weird doesn't it?

Well don't worry, that is not what it is. What it does is challenge some of the normal parts in my life. Can I dig deep and accomplish something such as this? I can, I did, and so can you.

Twenty-one days is nothing compared to the rest of your life.

If you can push yourself for that many days, you can do anything. The problem is that we give up before we even try. We tell ourselves we can not accomplish goals because we are not good enough, or strong enough or capable. The problem with thinking that way is it becomes self defeating. We set ourselves up for failure because that is what we are speaking into our lives. It becomes a mindset engrained in our life.

Turn that mindset around, accomplish something small or big in twenty one days. You will than realize you can do so much more. You will realize that the impossible is not quite so impossible.

There is so much for you to accomplish in life, so much to do for others, so much good that can be done. It just starts with twenty-one days.

Stay inspired my friends.

Fast Forward

“Wouldn't it be nice if our lives were like VCRS, and we could "fast forward' through the crummy times?" ~Charles M. Schulz

There was a wonderful movie a few years back called Click that was described by IMDb as "a workaholic architect finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices."

The reviews were a bit harsh about the film, but the underlying lesson was actually pretty good. I won't spoil the film for you but the idea of having a remote control with a fast forward (FF) button is probably intriguing to you. It is likely that each of us probably wish we could FF through various parts of our lives.

There were times for me when going through divorce, the deaths of a sister, mother and brother that I might have wanted to FF through at the time. Its a selfish thought for sure and in retrospect, I am glad that I couldn't push that button on my life.

For you it might be the same things or even events of lesser degree. Maybe an upcoming test at school, job interview or tax season. There are so many things we would probably grab the remote control and press FF if it were possible. But then look at what you would miss out on.

Through death and the events surrounding it, we learn about our faith and strength. In sitting with my mother before she died I spent seven wonderful days with family and hearing her stories. When my brother passed away, I had the opportunity to see what a fantastic life he had built for himself. Even in divorce I learned more about myself then I had ever known previously.

I wouldn't be so bold as to say the experiences were or are easy. Yet life isn't always easy. Things happen, circumstance occurs, life just gets in the way of those smooth sailing plans we make. Every experience is something to cherish and hold onto. Yes, even the heartbreaking ones.

A FF button for your life may seem like the quick and simple solution. But look at all you will have missed. Life flows much too quickly as it is. A quick paced river flowing from its beginnings in Gougane Barra to where it empties into the Cork Harbor is your life. The vast eternity of the Atlantic Ocean awaits its end. Yet we need to enjoy every part of the river's journey.

Put down the remote control and leave that FF button unused. Enjoy the ups and downs and even boring parts of your life. The journey is your life. Live each and every part of it.