Life in 30 Seconds

"For fast-acting relief try slowing down." -Lily Tomlin

The life we live is full of quick-fix marketing flashes of advertising, instant meals and short-term resolutions to everything. The idea is to handle it fast, immediate and move on to the next great thing. Never mind that many of life's troubles or achievements take longer then the '30-second commercial.'

Think of what it is like to look for a job. The reality is that you get basically 30 seconds to make a first impression. It could be your resume, your introduction or someone speaking about you. Thirty seconds to impress an employer just like the thirty seconds a commercial uses to hook you on a product.

All of this rush to quickness draws us into a need for everything to be that quick.

• Fall in love in thirty seconds;
• Raise a child in thirty seconds;
• Get promoted at work in thirty seconds;
• Make a million dollars in thirty seconds;
• Quit smoking in thirty seconds;
• Resolve an addiction in thirty seconds.

Living life in thirty second increments causes us to become very disjointed because life does not happen in thirty second increments. Life happens in a persistent and long term flow.

With patience and perseverance, much can be accomplished. Discouragement in waiting will try to pull you down and try to knock you off course. Stay with your direction, stick to the path and make adjustments as you move along. You may find that you need to change paths, but stay with the long term vision.

Accomplish little things along the way, but ensure that those little things are pieces of your long term goal. Even reading this short encouragement took you longer then 30-seconds. Read more, learn more, take more time to live your life.

And while you are at it....stay inspired my friends.

A Bridge To Cross

"I think I'm constantly in a state of adjustment." -Patti Smith

For twenty-one days, the church my wife and I attend are participating in a fast. Now you and many others will have differing opinions and ideas about how one should fast and for what reasons. I am no different in that, but I tend to believe it is meant to help us redirect our focus and allow us more time to reflect, pray or meditate.

I see it also as a time to rethink or readjust our own attitudes. You see for me, I want for you the same things I want for my life and that would be a great life and great success. It sounds simple but each of us have a vision for our own lives and now would be a good time to adopt a stronger belief in that vision.

As I write articles each day, I am writing words that are meant to keep you on your path to accomplishment. The articles are also meant to serve me for it helps keep me corrected, encouraged and believing in achieving even more in this life. The path spoken of is the one you journey on towards dreams.

Just remember that when I talk of change, you have to understand that change in itself is only the first step. Taking that first step means you are going to 'change' your life. From there, it is a matter of one foot in front of the other, leaving your baggage behind and willing to experience something new.

Life may seem to stay the same around you. It will remain the same where you live and work. That is unless you change your environment. The real work will be to change that environment and change the aspects of your life which are keeping you from achieving your dreams. It is a hard process and can be discouraging at times, but keep on your path, keep on believing.

So join me as begin our walk across the bridge to something new and greater. I'll take you as far as I can but much of the work will be yours to complete. Let's get started and take the first steps together.

And should we happen to approach the Bridge of Death on our path, be sure to know something about birds.



Stay inspired my friends.

What Is Being Thrown At You

"Troubles are inevitable but misery is optional." -Joel Osteen

Most sorry about the graphic picture today, but life has its fill of bad days along with many good days. This just happened to be one of those "bad days" for a judge.

The picture is of Brazilian javelin judge Lia Mara Lourenco being helped by colleagues and medics after a javelin, launched during warm-ups by a competitor, pierced her foot before the start of the competition in a national athletics championship called Trofeu Brasil (Trophy Brazil) in Sao Paulo September 24, 2006. Lourenco was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery to remove the javelin tip.

As reported in Sports Illustrated, "...she wasn't hurt as bad as you might think. Lourenco underwent surgery to remove the javelin and was released from the hospital with nothing more than a fractured pinkie toe."

I am amused by the statement "not be as bad you might think" in the news article. My guess is Ms. Lourenco would beg to differ with that statement.

In life we are going to have moments that catch us off guard. Maybe our attention to what is going on around us slips for a bit. The important thing is that we recover and get back into the game of life. Never let a momentary lapse in attention, which might possibly lead to pain, keep you from continuing on your path to greatness.

The hurt that will happen to us may not "be as bad you might think" but to each of us individually it is the worst hurt imaginable. The pain and disappointment is very real but how you overcome and get through will determine your next outcome in life. Just know that life and circumstance are going to throw stuff at you. Some of it you will have the ability to avoid. Other things will not be so easy to avoid, but you get to make the choice on how you will respond.

Keep getting back up, pull the javelin out of your foot and move forward. And above all, stay inspired my friends.

Denial Hurts

“The thing about denial is that it doesn't feel like denial when it's going on.” ―Georgina Kleege

When does denial become harmful? It does so at the point when the denial is found out to be untrue. Such is the case of Lance Armstrong and his denials of drug doping during his perceived stellar cycling career. It becomes harmful to the many that believed in his success. It becomes harmful to those that were attacked by his denials. It becomes harmful to the individual, the one making the denials.

Denial itself is simply a person's inability or unwillingness to recognize that they are unable or unwilling to face a painful reality. Denial (of reality) exists, but why?

The question is how we as intelligent humans with the ability to analyze complex information ignore facts that clearly lay in front of us? This ability to refuse seeing those facts even when ignoring them might have disastrous results.

Part of the problem is that many things are simply neither just true or false. People experience a wide range of powerful and very complex emotions. There is desire, greed, pride, revenge, need for status, shame, humiliation, and others. Each of these will command a strong influence over that person's ability to interpret facts.

Yes, we have to learn how to control those emotions and make wise decisions based upon facts. But fact-based decision-making is really in short supply because we continue to see bad decisions made based upon emotions. Researchers indicate that you can also attribute other dynamics such as ideology (substitution of belief for facts), inertia (taking the easy way out), momentum (willing obstacles out of our way), impulsiveness (now) and stubbornness (no one will change my mind). As one researcher put it, "we can easily push facts off to a far corner behind several pieces of heavy mental furniture."

Reality Bites

To admit to the reality means basically that we are potentially admitting to the limitations we may have in our life. And that can be a very restrictive feeling, so deny the facts and live in denial. The problem is that denial is not a long-term answer.

Reality will always catch up with you. You will either spend yourself into debt, eat to an unhealthy weight, destroy a relationship or found to have actually used performance enhancing drugs.

What usually follows is blame. Blame of something or someone else as the reason for your denials. It only lengthens the road to foregiveness and renewal. But blame is a subject for a different time.

My Advice

All of us will likely fall prey to denial at some point or another. The best thing you can do is learn how to control emotion over fact. Learn how to distinguish between the two. Learn how to recognize denial early on. Yes, not to go into denial is the best course you can take. But if you do, recognize it quickly, admit it quickly and seek the reality quickly.

Stay inspired my friends.