Just One Decision

“Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment turns us inexorably in the direction of the rest of our lives.” ― Mary Balogh

One decision can change the outcome.

Just one decision can alter one or many lives.

With that one decision, how will you respond?

The Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League were one yard away from scoring in final minutes of the championship game. Very likely the trophy was on the other side of the goal line. Only three feet to go as the decision came in from the sidelines.

The New England Patriots were defending their stake to claim the trophy. It was a four point game and a touchdown by Seattle would have nearly sealed the game. All seemed potentially lost and then one decision changed the entire course.

A decision to throw a pass when running the ball was clearly the high percentage call.

The decision resulted in the opposing team intercepting the football and winning the game.

This time the victory for New England was not a clear victory but a gift handed to them. And this time Seattle clearly outsmarted themselves from victory. But that is what one decision can do in life. That one decision we wish we could change.

All of that is football, a sport, a game played for our entertainment purposes.

Real life decisions are played out everyday. Not only with game deciding decisions but also in the decisions we make regarding family, love, and life. These singular decisions have varied consequence on our lives and of those around us.

One decision can change the outcome.

Just one decision can alter ours or many others lives.

With that one decision, how you respond determines how things move forward.

Good decisions are never fully explored because we move on, happy, content, nothing to cause concern. But a bad decision becomes the central focus of all we do. We go through regret, pain, anger and a host of other emotions. Our lives begin to stall.

There are some people that never recover from the pain or consequence of a bad decision. They have no capacity or will to move beyond and turn the decision back into something positive in their life. They are forever stuck in the mud unable to bring themselves out of it.

When a decision is made, good or bad, where you find yourself is not an endpoint but a new starting point towards your goals. It is a launch pad where you stand, with new knowledge that will bring you closer to your target.

One decision can change things but one decision can also be the greatest thing in your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Sandstorm of Change

“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.” ― Boris Pasternak

Could this be a picture from the Mars Land Rover?

Of course the trees give it away and for some of us, it is a long way from home. This picture comes from an area north of Baghdad in the country of Iraq. As happens in this and other parts of the world, a sandstorm was occurring this particular day. These type of storms are not a pleasant thing to experience. There are other things in life you would rather not experience as well.

It is in the experience that you learn and change.

It could be anything from witnessing a horrible accident to seeing the wonderful birth of a child. Every one of these experiences have an impact upon us. It can cause change in your life to occur.

You wonder how a sandstorm could change your life?

- Inspires you to develop a product to improve the lives of those who living in these areas.
- Motivates you to move where sandstorms do not occur and you meet the love of your life.
- Fills you with stories that will inspire and motivate your children and your grandchildren.

Every life event, every life experience, every new perspective can change your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

What Stuff Do You Carry?

“Shall we never never get rid of this Past? ... It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne

Our life can become a cluttered existence. What I mean is that we complicate things by gathering so many things. I'm not speaking simply of material things, but of gathering emotions. We collect the hurts and pains of being wronged along with the memories of what we may have done to others.

This "stuff" wears us down and impacts our ability to have a better life.

We carry those hurts and pains on our heart which limits our ability to have a truly great relationship with the rest of the world. It also limits our ability to have a great relationship with our belief; God, Buddha, Muhammad or any other forms.

I could go on about the "weight" of keeping all of this stuff we carry on our lives.

But I believe George Carlin said it best in his routine called All My Stuff. I believe he came out with this in August of 1981. My view is that even though it rails against materialism in life, it can easily draw a parallel to how we carry "emotional baggage" in life.

So without further adieu; George Carlin and "All My Stuff" for your reading pleasure.

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Actually this is just a place for my stuff, ya know?

That's all, a little place for my stuff. That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know?

I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there.

That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff.

That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time.

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff.

And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you're saving. All they want is the shiny stuff.

That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

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Stop and think about all of that "stuff" you carry in your life. Empty some of those stones you carry in the wagon being pulled behind you. Lighten your load and get on with a greater life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Are You Hungry

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” ― Herman Melville

As I go through my third day of a three day food fast, there are certainly obvious physical effects being encountered. You are starting to place the body under tremendous stress. Within the first 24-48 hours of denying calories, our bodies will have used up deprivation, the body depletes its glycogen stores from both our muscles and the liver; this is the stuff which helps provide us with quick energy.

More things begin to break down such as the protein within those same muscles and fat in order to produce energy. You've used up the glycogen, so the body starts using it's other hidden stores. And while all of this is going on, your metabolism will slow down in order to conserve energy. Your hormonal reactions board an unanticipated roller-coaster ride.

In jest we become "hangry" as we fight these hormonal fluctuations.

In seriousness, persistent hunger has serious consequences to health.

My three-day fast is a tiny portion of the lack of portion hunger many live with everyday.

There are many sources containing information and statistics to choose from. In general what I have read is, in America nearly 50 million struggle in one way or another to put food on the table. You can interpret this many different ways and assign your own cause or reason as to why this is so.

It could be poverty, bad choices of how we spend our money, food waste (40% of food is thrown out in the US every year, or roughly $165 billion worth; all of this uneaten food could potentially feed 25 million Americans) to name just a few.

Of course everyone will have their opinion of these causes, but whatever the cause, hunger has an impact on society.

Everything is connected

Are we singularly going through life, trying to remain disconnected from all of the world? Can we really do that and still live a live fulfilled? Is that really the life you think we as humans should live?

I doubt the vast majority of you reading this would think that way. In fact the vast majority of people in this world have some level of compassion for other people. We help each other in ways that are small, big; some of it reported in a news shaking way and most in a quiet undertaking.

My question then, is if you are hungry one day, can your hunger for food turn into hunger for greater connection?

Stay inspired my friends!