HOSTAGE II
As noted in “Hostage”/21, we may be being HELD HOSTAGE by all sorts of things hidden in the background thwarting our efforts and holding us back … … but it also helps to understand that…
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Category: Woodshed Moments
Filling in Blanks
Life is TOUGH! But it’s so much more straight forward and manageable when all you have to do is FILL IN THE BLANKS … providing, of course, you have the proper “goods” available to do…
HELD HOSTAGE
It’s already 78 degrees outside this morning at 7:45 am, with a forecast of 95. I’m feeling “trapped” in an air conditioned house … unable (or unwilling?) to anticipate engaging in a full list of…
PRESILIENCE
A critical attribute of successful venturing is the ability to survive disappointment and recover from disaster – a property called RESILIENCE. But trying to extract a rejuvenating infusion from an empty reservoir is a…
Life is Like a Cave
Plato had it about right and was well ahead of his time, trying to explain why we all fall so far short of our potential – and short of our ability to enjoy the full…
Who Knows You
The best “insider” advice for success that most people have traditionally given aspiring emerging generations generally isn’t “Work Hard” and “Become Irreplaceable/Indispensible”. It is: “It’s who you know!” However, I’ve found, personally, it’s been a…
Not Your Fault
You’re 25 years old (maybe 30, maybe 40?), sailing through life in a fast-paced Gig-Economy, paying the rent and utilities, mostly eating out on the run, doing a fair amount of social media, streaming Netflix,…
Conditioning
I have been haunted by this intractable, plaintive cry of employers: “We can’t retain employees – some leaving after only a day on the job!” Landscaper After spending 3 hours a day on several very…
Boxing Ourselves In
At this very moment, I am watching my water sprinkler soaking parts of my driveway, sidewalk and the front street, along with my parched lawn. However, I consider this wasteful practice a major STEP…
Light Versus Dark
There’s LIGHT and there’s DARK. In the beginning, there was only DARK. DARK is the default and DARK is passive but it is MASSIVE. LIGHT requires an active source and has to be constantly generated…
Capacity Will and Insight
I had just finished breakfast and my FIRST INCLINATION was to move to the screened-in porch to finish my coffee, the sports section of the newspaper and the comics. A person who’s retired has the…
Odd Fellows
Original artwork by Leah Palmer Preiss Odd Fellows Perhaps I was doomed to be an “Odd Fellow” from the start. My dad was a card-carrying member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. (Yes, it’s…
Dance With Life
In 1996, Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., released a book entitled “End the Struggle and Dance with Life” (St. Martin’s Press) This book had some great advice for people completely overrun by life’s circumstances. Jeffers, personally, had…
Headwinds and Tailwinds
“The Head Winds / Tail Winds Asymmetry” Tom Gilovich and Shai Davidai https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27869473 J Pers Soc Psychol. 2016 Dec;111(6):835-851. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-my-life-so-hard/ “The idea should be familiar to anyone who cycles or runs for exercise. Sometimes you’re running…
Wrong Side of History
In the throes of partisan politics, one often hears the comment made that this or that person or position is “on the wrong side of history.” Most frequently, such assertions come from “liberal” or “progressive”…
Surfeit Stupor
It occurred to me following the Thanksgiving engorgement last year that we spend a lot of our time and energy overindulging in things that make us “groggy”. In fact, it sometimes seems that numbing…
A Hill of Beans
It’s a dismissive / derogatory term of disparagement: “Not worth a hill of beans!” “You don’t know beans!” … as if – everybody knows – beans are not worth very much, even piled in a…
Success A Liability
We tend to migrate toward and embellish those behaviors that make us happy and bring us the most success … however we choose to define “success”. Success-driven behavior patterns start forming early, notwithstanding the fact…
Truth Be Told
Disclaimer This is NOT about Presidential politics! In a March 14, 2018 posting, John Rosemond – a provocative and not universally acclaimed “family psychologist” – highlighted a New York Times article by Alex Stone (Jan.…
Spring Cleaning
It’s that time of year again! … time to get rid of all the encrustations and encroachments … time take stock of all the things we’ve hoarded whose purpose may have lost luster, and whose…
Embrace Better
Life is an evolving progression. There is no stasis … no parking lot … no statutorial sanctum … To embrace life, we have to embrace CHANGE. We change or die! And the world around us…
Epivolution
The story of human development – both individually and en masse – is one of both glorious and inglorious progression … driven by a combination of internal and external compelling forces, ideally toward bigger, stronger,…
Demon Busting
“I fight my demons every day, so I’ve got to continue to work at it.” Jared Lorenzen [en route to a goal of losing 100+ lbs.] “Demons” seem to permeate our lives. They show up…
Hand In A Vice
A fundamental conundrum in 21st Century life is finding something of intrinsic, compelling ultimate value into which we can unreservedly pour our time, energy and “unbridled spirit” for the duration. Life is changing so fast,…
Who ARE You?
Looking in the mirror and having it talk back to you is an unnerving experience: “What have you got to say for yourself?” “ Are you of any salvageable earthly account or not?” “ And…
A Rising Tide
PREFACE: This is one of an increasing number of entries related to the challenge of living without a GOAL, MISSION, PURPOSE or PASSION in life – a privation with which I’m finding so many are…
Onion Skinning
In our barbershop chorus, The Kentuckians, our Director keeps challenging us to keep our pitch up and stay on key by imagining the addition of “onion skin” layers of higher frequency sound, particularly when holding…
Tool Box Musings
“Every new DIY project justifies the acquisition of a new tool!” Herbie Halfmaster [After all, the savings on labor and on avoiding subsidization of someone ELSE’S tools more than makes up for the cost of…
Legitimacy
Our navigability in the world is heavily dependent on our real or perceived “legitimacy” … le·git·i·ma·cy conformity to the law or to rules. ability to be defended with logic or justification; validity. https://www.google.com/search?q=legitimacy&oq=legitimacy&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2407j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8 Legitimacy is…
Nature Versus Nurture
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/first-children-are-smarter-but-why/280725/ In the study noted in the article above, investigators confirmed the postulation that first-children generally excel beyond the levels achieved by their younger siblings, and they asked “Why?” A genetic basis for the difference…
Bringing It
We occasionally need to take inventory of what we “bring to the table” to advance our personal stake and holdings in the world … to advance the enterprise(s) in which we are engaged … to…
Burn Baby Burn
We adopted a kitty about 12 years ago that is now in marked decline … with issues of hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, a detached retina, arthritis, hypokalemia and kidney problems. She is on six different…
Cache On Hand
“Cache or caching [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache ] refers to: … a food storing behavior of animals … a collection of artifacts [… a nest of duck’s eggs!] Computing Cache (computing), a collection of data duplicating original values stored…
Punch List
Every construction project remains unfinished until the completion of a final sign-off “Punch List”: a list of final “finishing” details, as well as a list of mistakes and imperfections (things which fail to conform to…
Let’s Get Personal
We need to talk. Seriously. In case you were looking for / hoping for / counting on your “ship” to come in or your Prince or Princess to ride by on a white horse or…
WILL Power
“ … (have you ever been running, and decided you need to run a little faster … and then you WILLED it and it happened; have you ever tried to open a jar of pickles and decided…
Rule of Consequences
Why do we have persisting “Achievement Gaps” both in public schools and on the job … why do so many business owners complain that they can’t get “decent help” … and why do so many…
Brain Sum I
At this dawning of the 21st century, we don’t know everything we’d like to know or need to know about the Brain. But we know enough to set a more profitable course in life than…
Reality Gap
Here’s a near-absolute Truth to consider: Everything you deserve is going to take everything you’ve got! This sobering observation compels one to ask four indelicate questions: If you are not giving life “everything you’ve got,…
Cost of Living
At some point – and earlier is better – we have to “Get Real” about the unalterable “Cost of Living” … about all the stuff “below the water line” that “floats our boat”. Life’s Tough!…
Resignation
“Our society has resigned itself to suffering.” Jamie Studts, Behavioral Scientist [Describing the fatalistic acceptance of a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence] ************** I’ve had a growing suspicion that, as with a cancer diagnosis,…
Undeterrable Invincibility
“I can’t function without my second cup of coffee; but, once I’ve had that second cup, look out world – I can do ANYTHING!” Herbie Halfmaster What gets you going and keeps you going through…
Potpourri 1710B
Over the course of days, weeks, months and years, snipets of inspiration have slipped through the fog that seemed to warrant representation at least as footnotes. Here are a few footnote snipets from 2010 ……
Things That Work and Don’t
Some things in life are guaranteed to work and some are guaranteed NOT to work. However, due to inexperience, ineptitude, “natural tendencies” and a whole host of other factors, we tend to gravitate toward things…
Future Schmoocher!
One of the toughest elements in dealing with life is coming to terms with the very real and ever present “Cost of Living” … more particularly, with the investment required to prepare adequately… never mind…
Competitive Advantage
In a capitalistic system of civilization, competition is the currency of passage. You’ve gotta be BETTER than the competitors in your chosen field of endeavor! Unfortunately, some can’t compete, and many do not have a…
Potpourri 1710A
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF What does it take for you to believe in yourself? Something as simple as looking in the mirror? Or something more? How about accomplishments? There’s nothing like “proving yourself” to make believing…
Hopelessness and Helplessness
Lamenting the “State of the Workforce in 2016”, I shared with our Business Owners’ Advisory Board (BOAB) my feedback from the state Workforce Development (WFD) Office, which indicated that the main problem in WFD is…
Paper Clip Parable
[Thanks to Bill Moore for planting this seed in his weekly sermon!] In 1958, Lloyd’s Bank of London undertook a study to find out what happens to a typical batch of paper clips as they…
Mind Minding
“ … findings … published in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion [by Anthony Fabio, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh] indicate that among people predisposed to hostility, watching more TV…
Force the Issue
In describing the ERTIA UNLIMITED “Lifecourse Diagram”, one of the major points to be made is how important it is to make ourselves “helpable” … i.e., by showing some degree of initiative … by being…
Life’s TOUGH
There’s no getting around it: LIFE’S TOUGH … perhaps excepting for a lucky few who have had the good fortune to benefit from the grit and grind of others – but, even then, it’s often…
Benchmarking
This week’s question is: How are you doing … and compared to who(m) or what? Everything is relative, right? No less than Einstein, his own self, said so! However, what’s dangerous about benchmarking…
Unhappiness
What if the main reason we become unhappy is that we have unrealistic expectations? While mowing the lawn last weekend, I became aware of a neighbor’s child crying – actually on the verge of a…
Hard Truths #18: Myths Abound
HARD TRUTH #18 (From the book “Hard Truths” – a pre-publication extraction) Myths Abound “The lessons in my life have come from failures, my own shortcomings, naiveté and buying into some of the biggest myths…
Insulation
Life is hard. Most of us don’t realize either how insulated we are from life’s hardness or how fragile that insulation is. Consider the plight of a young, single black mother of three children…
What is your American Dream?
People all over the world are risking their lives, sacrificing their lifetime savings, and going severely in debt to get half a shot at achieving the American Dream. Of course, you’re already there, and, for…
Hard Ball Truths about Life
To begin this presentation, I’m going to show you two sides of a coin that will reliably predict your future. Fair warning: It’s not going to be pretty, but you’ll enter the next phase of your life a…
Life is about the Good you can Give
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but everything you need to know about life did NOT accrue to you in kindergarten. And you won’t get it all in high school. For…
Wind Wonderings
Sitting at a stop light with my mind wa/ondering on and off about nothing and everything all at the same time, I became peripherally aware of a small, gray, animated “presence” moving along the sidewalk. …
Life Choices Simplified
Either PAY or GET PAID. It’s that simple! How much are we paying (i.e., investing versus wasting) for the privileges we enjoy and how much are we getting paid for the services we…
Genes, Greens, Grit and Gummy Bears
If you’ve made it past birth, early development, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school with no major glitches and relatively unscathed by major medical maladies, you’re probably endowed with a fairly decent set…
Matriculation Failure
You may be astonished, as I have been, to learn that the failure rate beyond high school and beyond college is much greater than it is in matriculation through those institutions. Endless studies point out…
It’s About Choice
“It’s all about choice.” Chip Gallent [A reference to the breadth of options now available through the internet.] But that’s pretty much life in a nutshell, isn’t it? Our goal – particularly in America…
Compromised
I am astounded by the degree to which humans can be debilitated and still function – or appear to function. At age 62, my father was found to have severe cardiovascular disease with 90%…
Personal Growth
What is it? And how do you DO it? Personal Growth is the nuts and bolts business of life. And it’s required! It’s the process of “Becoming” … fully human … fully US…
Light Up Your life
One of the great experiences of my youth was going to the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh. Among many other things, I was fascinated by the bicycle in the main lobby they had rigged to generate…
Pre-Clinical Conditions
Many metabolic, physiologic and endocrine abnormalities are “silent”; i.e., they show no warning signs before (“pre-“) one’s life or wellbeing are tangibly threatened (“clinical”). Great numbers of such “pre-clinical” conditions can be identified in formative…
Random Walk Ponderings
“[The] random walk is a mathematical [representation] of a path that consists of a succession of random steps. For example, the path traced by a molecule as it travels in a liquid or a gas,…
“Riffs” and “Reps”
The person in charge of things I’m not in charge of [which represents an entire alternative universe] dragged me to the local fitness center during the holidays to sign me up for an almost limitless…
Acts of Conscientious Objection
Despite escalating provocation, I really didn’t want to move the house numbers higher on the house to accommodate a bush that was growing higher than it needed to be. Really! However … when ignoring the…
Aboriginality
It’s only frightening when you think about it: Our DNA only takes us so far in the universe – with a primary emphasis on things like survival and perpetuation of the species – and gives…
Affirmation
It’s what “Makes Our Day” … the acquired, adopted or bestowed assertion that we’re OK … that we have value and are headed in a reasonably ”right” direction. It’s what we live for – a…
Running Away
Who has not thought – at some point – about running away? · … from oppression … · … from boredom … · … from constraint … · … from inextricable calamity · … from…