Value In Scale Part 2

My value cannot exceed the value of my neighbor. Not in the sense of dollars and cents; but in the sense of intrinsic value. However, I cannot deny my value in the sense of contributing to the whole. 

I am a part of the whole.

The whole does not exist without all of the parts. 

My part is important.

My part contributes to the whole.

Much like a recipe, my part is not the most important ingredient, but it is important when I reference the recipe. If I were baking an apple pie, for instance, I could not leave out the cinnamon. The recipe may only call for a teaspoon of cinnamon; but, how would the pie taste without it? Or the crust? It is almost absurd to think of a true blue homemade American apple pie without a crust. There may be derivations for certain allergies or dietary needs, but truly. When I am talking apple pie, I am talking about a bottom crust, a top crust with a basketweave, and everything amazing in between. 

How can the world be the world without me? It would continue to spin, churn, orbit, and time would go on. However, for me not to contribute to the whole of the world and to lock myself in my room and ignore the rest of the world is to say me meeting my own needs makes me more important than anyone else in the world. 

There may be seasons to back off and healing; but as a rule, I can say that I should be contributing to the world at large. The world at large should also be a better place because of my contributions. I am a needed ingredient to the flavor of the recipe. The cinnamon contributes as a spice, so I should contribute as a participant in the world’s turning. 

What are your contributions? What contributions are you holding back from the world?

Spicy,

–JT

Value In Scale, Part 1

The world is huge! More or less, the size of earth is mind boggling to me. Comprehending the size, for me, is pretty ridiculous. I can put it in scales and references; but generally, I have no clue how large the world is. The implication of the size of the world becomes so much more impactful when I interpret my value as a fraction of the world’s total value. 

Using this scale helps me center myself on what is actually important. I can easily get carried away from the tiniest details of what I am doing or what really matters. When I scale my bad situations in reference to the number of other people in the world, I become comforted. I start to see how important I should actually consider myself. 

When I loose reference for my scale and importance, everything starts to revolve around me. I start to think everything either works for me or against me. When the truth is, the world turns and I am not all important at the center of it. 

The world turns with or without me.

The world is made up of many parts working together for the good of others.

The world does not turn for the good of me.

I am not the entire enchilada.

I am an ingredient of the recipe.

I am a player on the field.

I am a portion of the whole.

My wants and needs are not more important or greater than my neighbors.

How are you doing at keeping your own importance in proportion to the rest of the world?

Calibrating the scale,

–JT

Internal Processing

Surprise, surprise, I am an internal processor. I take information in, I discuss it within myself, then I deliver a reprocessed information to everyone else. However, internal processing has many faces. 

Quite literally. 

I have many different faces when I am internally processing information. I am asked questions, delivered new facts, or simply talk to someone for a few minutes. I then have to take this information and roll it around in my noggin. I have to reframe it so I can own it. I have to decide whether or not it is accurate based on what I know. 

Internally, the cogs are turning and the pistons pumping.

Externally, I am staring off into space or silently mouthing and talking to myself. 

When I am internally processing information, I hate looking like I am staring off into space almost as much as I hate the look of me talking to myself. Neither one of these options are a good reflection of what is going on and both of them lead to other people either thinking I am angry or crazy. Generally, I am not angry and I am not so crazy as to constantly be talking to myself, lets be real though, I am a little crazy.

The worst option, when I am internally processing, is me looking completely disinterested in what is going on around me. I lose sensitivity to how I look to everyone around me. I lose

reference for how I am externally being portrayed despite my internal nature.

My disposition in processing has actually lead to many different reactions from many people. Many people have either misinterpreted my external appearance or completely ignored it. I am always surprised when I find out what people think of me processing. I do need to be better at letting people know I am processing when the conversation goes silent…awkwardly silent usually. 

How do you process? What does your processing style communicate to those around you?

Processing,

–JT

Reading Is Fun & Mental

I have much to learn in life. Even more so, there is more to learn in life than I could ever learn. I enjoy learning. I do have a maximum learning capacity at any one given period. However, I enjoy filling my learning cap and I enjoy learning even when I do not need to. I have noticed a trend in my life where people consider some learning to be more significant than others. Specifically, reading seems to be the highest form of learning. 

When you ask someone what they are reading, you are almost asking them what they are learning. I have been asked on many occasions, “What are you reading?” Most often, I have very little I am actively reading. Generally, I am in the middle of a book at all times but not very far into it or very interested in finishing it. I usually try to be learning something. However, reading does not do it for me. I am seeing a trend though, reading is portrayed as the, ‘learners method.’ You cannot be learning if you are not reading. For me, I think this discounts the essence of learning. Learning is what we do when we bring in new information. 

Learning is what we do when we absorb something we have never thought of or experienced. 

Learning is an essential part of life.

For me, I always want to be learning; but, in testing, experience, and with the advice of wise teachers and leaders in my life. Reading is quite possibly the most awful way I can learn. 

I am slow. 

I have have a low absorption rate. 

I do not do the best job of converting abstract concepts I read about concrete ideas I can implement.

How do I succeed in a world where who considers reading to be the most affluent way of learning?

How do you learn? What do you think of someone who is not currently reading something for learning?

Learning,

–JT

Discipline

Discipline is an amazing part of our human capacity to push forward and succeed. It requires so many parts of my personality and the more I do it, the better I get at it. Much like a muscle, the more I work it the stronger and more sustainable it is. I love the feeling of accomplishing my goals as I bring together my ability to be disciplined. 

I love seeing how I have to use my ability to be diligent in order to be disciplined. I have to keep watching my work to make sure I am producing quality work. I have to keep a watchful eye on my tasks in order to make sure I am addressing my most difficult tasks. For me, diligence is the portion of discipline making me stay on top of what I am doing.

Discipline requires me to set goals. It does not let me be disciplined for the sake of disciplined. It requires enough foresight to know I am headed somewhere. I cannot sit alone in a room by myself and say I am being disciplined unless I am trying to develop the skill of sitting alone in a room.

Most of all, discipline requires me to push myself farther than I have been before. 

Discipline means I am pushing into an area of discomfort. 

Discipline breeds more discipline for me.

Where in your life are you pushing yourself beyond where you have been before?

Disciplined,

–JT

Hunters and Vendors

Hunters and gatherers are a real part of the world’s history. People would run around and collect what they needed to survive. The would move north in the summer to stay cool and move south in the winter to stay warm, an obvious argument the whole world should have central heating and air in my opinion.

To contrast these people, we can look at the market vendor. The market vendor or salesperson, I will use these terms interchangeably, sits around waiting for people to come to them. They never get up and talk to you as you are shopping wandering around the mall. They never engage you in relationship. They do not move. They stay in their shop or in their doorway at best trying to make you an offer you cannot turn down. They try to pull me by putting the freshest fruits in the door or the prettiest pendant on the mannequin; but, they cannot force you, their prey, into their shop. 

The hunters and gatherers on the other hand are the ones who are constantly fishing. Always pitching their lures. They are always on the move. They get close to their prey, analyze their prey, and when the moment is right, they pounce! They take their prey captive and return home to celebrate their capture. 

The shop owner chooses not to be like a hunter and gatherer. He chooses to stay at his shop pedaling his wears. He chooses to take in only what comes to him. He has lean years, he has fat years; however, he can never bring in more than what comes to him. In contrast, the hunter and gatherer can gain much. She can catch her prey, bring it in, and celebrate her success. She can move south when her game hibernates. She can move north when the scorching sun threatens her life. She is not swayed by the easy life of the vendor. She runs out and takes life by the horns. 

More often than not, life does not happen to her. 

More often than not, she happens to life.

The vendor receives what comes to him and never more.

As different as these two are, I am not be satisfied with relating to the vendor. I must continue to take steps to be more like the hunter and gatherer.

Which one are you? Is this who you want to be? What is the next step in growth for you?

Hunting,

–JT

The Square Root of All Evil

Goal setting is a universally good thing. Everyone I know wants to set goals. They want to be moving forward. I have goals. I want to be moving forward. I want to be accomplishing my goals. For me, my goals are my ways of becoming a better person. I will be better at being me because I accomplish goals. 

My goals need direction, purpose and reason. My goals need to solve a problem. As a matter of fact, since I have started making my goals solutions to problems, I have been able to sustain moving forward. I love solving problems and therefore I am able to sustain this repetition. However, I do not do a great job at identifying my problem areas intentionally. I walk into my solutions based on intuition of where I have been at or how I am feeling, not based on my own actual calculated observations of what is going on.

Not using a calculated information means I can start solving the wrong problem. I start treating symptoms, not the disease. I try to put bandaids on hemorrhaging and tunicates on cancer. In order to set better goals, I have to actually observe, record, and discuss. In order to solve problems, I need other people’s perspectives in addition to my own.

How do you set goals? What problems do your goals solve? Are you solving symptoms?

Solving for I,

–JT

Storytelling

The life I live has a story. It has a flow. My life is a flexible story. Sometimes I am the protagonist and sometimes I am the antagonist. At times I am making great decisions and the hypothetical audience is watching and clapping as they see these scenes of good decisions. Other times I am making the wrong decisions and the audience cringes. Either way, my life is a story. My story is a story about whether or not I am willing to grow past my hurts and fears and insecurities. 

Likewise, most stories have a moral. The idea dictating the meaning of the story based on the challenges the characters face. Some stories are simple, like The Little Engine That Could by Platt & Monk. A children’s story delivering the value of overcoming challenges and the power of positive thinking. Other stories are complex with lots of different little morals along the way as different characters continue to grow and evolve over the course of the story. You might consider the original Star Wars trilogy or the Lord of the Rings trilogy as stories where different characters grow and mature over the course of the story and there is not one primary moral but many different morals as the characters mature.

The brilliant part about my story is I get to decide what the moral of my story is. I get to choose whether or not overcoming fear is going to be the moral of my story. I choose by deciding whether or not to face my fears. And, there will be a challenge after I face down my fears. There will be another challenge trying to hijack my story. When the next challenge arrives. I get to choose whether or not to allow it to control my story as well.

What is the moral of your story? Did you choose it or is it hijacking your story?

Storytelling,

–JT

1000 Strong

Cesena 1000 sounds like the new model of Italian sports car. Oddly enough, it is actually a group of people who gathered together in Cesena, Italy. They came together to play an amazing rendition of “Learn to Fly” by the Foo Fighters. 1000 people gathered together to play a song in Cesena, Italy in order to coerce the Foo Fighters to come to Cesena and play a show. 

If you have not seen the video; then go watch it now. It is pretty moving. In case you were wondering if the Foo Fighters were going to go play the concert, here is Dave Grohl’s response. 

Think about the power of these people coming together! They came together to play for a band they loved. Cesena was probably not even much of a blip on the Foo’s radar until this video went viral. However, one guy said, “I want the Foo Fighters to come to Cesena to play a show.” and set off to make it happen. If you watch far enough in the video; then, you will see the ignition of this movement. You will see a guy get up and talk about the year he has spent working on this project. The dedication of the 1000 people who showed up, paid their own way, and spent their own time working to do this right. The time and money they poured into this project ultimately resulted in their net gain. However, none of it would have been possible with the man who started it all. 

Fabio Zaffagnini.

On top of being the dreamer behind all of this, he did not even take fame for what he did. No article I read told me who he is, no tweet told me about how great and awesome he is. Quite simply he is the “Dreamer” behind this project. The only way to find his name I have found is to sit through the credits of the video and watch until it gets to the credit that says, “Dreamer.” This guy started dreaming and did not stop till it happened.

This man started something by himself and people rallied to his cause. His cause was not to solve world hunger or cure cancer. His cause was to bring a band to a location for a concert. His dream was simple, but he could not do it alone. He called and people responded.

He inspires me to work towards a goal larger than myself. He inspires me to rally to the cause of my neighbor. 

What cause are you rallying to? What cause are you leading the way on? What cause are you called to that is greater than you?

Rallying,

–JT

Levitated Mass

Levitated Mass is a 340 ton boulder sculpted by Michael Heizer on the campus of Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For more information on it, use the link above to read up and learn about it. It catches my eye because it is such a serious undertaking. It is not a small feat to do anything from it. Much less, a man sculpted it and had the vision to move it to move it and get it positioned correctly, supported correctly, and safe for visitors. 

He could not have done this by himself. He needed help. Simply based on the idea of moving it, he could not have done it alone. Given the full spectrum of ideation to execution, he needed the help of so many other people. 

I resonate with the need to get help from other people. I am in the midst of a phase of life where my goals are larger than myself. My tasks are require more than I can give. The sum of my life does not fulfill the needs of the community I am in. I am forced to connect with other people. Use different teams than I am familiar with. I am forced to rely on people I have never relied on before and I am entrusted to execute at a higher level than I have ever asked of myself. 

I feel as if I am being called to develop teams to move the Levitated Mass in my own life. 

The beautiful part about the Levitated Mass is it is an insurmountable rock. You do not have to have the same 340 ton boulder as I do. Your boulder can be completely different and just as Earth shattering, if not more so. 

I am learning to ask for help in moving my boulder. I am learning who I can ask and who I cannot ask. I am learning how to ask people. I am learning to find new people to ask and I am learning to take charge.

What is your Levitated Mass? Whose help do you need in creating it?

Massively,

–JT

Who I Am

I was recently discussing with a friend about music, electronic drums, and computer generated drum beats. He was telling me about how recently scientific study began to produce results indicating we do not like to hear a computer generated drum beat. Our ability to appreciate these drum beats had nothing to do with the natural sound, synthesized sound, or composition of the beat. The issue was the perfection. 

People did not like the perfect beat. 

They did not like how perfect it was. 

How sterile the beat was. 

People did not appreciate the inerrancy of the beat. I assume the beat was presented to the common person and they were given a double blind test to see which one they preferred. 

However, is it not peculiar as we continue our way towards mimicking robots mimicking humans? Does it stand out to you how we continue to push closer to being more like robots and we push robots to be more like us?

Maybe, my goal should not be more like the robot. To live more like the robot sheriff of legal town. Should my goal to be more like who I am and continue to be me?

I think I should be a better version of myself. I should be a healthier version of me. I do not need to be a more perfect person. I need to be a more human person. I need to be who I am and be a better version of me every day. I do not need to be like the robot computer in the movies who decides what the law says and how to follow it. I need to be a better version of me every day. 

Who are you trying to be? What does it look like to be a better version of you tomorrow? 

Me,

–JT

On Writing

Over the course of the last eight months I have had moments where it has been hard to come up with topics to write about. I don’t think of this because I want to end my blog, I think of this because I do not want to stop writing. I like writing. It has become a discipline for me to force myself to dig into who I am. Writing has caused me to take time to reflect and dig into how I work. I have found cobwebs in closets needing to be cleaned out. I have found golden nuggets from my childhood. I have found all sorts of different items I am so happy to have dug into. Though not every word has been profound or prolific in every way, every post has been a mild reflection of who I am. 

Every post has forced me to dig in. Not every post has been deeper than the last; but, every post has been a nugget of my own self reflection. I do not consider my writing to be the best work I have ever done. I do consider it to be collectively a success. I am drawing up on a year of writing. 

Last year I never would have thought I could have come this far. However, I am glad to have had this time. Forcing myself to dig deep and continue to be more authentic with myself has caused me to be a better person. I have caused myself to make changes in the way I interact with other people. I have made changes in the way I think about other people. I have become much more observant of my environment and how people and things work together. I am glad to get to do this in a public forum. Having a pseudo public conversation about myself so regularly has cause many private conversations to have to be deeper. To share the deepest parts of myself publicly week after week would exhaust and kill me. Having shared what I have shared, has caused me to pry the lid from many crates I thought I would never open and open crates I never knew I had. 

Writing every week has caused me to push deeper into shallow relationships I was selling short.

Where in your life are you opening up closets, cleaning out the cobwebs, and looking into who you are? Who are you sharing these deeper parts with?

Prying,

–JT

Growth

Growth, I have been observing many things in life and their ability to grow or not grow. Most things I watch from afar, such as corporations, businesses, and people groups. Some things I watch closely, like my job, friends, and finances. Very few things in life I watch with microscopic examination, such as my health and well being, the health and well being of my wife, and the stability of our home’s ecosystem. 

I try to have a general knowledge of where most all of these things are at. I try to keep an idea of what symptoms are of a healthy growing home and symptoms of an unhealthy growing home.

The unhealthy growth is resonating with me deeply at the moment. Unhealthy things grow. Cancer, great example of unhealthy growth. 

Nobody asks for cancer. Nobody wants uncontrolled growth in their body. Nobody wants their body to become a garden of tumors. However, unhealthy things grow. Weeds grow. They grow right along side healthy wheat. They spring up and there is nothing you can do about it. 

As I continue to fertilize, water, and cultivate my personal health, there will be seeds falling into the soil I did not put there. There will be parts of me I did not intend to grow, but they have been growing for years. There will other parts of me I thought were healthy and it turns out the net result is unhealthy. 

The unhealthy parts will grow, even when I think I have cut them off. The only way to pull them up is to dig deep and pull it up by its roots and know it is going to hurt. 

An unhealthy part of me is, I am afraid to speak truth or my opinion (not always the same thing) when it opposes someone else’s truth or opinion. I am afraid to hurt people’s feelings. I am not doing these people any good to not speak truth when they are pointed in a bad direction.

Where are unhealthy things growing in your life? 

Digging Deep,

–JT

Compensate

The most constant portion of my life is me. I am a highly constant part of my life. I am always a party to what I am doing and a variable in what I do, what I do not do, and where I go. I am always there. I cannot separate me from myself. My flaws, my skills, abilities, hurts, habits, hang ups, and intelligence are all a part of who I am. To constantly be getting to know myself better means, I know how to better operate within the constraints of who I am.

An excellent metaphor is staying in tune on an upright bass. If I am playing along and I start to notice the open strings are sounding flat, then I want to compensate and slide my positions a little sharper as to compensate for the flat strings. Doing so keeps me in tune with the rest of the band and means we all sound good together. 

Likewise, if I know I have a hard time staying off my phone or twitter during dinner; then, I need to preemptively put my phone away before I ever sit down for dinner. Knowing myself well enough and my self control to the point where I know what I am and am not capable of doing, I am able to preemptively work towards my own success. I start to learn how to trick myself to do the right thing even though I know my psyche does not want to do it out of fear or anger or simply a bad habit. 

Ultimately, I learn how to adjust for my own shortcomings and strengths for the good of those around me. I am also more successful in what I do. I know where my loopholes are. I know how to get around myself and work with me as a teammate not an adversary. 

Knowing my own natural actions and reactions allows me to know how I am going to react and I can get ahead of myself to be successful despite my shortcomings.

Where do you act or react poorly? How can you preemptively compensate for yourself from making poor decisions?

Preemptive,

–JT

The Enemy of My Enemy

When I was a kid, I would go to my school for summer daycare/summer school/summer babysitting. It was me and a bunch of other kids and classmates all hanging out through the summer with a bit of 'adult supervision.' Very little of my time was educational during these months. Most of my time was hanging out, sweating in the sun, playing basketball, Legos, or just being kids for the most part. I did this for a few years from kindergarten through third grade while on the retirement sandbar of Florida. 

Over these summers, my friends would play G.I. Joe’s There were good guys, bad guys, and the desolation in between. Generally, I was not wanted when my friends would play G.I. Joe’s. I would ask to play, they would decline. I would watch for hours, never invited. I tried many different tactics over these summers. Pretty much all of my tactics ended the same, me wandering away spinning myself on the merry-go-round or watching cars driving by the fence. *cue world's smallest violin* However, one day I had an especially creative way to get to play.

I was watching my friends play with their action figures and they were combating the evil COBRA and their dastardly plan to take over the world. As I was watching, I noticed the COBRA could not fight back. They sat there, inanimate, and docile, sitting ducks if you will . What fun could it be to defeat an enemy without a brain? I found my way in. I would be their enemies. I would be the brain behind their opposition. I would be able to play G.I. Joe’s with too!

I too had a place to play. I too had the ability to join in. My scheming did not end there. After much asking and convincing, they let me play as the COBRA opposition. They decided I was a worthy opponent, if not only to be destroyed relentlessly. After a few thorough beatings, I was finally able to make the transition. The figurine I had identified as the second in command of the COBRA Command wanted to defect to the other team. They were resistant. They did not want another player in the game. 

They wanted an enemy. 

They did not want me to be playing with them.  

They wanted to beat their enemy. I was their enemy. After a time, I was still able to defect. I joined the G.I. Joe Real American Hero team. As the summer drew on, I was able to continue to be the bad-guys each day, I would defect, taking less and less time as the summer drew on. They even allowed me to join the G.I. Joe’s from the beginning. 

I was persistent. I was unwanted. I found a way to step over the boundary and become more than I was given credit for. 

What obstacles in your life are you giving up on? What obstacles in your life are you not taking the time to overcome? What opportunities are you missing out on?

COBRA Defector,

–JT

Features

Have you ever experienced a broken product? It just does not do the job you paid for it to do. You try, you finagle. You adjust. It does not do the job you have put money out to have done. No matter what you do or how you rearrange it, it does not work. It actually even brings the other products around it down too. They are not as functional as they could be because of this one product. It is not as if this product is not doing anything. The product is simply functioning in a useless way. It will not do what you need it to do and it will keep doing things you do not need it to do. And what’s worse, sometimes it even does things counterproductive to the environment it is in.

I feel like the broken product sometimes. Other times I look back at life and see points in my life where I was a broken product. I am never proud of those moments. Broken product moments are when I am not being an enhancement to the people around me. I am trying to do the right thing. I am trying to help. However, I am limited by my perspective or my understanding of the situation. Other times I am limited by my maturity, selfishness, or personal grievances. I am not idle am doing something. The question is, am I doing something productive or counterproductive. Am I operating as a feature or as a hindrance? Another way to ask this questions is, Am I doing the job I have been hired to do? I do not only mean in the professional sense but also the personal sense. For instance, my wife has hired me to be her husband, my friends have hired me to be a good friend, my landlord has hired me to rent their apartment. Hiring someone does not mean they are being paid for the job to be done. Hiring someone means they are given the tools and believed to be capable of the job to be done. (I will have to discuss my thoughts and the thoughts I have gleaned from others on this topic later.) When I do the job I have been hired for, I enhance my environment; but, when I do not do the job I have been hired for, I impede my environment from achieving it’s full potential.

I strive to be a feature to the people around me, to my friends, spouse, coworkers, and family. I try to be a feature. However, how can a feature know if it is a hindrance? 

They are both trying to do what they are designed to do. They are both operational. They both are trying to move their agenda forward. However, how does their environment react? Is their environment a better place because they are operating in the way they are designed? Are the people around me better for knowing me?

Are you a feature or a hindrance? Are the people around you better for knowing you? Are you doing the job you’ve been hired to do?

Featuring,

–JT

Favorite Things

I listen to several podcasts. Not a lot by comparison for sure. But several none the less. One podcast in particular, I especially enjoy. Both of the guys on the podcast are good guys with big hearts, sharp minds, and generally concerned with the well being of other people. Over time I have grown attached to this podcast primarily because I relate to the guys so well. I would have to say, over time, it has become probably one of my favorite podcasts.

Recently shared one episode of one of my favorite podcast with my wife. She did not know it was one of my favorite podcasts and she did not enjoy it. It was obvious she was not enjoying the podcast because she teased it and joke about it. She was not harsh, she was popping a few jokes at the podcast, no different than we have ever done before on together. However, this time, I was hurt. 

My podcasts are to some extent my friends. They talk, they don’t expect me to talk, and I can glean information from them, about as perfectly one sided as it gets. It hurts though to have one of my favorite podcasts tarnished by knowing she is not into it. And truly, it is not a podcast even remotely in the genre of podcasts she might be into. 

The hard part is feeling like I have shared a part of who I am with someone else and they did not really appreciate it. Everyone does not have to like what I like, but we should be respectful in how we tell each other we do not like each other’s entertainment.

The truth of the matter is, I was being too sensitive. I am not trying to say there is something wrong with being sensitive. I am saying there are some issues not worth being as sensitive about as I was being. No matter what my personal connection is to this podcast, there is no reason to be hurt or emotionally offended over my wife not liking it. There is reason to keep sharing and offering parts of myself with others.

I have gained far more in sharing my thoughts and feelings with people or sharing hobbies and ideas I consider to be a part of myself. I have been hurt and lost some in the process of sharing with others. However, this is a situation where I know the good far outweighs the bad previously, now, and moving forward.

What do you have to share with other people? When was the last time you shared part of yourself with someone else? When will you share part of yourself with someone next?

Sharing,

–JT

Scenery

Scenery is beautiful. Loads of people love to look at mountain scenery. They love to look at the mountains with the fresh air a bit of white capped snow at times, or a lot of snow depending on the time of year. When it is cloudy and overcast the mountains cast a shadow and cause contrast to the overcast. When it is bright and sun shining outside the mountains have a beautiful depth and magnificent color. I know people who can just sit out and watch and stare and enjoy the beauty of the mountains for a seamless endless amount of time. 

To truly get an extra sucker punch in on the viewer, throw a sunset behind the mountains and you have almost quite literally set off all of the fireworks in the world in a three hour fireworks display. And your viewer will not leave their spot.

Then there is me. I cannot sit and stare at the scenery. I cannot watch the comings and goings of critters. I cannot hike around the mountains and “rough it” for any amount of time. People who camp refer to my style of camping as “glamping.” I’ve tried to sit down and stare at the mountains and enjoy the scenery by myself. I cannot do it. Not in the sense of, I cannot overcome the mental block and I will not try. More in the sense of, I have tried on multiple occasions and approximately 45minutes in, I am squirming. I am almost dying to get up and go do something else. My skin is almost crawling and I cannot sit still for the life of me. I have a hard time quieting my brain. I have a hard time focusing on the scenery. 

Now, lets take this same scenario and setting me in front of the ocean. I can and have sat in front of the ocean for hours on end. I would literally have nothing going on around me. I can sit there, alone, without any sort of technology or anything for hours. The beauty of the ocean engulfs me. The power of the ocean draws me in. The waves and the dynamic existence of the salt water completely immerses me in its glory. 

And a good sunset over mountains, though awesome, will only send up a strong signal flare or an M80 for me. Whereas a sunset over the ocean and I am enthralled like kid watching every firework ever set off. 

For me, watching the ocean is an opportunity to reflect and meditate on life. It is an opportunity to almost listen to the very fabric of life sing its song. Every time a wave laps on the shore is a new chorus, the seagulls are lead vocalists, and the fish are the drummer splashing and coloring the jazz ballad. 

Where is your space to go and reflect on life? When was the last time you were there? When will you be going again?

Reflecting,

–JT

Measuring Up

When I was young, a mentor of mine took me out for a trip to Burger King. Nothing special there. Your usual run-of-the-mill, “flame broiled”, “have it your way” sort of place. However, we had a very unusual conversation. The conversation was about measuring up. It was about comparisons and expectations. Comparisons people make of me. Comparisons where other people would measure me and decide to deny or accept me based on how they thought I measured up to their sticks. 

I am beginning to realize I do this now. I measure other people. I say they should measure to metric 1, 2, and 3. Not because I have the golden ruler; simply, because I have developed what I think successful people do in my mind and I want everyone to succeed and therefore they need my metrics. 

I try to maintain a broad understanding of what it takes to be successful. However, that does not change the reality of me measuring people on a very imperfect ruler. My spacing is uneven, the stick curves, and it often fluctuates between Imperial Units and International Units. 

Who am I to be developing any sort of measuring stick for success?

I can clearly communicate expectations and direction for someone. I can develop a clear idea of who I want to be and what I want to do to succeed. However, it is not my job to develop a measuring stick to use to for others to in-errantly obey. It is my job to communicate to others a clear expectation for given situations (i.e. do not touch the stove, it is hot and will burn you most of the time.) It is my job to otherwise help others succeed in the areas they want to succeed in. 

Where are you developing measuring sticks? Where should you encouraging, not measuring?

Measured,

–JT

Promises

Growing up I received many promises. Promises to go do things, promises of riches, and promises of the future. My dad made many promises to me. He told me many different things of what he was going going to do for me or what we were going to do. 

The promises which never came true are the promises I remember most. My dad always had a ship about to come in with a wealth of money on it. He had bright ideas and ambitions. Many of which never came to fruition. He worked hard. He never slacked off. It was never his work ethic leaving him without. It was simply his ability to make promises he would never keep and dreams he never set as goals.

I find myself making these same promises. Not promises about wealth or success. Promises about the right thing to do. Promises including words such as, “I will do that.” or “I will take care of that next week.” or “I will talk to them next time I see them.” These promises are right. They are the promises I should be making. These are the promises I need to be making. However, not all of these promises lead to action. 

Not all of these promises am I writing on my calendar. 

Not all of these promises am I championing. 

Some of these promises I’m even making with the thought, “I have no idea how or if I’ll do this.” But, I still make these promises. Making these promises may not be the same as trying to be your family’s savior or hero, like my father tried. However, making these promises knowing I will never follow up on them is not healthy for me or for the people I am making promises to. If I do not have the ability or wherewithal to follow through on my word; then, I need to not make these promises. I need to say, “No, I cannot do this.” or “I cannot give you my word I can do this. I do not have the ability to do it right now.”

Fortunately, right now I am breaking promises to people and nothing of value hangs in the balance. In a few degrees, I will be breaking promises to people and things and I will not be able to pay the bill for damage I have done. I have to break the cycle now. 

What cycle do you need to break? What promise do you need to keep?

I Promise,

–JT