Personal Growth

Monday Mountain
5/30/2016

You view yourself more than anyone else. You look at yourself every time you're in front of a mirror, anytime you consider your past, present, future actions, and when you process your feelings and emotions. It's important to view yourself positively and with balance. Avoid being too hard on yourself for what you may or may not have done.

Look at your day and evaluate how your actions and what you've done (if it is morning then you should look at yesterday). Hindsight is 20/20 after all...

Evaluate what you did previously with fairness and objectivity. Have you gotten everything compiled and rated and reviewed in your mind? Are you ready for the next step? Are you sure? Don't continue unless you have done so already.

Now take a look at a couple of my favorite quotes:

1. Each and every day you either get better or you get worse, you never stay the same. 
2. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. 

So looking at those quotes, now measure your actions and decide if you've become better or worse at then end of each and every day. But there's a balance required to progress, there will be tried and true actions that benefit you and there will be a need for new approaches to development. 

Here's the moral of the story: grow consistently and with good intention, you can and will do so much more alone than you believe is possible before you started. 

Untitled.

Friday Freestyle
Poetry
5/27/2016

It's the opening of something sweet,
Each word escaping your mind leaves with a flutter,
Excitingly sharing facts and anecdotes to a new unfamiliar person,
Eagerly listening to their statements of experiences,
Each pause allows coursing electricity between two bodies,
Cravings linger on the tip of your tongue in that silence,
Engaging conversation with someone very fresh but oddly familiar.

Dialogue takes leaps of faith onto a new topic,
Sharply turning down a side road from the highway,
The high speed of lighthearted stories shifts,
New trajectory to something very personal,
A dark unpaved road proves eerily calming,
Revisiting each childhood and those dreams imagined in such a time,
Youth inspired such hope and poisoned with honesty through experience.

As the story is told the puzzle pieces are placed,
An image of who this stranger is develops before you,
Road map of their life becomes published,
Take it one step, one mile at a time,
Hold back from guessing where they've been,
Hesitate before you envision all of who they are,
No person can be measured in weight, distance, or mass.

Envision who they are as they allow you to,
Lead each other on your blind journey,
Should they are a good companion for you and vice versa,
Predictions remain untold, each day unfolds differently,
Embrace these new feelings of attraction,
Rejoice that they reside somewhere deeper than animal desires,
Celebrate the wounds and wins that brought them to you as they are.

You too have bumps and bruises and brilliance from life,
Allow them to take a glimpse inside of you,
At the world that is tremendous and immense,
There exists first in your heart that waits for release,
Beware that sharing this flame can be disastrous,
Prepare the kindling and the fuel precisely,
Once ready, carefully ignite that bonfire of love.

Hold back from sharing that burning signal through speech,
Its flickering light will travel far beyond you believe it will,
Stand in patience and watch the far horizon,
Flames from ignition will travel unbelievable distances,
Tremendous heat and light seems so close and comforting,
Although separately held flames the celebrations burn as one,
Within those two beings there is such catastrophe that the world rejoices in its chaos.

Hunting Happiness, Part 3

Thursday Thought
5/26/2016

Part 1
Part 2

Two weeks ago, I started this series by discussing how happiness is a moving target, how hitting that target shifts over time and therefore your approach to achieving it should change over time as well.

Last week, the primary message was based on not allowing one loss or one bad day deter you from pursuing, achieving, or residing in happiness.

This week, it's time to discuss the sources of happiness and how you should diversify where you acquire those positive vibes and feelings. It's quite a simple concept really, it's similar to a balanced diet.

Remember the old school food pyramid from the 90s? The base was grains and bread, then above that was split between fruits and vegetables, on the third level lived the animal products of meat and dairy, finally up on the top there was sweets and fatty foods to be consumed sparingly. The sources of happiness is very similar to that idea. Let's break them down for their equivalents in sources:

• Grains and breads - personal goals and development
• Fruits and vegetables - mutually beneficial relationships with friends and family members
• Meat and dairy - professional achievement and progression
• Sweets and fats - vices and less-than-healthy activities (consume very rarely or never)

What does this mean for you? 

Your greatest source of happiness should be from you and helping yourself. Create and pursue your own goals. Those tasks can be for physical development such as strength training or endurance challenges, they could be for intellectual enrichment like reading a book, or even it could be based out of small daily tasks like making your bed, cleaning dishes, or putting laundry away. 

Your secondary source of nutritional happiness is encouraged to come from your loved ones. The presence and support of friends and family produces great sources for happiness, positive energy and enables you for self-love. How can you not feel happiness when you cultivate positive relationships with people you love?

As your tertiary happiness producer, it's your professional and career investments. Happiness has been proven to build the basis for career success. When you are able to find happiness elsewhere, finding happiness at work all of a sudden becomes a hell of a lot easier than solely working to achieve goals for happiness. 

Go forth and collect a bounty for your table and dine upon the happiness you find around you. This happiness propels you through the dark days and starry nights, over peaks and through valleys. Happiness is everywhere to be found, all you need to do is reach out for it. 

Romance is Relative

Wednesday Word
5/25/2016

Merriam-Webster: 

a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love; a quality of feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.

Quintessential Voyage: 

a heartwarming feeling brought about through the discovery of a new sensation of burning love; the emotional experience of someone new as though you two were meant to collide in a beautiful coincidence.

Here's a kicker... I'm a romantic, but not the hopeless-kind. I still keep my rationale about myself.

I believe in true, mad, genuine love. It's rooted in this belief of destiny and fate that I hold on to. Your course is charted out for you and the currents do what they can to help you, but the responsibility is on you to take to the wheel, the sails, the oars, and the rudder. By investing in your journey and adjusting the course as necessary, 

Love is finicky. When you're young there is someone who is right for who are you and where you are at that specific time in your life, but you grow and change so drastically and dynamically over time. That's not saying you could meet your lifelong partner at an early age, there is just a low probability of long-term survival. Strong faith is placed in the thriving existence of an honest love, one that cares compassionately and deeply. 

As life goes on, I continue to believe love is real and not dead. I've been hurt and damaged, but it's not up to my companion to fix me, it's up to them to love me for me and to nurture my heart as it heals. I could lead a college lecture about what I believe and how I feel in regards to love and romance. At this point, I will tip my hat and acknowledge life is a wild turbulent experience and I'm here for the ride, smiling the whole time.

Creating Something to Contribute

Tuesday Take
5/25/2016

“Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.” 

- Steven Pressfield -
The War of Art

Having recently listened to the The War of Art on audiobook recently, I have become re-inspired to write about what my passions are on here. It's part of why I am fairly open about my blog and what I write about. I began this blog to create an outlet for my passions about developing yourself and others to be the best. If you can pursue the best version of you, then you can sail on course to the best version of your own life. Every path, destination, vessel, and crew is different in the ship of our soul.

You are encouraged to contribute something beyond your career projects. Consider this: you work to provide quality fruits of labor for someone else's benefit (your employer). Now your line of work may be your passion, but you should really look into doing something constructive and productive that is drive by your internal passions. By going out to create good on your own without external prompting your passions and work suddenly carries more weight and more reward. 

Share what you have to create. We would love to see it. Your friends and family are supportive. Strangers will be honest. You can change the world by a small creation by your own hands. 

Accepting Me & Not Making Exceptions for Me

Monday Mountain
5/23/2016


Participation Trophies are something of commonplace in youth sports these days, there is still a difference between the winners and those who simply participated. This is alright with me. There is a problem with making exceptions for people. Finding reasons to give people awards, promotions, or any sort of recognition even though they didn't meet the requirements.

The title of this post is fairly simple. Accept people for who they are, and don't make any exceptions for them. I was thinking the other day how people tolerate and allow others, but this tolerance is reactive to them not meeting the standard. Through not meeting the standard, these sub-par performers get away with not doing the work, keeping their word, and contributing.

Accept and love everyone for their beautiful and less than perfect selves. Do not make exceptions for them, hold them accountable for what they are supposed to do and contribute. This goes into their job and their life and their relationships. As soon as you hold everyone to their responsibilities, commitments, and promises, the world becomes a society of equally contributing people working together in harmony.

Bucket Lists: Epic Tasks to Complete

Friday Freestyle
5/20/2016

A compilation of tasks to complete before you die. That is the definition of a Bucket List in a capsule. I place a high amount of value in developing such a list and equal importance in maintaining such a list. It is recommended to do this for yourself, because as you grow and change the items on your list should be crossed off and replaced with fresh challenges.

I did not begin to develop a list of to-dos for myself simply because of a movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I began to create a Bucket List for myself because I was 21, in college, and had a hard time gauging my trajectory into the future. It's hard to chart a course when you have no destination, you may as well begin to let the currents take you.

As you will see below, I have written some of the items currently on my personal bucket list.

1. Write a Fiction Novel and have it be published.
2. Write a Non-Fiction book and have it published.
3. Backpack the Himalayas.
4. Explore my own future and potential.
5. Be proud of myself. 
6. Have my own family and love them immensely. 
7. Talk with God on a mountain at least once a year.
8. Contribute positive energy and influence on the world around me.
9. Be a great professional.
10. Live as a good man should.

I can guarantee there more items on that list. There are some items I will not list because of how cliche they are or how personal they are. For instance, I have one that is more of a hope and a wish, however, it is very personal and will only admit I wished for it once it happens. 

What do you want to achieve in time? What tops the list? Which are things you purely wish for?

Hunting Happiness, Part 2

Thursday Thought
5/19/2012

Last week, I wrote about how happiness is a moving target. In the Army this term is used as something that is changing and updating continuously and thus forcing us to take it on from different perspectives and views. Read Part 1.

This week, as I continue to discuss how you can stalk and find happiness, I can talk about how happiness can be found in a variety of sources. Much like nutrition happiness comes from so many sources but are they all beneficial for you? That's something to talk about next week.

What I'm here to write about is healing the wounds from bad days so you can continue on the hunt of happiness.

I've been a college graduate for about three years now. Being what society considers by some sort of definition "an adult" has definitely led to some heartbreaks and letdowns while also having some huge growth and ecstatic moments. The setbacks are sudden, you remember those seemingly traumatic events. The growth is gradual, taken for granted the stones you've laid over the course of days for the development of yourself.

Shitty days are bound to happen, is the swing and sway of your ship as you sail through life. It's not what happens during those bad days or how many you have, it's about how you bounce back and continue your stride to victory. If you let the loss take over you, you have essentially surrendered and cannot survive.

There was this one time when I did not receive a promotion at my job. Observations of the hiring process in previous occurrences led to me to conclude that I was going to be a shoe-in. About a week after my second interview, I was disappointed, angry, hurt, and distraught by what I felt was a personal attack on my work ethic and who I was. I dwelled on this loss for a long time, poking the scar still brings pain, but I eventually let it go and moved on. That defeat in turn enabled me to grow and prove myself ten times over. I eventually reminded myself, I will be successful and I won't let this stop me.

When you face a really bad day, how do you recover? What do you do to recover? When do you let it go? What processes do you use to blow off steam? What measures do you put in place to ensure it won't happen again? It's impossible to prevent bad days, but it's how you prepare for them that allow you to prevent mass damage to your heart and ego.

Recapping what I discussed last week: the target of happiness is ever shifting.
This week: Bad days happen. Recovery and growth afterwards makes you stronger. Determine they won't defeat you and you will be victorious, maybe not that day but perhaps the next day.

Redefining Redemption

Wednesday Word
5/18/2016

Redemption

Merriam-Webster:

The action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil. The action of regaining or gaining possession in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt. 

Quintessential Voyage:

The action of recovery and clearing of pain, debt, negative energy. Regaining control of your emotions and directing life where you want it to go.

There is something to be said about seeking redemption from God. This redemption is focused on the more secular form of recovering relationships with others and yourself. 

Think back over your past relationships, the ones where you broke it off for simple incompatibility and the ones where a catastrophic event caused the schism between you two. You may not always be at fault in those instances. Relationships (both platonic and romantic) when they end, they rarely end on positive grounds. This definition is pretty straightforward with little need to really read into what it may mean in current terms. 

With this definition lies a challenge. Go think back over your past relationships, redeem yourself in one of them even if you're not at fault. Give them forgiveness, ask for forgiveness. Pat the shovel on the grave of your partnership and bury it behind you to give it closure. Redemption can give both of you a certain closure and can wash away caked-on negative emotions towards them. 

Guaranteed, dropping the weight of negative emotions from past or current relationships and redeeming one another will make you feel much better. A lighter load on your conscience, your heart, and in your journey, it makes your trek through life easier and keeps anything from holding you back. 

Quotable Coelho

Tuesday Take
5/17/2016

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” 

- Paolo Coelho -

Interestingly enough you could find this on a blog that encourages other people to live inspiring lives. The Coelho quote was chosen because this advice and insight that I write about every week is not some malarkey that I spit out and go live another way. I am a firm believer of practicing what you preach. 

It's much easier to see the world on the outside and to say it's one way or the other. You must be able to taste your own medicine.

I write from experience of either watching and helping others in their life or from lessons I have learned in my 25 years on this earth. The purpose of this is to help give some form of a guiding light for readers who may be going through a dark period in their life causing disorientation. Use the stars to guide you on your voyage, they always shine even in the darkest night.

Prometheus: Finding Fire

Monday Mountain
5/16/2016

In Greek Mythology, Prometheus is a Titan who created mankind and who more famously gave them the fire from Mount Olympus. These stolen flames in turn gave man the ability to learn and develop more and more than they could have on their own. This post's intention is to tell you how being your own Prometheus can give you more power than you believe you can.

What does it mean to be your own Prometheus?

There is this fire inside you, it resides in this sacred place in your soul. It burns constantly, you could see it as the spirit within your soul. Being a Prometheus for yourself means to take some flame from this sacred spot and to use it to fuel your progress and development.

This fire represents many things. It stands for passion, love, ambition, character, intangible strength, and much more. A huge responsibility rests on your shoulders to utilize this flame within yourself.

No one can make you work harder. No one can tell you how to live your life. It is up to you to determine your own path and the sum of your efforts you're willing to devote to  you upward journey.

Strong Coffee

Friday Freestyle
A Short
5/13/2016

I rise out of bed. It's brisk, if I'm being honest, it's freaking cold. Yawn. I gaze at what I believe is myself, least it's as I've perceived myself in visible reflections my whole life. Wiping the crusty sleep from my eyes, the bed calls my name still warm from my slumber. I glance at her through the mirror, I long for her embrace. The day progresses, as must I.

Sliding on my clothes for the day. Inserting my extremities into the planned holes of the clothing so that it will be of function. Proceeding to fumble for my shoes, the pair that I have not decided on. One foot protected from the treacherous paths of the world, the other soon to receive equal security and protection.

Proceeding out the door. My first objective is to acquire that black bitter brew, coffee. It's too far to walk from my apartment, travel by automobile. Just decided while locking the door.

Dammit. I just put my keys away, just to pull them back out again. Opening the door. Proceed to climb in and slam the door, one fell swoop.

Back it up. Work on the song selection, pulling forward. Knowing it's only a two minute drive, the song sets the mood for the next hour.

Parking lot. Scanning left and right, roughly 100 yards away from the coffee shop. The amount of planning and where I rest my car possesses high importance. A near-perfect spot appears. The car slides in so smoothly. Park. Open the door to step out and slide down.

Proceed to the door. Opens like it should for mid-morning. Several customers stand between my coffee order and my current position. Annoyed. Finally after six minutes of waiting, six minutes filled with me looking at the items in the store. Each item goes through an evaluation of its possible enjoyment, usage, and cost effectiveness. Time allotted lead me to decide on a hesitation.

Standing at the register. Awaiting eye contact and a greeting. I speak my order. Black coffee, no room for cream. Next I respond to the question about my current status on this date. Next comes the hesitation I ordered, the hesitation comes with a pause, a side of a vocal groan, then an ultimate decision to not get a pastry. A bakery item I would later regret and only enjoy because I had exchanged it for earned money.

Baristas make light conversation. Topics include my status over recent days, their status over recent days, and the emphasis on any recent occurrences that either party may find interesting. My coffee is presented for my consumption. Politely I accept, professing my gratitude.

Next moves are planned and then I step to execute. Wall Street Journal. A Source for me to be updated with the latest events and happenings to also fill in their possible implications. Sitting facing the door, my back to a corner. Scanning each article to get the general facts, my eyes flow and drift without any regular pattern.

The doors swings open, as it was intended to do. The doorway is less than halfway filled with a figure, the Sun glares behind them. Warm air and sunshine pour in. Something urges me to look up and inspect the new customer. Eyes focus. They step out of the of blinding passageway proceeding toward the line. I move my eyes with them as they pass. This stranger glances down at me in my chair, an exchange of eye contact followed by smiles traded. It was then I experienced her power.

Hunting Happiness, Part 1

Thursday Thought
5/12/2016

We all want to be happy. It's a fact of life. In fact, life has little enjoyment unless you can be happy. I'm not going to tell you how to be happy. There is no one clear cut way to be happy. Everyone else's answers are square pegs to your round hole, and if it's forced in you're going to be unhappy.

My idea of happiness is a moving target. It's dynamic. Changing from day to day, week to week, and so forth. I would not want to maintain the same look on life throughout the whole life, because then it is boring and stale. I'm not the same person I was last year or the year before that or before that.

It's a voyage. There's this current beneath you what some may call destiny. Then there's the winds of work that by harnessing them allows you change your course of you deem it unfavorable. It's pretty freaking fantastic. The whole point of it is to go exploring. The experience is left untouched by staying safe at ashore. In fact, that's how you accept the defeat by not taking to the waves. 

What's beyond the horizon is what behold the beauty and joy of life. Why not go out and pursue it? Staying in the harbor only grows barnacles. 

Empire.

Wednesday Word
5/11/2016

• Merriam-Webster:
• a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority; especially :  one having an emperor as chief of state
• Quintessential Voyage: 
• a wealth of acquisitions from hard work and personal sacrifice, usually composed of secular riches, beneficial friendships, immense love, admiration between the world and the acquirer of such treasures, and more. 

To have an empire is not to be a ruler with a heavy crown and a bloody hand. In the QV (Quintessential Voyage) point-of-view, the empire is what you acquire through hard work, self-sacrifice, diplomacy, determination, and good intentions. 

Providing yourself to the world, working your own ass off, and being a benevolent individual who is out for personal success while also building around you... that's an empire mindset.

Teddy Roosevelt's Leadership Advice

Tuesday Take
5/10/2016

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt - 

Imagine with me... you're on the playground about to select those classmates who while assembled on your team would be best to help you win that sports game. When you're playing the game, do you yell at them and tell them how to play if they're doing a half-decent job? You are saying yes, no, or that it depends. 

Well if you provide constructive feedback during the game or if you micromanage, that's a matter of tone and makes this a difficult quote to translate to a sports game for children.

Imagine you have a team of five people, you've hired them, trained them, and informed them on the task at hand. If you've done these things appropriately, then you should not have to intervene into their work to ensure the objectives are in turn accomplished. 

In short, don't micromanage. People will rise to the level of your expectations. 

Loving, Living.

Monday Mountain
5/9/2016

Some people who know me may think I'm cold or unemotional, truth is I'm the exact opposite. I'm open with my emotions, it's just for a very particular audience. Showing strong emotions to your rivals is a sign of weakness while also a sign of strength. The interpretation of your emotions depends on your presentation with the setting around you. 

I love a handful, maybe two handfuls of people in the world. Okay, one dozen max. As a man, I have no fear of expressing my affection and appreciation towards someone. Other heterosexual men may cringe at the thought of expressing love for a fellow man in the state of their friendship and caring. Nothing wrong with love and believing in it.

I acknowledge this is different from the usual message for a Monday, however, it must be said by someone.

Never be afraid to love someone. Your friends, your family, your lover, your partner, your confidant, or whoever, don't be afraid to open your heart to let them in and spread your arms to embrace them. A tremendous thing happens when you a silent nod, a figurative fist-bump to those you share a mutual love with. You can watch them blossom with each passing day. The world could use more blooming people.

Social Conservation of Energy

Friday Freestyle

May 6, 2016

Look back at your high school science class, remember when you talked about the Conservation of Energy? Can you recall what it was? It's okay if you don't remember it verbatim. 

For Physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant—it is said to be conserved over time. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it transforms from one form to another.

Social Conservation of Energy is my karma-based idea that is similar to the Physics law: energy in all forms transforms from one form to another, it is never created or destroyed. 

How does this work in social interactions? 

Well you imagine that you have a bad day and you're in this sour mood. You will exude this negative aura of energy, depending on who you are your interactions will be negative in nature. Through the communication between you and another, they can then too become soured. On the other hand, if you strive to be positive and share the feelings of happiness and delight in the world, then they can too smile and be happy. 

No moods are really created or destroyed, but rather they are effected upon and interact with all those people around you all the time. 

Therefore, be happy, spread positive energy and do your part to clean up the pollution of bad vibes. 

How Manual Labor Saved My Post-Grad Life

Thursday Thought

May 4, 2016

University of Colorado, May 2013. Three years ago this weekend I graduated college with a BA in Communications. Upon the same day of the commencement where I heard Julie Andrews speak, I took the Oath of an Officer and joined the Texas National Guard. 

Upon finishing college, your next step is usually finding a job, if you haven't already found one. Nowadays this is a challenge for those graduating college with middle class requirement of a bachelor's degree. There are many reasons or excuses why finding a job is so difficult, but that's what I'm here writing about today. 

I did not have a job after graduation. Technically, the National Guard is a job, but it does not provide a livable wage, even for an officer. I left my then-girlfriend and my friends in Colorado to move back home one month after graduation. It was easier to do my weekend training and much easier to afford than staying for two more months on little to no money.

Living at home is nice, it's easy. There's always food to eat, the power is always on, and the messes are miraculously cleaned by a mysterious caregiver. It allows you to become complacent and enjoy what you have. One day, about two weeks after moving back, I received an offered to help the neighbor from across-the-street with a job he was working on. I reluctantly accepted, not sure what to expect.

First day on the job we went out to a widow's home. She was preparing her large lot and very nice house for sale. The tasks we had to do were obviously items she could not do on her own. I began to work away at these tasks and labor away day-to-day. Working from 9 AM to 6 PM, drinking black iced coffee by the gallon, eating fast food for sustenance; I was living a different life than I had expected where I might have been working at a desk or in a cubicle. 

Throughout that summer, I worked until I was tired and kept pushing onward. During projects, I would learn the "shortcuts" that would save me time instead of doing it the way my father showed me growing up. These tactics were designed to get it done right without relying on the safety net of dropcloths per se. Precautions were in place to help you get the job done quickly that sometimes forgave the messy manner, instead I learned to work with precision and to pay attention to what is going on at all times. 

During these hour-long drives out to her residence, I had interesting conversations with the fellow I worked with during this time. His upbringing in New England provided a rich conversation and a perspective contrast to my experience of a Texas-raised life. I was learning more about the world beyond my own experiences and education. While I worked hard physically, it prepared me mentally through lessons of persistence, patience, hard work, consistency, and so many more. 

Working as what I call now an "Independent Contractor," which was really a "Handy-for-Hire," I changed my views of working and making money. Most valuable lesson I learned that summer was about doing work you can take pride in and be willing to put your name on, because if you don't want to sign off on it, it's probably crappily done. I also learned about seeing opportunities in times where there is not light and no clear path, if you are willing to move forward and do more then the opportunities will show themselves.

Without that summer of working with my hands and putting down those $170 textbooks, I would probably be more entitled and a lot less driven. Blue Collar work is tiring and tough, White Collar work is intellectual and methodical. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, if you have the option as a millennial to work with your hands for a summer (or longer) in a job where you have wipe sweat off your brow and don't receive public praise for a job well done, I can guarantee you will become a better member of society and different professional. 

What is a Modern Man?

Wednesday Word

May 4, 2016

Man
Conclusion of the Man Series

There won't be a definition for today. It's too textbook to define something we use social meanings to explain. 

A man is (usually) a human male. He is traditionally strong. This strength is exhibited in his physical capabilities, moral character, and his personal spirit. 

In this day and age being a man is more about being able to understand, protect, guide, love, lead, listen, and so on. There is a responsibility with being the provider and the sturdy oak, the support and shade which others rest under.

Men are not all the same. Once a man is loved in the right way, this fellow becomes the best man that he can be and allows him to blossom.

Being a man entails a commitment to themselves and to those they love.

I could continue to tell you, I would rather know your definitions of a man.

What is a man to you? Define the characteristics that a modern man should possess.

Throughout this blog we discuss all sorts of topics, mostly designed to inspire the reader to go out and change the course of their life. Discussing gender and their roles in our society is mentioned in order to allow you to see varying perspectives in the hopes that you create and shape your own ideals.

Jack Kerouac - Beating the Craze

Tuesday Take
May 3, 2016

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”
- Jack Kerouac - 

Follow the crowd, it's easy to tumble along with the flow of the stream. The outlier is not found by remaining in the bell curve. 

You must be strong enough to stand on your own. Challenge the current. 

If you do what everyone else does, you'll get what they all have. I don't know about you but it's not a very good deal for me. I'm a man in possession of a hungry heart and a fiery soul. The average does not suit me, I am more fitted for something custom-made. What about you? Do you want to portion your success and life to their standards or would you rather prove you deserve better than what your current peers have received?

Do great things, my friend I believe you can. 

Be a Hunter-Gatherer

Monday Mountain

May 2, 2016

We live life in a very civilized society. We go to stores where they sell items that are baked, slaughtered, harvested, canned, and manufactured for us to consume. We are consumers. We live an easy life when it comes to having to acquire our nutrition in day-to-day living.

You may have believed that I was going to talk about living some sort of paleolithic lifestyle, one where you would have to legitimately hunt and gather your food. I'm not going to talk about your food.

When it comes to being a Hunter-Gatherer, they are known for spending most of their time either stalking animals to kill or foraging through vegetation for produce.  In the Stone Age, this was the way of daily life. In our day and age, being a hunter-gatherer is still about foraging and hunting, but in a different sense.

The hunter is focused, well-versed in the habits of their prey, enjoy the success of the kill, invest all effort into the hunt, and following the kill the feast fuels their future successes.

The gatherer is perceptive, aware of their surroundings, knowledgeable on the beneficial food sources, creatively collect healthy energy sources, and shares the harvest with its loved ones.

Being a hunter-gatherer today should be focused and perceptive. They know their enemies and are aware their position in every situation. The success of the harvest and the hunt they provide proves to be success for the individual and their team. Each action and objective are comparable to something in modern life...
Go forth and use the resources available to you and work hard on harnessing them for growth in your tribe.