Punch Life in the Face

September 25, 2009 8 Comments

Punch Life in the Face

When the going gets tough, the tough get…no, that’s not reality.  In reality, when things get hard people quit.  They give up.  Instead of breaking a sweat, shedding a tear or losing a little blood they take the easy route and do nothing.  It is easier to accept defeat & tell yourself that it is too hard, that you aren’t smart enough, you aren’t pretty enough, strong enough.  For every inaction we find an excuse that will suit our situation.  Hell, we may even convince ourselves.

It is time to stop making excuses.  It is time to quit being a quitter.  It is time to get off your ass and do something with your life.  Yes, you might struggle.  You might feel pain.  You may even cry but if you don’t do something with your life why are you even here?  It is time to start living.  It is time to stand up and punch life in the face.

Too often we accept our lives the way they are, even if we aren’t happy with them.  We are miserable at work, our relationship with our spouse sucks, our kids hate us, we waste our time doing absolutely nothing.  Our joy in life is derived from a bottle; we can’t even relax without a glass of wine to settle ourselves.  This is our life and it sucks.

When I was 16 years old I was a loser.  My life was consumed with drugs and alcohol.  If I wasn’t high or drunk I was in the process of getting there.  Two days after I turned 18 I was arrested.  I had just gotten high a few minutes before being handcuffed & taken to jail.  I spent that night in my cell thinking about where my life had gone wrong & how I was going to change it.

I realized that I was fucking up my life.  It wasn’t only the drugs & alcohol that were the problem.  I was wasting my time.  I couldn’t turn the clock back and recapture those years.  They were gone & there was no getting them back.

In order to change my life I had to turn my back on everything & everyone.  This was hard for me.  It meant losing friends.  It meant making major changes in my life.  I had created a lifestyle for myself & people expected me to be that person.  For a while I struggled to get sober.  I didn’t want to disappoint my friends when they wanted to get high with me.  Eventually I came to realize that I needed to change my life for me and not live my life as a consequence of other people.

Once I figured this out I made the changes I needed.  I quit drinking & doing drugs entirely.  I have been clean for almost 9 years.

What does all of this have to do with you?  Maybe you don’t drink or get high but I have no doubt that you are wasting your life with things that are just as stupid; video games, television, Internet, gambling, celebrities, work…anything that takes time away from the person you want to become deep down inside.

It is so much easier to do nothing than to do something.  If I hadn’t been arrested & had the time to sober up and reflect on where my life had come and where I was going maybe I wouldn’t have changed.  I wouldn’t have traveled around the country & now the world.  I would probably still be sitting in my bedroom taking hits from my bong and eating Milk Duds watching the world move around me.

Get off your ass and grab life by the balls.  Do something that you’ve always wanted to do but have told yourself you “couldn’t” for whatever reason.  Stop lying to yourself.  Life will go on with or without you.  Just remember that you can never make up for lost time.  Never.

Filed under Attitude, Behavior, Life, Motivation, Potential, Prioritizing

Save the Environment Without Going Green

September 19, 2009 1 Comment

"Go GreEn" by SeXeS @ Flickr

Going Green is the newest fashion statement. 

Like any other fashion trend, we show our allegiance through the acquisition of material possessions.  We purchase clothing proudly proclaiming our solidarity with the Earth.  We trade in our Clunker for a more fuel-efficient car.  We buy, buy, buy…all in the name of saving our Earth.

What we don’t consider is how our consumption, as “green” as it may be, is affecting the world.  Sure, the good intentions are there.  We think that buying an organic cotton t-shirt is the smart choice because it is ”organic” yet we fail to understand the full scope of the textile industry & its affect on the environment.

As consumers, we believe that we can buy our way out of our environmental problem.  Buying more Stuff isn’t the solution to saving our planet.  Snarky slogans emblazoned across the chest of our new shirt aren’t the solution.  If you want to be green, I suggest not buying anything proclaiming your “Green Prowess”.  We don’t need to “Go Green” in order to BE green.  What we need to do is much easier & requires no fashion statements.

All we need to do in order to BE green is to consume less & be conscientious of the purchases we are making.  Here are some tips you can use in your own life to help bring the Green revolution into your home; no slogans required.

Buy Quality:  Most of us can’t escape the need to buy entirely so we try to find the best deal.  For many of us this translates to whatever is the cheapest.  The problem with buying cheap is that the products you are purchasing may not be well fabricated.  The cheap option suddenly isn’t so cheap anymore & now you are stuck replacing that item.  Spend the extra money to get items that are of higher quality that will last a long time.  Quality items are durable & you will not have to replace the item as often, reducing the volume of waste you generate.  The average American generates 1,600 pounds of trash annually.

Buy local produce:  The average food item in the United States travels 1,500- 2,500 miles before it reaches you.  That transportation requires a huge amount of energy to get from the fields where it was grown to your table.  You can offset a lot of that wasted energy by purchasing local produce.  Farmer’s Markets are a great way to get your hands on locally grown vegetables.  Not only do you reduce the amount of energy used to transport your food, you are supporting your local economy.

Eat lower on the food chain: “Roughly 70 percent of the grains grown in the United States go to feed animals, who eventually become food. This takes up much of the arable land that could be used to feed people directly. It takes ten times the fossil fuels to produce a calorie of animal food as it does to produce plant food.”  Eating lower means eating more fruits & vegetables.  Its a good idea for the environment & for your health.

Take shorter, colder showers: The average person uses between 80-100 gallons of water each day.  Multiply that number by the population of the United States (304,059,724) and you can imagine the impact that our water consumption has on the environment.  When we look at the Earth from space we see a world of blue.  In fact, 71% of the Earth is covered in water.  The problem is that only 0.3% of that is actually available for our use.

Wear a sweater:  Instead of cranking up the thermostat during the winter, turn it down a couple of degrees and wear a sweater like Jimmy Carter.  When you aren’t home, turn the thermostat even lower.  There is no sense in heating the house when no one is home.  Now you are not only saving energy, you’re saving money too.  Smart!

For more practical tips on ways to save the environment and your money, check out my article “Go Green While Saving Some Green“.

Filed under Environment

The Art of the 5-Minute Shower

September 15, 2009 13 Comments

"the last shower - golden droplets abound" by winterofdiscontent @ Flickr

Something I’ve always found enjoyable is a long, hot shower.  There is something soothing about the process of washing away the stress of the day yet I have begun to question the need for such “therapy”.  I am beginning to see a long shower as nothing more than yet another form of consumption & waste, a pattern which I am attempting to eliminate from my life.

The decision to restrict my shower time wasn’t an easy choice to make; the thought of it brought about a mix of emotions.  On one hand I knew that by taking a short shower I would be helping the environment by reducing my water consumption yet the thought of taking away such a simple pleasure kept me from pushing beyond the “thinking about it” stage.

Finally, after a long while of contemplation I decided to give it a try & see what happened.

First, I needed to determine a sufficient amount of time to get the job done & not have much time left to linger.  Five minutes seemed fairly reasonable.  I programmed my cell phone alarm 5 minutes into the future and jumped in the shower.

Usually this is where I would stand under the stream of hot water, letter the sweat, dirt and stress of the day wash away, literally and spiritually, but not this time.  This was a business engagement & I had work to do.  I grabbed my shampoo and washed my hair.  After I had rinsed my hair it was onto scrubbing the cracks and crevices of my body.  If I hurried maybe I would have time at the end of the shower to relax under the faucet.

I scrubbed from top to bottom and rinsed myself.  I seemed to be doing well with time so I grabbed the razor for a quick shave (yes, I shave in the shower).  I was able to finish my shave just as the alarm on my phone went off.  I still needed to rinse off but all in all I did pretty well.  After rinsing myself off I turned the water off and grabbed my towel.

I wasn’t able to get my moment of peace within the 5 minutes I was showering, but I was able to get the job done.  This is my first attempt, so maybe there is room for improvement.

The idea of a short shower has long been something I’ve grappled with.  I suppose it is not much different than someone who smokes.  They know they should quit but for whatever reason they continue smoking.  I’ve known for a long time that my long showers were doing nothing to help the environment and were a complete waste of resources & time.  Even though a long shower is something which has brought me peace and comfort throughout my life, I know that I will find that same peace and comfort in another form; one which is not wasteful.

Filed under Consumerism, Environment, Minimalist Living

100 Things Challenge

September 12, 2009 Leave a Comment

"Sistema di seduta (Minimal)" by Marianone @ Flickr

Goal #106 on my list is to minimize my material possessions.  Until recently I maintained a typical consumer mindset in which I felt good about my situation in life by owning Stuff.  The more I was able to amass, the better I felt.  I was making money & buying Stuff to show my financial strength.

In the process of searching for a solution to my personal financial crisis I began reading about frugality & the power of less.  The financial impact of reducing my consumption was obvious; don’t buy Stuff that I don’t need & I will have money for the things that matter.  Even more than this economic impact on my life was the idea of finding comfort & peace with what I already possessed.

At times, accepting the idea that I could be happy without buying Stuff seemed ludicrous.  How would I cope without the newest DVD?  No more shopping sprees at the mall!  Opting out of the consumer lifestyle would require serious changes & at times, struggle.  I had moments when I doubted the whole idea of minimalist living yet I persisted.

Once I gained control over my compulsion to spend I began to analyze my possessions.  I questioned how my Stuff was affecting me emotionally and mentally.  I began to realize that having more Stuff couldn’t bring me happiness & satisfaction.  Each purchase I made was an external attempt at filling an internal void & each purchase left me feeling even more empty than before.  Almost like a drug addict, each time the endorphin rush wore off from my new purchase, there I was searching for my next fix.

Once I understood the affect that Stuff had on my life I knew I needed to do something.  I began sorting through my Stuff, looking for things that would be easy for me to get rid of.  Anything that no longer provided purpose & meaning to my life was on its way out.  I sold as much as I could on eBay & donated the rest to Goodwill.  Anything that couldn’t be sold or donated was sent to the trashcan.

This process of selling, donating & trashing had a huge impact on me.  It made me realize exactly how much I was living a life of excess.  I had collections of everything imaginable, from records to trading cards, action figures to comic books, DVDs & CDs to coins, even old Playboy magazines that I never looked through.  I had so much Stuff that I needed to rent a storage unit in order to contain it all.

Over the last 9 months the process of selling, donating & trashing has now reached a point where I am able to look at each item I own with a feeling that in some way, that item brings value to my life.  Whether it is the stone Buddha statue on my living room floor or the Camelbak I use while hiking, each item offers utility.  I still have some paring back to do; some items I haven’t had the ambition to try to sell still linger throughout.  I hope to have these few things taken care of in the near future.

This brings me to the point of my post today, I’d like to share with you a website devoted to living simply, with as few (one hundred) personal possessions as possible.  David Michael Bruno is attempting to live for one year with 100 personal items or less.

The idea of doing this myself began to bounce around in my mind.  With all of the purging I have been doing recently, I might already be below the 100 mark.  I looked around my living room & started making a list.  By the time I was done with the list I found myself well below the 100 item mark.  Then I realized I had forgotten a space in my closet with my winter coat & sweatshirts, which put me at 111 items.

All in all I would say that I have done a good job at reducing the amount of things which I own, yet I feel there is much room for improvement.  In my count there were things which I intentionally ignored such as hygiene products & trinkets I’ve collected through my travels.  I counted collections as single items and anything which is shared property didn’t make the list either.

I hope to be able to further reduce the number of material possessions I own.  There are things which, while I enjoy to some extent, I could easily live without.  I challenge you to look around you and find the things that you could live without & live without them.  Opt out of the consumer lifestyle & harness a life of simplicity in which you thoroughly enjoy what you already have & don’t worry about the things you don’t.  In time you will begin to appreciate the simplicity and as you remove yourself from a lifestyle of consumption you have the resources (money) to pursue those things that matter to you the most.

For those who are interested, here is my list of 100 Things.

Filed under Consumerism, Minimalist Living

Goal #102) Solve the Rubik’s Cube

September 5, 2009 6 Comments

"Rubiks Cube" by KarandeepSingh @ Flickr

A couple of weeks ago I woke up, grabbing the Rubik’s Cube from my dresser.  I laid in bed twisting and turning the cube in my hands and soon I noticed that I might be on to something.  The more I worked, the closer I came to solving the first layer of the cube, something I’d never done before.  I worked a little longer and voilà!, the first layer was complete.

Afraid to work on solving the next layer, I admired my accomplishment a while before I began spinning the layers around again.  After a few more moves I began feeling as though I had done irreparable damage to my earlier progress.  I attempted to work backwards in hopes of repairing my solved layer but only succeeded in further scrambling the puzzle.  Frustrated, I set the cube down.  I decided that solving the Rubik’s Cube would be my newest goal.

After a week of idly tinkering with the cube I had brushed aside the task as being impossible.  Sure, I could now solve a single layer without much effort, but anything beyond that seemed like a pipe dream.  It wasn’t until my girlfriend began playing with the cube, conducting Internet searches of techniques of how to solve it, that my interest was again piqued.  We watched YouTube videos of people solving it with what seemed to be no effort.  I was in awe.  I could do this!

One video explained the algorithms needed in order to solve the puzzle and I began studying them.  I worked along with the video, and after about an hour of watching, rewinding, pausing & fixing my errors I was closer than ever before in actually solving this great mystery.  After I had completed the second layer I smiled to myself with satisfaction, only to be overwhelmed with anxiety that in the next step I would undo everything I had accomplished like I had done before.

Despite my worry, I pushed play on the video and watched, again studying the new algorithm.  As I twisted my cube I soon realized that I wasn’t doing something right.  Thankfully it hadn’t messed anything up.  I rewound the video and watched again, realizing my error.  Now I was only moments from solving the cube.  I twisted with a fury, as fast as my mind and hands would allow.  Right inverted, bottom inverted, right, bottom.  Repeat.  Next corner; right inverted, bottom inverted, right, bottom.  Next corner…

Finally I saw my final move, to align the solved top layer with the other two layers I had already solved.  With a great sense of pride I made my final turn and smiled.  I had finally solved the Rubik’s Cube, one of my life’s great mysteries.

I could not have solved the cube without the help of Dan Brown’s videos on YouTube.  I highly recommend his tutorials to help you solve the cube.  The first layer can be found here & the rest of the cube can be found here.

Filed under Accomplishments

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