Archive for April, 2008

April 29th, 2008

Destiny vs. Vision, Mission, and Goals

“We must be willing to let go of the life we had planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
-E.M. Forester

As soon as this person sent me a message and read this quote I thought about it and left it alone and then read it again and thought about it some more. I have thought about this for sometime, but not in the way this quote is laid out. Yes I am still going to pursue my freelance career fulltime, but right now am enjoying my time working, writing short stories on the side, writing for this blog and taking my business/passion blog more seriously. I also from time to time interact with friends, visit the parents on weekends to catch up, and time with the girlfriend.

But I can easily see how living in the moment and not worried about the future you planned can be put on the side. I think the best medicine for this equation is a balance. Things in life just happen and we have to be ready to adjust to the situation no matter how dramatic or small it is. But we shouldn’t be blind to circumstances that may be a for sure bet to help us in life.

Here is another question to think about when pondering this quote: Do you think you are less of a person if you don’t follow all your dreams that you set for yourself?

I would say kind of, only because if you let the wind sway you back and forth then it shows that you are letting life take you in any direction and life isn’t that important to you. However, checking off accomplishments and goals as you go through life is also meaningless if there isn’t any reasoning behind the victories. It really is to me an effort that the individual has to take to have a balance of destiny and vision, mission, and goals.

 
April 28th, 2008

The Planner Organizer

I got a planner about 3 months ago and barely written in it or used it to it’s purpose. My friend swears by it and he says and actually looks like he is more productive with work and life in general. I just don’t think it will help me much, but it will be a task that I do for the week to see how it will help me.

I think the biggest thing that I struggle with is deciding which things are more important than others. I tend to do things that I feel that is important at the time and then realize that I should have done that thing differently and so on. So this week I will make some goals for the way I plan to use the planner and report back later to see if it is worth me using the planner for my life.

Guidelines:

1. Finish Goals, Vision, and Mission that the planner suggest: I have done this in the past and have a good understanding of what each of them means to me, but we will see how it goes.

April 21st, 2008

Follow up on: It’s just a Job…

When I wrote this blog post I felt that I was too strong with words, but at times vague of what I was trying to get across. I have talked to a couple of people about this and feel that I need to clarify somethings. This is in no way taking back what I said, but giving a better explanation of what I feel about jobs in general.

When we were all young we didn’t worry about anything. The world just went and we started to grow up into people who were curious about whatever we saw. We kept on growing and growing and started to interact with people at our schools and neighborhoods and our identity was shaping up before our eyes. We also recognized what was right and wrong by our societal definitions, our parents and family, and our environment.

We then start to recognize a pattern in school of where we will be getting real comfortable with the status quo and bam we were told to exceed to the next level of education that required us to change schools, sometimes friends, and to develop a new identity for ourselves. I don’t tell too many people about my first couple of months of starting my professional career. I think whenever I tell people that I realized the way I see work they look at me crazy. There are people from the bat who get what I am saying, but I feel that I am talking to a brick wall when I do try to explain it. I pretty much realize that work is not really exciting at all and that many people, not all settle for that type of lifestyle to the point that they will live their lives accordingly until the day they die. I started to see it in the young people and was so obvious with the older people who had no hobbies, didn’t like to travel, and didn’t find happiness being away from work. Again, I am not saying that I am better than anybody because I like do and try different things, I probably got this from my childhood, but it really sucks seeing people that you admire make excuses about their own life not going the way they want it to.

About the job question.

 
April 20th, 2008

Why a Mac?

It has been a couple of weeks since I have paid off my mac book pro and feel like it is time for me to write about why I decided to get an apple computer.

Why a Mac book?

I didn’t treat my laptop to the best of it’s ability, but got tired of it crashing with Windows Vista, performing very slowly, and the constant download of materials that I either used for a short period of time or never really used. I also used my laptop more like a desktop being always plugged into my external hard drive, dvd burner, and an extra monitor coupled with a mouse and keyboard. I even had to mail the laptop in because the wireless card wasn’t working and turned out that the motherboard was defective. That was it for me for that particular laptop and thought about what would be the next best thing I could get for what I wanted to spend for a computer. I then saw my friend’s Apple Mac Book and quickly thought that he spent way too much money for a laptop or a computer in general and only got the laptop to be cool. But after he showed me what it could do and the ease of just navigating through various programs I was sold.

What did I do next?

I was still on the fence with the price of the mac. Yes it is a very well designed computer and has a cool factor behind it, but spending over $1k for a laptop sounded crazy to me. I continued to do more research and thought about getting a used one, but said that this machine will solve all of my computer problems and the piece of mind that all my needs will be taken care of. I even went a step further and went with the Mac Book Pro because of the 200 gig hard drive and 2 extra inches of size. I also got a couple more programs and features that honestly I probably won’t use, but if I wanted to were at my disposal. So when it was all said and done I paid a total of $2,400 bucks and felt the price instantly, really who spends over 2k for a laptop? Another reason why I decided to get the mac book was with the ease of using itunes and my ipod. When I first got my first ipod in January of last year it was literally attached to me and was part of my things that I had to have with me when I left the house (cell phone, wallet, and car keys).

First impressions and what do I think of it now…

April 20th, 2008

It Really is Just a Job…

This past week was a roller coaster for me, up and down and pretty stressful. I put most of that stress on myself because I was trying to make sure I was doing the work to the best of my ability. I talked to a friend a couple of weeks about my struggles and misfortune and came to the realization that all of it really doesn’t matter.

Yes doing a great job for somebody that is paying you is important, but things will still get done, people will be proud of your performance or resent you behind your back if you don’t live up to their standards. I don’t really know the best way to put what I am saying down of what I felt on thursday and friday, but here is a try.

Fuck work. Fuck trying to please someone else. Fuck trying to work long hours and working through lunch. Fuck being stress that you are going to get fired. Fuck it all. Because your life shouldn’t be about working. Yes that is how the majority of people pay bills, but damn just enjoy that money that you made from that job or just borrow money by using your credit card and enjoy what you like to do, enjoy what you think you like to do and whatever else in between you feel like doing with your time. I would strongly suggest calling in once in awhile during the week to clear your head, but get away from that office as much as you can while still being productive within the time that you are there.

That is all that I suggest that you do really, because when you look back at your life when you feel down and think that the world is against you will only think of the negatives. What you didn’t do right, what you spent most of your time doing that made you a psycho path kind of person, and how the hell you can turn your life around. I say don’t do that enjoy life as much as possible now and in the moment. We think we will make it to the glorious age of 65 and retire and live the good life, damn just writing that sounds horrible. How can I live the good life 40 years from now? How am I suppose to enjoy myself between now and then, lol? Hell we don’t even know if we are going to live that long anyways, so I say enjoy now and don’t stress about a 9-5 that you don’t feel passionate about and also don’t stress about a 9-5 that you love and adore and think that your life is going great because in the grand scheme of things this so called life is about experiencing life on as many different playing fields. But then again that is just my opinion and everyone is different and some people feel that their lives is what it is by work or just being a bum. Again to each their own, but read this whenever you feel that you need a sense of direction.

April 14th, 2008

I’m going Vegetarian…part 2: So How Did it Turn Out?

So the week has gone and my vegetarian experience was great. I might down the road try it for a month, I don’t even think that it will be difficult either. This week I had to stretch my mind and appetite to try different things to eat. As each day went by I didn’t crave meat and still had just about the same amount of energy by eating other protein foods such as red and black beans, soy burger mix, nuts, and multi-grain cereals. I even experimented with whole foods vegetarian dishes and at times was still hungry after eating a “big” meal. But I did survive and that it was going to be harder than what I actually went through.

Others reaction…

I got alot of crazy looks from people at work when I told them I was going vegetarian for a week. One of my co-workers looked at me and called me a weirdo. I told her it was just for a week and told me that vegetarians live shorter than meat eaters, I wanted to laugh in her face for saying that. Another person told me that human’s teeth are made to eat meat and he had a serious look on his face. Some teased me and tried to make jokes about how meat is so good for you and that I won’t make it until the end of the week.

The thing that got me was that nobody really got that I was trying it out to just try something different, to get away from routine and to see how my mind and body will react to the sudden change. It just showed me that people will stay with what they are comfortable with and wouldn’t change anything about their lives unless it was a life changing event. I am not saying that you should change yourself just because, but to try something different once in awhile. You never know if you will like or hate something unless you do, it goes back to the saying, “Don’t knock it until you try it!”. Oh well to each their own, my job isn’t to change anyone, but to help me get a different perspective on life which will probably help me become more productive or to simply enjoy life more.

April 8th, 2008

I’m going Vegetarian…

For just a week. I kind of started this past saturday as myself and girlfriend only at veggie pizza and said it would be cool to get a head start on just trying it out. I have told some people and they think that I am crazy. I kept on telling them it is just for a week. I will get back to this very insight into other people.

Why?

I am doing this just because. I told myself that I was going to try it sometime last year. I have tried different things to test myself mentally, physically, spiritually, and whatever else. I didn’t think this was hard, but struggled with it because I like meat just as much as other people who are avid meat eaters. So far after 3 days I am doing well and have enough energy for my days. However, we will see tomorrow because I know that I will want to call in for work because of the full body workout that I did yesterday.

I don’t know what I will try next, but I will be sure to make it something that pulls me out of my comfort zone and gives me a new perspective on life. As I talk to people about what I am doing or have done in the past I see past their thoughts, words, and body language and look into their eyes that are confused, frustrated, and judging you every step of the way because it goes against the status quo.

April 1st, 2008

So did I accomplish my Goals for Last Month and New April Goals?

It is a fresh month and I am ready for what this month has to offer me. I didn’t complete all of my goals last month and the only excuse I have is that I started way too late, but I still didn’t do enough with my time when I had all the time in the world.

Things I’ve learned:

1. Being passive gets you no where- whether it be at work or just getting things done for myself nothing will get done if I sit on my ass and hope someone else will take charge in doing the task for me. Besides you come off as a lazy asshole who can’t make decisions on his/herself.

2. My passion is still strong- last month I only wrote only 1 post on my business/passion website and it felt great writing it. The only thing is that I have to come up with tons of photos with also having great topics to write about. I am going to go for the same goal that I set for myself last month.