The Pie is the Limit

I always enjoy seeing couples that are physically opposite of each other. You know what I mean, that really tall guy with the really short lady. Or even better, the super skinny dude with a large and in charge woman. When I see the latter I always do a quick mental picture of the struggle they must have on a teeter totter. The struggle is real. A really good teeter totter partner is one that is equally comparison in weight. You need a good balance.

Even when we aren't talking about playground recruitment though, it's important to gauge that b word. Balance. This world is crazy saturated with achievement. And even more so over achievement. In grade school, over achieving is seen as a complimentary thing. Which it may be at the science fair, but as we get older I think we all need to be wary of spreading ourselves too thin with our assortment of responsibilities.

I've talked before about people who use the "too busy" cliche in standard conversation. "Sorry, can't make the bbq, too busy with the kid's sports." "I'm just too busy at work to grab dinner." Stating that you are too busy, implies that there is in fact a healthy amount of busy for you as a person. And I agree. But how do folks get to the point where they are "too" busy then? They pick the wrong teeter totter partner.

Through observation, I've noticed this too busy bunch of people naturally commandeer a higher level of stress. Which makes sense. If you feel you have so many things to do and not enough time to do them, who wouldn't be stressed?

I love waking up slowly, getting a cup of coffee and then sitting on my porch reading for an hour. One of my few happy places so to speak. But realistically, I can't do that everyday. My schedule doesn't allow it. I also think it's necessary to go to the gym or get physical exercise consistently. But some days, there's not enough time in the day for that.

On the contrary, people who retire without things to fill their time, find themselves painfully bored with life. Too much free time. So what I'm saying is don't get too busy and don't get too bored. Simple right?

Just as you can find your comfort number on a Tempurpedic bed or find your spiciness level at Buffalo Wild Wings, you can also grasp a fish-to-fry level that works for you and your schedule. To put into practice, look at your life as a pie chart and separate it into categories. The sectors I use are: Work, Leisure, Health and Family. You may have others that make your list. But within your agenda chart, try and make each piece of pie size up equally. Find yourself working too much? Force yourself into a movie night. Been having too many movie nights? Let's go tour a gymnasium today. Yep.

To grand finale this point, life balance is a close cousin of contentment. If you're off balanced, there's a good chance you're stressing more and overall less happy. A quick evaluation of how you spend your time, followed by action will leave you with a better matched teeter totter partner.

New in my life: The freezer needs protein. It's spelled with an "e" not an "a". Taking an old pair of boots to a shoe repair shop is good for the sole.

Keep smilin'

Chatty Kathy Lives in the Mountains

It's funny to think how cave men picked up chicks. What's ironic is they probably swooned their lady friends at their local watering hole, which is a social tradition the romantically hopefully carry on today. Putting myself into the mindset of Cavewoman Jane, (which I do often) I would imagine she chose her mate based upon pretty simple characteristics. You see back then, I imagine the dating and mating process wasn't as complex. He made me a fire, I choose him. And through that picky selection process, Caveman Jane passed on the more intelligent genes. What's happened is we've become a much smarter and more efficient species over time. Or have we?

Studies have shown that our collective IQ has increased 3 points every decade since the 1930's.  And with that, our technology has followed suit.  So not only are we evolving into a wicked smart species, we can find out pretty much anything we need to know with our hand held computers. Cell phones have gone from being strictly a way to talk to each other, to a new form of entertainment, to keeping every piece of our schedule, to keeping us up to date with every communication channel in our life. And they really are neat.

It's a normal thing now to see an entire table of people all checking their phones at the same time and no one talking to each other. It's so easy to hate on this kind of thing. I don't though. I believe it's part of us evolving as a breed. What I do fear is us losing our conversation fundamentals.  Communicating with each other will always be instinctual, but being good at corresponding comes only with practice.

Being attached at the hip to your cellular device is not a negative thing. But just be aware that the less you organically, face to face talk to humans, the less you're sharpening your people skills. I'm not a cliche user, but if you don't use it, you lose it right?

This is simply a public service announcement. Don't throw your phone into the Mississippi. Instead have a meal or conversation and try to enforce a no competition clause. What I mean is when someone is talking to you, avoid making them feel like they are competing with your phone for attention. Let me know how it goes.

New in my life: Constantly is neato. Sometimes timing isn't a b*$#@. I've got a watch, but I ain't got the time.  Happiness begins 20 feet up.

Keep smilin'

Formulas are for Chemistry and Babies

I was driving to work the other day and a guy was riding in the back of a pickup accompanied by a pressure washer. My first thought was "My life isn't so bad" then I thought "There's a lot of pressure that comes along with that guy's job." Puns are fun. But that Ford Ranger I just explained prevented me from merging and I had to take the exit and use an alternate route to work.

So much of our life is habitual.  And thank goodness. Our body breathes without effort. Our brain subconsciously remembers things to make our existence more efficient. That's one of the main reasons monkeys are our closest competitor on the intelligence food chain.

They say you switch your major an average of 5 times in college. If you ask me to cite my sources on that stat, I'll probably ask you to go play in traffic. Sources are for the birds. Anyways, that numeric fact makes  it seem like we are figuring out our game plan in our collegiate years. Which generally is true. But how many of people do you know aren't even using that piece of paper that costed thousands of dollars? I'm raising my hand right now. Just because you get a degree or are familiar with a certain field, shouldn't deter you from making moves. Schedules and habits are great and they make life easier, but they shouldn't be your lifeline. Be spontaneous with your actions.

And I'm not talking about irresponsible spontaneity. You shouldn't quit your job because you had a bad day. What I am saying is don't let your education limit your actions. If you have a passion, go for it. Whether or not you spent 4 years becoming a Jedi in it is a distracting detail. If you have something you can't go a day without thinking about, make that a priority. You'll be a happier soul.

I don't need to divulge too much on this. It's really more of a public service announcement. Just be aware of the myth that a degree is needed. Of course in certain fields it is, but a majority of the things you want to accomplish can be done without prior experience. Passion trumps education. If you're passionate enough about it, the learning will come naturally. Whether it's starting a business or building that kitchen table, go for it. You'll learn along the way.

So to digress, there's a million different ways to get where you're going. Whether it's your career or a trip to Target. Take an alternate route. They're usually more fun and you'll learn a few things along the way. Yep.

New in my life: Lee Brice sang a song called "Happy Endings." It ended up being a large stray cat on the boat ramp.  People who like your skeleton don't care how big your muscles are.

Keep on smilin'

We've All Got Our Own Fleas

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of Rings, created a place called Middle Earth for his books. It was an imaginary period in Earth's past. When asked if this creative world was in a different era of time, he responded "No. A different type of reality, yes." And really, I think we all have our own version of a personal Middle Earth. Let's call it middle ground in other words.

The words I would use to describe my social network are diverse and random. From ethnicity to extracurricular activities, the group of people I would call my aquaitenences and friends are about as similar as elephants are to mice. And which popularity crew you fit in with is developed at that age when cliques become something you worry about.  At least where I spent my puberty, the freaks at table 9 didn't really hang much with the letter jackets.  And in most high schools the social groups are pretty well defined the same way.

But every so often there comes along a highbred of human interaction. Someone that learns to adapt socially to their surroundings. That can keep up with both the socials and the greasers. Not sure that it can be taught, but I think it is one of the most important qualities an adolescent can acquire while battling acne and trying to find a prom date.  You see by learning to flex to different personality types, one does not only open doors in their social scene, but it absolutely can assist at the water cooler when the bossman (or woman) wants to chat about this crazy weather we've been having.

How does this happen? Like I said, it's not something that is easily taught, but a lot of it has to do with being diverse in your interests and conversationally meeting up with people where they feel comfortable. In other words, know your audience when dialoging. Even if they consider the act of trying a new casserole recipe as an exciting weekend, the person you're talking to has genuine interests. Your job as a conversational sponge is to find out and ask them about what fits their fancy. Find their middle ground and show enthusiasm towards the things that make them tick. Even if you are a terrible person, this simple social tweak will make you seem bearable in conversation.

To summarize, you don't have to be a smooth operator or sales person to discuss efficiently with all kinds of kinds. Just make an effort to find out what your talking partner is passionate about and ask away. Find a middle ground. Pretty complicated right? Yep.

New in my life: Fortunately, aliens do exists.  Looking forward to this coming lobstering season.  Ser feliz.

Keep smilin'

Tom Foolery Fa Dayz

I pulled up on this vehicle going about four-teen miles an hour on the highway the other day. Initially, concerned for my own well being I was upset at the ignorance of the driver. When I passed the vehicle it was the stereotypical old lady.  I felt bad, but my middle finger doesn’t play favorites. That’s a joke. No birds were flipped. But then I mentally pumped my brakes and I tried to step into her orthopedic shoes for a second.

Someone told me the other day that they couldn’t meet up because they were busy. That’s cute. Who isn’t busy these days? We are all as busy as we want to be. And what you make time for is also a matter of choice. So when you tell me you’re busy, what you are really saying to me is “The other things in my life are higher priority than you.” Nothing wrong with that, in fact it probably is true. This is just a Public Service Announcement letting you know how it translates.

There is this trend that has been going on for a few centuries now. It’s a thing people do. They make lists. Lists are great. They help me buy my groceries, send letters, pay bills and bathe myself.  But what I’ve found with my life is that when I’m living by the list, I often lose perspective.  The perspective that if nothing on my list gets crossed off, life is still going to be grand.

A lot of us earthlings are addicted to productivity. I, myself, am a borderline addict. What often happens is we get so focused on accomplishing the tasks at hand, we forget to soak up the season of life we are currently in. You ever hear people talk about how the year has flown by? Or how people say “You’ll be 40 before you know it.” I have. I’ve said those classics before.

The hard part is taking mental notes of where you are in life. Internally scrapbooking the season you’re going through. Or simply appreciating where you are in life, whether it’s a good or bad moment. The easy thing is to do is to keep those blinders on and see how much you can get accomplished before December 31^st. What I’d challenge you to do is take it out of 5^th gear momentarily and appreciate what this crazy life is currently teaching you.

You see when we get to be old, we should be turtling it on the freeway.  Not for our own safety, but at that point we should have learned how to slow down our lives and appreciate our surroundings.  Do I really think that elderly senora remembers her weekly to do list she made when she was 27? Nope. So slow down for a second Dale Jr, be a sponge for a sec. Yep.

New in my life: The snails are doing a great job.  I’m a Leo, I enjoy speechin’ and beachin’. If we all focused on what is important in our lives, there would be a shortage of fishing poles.

Keep on smilin'