Life’s Truths

Time Choices

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6a00d83452989a69e2010535555f25970b-800wiHey Kids,

Does every minute count?

I think it does.

Do I always act like it?

Nope.

Should I?

Yes I should.

Yesterday, I spoke of time being our most precious commodity. And yet, I seem to be willing to treat it like it’s free and unlimited. That there will always be time to do what I need to do later. That needs to change.

It doesn’t mean that my life has to be a constant stress but it merits some design and planning. There’s a lot of work to be done and if the work is done and/or there’s a design in place, it’s ok to use some of it on frivolous things occasionally.

I need to make sure I choose how to spend each minute, decide for myself if the choices I make move me towards or away from my goals.

My biggest goal is to be happy, to be proud of who I am and what I’ve accomplished. I owe myself some effort and discipline to realize it.

Money will come and go. Time, however, is finite. It comes and it’s gone. And what’s worse, we have no idea how much will actually come our way.

Make the minutes count because they are counting down, and there’s no refund.

 

Day 127

Worth of Time

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Hey Kids,

Having a job. It’s a weird concept really. Most of us exchange our time for money. It’s the only way many of us have learned to survive. Without a job, we lose everything.IMG_6020

I’ve been thinking if the money I get is really worth my most precious commodity, time. I look at my paycheck and get the feeling that it is not. And what really bothers me is that no matter what someone is willing to give me for that time, they are obviously reselling my effort for a higher price.

I hate feeling like I’m getting worked over.

I want to establish my own value.

Maybe I’m nuts on this subject, but if I’m right it’ll be worth it. If I’m wrong, I’ll be exactly where I am today.

Are you getting your worth?

 

Day 126

Immortality

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Hey Kids,

A man once in our neighborhood poured a section of concrete. He wanted to fill in the small useless 3×3 patch of mowing strip between his driveway and his neighbor’s. As a kid, I could not resist the fresh smooth wet concrete to etch my name into eternity.

Finding a pointy stick a little smaller than a pencil, I left my mark.

The next day, I revisited. I hoped to admire my handy work and foray into permanent history.

My name was gone. Erased and concealed in the hardened, smooth slab.

“Are you the one that marked up my driveway?” The voice called out from the open garage. My neighbor emerged from the shadows.

“Um, no sir.” I said and then reinforced my innocence by running off. My name carved in stone had lasted only a few moments after I had left it.

A Roman soldier had better luck.

The unknown sentry on a construction project stepped on wet mortar, leaving his signature with the bottom of his shoes. No neighbor erased his effort.

Years later, archeologists found them. 2000 year old foot prints. Immortality achieved.

You never know who history will choose.

 

Day 121

It’s On You

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Hey Kids,

It’s on you.

They’re your dreams. No one really cares, at least not enough to do the actual work it takes for them to come true. They shouldn’t. They have their own. Want your dreams to be realized? It’s on you.

Some people will encourage you; the people who really care about you. They’ll hope you succeed. They’ll want you to succeed. They’ll do what they can, when they can. You can count on their support but they can’t do the work for you. It’s on you.

Some people will listen to you. They’re all talk. They’ll wish you well but give no allowance or you to succeed. In fact, they can hinder you. They’ll never consider the time you need to work essential and will interrupt at their convenience. They might ask for credentials of progress, asking for statistics, especially when the progress is obviously slow and painful. Statistics is for comparing. The work is not statistics. Dreams are not made by comparing. These people can’t help you but. It’s on you.

Some people will root against you. Some will be open about it, most are not. They will tell you discouraging information, tell you how hard your dreams are to accomplish. They’ll try to tell you it’s OK to quit, at least you tried. Screw ‘em. You need to avoid these people. Even if they’re family. You don’t need them. You don’t want them. And by all means, don’t listen to them. But still, It’s on you.

Dream. Dream big. No reason to keep it small. Dream for the stars.

Now, do the work.

It’s on you.

 

Day 120

Filling the Longest Day

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Hey Kids,

Is it exciting or depressing that the longest day of the year is upon us this weekend?

It’s exciting that we can enjoy more daylight. The warm weather is finally here to stay.

And yet depressing because starting next week every day will be getting shorter.

Sunset on the Longest Day 2014

Sunset on the Longest Day 2014

Last year, I fulfilled a wish I had. To fish from sun-up to sun-down on the longest day of the year. I fished from my Kayak the entire day, caught some fish, and even caught a tagged fish that scored me a new rod from the marina.

This year, I’ll be spending it on Father’s day, of which I will speak more tomorrow.

The important thing to do, is that each day is as long as it should be. And it’s not really the hours the sun remains above the horizons that matters; it’s what you do with it.

Last year I won a rod and fulfilled a wish. This year I’ll visit someone who made so much of my life possible- my dad. I’ll travel across some great country and spend time with my favorite woman and travel companion.

The time I get up and the time I go to bed don’t change much anyway. Why do I even care how long the sun’s up? I guess listening to myself, I shouldn’t. It’s just a thing, just a day. Just fill it with good stuff and move on. I’ll do that.

Now let’s get this ol’ earth tipping the other way and give some of this sunshine back to them southern folk.

 

Day 117

Present Changes

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Hey Kids,

I’ve wondered how a building becomes abandoned. I see them all the time. Houses off of the highway, greyed wood, windows missing, sometimes a door, sometimes not. They were someone’s home once. A family lived there. And now no one does. What happened?contest2891_banner

I know that buildings don’t last forever, yet I can’t imagine my house ever not being there. Will it wear out? It has to. Everything does. But how? Will there be a time that I’ll just leave it? Seems too impossible to imagine, and yet any drive into the country shows evidence of its possibility. What about those pictures from the Detroit area?

I look at the hospital at the University of Utah. If you look at it today, it looks nothing like it did when I started there 20+ years ago. I watched the transformations, several of them, and yet find it hard to see the current configuration not ever being what it is today.

I guess it’s hard to expect the present status ever changing. It’s hard to remember the past even if you were there.

Things are going to change and sometimes drastically. It just happens. Don’t let your comfort and understanding of today think it won’t.

 

Day 115

Breaking Bread

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Hey Kids,

Breaking bread, or sitting down to a meal together, has been used for centuries to bring people together. Good food shared, makes one feel happy, agreeable, and if you can share food together- one of the most required needs in life with water, why can’t anything else be shared?breaking-bread-1024x768

Today my staff had a barbeque for lunch. Nothing fancy, just hamburgers and hot dogs. I offered anyone who wanted to throw anything else in could, but no one was required.

We had cake, potato salad, chips, cookies, sodas, baked beans, and a few other things I forget. All voluntary.

We talked, laughed, and spent time together, huddled in the shade enjoying a very hot day.

In the end, I never said a word about clean-up. It just happened. I never said anything about time to go to work. We just did. But we all left with smiles.

We had fun. We shared. We grew together a little more as a staff.

Breaking bread; it still works.

 

Day 113

Legacy Thinking

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Hey Kids,

As humans I think we like things to progress, as in we like to do something, master it, and then move on. Be it work issues, class courses, or video game levels; we struggle at first, figure it out and then move to the next challenge. The questions are answered, the standard is realized, and the procedure is set. New horizons await, never look back.

This is legacy thinking. It resides in the statement “That’s how we’ve always done it.”

Sometimes, however, life doesn’t work so linear. Technology advances. Rules change. People and thought evolve. Situations alter.

It’s not to say that the way it has always been done is bad. A problem arose one day. The smart people of that time, possibly you, analyzed the situation, studied the options, maybe even divined genius methods to overcome it, and it worked great. But then the day comes that someone new or younger asks, “Why do we do it like that? You know, we can blah, blah, blah with the new wiizit thingees.”

Do you say: “No. We do it this way. We’ve been doing it this way since before you started here (or were born). It works fine. You should have seen it when I started, this is way better. Just do it like you’re told.”?

Or do you listen?

I find sometimes I’m attached to the ideas of the past. Especially when they were my ideas. Sometimes I’m more interested in protecting my amazing past and want to focus on what I think are then new puzzles needed to unravel and never realize that the amazing solution yesterday has become the daunting puzzle today. Can we say obsolete?

The way we’ve always done it, is not true. It started sometime in the past and before that, it was done some other way; it’s just the way we’re doing it now. And it may’ve been the best way back then, but it may not be the best way now. Or the right way. Or the only way. Or the smartest way.

Legacy thinking can be a stumbling block to moving forward in other areas. Let it go. Don’t be afraid to develop and adopt new ideas about old things. Who knows, you might find you’re just as brilliant now as you were back then.

 

Day 109

Weak Link

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Hey Kids,

When I was younger, around the age of 8, I helped my dad on the construction site. He owned his own company and he hired me for the weekends. I thought I was raking in the dough while earning my $1.50/hour. And in the mid 70’s for someone just under 10, it was some serious money. I worked hard for it though.

I found that a 4’ x 8’ sheet of sheetrock was a little more than a 75lb boy could handle on his own. I remember it embarrassing to have to ask help to move them. I remember not being able to unload them from the truck and making my dad stop what he was doing to help me. Sometimes he would just do it by himself as if it was easier and faster that way. I hated it.

When he was not watching, I would place my hand just right in the middle of the sheet, like he would, and lift it up from its position of being leaned against the wall. Eventually, I could lift and carry sheets from the back of the truck and into the

job sites by myself. If my dad helped, it was only so we could both be done quicker.

Years later when I was 14, I worked at a mining operation. And again, I was the only one who couldn’t do a task. This time is was lifting a barrel of fuel from laying on its side up to a standing position. I was 100-nothing pounds and a barrel of gasoline weighs about 330 pounds, diesel fuel another 50 pounds or so. That didn’t matter. I needed to do the task without asking for help. It was embarrassing to me to be the runt. Even if I was the only kid in camp. I worked at it until I could do it. For me. For my own pride. To not be the one who slowed the team by always needing help to do my job. I worked on it until my muscles learned how to do it.

Today I look over my team at work. And although we are not moving sheetrock or tipping fuel barrels, it’s obvious that we have some weak members that lag behind the others in work productivity. Everybody sees and knows it and has to compensate for it. The lesser productivity doesn’t bother me as much as the apparent apathy. The weaker members don’t care. To be carried by the others is not an obvious issue for them. I think, maybe they’re just embarrassed and emoting a façade of not caring but there’s never any sign of improving, no clues of trying harder or differently. As a manager, I’m left to wonder why? Why don’t they want to improve? Why do they believe that that their meager efforts should be accepted?

I’m told I’m wired differently. And I’m glad I am. I find it hard to comprehend the acceptance at being the weak link, to know that everyone disrespects my work efforts. I don’t understand the reluctance to find another gear or to try to improve, to feel responsible to lighten the load of those around you by pushing yourself to be better. I have never lost anything by trying harder.

I’m not sure how to help someone when they don’t want to be helped or not think that they should be.

I’m not sure what future awaits these people. Eventually you have to step up to the plate and take a full-hearted swing.

I fear for those who never do.

 

Day 108

Keys to Change

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Hey Kids,

I had it all figured out; the world at my feet; master of my domain. And then:

I realized I left my house keys at work inside of my locked office. Attached to my office key. After 5 o’clock.

What a helpless feeling it is standing outside of your own door unable to get in. It’s like showing up at a friend’s or family member’s house and realizing they aren’t home and you have to wait like a beggar outside the door.

In the case of your own home, the neighbors all look at you in that “this doesn’t look normal” tone of look. You try to act normal, but can only maintain normalcy for so long. Everyone knows you don’t stand outside at your vehicle this long.

I had a good 3 hours before anyone would be getting home, so I left and hung out at the local McDonald’s and got some computer work done. Got some good work done too.

The pain continued the next day as I had to find my boss who has a key that can open my office. Of course, he’s not immediately available and again the staff is looking at me with that weird look wondering why I’m carrying around my riding gear. I offer no explanation and no questions are asked, but I know they know. I use the time to visit with the staff and check in on them. It was good. They seemed to respond well to my interest in their day right at the start.

I get so set in my routines that it seems overwhelming when it changes just that little bit. When that fraction of control is taken, the whole world feels inside out. And then you notice that the inside out isn’t so bad.

I need to break out of some routines. Not necessarily lock my keys in places I can’t get to, but change things up.

 

Day 107