Remember to relive your fearful moments.
1. So you don’t do the wrong ones again.
2. So you do the right ones again.
Stay Positive & While Fear Is Fear, There Can Be Different Results
Garth E. Beyer
Life Lesson
Blink
Blink is an aberrantly exceptional book by Malcolm Gladwell, yes. But the action is something entirely significant on its own.
An artist notes, “on a good day blinking refreshes sight and brings clarity.” The act of blinking revitalizes focus and perception to the world, and I state this on no low-level.
If you were to walk around with your best efforts to refrain from blinking, you would experience every emotion on the right-wing of negativity. Alas, this is not necessary. In fact, for lack of a better term, I would consider us lucky that blinking is primarily involuntary.
It seems suggestive that in order to perceive, understand, inspirit and reanimate life, we must blink. What if we conceptualized blinking into our work and our art?
When we incorporate “blinking” into our efforts – whatever they may be – we are naturally prone to create more understandable products: alive, lit up, stimulated, lucid.
The only difference: this type of “blinking” is voluntary. Though, equally invaluable.
Stay Positive & Be Sure To Blink, And Blink Often
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
“That’s Disgusting!”
Sometimes I read incredible articles, uncertain if I will ever recall them again or if they have simply fell into that black hole I have in my mind.
Alas, my assumptions were countered.
Roughly four months ago, I read an article in The Chronicle Review called The Delights of Disgust. Today, not only four minutes ago, I sat down to write, a bowl of oatmeal from a local coffee shop next to me. Whilst eating, I found someone else’s DNA in the form of bristle in my oatmeal.
While Justin Smith does exceptional work ruminating on the idea of disgust, humor, and humanity. I would like to make an aside that’s worth noting (with less sexual and political prominence).
Oh, and here is the picture of the hair. I went to pluck it out of my food and ended up pulling and pulling and pulling. “That’s disgusting!” Right?
After putting the strand of hair to the side (as shown above), I continued to finish my oatmeal. The way I see it is this, will I let something disgusting (hair in food, smell of a fart, undercooked meat) influence my actions, but more importantly, my judgements?
For many who find themselves in a similar situation, would have complained, would have asked for a new bowl, would have ranted on Twitter, and would then avoid eating oatmeal for the next few weeks until the memory fades.
Aurel Kolnai, who in 1929 published an essay “Der Ekel” (“Disgust”) saw disgust as inherently paradoxical, to the extent that it is “a genuinely passive defensive reaction of the subject, … and yet, once aroused, it seeks out its object, as hatred does, in its entire significance, instead of unfolding according to the persona’s own condition.
Curiously enough, in any dictionary, “disgust” is juxtaposed with “humor.”
Since when did the demand of “smell my finger” become the force of what is disgusting, rather than the actual act of smelling the finger? And to the one asking, both the asking and the action of their finger being smelled is humorous. Is this not a perfect display of humanity? At the most basic level, something has an aroma, and we have the ability to sense it through smell. Then, the action of sensory perception leads to laughter. Yet, it’s not that simple, is it?
There are multiple variables attempting to dominate our lives, to make decisions for us, to dictate even. The major contributors to this dictation are morales, laws, politics, social structures and others. I’m not sure about you, but I’m not comfortable with letting disgust control me. I think the list of factors that behest our lives is long enough.
Stay Positive & Human, In Control
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Living Is Easy
Do one thing a day that if you died the next day, you would have been happy you did.
Most will tell you to do one thing a day that scares you. Others will suggest to play it safe. Many ignore both and just don’t care. These are hard to do, extremely hard. The amount of effort that goes into failure is insubstantial.
But, living… living is easy.
If I may add one note coming from the journalist inside me, if there is one thing I have learned from watching and reading news, it is that people die. Every single day. For different reasons, in different ways, procuring different impacts. People die.
Life can be cruel, but only if it has the first move. That’s where you come in.
Make that first move, every day.
Stay Positive & Live, That’s All You Have To Do In This World
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Let’s Cooperate
As in, fill in the mortar, wear the shoes issued to you, fit the status-quo, stick to the plan, follow the rules, do as everyone else does.
Traditionally, anything outside the aforementioned is considered not cooperating, which is a case of serious misinterpretation.
There are two correcting tributes about cooperation that must be noted.
The first is that cooperation is conversation. Cooperation is not an order of command, but a dialogue of two (or usually many more than two) people.
Second, cooperation is interaction. Interaction by definition results in a variety of influence and effects. A single demand of many is not interaction.
To cooperate is to dance, to play, to connect the loop of insight and feedback. Cooperation is vital in the workplace and even more vital in the home and the heart. Keep this in mind the next time someone tells you that you need to cooperate. You may need to remind them what cooperation really is.
Stay Positive & I Prefer Interactive Operation Over Cooperation
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Calling All Non-Freelancers
We need you to freelance.
The jobless are – without objection – staying jobless.
Remember the common saying, “the best time to start a business is during a recession?” Well, starting a business is similar to freelancing, but without the vital need of initial high monetary input.
I also believe that no matter your career interest, there is a way to hack it, a way to freelance it. (Worth noting: joblessness also gives you the opportunity to take a different path, start something new. If there was ever a time to say “you have nothing to lose,” that time is now.) For many of those unemployed, turning your expertise into a freelance model will immediately define your profession as a niche.
All that leaves is finding your market: given the internet and the long tail – check, and check.
Unemployment? Spit on it. Jobless? Create yours. Desperate? Take a risk.
Stay Positive & The Unemployment Rate Will Change, Only When You Do
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Unlocked Potential Series
In a world of give-and-take, two-way streets, and a general goal of balance, I have come across some remarkable people who dance on both ends of the stick.
The middle of last year, I began writing an Unlocking Potential series. While the process was to mention people who were… well, worth mentioning, the goal was to unlock more of their potential through sharing their story, their personalities, and their creations.
It was an instant success with some interviews hitting over 1,000 views in one day.
Seeing Vanilla Ice
Walking down State Street, I saw Vanilla Ice starting a fight with – what appeared to be – an innocent bystander. Ice pushed the gentleman’s face and kept shouting at him. (I call the bystander a gentleman because he did not fight back, he was passive, true to the title of bystander.) Ignoring the forceful push-to-the-face and spit of vulgarity, he started to dial 911.Vanilla Ice then started walking away with his posse.
Of course this wasn’t really Vanilla Ice, but it sure did look like him. (Blame Google for not coming out with Google Glass sooner. Vanilla Ice was an early idol of mine, you’ll have to take my word that it looked like him.)
The world is filled with opposites, and the reason I mention this experience is to provide contrast to the next experience.
Tyler (spiderman) and Adam AG (rapper)
While there are those who need a little nudge to unlock their potential, other’s are already an open treasure chest. Tyler Babb (T-Babb Films) and Adam (Adam AG) are two of these people. And in light of that, this is more of an unlocked potential series than anything else.
In one scene, I see Vanilla Ice throwing his credibility and respect away. The next I am face-to-face with Tyler and Adam – two people who see the bigger picture.
And that’s no filming pun.
Unlocked Potential
There was no need for me to do any convincing when sitting down with Tyler and Adam, if anything, they were convincing me that I’m not the only one with this mental attitude of positivity, work ethic, and attainable success. Some repeated comments were:
- Take steps
- Work hard on what you love
- Skip the general bullfeces
- Take things seriously
- Connect all you can
Most significantly, we’re in a revolution; for the first time, a revolution we know we are in.
In the past – regardless of the economical or political situation – there were credible idols in every niche saying, “There has never been a better time than now.” And they were right.
The difference between then and now isn’t that we no longer hear this uplifting phrase, rather, as opposed to the past, we actually believe it.
The past who preached that “the best time is now” had to convince their audience. Now, speaking for the current generation:
We’re not ignorant. We know that we have everything on the shelf, all the resources, tools, and assistance that we could need. We know that all that we need to do is pick and choose out of what is available, to create. We don’t need convincing that now is the perfect time to do something. What we need is someone to teach us how to be creative enough with all the potential at our fingertips to make and do things that one day we will look back on in awe and jaw-dropping amazement.
The reason I write about Tyler and Adam is that they are the teachers – not waiting for someone to help them fulfil their dreams and bringing as many as possible up with them.
Stay Positive & Self-taught And Ready To Inspire
Garth E. Beyer
