Life Lesson

Why I Interact With Everyone: My Hope

Garth Beyer

My hope is that you remain discontent with how society defines success;

that you understand some rules are unjust and are meant to be broken;

that you use the broken pieces to build your character;

that you will light the match which ignites the fire in your belly, the warmth of your heart, and what is necessary for passion to turn into something tangible;

that you either walk away or plow over the naysayers;

that you never stop transforming;

that from time to time – the more often the better – you just start and ship something immediately, just do what you need to do right away and feel that special sense of completion;

that you manage to find a way to always keep your head up;

that you would be willing to get arrested for what you do;

that you always try;

that you be you;

that you

 

Stay Positive & Remember I’m Here For You

Garth E. Beyer

Once You Leave

Garth Beyer

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. You risk at all levels. Most people stay in their zone because of that risk, because of their fear. Nothing can throw you out of wack if you stay put in your structure. The interesting revelation is this:

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. But what you expose yourself to is never what you think and worry about. Once you leave your zone, everything that you dreamed of, craved, and desired in your zone, comes to you.

Want to find love? How can you do that when you stay in your room all day? Forget it. Anyway, love will find you….once you leave your room.

Want to see something truly beautiful? Even more beautiful than what you can Google on the internet or see out your window? You have to leave your space.

Want to laugh unexpectedly? Once you leave your box, something will happen that makes you crack up.

Just getting out of the place you confine yourself to, that you are comfortable with, is all it takes to get what you want. You don’t have to go after it, you don’t have to jump 50 hurdles to get it, all you need to do is get out!

Go to the park. Find a place to see the sunset. Walk to the grocery store. Don’t worry about how you dress, what you carry, or if you wear any shoes. Just leave.

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This post was inspired by the experience I just had. I’ve been in my apartment all day (got off work early) and wasn’t planning on leaving it. I was comfortable, I was safe with my books, my notepads, sticky notes, pens and laptop. I was content, even happy with the breeze and the sound of the water (how could I not be?). Then I decided to do something off Michelle Welsch’s Manual For Daily Adventure. I got up, grabbed a favorite book (Keri Smith’s How To Be An Explorer Of The World) and went to the park. The following things are what I got to experience because I left my apartment.

  • See a runner giving it her all.
  • Laugh and shake my head after watching two black basketball players almost get in a fight and one repeating to the other “you’re not gangsta!”
  • Three girls checking me out.
  • Laugh at a women on the phone only talking about getting drunk, hammered, plastered. Quote: “We will get drunk Sunday, that’s what labor day is for”
  • Pinpointed where an odd noise I kept hearing was coming from to a woman practicing opera.
  • Felt soft grass.
  • Got to observe more things, people, animals, sounds, sights, etc., than I would have in my apartment.
  • On my way back, had a good conversation with the three girls. If they didn’t smoke, I would have asked one for her number. Oh well.
  • Got to feel the ground. (Went barefoot)

That list sure beats the hell out of a list of what I would have experienced if I stayed in my apartment. The same goes for your cubicle at work, your comfort zone at school, your chair in the meeting room, your spot on the bus, your way you walk to work, your seat in class, and any “square” that you feel comfortable in.

 

Stay Positive & Experience Life

Garth E. Beyer

Three Lists To Always Have

Garth Beyer

These lists are very cut and dry. You don’t need me to tell you why you should have them. It matters not even where you have them or how often you read them, as long as you have written completely out.

1. A list of sources of inspiration. It can be in the form of bullet points, a collage, or the real thing. Regardless, still write down everything that you draw inspiration from because if you don’t feel inspired just writing it down, it’s not strong enough. If it’s not strong enough, go find something that is. Write it down.

2. A list of places you want to go. Pull out a map or a globe if you have to, Google odd places to travel, pick locations that a typical tourist would go to, or be weird and write that you want to travel to the lake where they filmed The Notebook or where the tomb of Oscar Wilde is. If you broke up the world into square feet, it leaves you with almost 5-1/2 quadrillion square feet to choose from.

“Nothing beats travel to expand your knowledge, your palette, and your empathy for your fellow men and women.” – Debbie Berne

3. A list of ways you can contribute, volunteer, and give.

 

Stay Positive & Write Then Animate Your Lists

Garth E. Beyer

Re: A Manual For Daily Adventure

Garth Beyer

You’re in rut. Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t care. But you are.

I can’t say that I am or was in a rut, but I could ALWAYS use more adventure in my life. Lucky for me, and now you, Michelle Welsch created a list of 80 ways to get started. She calls it her manual for daily adventure.

I was not going to accept the challenge at first, but after fighting the lizard brain, I said “What the hell? Let’s do it!”

I’ve done four out of the eighty ways to get started. I’ll keep you posted later in the week with more accomplishments.

62. Visit a farmers market (Madison, WI farmers market on the square)
64. Buy yourself flowers (got them from farmers market)
14. Ride a bike (I have one but I rented the B cycle because I never have before and always wondered how they worked)
66. Style your hair differently (angled fohawk)

 

This wasn’t one but I got excited to try new things so I told the Smoothie Crafters to make me a surprise – it was a win!

Stay Positive & Adventurous

Garth E. Beyer

Going After Growth

Going After Growth

Garth Beyer

Plants are better than us. They grow taller, they accrue width, they are in the sunlight more than us, they stand stronger and admit it, when they lose a leaf or a branch they grow it back quicker too. Actually, I once wrote a haiku that went like this,

If A Tree Stays Standing in the Forest, And No One Is Around to Hear It

they sway in the wind

never break from much pressure

we must stand like trees

Trees or plants in general go after growth. They don’t wait for the sun to shine on them, or for it to rain, or for something to be thrown near it to feed off its nutrients. It goes after it!

The plant spawns its roots as far as it can to get as much carbon dioxide and nutrients as possible. It extends its leaves as far out as possible. It builds itself to acclimate, whether that means growing a thick strong stem that nothing can bring down or one that sways with the wind.

 

It’s in their genes, their programming, their ancestry – it’s what plants do.                                                                                            Us on the other hand, were given a tragic gift.

We can choose to live like a plant or not. And that choice makes all the difference.

 

So let me ask you, are you a Bonsai Tree or a General Sherman?

 

Stay Positive & Unlike Plants, You Have The Ability To Grow ANY Direction You Want

Garth E. Beyer

Coming To Terms

Garth Beyer

We all know what we need to do at any given time, during the rough patches and the smooth. No number of people we ask “what should I do” is going to help.

It’s the doing part that causes us to stop, makes us question what we are actually supposed to do, and search for the easy way out.

The thing about the doing is that it’s what you have to do. Not anyone else. You can question people what you should do all you want, but you can’t ask someone to do something only you can do.

The quicker you come to terms with it, the quicker you quit ignoring the action you need to take, the quicker you get in the habit of just doing what you need to do right away, the greater the acceleration of the quality of life you will have.

 

Stay Positive & The Only Direction Is Forward

Garth E. Beyer

 

W. Clement Stone, who built a hundred million dollar  insurance company empire, would make all his employees recite the phrase, “Do it now!” over and over at the start of each workday. W. Clement himself would repeat it fifty times each morning when he would wake up and fifty times before he would go to sleep. Go with Nike or go with Stone, whatever it is, Just Do It and Just Do It Now.