Life Lesson

Lessons From The Cat In The Box

Garth Beyer

Clover is my cat. Although, I feel it may be more accurate to call her a little kitty despite the fact she is nearly 4 years old and after being with me, has only 3 out of 9 of her lives left. She’s small, cute, has half a tail (rescue kitty), and if you don’t remember, she has a big impact on my writing:( A Writer’s Crashing “Train of Thought” and Why It’s Excellent )

I have a cat story for you.

If your a cat owner, you have put a cat in a box. If you’re not, you now share the same curiosity as those who have as to what will the cat do if put it in a box? Let’s make the box a tall box, and the cat Clover.

Clover got put into a tall box and wouldn’t jump out. Contrary to belief, cats do have fear and it is this fear of the unknown and inability to prepare for the landing that Clover wouldn’t jump out. Cat’s, being very smart, choose not to take the risk. Admiringly, nor do they choose to just stay in the box. They will, just as Clover, put their paws on the rim of the box to try and peer over it to calculate the jump out of the box. It just so happened, as Clover had her paws on the edge, the box began to tip and it is almost as if the box was trying to push her out. Clover chose to try and prepare for the jump, only to find in that preparation that everything fell into place. (Pardon the pun)

See, we can learn many things from life, from each other and even from animals if we only observe.

Lessons Learned:

  • It’s okay to fear, just don’t let it immobilize you.
  • The unknown is not something to jump into, but to fall forward into.
  • If you prepare to try, you gain a forward leaning posture that tips the box, coincidentally pushing you forward.
  • Nothing is impossible, it’s just the angle at which you look at things.
  • Determination is unstoppable.
  • Fear of remaining in the box is worse than the fear of what’s out of it.
  • Freedom of any kind is worth losing 1 of 9 lives for.

Stay Positive & Luck Will Always Be On Your Side, As Long As You Try

Garth E. Beyer

Other posts about preparation (non-cat related): Prep To Destroy, Preparation and Expectation Reversed, Safety First: The Art Of Preparation

You’re Grounded!

Garth Beyer

Don’t just ground your kids, ground yourself too.

Ground yourself so you can learn to be alone, inquisitive, have time to think, to use your imagination and to add to the flame of creativity.

Being alone is vitally important. It gives you the time to shut everything down, let your mind be free and for you to produce ideas and solutions that you would have never thought of before because you are constantly enabling an overload of information to transition into your mind. Day by day, the mind is twitchy, hyper and working too fast for too long. It is in this action that much of life, of creativity, of a purpose is lost.

I remember the couple of times I was grounded as a kid and the multiple times I grounded myself as an adult. I locked the door, laid on the floor and sometimes listened to light music, read a magazine or just sat there contemplating the world outside my room. I would also write. Other times, I would destroy things and try to put them back together. There were plenty of times I sat on top of my dresser, looked out the window and watched birds fly, watched clouds in the sky and questioned life. The more special times were when I thought of incredible life changing ideas – something that is guaranteed to happen once the mind is quiet. The most important lessons in life are the ones which are learned when alone, when one has a relaxed mind and can work out an understanding without any predescending variables.

It was during these periods of grounding that I would meditate. Not on purpose. Not based off of a video or internet advice on how to meditate. Meditation simply is, it’s not something that can be forced because in that very purpose, in that very goal, there is a working mind and a sense of strife to achieve. That is not meditation. The meditation I am speaking of is the one that does not seek calmness, relaxation or solitude. The one I speak of is that which will revitalize your energy, your motivation and resilience. The one which unlocks the treasure chest of creativity in your brain and releases it into all of you which then transfers to all that you touch. The one that makes art, art.

 

Stay Positive & Getting Grounded Doesn’t Seem Like A Threat Now Does It

Garth E. Beyer

How To Make A List And The Order To Do It In

Garth Beyer

How To Make A List: Write the list, right now. Write down everything you need to do and ship. Order, size, time, length, color, priority, distance, meaning and result doesn’t matter. You don’t need a list of things to do and not do just to write a list. A list is a list, write it.

The Order To Do It In: Now start doing the things you have written from the top to the bottom. The ones you placed first are the ones that are on your mind the most and the ones you are already focusing more of your energy on. Why take that away to put on something else and have to go back? The first items you put on that list are also the ones that will make you feel the best about completing because they are obviously urgent enough to write down so their achievement will relieve stress, to make you feel peaceful, set and accomplished.

There is no momentum in hopping to different tasks, but there is plenty of momentum in going down a list. Complete what is there and do it fast. It doesn’t matter if it’s ugly, what matters is that it is shipped.

 
Stay Positive & Don’t Worry, Things Will Always Be Added Onto The List

Garth E. Beyer

The Limiting Step

Garth Beyer

It’s easy to jump one step, sometimes it’s essential. It’s called the Vanishing Step.

It’s not, however, as easy to jump two or possibly three steps. It’s even worse when you jump the vanishing step only to realize the second one you planned to land on isn’t there. It’s a risk. One that you don’t need to take.

That step that isn’t there, that unwelcome surprise, it’s called the Limiting Step. It’s the step that will trip you up no matter how perfectly timed your jump is.The Limiting Step prevents you from getting any higher on the stairway to success.

Unless…

You build the skill-set up that is holding you back. The Limiting Step symbolizes everything you lack that prevents you from reaching the top of the stairs: your goal. Those few books you haven’t touched, those couple of skills you have never sharpened and those few fears you have never faced all make up the Limiting Step.

To eliminate the Limiting Step, you have to ask yourself a few questions:

What is it you know the least about that is necessary for you to reach your goal?

What have you been consistently avoiding?

What is it you fear most?

Well? What is it you need to learn and practice before you make the jump?

 

Stay Positive & You Need More Leg Muscle To Make The Jump, So Work The Lower End (of your skills)

Garth E. Beyer

There Are Too Many Unasked Questions

Garth Beyer

It’s been nearly two months since I added the “Pose A Question” page to my website. Through this trial, I have also altered the name in hopes that it would stand out for viewers to ask a question. Zero questions have been asked. I’m not disappointed, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t disappointing. Disappointing because there are so many questions that need to be asked and are not being voiced. I was thinking about it and of course, when you mull things over for a long enough time, the answers begin to float to the surface.

The reason I was not asked any questions (questions that had absolutely no boundaries) was not that I am not a great source of information, it’s not that I don’t have the credentials, experience or willingness to find the answer because I do. If anyone has even glanced at my website, they know I’m in a full-scale warfare against the world and to find every secret to success possible, no matter the definition of success. It’s clear. I can give you an answer. One that solves a problem, one that get’s you to think, one that opens your mind, one that makes you question further, one that requires you to ponder, one that is funny to read, one that can change your life. Still no questions.

The real reason people have hundreds of questions related to their muse and never ask them is because knowing the answer calls them to take an action. Always questioning what is right, what you should do, what is the best/quickest/easiest path to take to get X is simple, it’s easy, it takes no energy and it produces no results. There is no action in an unanswered question. There is no next step. You can stay on the stone you’re on now for a lifetime and only when you ask and receive an answer is when you need to take the next step.

That step is scary. It’s dead frightening. It’s paralysis. It’s fear keeping you from seeking answers because fear likes to play a safe game and doing nothing is safe and as a result, you die very safely. See, fear of action is the dullest of fear. It is what a person who has never had a real experience feels. What happens then when you do ask a question and get an answer. You will have to conquer your fear of rejection, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of risks, and fear of life. If you do not wish to live a safe, dull, banal, mortal, boring life, then you need to ask questions. Questions you don’t want to know the answer to.

Trust me, you have a lot more to worry about once you get over your fear of knowing the answer. But hey, we will get there. I’m here for you for your first question, second question or 1,000th question, I’m here.

 

Stay Positive & Will You Take That Step?

Garth E. Beyer

Get A Room (A Chat Room)

Garth Beyer

If Twitter isn’t getting filled with noise like spamming quotes, dumb links and self-promotion then it is getting just as filled with the noise of everyone’s conversations.

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If you have been looking forward to my next installment of social media riffing, then you remember when

I first went off on a  riff on follow back courtesy.

After that, there was the need to write about Social Media’s noise and the need for white space.

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Now it’s time to make the “Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver” apply to social media. My view is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s gold, silver, bronze or pink, shut it or get a chat room. There are two parts to this.

Content, Not Compliment: Tweeters feel they are playing their part and promoting those who sent a compliment tweet to them by sending a tweet back saying thanks or wishing them a great day. Lovely. Sincerity and manners is wonderful, but it’s not a promotion, nor is it  meant to be read by all the other people following them. It’s supposed to be personal. Send it in a private message or get a chat room to talk more about how thankful you are. It can stay out of everyone’s Twitter feed.

@@@@@@@@@@@: Responding to a compliment often leads to this: the entire twitter feed is filled with @’s. It doesn’t need to start with a compliment though, it can be catching up with a friend, it can be responding to someones tweet and finally connecting with a tweeter. As I mentioned in riff on follow back courtesy, interaction is the goal, it’s essential. That doesn’t mean you should be constantly tweeting your interactions. You destroy your credibility of providing rich content that way. “@you Thanks for rubbing it in my face that I am not involved in your discussion” If you want a conversation with a potential client, partner, old friend or a new friend – if you are just there to talk, get a chat room will you?

 

Stay Positive & Interaction Is Personal, Content Is Public

Garth E. Beyer

If you are going to tweet someone “thank you”, send it to someone who knows how to use Twitter to provide content and use a chat room to talk about it

 

The Juggler’s Perfection

Garth Beyer

When I write, I let typos slip, mechanical or grammatical errors to pass, I leave the crossed out words on the page, I keep the notes I wrote in the margin, and in other words, while I juggle all aspects of writing, I drop the ball and make sure everyone notices it.

I call it the Juggler’s perfection.

Have you ever thought what would happen to the Juggling industry if Jugglers never dropped a ball? In other words, what happens to it if failure never participates in the show?

Juggling ceases to be a profession. It is no longer entertaining to watch and there is no point in paying to watch it. The exact reason Jugglers are incredible, get paid to juggle, and amaze people is in the fact that they fail. They drop the ball.

Instead of trying to be perfect, be imperfect perfectly and accept failure as a sign you can still make a living off of it.

 

Stay Positive & Invite The Jugglers Perfection Into Your Muse, Work, Passion

Garth E. Beyer