Upon Request

Garth Beyer

I wrote a post on my other website outlying that the best way to write content people want to read is to ask the people what content they would want you to write. This is one of those posts. In fact, this is one of three of those posts.

The First Suggestion: White Sox

Can you guess what the most obliterating concept is to the “self,” to the “individual,” to what makes us, us?

Conformity.

It crowds the planet and persuades anyone wanting to step out of their comfort zone to stay in it. Conformity in its most serious forms can influence people to act terribly and perform nauseous tasks (you can guess what I’m referring to). As all great things (good or bad) do, it all begins with something small, something that people barely notice.

What if I told you that the seed of conformity was white sox? That the simple action of you wearing white socks, having them match, has set you on the path of entanglement and influence since you were a child.

Can you recall the days in school where you were able to wear crazy socks? In fact, it may have even been called “crazy sock day.” Everyone was laughing, enjoying themselves, and more importantly, expressing themselves. What school didn’t tell you was that crazy sock day was just a different way to label be yourself day.

Wear different socks. Wear ankle socks. Wear knee-highs. Wear colored. Polka-doted. Striped. Advertisement socks. Your favorite colored socks. Your friends socks. One dirty sock. No socks. I dare you.

Want to be more of yourself? Go back to the origin of when you began conforming.

 

Stay Positive & Who Know White Sox Could Be That Life Changing

Garth E. Beyer

The Formula For Living A Balanced Life

Garth Beyer

I’ve noticed something recently that is truly hurtful to know.

Most people on this planet spend more time struggling for one thing or another, fighting their battles, drowning in their setbacks than they spend celebrating their triumphs.

It seems like such a simple formula to live a balanced life. The amount you are challenged must be equal to the amount you take enjoyment out of your accomplishments. We fall into this routine of constantly wrangling (trying to reach our goals) that that is what we become good at. People hustle to tussle instead of racing to the beat of their own drum.

Here’s another thought for you. Have you noticed that the most profound things, the most profound realizations in life have been the most simple? Living a balanced life is much like one of them. Simple? Yes. Easy? well that’s a constant struggle. Which is all the more reason to also celebrate a little bit each day.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Okay To Lean More In One Direction (as long as it’s the party side)

Garth E. Beyer

Enjoying The Journey

Garth Beyer

Have you tried non-resistance?

It’s much like the old simile of water flowing down the river. The water doesn’t force itself to try to push the rocks out of its way. The water simply flows.

I don’t like it. Those who live by the motto, “go with the flow,” aren’t living life. It’s a tacky way of going about. These are the people who fail to realize something massively important about living, loving, and learning.

You can live stronger, wilder, free-er, love more passionately, more intimately, more loyally,  and learn differently, zen-ly, interestingly when you are lost and confused than when you know where you are and want to be, when you’re single or even broken-hearted than when you’re on a date or moments away from asking your special one to marry you, when you’re broken and failing than when your right on track.

The only determination whether what you’re going through is a better lesson than what you would rather be going through is you. And the only decision you have to make is to be non-resistant.

 

Stay Positive & Learn From The River: Rifts, Waves, Stillness, And All

Garth E. Beyer

Which Monopoly Piece Is About To Get Sent To Jail Forever? You Decide

Garth Beyer

There are a lot of people who I want to say “You do not pass Go. You do not collect $200”

Specifically, the people who are shouting at Hasbro for getting rid of one of the monopoly pieces.

Haven’t heard of this yet? View this post and more importantly, read the comments!

My response?

People need to think long-term.

1. This is viral marketing at its finest. Now the newer generations know about monopoly. And nothing get’s adapters wanting to adapt more than seeing that change is ticking off the older generations.

2. Whichever piece goes will become rare. A selling point for previous holders and future Monopoly; you’ll have to pay more to get the game with the losing piece. Now Monopoly is appealing to collectors and fanatics.

3. Bringing sexy back.

Any kind of change has the chance of being a change for the better. I think Monopoly has great foresight. And come on, it’s Monopoly, it’s Hasbro. Do you really believe that they would make such a critically terrible decision such as this? Or are people (you?) looking at it in a different way?

Do tell.

Self Delivered Progress

Garth Beyer

My co-worker dropped a great one liner the other week. She mentioned that you need to, “under promise and over deliver.”

I couldn’t have agreed more at the time. It encompasses a positive view of expectations. If you get someone to set low expectations and you proceed to blow them away, the person will be shocked, amazed, and grateful. In addition, by under promising, you are casting the safety net. If you can’t seem to deliver, it’s okay because you never promised that much to begin with.

–    –    –    –    –

Part of the statement here needs to be revoked. While I still hold to the attributes I’ve stated, I completely disagree with one part of the statement to under promise and over deliver.

Eliminate under to create the saying “promise and over deliver.”

If you need to under promise something, then it’s likely that it’s best you don’t promise anything to begin with. Promising something that you’re worried you can’t deliver, or fully deliver, is not a smart promise. Smart promises is what gets us places. Smart promises say exactly what you will do with the guarantee of it being completely done.

If you’re interested in progress though, if you want to move up the ladder, if you want the recognition and admiration from the people who you fulfill promises for, then you need to promise and over deliver.

Before any skepticism is launched, let me say without any wiggle room, that there is always a way to over deliver. It’s this performance of searching for a way to over deliver, and then following through with it that creates progress. Self delivered progress for you through over delivering on promises for them.

 

Stay Positive & Who Knew Progress Was So Easy

Garth E. Beyer

The Greatest Life Lesson From Getting A Job

Garth Beyer

After the struggle of searching for places to apply at, applying, and going through the interview process, you arrive at your new job. As crappy as it is, most will say, “a job is a job.”

While there is plenty to learn from the process of acquiring a job, what I would like to point out is in regards to the training that everyone must go through. Once you’re hired, the next step before you start – beside the paperwork – is to train, to learn what you will be doing.

You may be handed a small manual. You may be told to shadow someone. You may be shown what you will be doing and asked to run through it once or twice. Other than that, there isn’t much more to the training. In fact, I would bet that after training for any job, you will be nervous about not doing what you need to do right, efficiently, or flawlessly. Simply because you weren’t trained well.

You won’t master anything even with a manual. You won’t master anything by watching someone else do it. (How great would that be if we did though!) You won’t master anything by doing it once or twice. In fact, I wouldn’t even call any of that training. Training for something results in a sense of preparedness which this doesn’t produce.

No employers care about that though. They shouldn’t. Actually, they’re smart not to!

Employers – and now you – know that there is no better training than training on your feet. By that I mean getting thrown into what you need to do and being expected to do it right even with the haunting lack of preparedness.

As people, the best way to learn is to do. We can read, we can watch, we can shadow, we can even give something a shot or two, but the most effective and quickest way to learn anything is to jump in and do it.

For the next time you have an interest in doing something, catch yourself when you begin to “train” for it too long. And to simplify it for you, I can even tell you how long “too long” is. If training for something as important as a job only takes a few hours (maybe a day), then whatever you are training for better be more important than a job if you are training longer for it.

I could have told you from the beginning to not spend much time researching stuff and instead, do. But that would be an insult to the way the world works. The same way that skipping the barely helpful training for a job would be.

 

Stay Positive & For Best Results, Do

Garth E. Beyer