Status-quo

Lessons From Heartwood

Garth Beyer

A couple of months ago, on our way to Heartwood, a lodge in Northern WI, I and another arrived to an entrance full of trees just starting to turn green. However, as we entered the path that lead to the resort, it was blatant there was deforestation taking place. Amidst disaster, unnatural processes pushed by society, and all other god awful setbacks, there always lies something mentally, spiritually and emotionally laminating. The result itself – the lodge – was paradise compared to everything surrounding it. It was as if the lodge had taken its stance and would not let government actions or economic pressures (is there a difference?)  remove it from its place.

There are two noteworthy explanations to this occurrence. The first is that it is never too late to stand up against society, the status-quo, or even your parents. It is never too late to mutter the words “enough is enough” and to carry on with what was once considered your dream. This stance is life changing. It is for this exact reason that I will go back to the resort even though I have to drive through all the killed trees. That lodge is  a symbol, one that you must take from and put into your life.

The second item of importance was a particular epiphany I had after noting the symbolic meaning of the lodge. For those who think it is too late to get up, declare your goals and to go out and achieve them, the moment when you think it is too late is actually the best time to announce your revolt to tradition. See, had the lodge declared it’s excellence 3 years ago while all the trees flourished surrounding its area, it would be devoid of much meaning. People would think, how could you place a resort in the middle of a forest? The area should be natural, filled with tents and campfires. The area should test the survival skills of humans, not the industrial revolution. However, having the resort in the middle of a circumference of destruction has made it indispensable and all the more successful.

If you think it is too late, stand up and declare yourself as the next world champion of public speaking, raise your hands in the air and announce that you are the next Picasso, let everyone know that you will be driving to the bank in 1 year to deposit a 25 million dollar check from selling a company you started up, for the lodge’s sake, create a revolution. If for any reason, do it because when you think it is too late, it is actually perfect timing.

Stay Positive & Destruction Creates Opportunity

Garth E. Beyer

1,000 Destinations

Garth Beyer

Everything is about the journey you take: how you did it, how it felt, what you learned, who you helped. It goes on. No, really, it goes on. The journey is a life long journey, it’s never ending – unless you count death as the end. Regardless, there has been a new conflict of interest in society, more specifically in the most recent (and upcoming) generations.

For simplicities sake, I will refer to the group of people as                                           Generation Destination

Generation-D loves a journey. They love the process, the failures, the mistake, the lessons, the connections, the ups, the downs, the progress, and all the unrelated interesting things they learn during the journey. In fact, they love a journey so much that one, just isn’t enough. Gen D produces more creativity than any other generation. Their instinct and ability to adapt is so inhuman that they deserve to have more than one journey. In fact, they are so far out of the status quo that instead of having 1 journey, they have 1,000 Destinations.

Generation-D is so talented –not born with, but created talent– that they have the power to manipulate the time a journey takes. Actually, it is not so much manipulation as it is the fact that the more creative, the more passion and the more busy (productive) a person is, the more time they have. In Gen D’s case, they use the extra time they have to make more journeys. Because they follow their heart, invest in their art and connect with everyone by offering a gift to all who they meet, they reach the end of a successful journey the quickest, resulting in a smile and a start of their next journey.

What Generation D is not

If Gen D could spit (some of which can and do), they would spit on two things. First they would spit on anything that is not art and anything that impersonates art. They don’t follow the status quo, they don’t do as their told and they don’t like mediocrity. They spit on anything that is unoriginal, factory made and has a set of instructions on how to make.

The second target, which you can bet they would really build up for, is anything average. Unlike, the people who live one journey (the average) instead of a thousand destinations, Gen D does not work, work some more, and keep working only to attain minimal amounts of progress. They don’t stand in the assembly line, they don’t walk down a hill, they run up it. They don’t create anything that if someone breaks, they wouldn’t be fined or go to jail for. That is how remarkable of content, creation and value they enforce and produce.

Generation D Statement

To create 1000 times the value in a 1000 different ways. (It’s not just a statement, it’s personal, it’s a pledge, it’s a declaration)

They aim to make 1000 destinations because they not only do what they love, but they do it efficiently, quickly and precisely. They can reach a 1000 destinations because they create art that has and adds value wherever it goes. The saying that you can be successful when you want it as bad as you need air to breathe doesn’t have a say here because the air Gen D breathes is success; it is art, it is passion, it is value, it is originality, it is everything we need.

Quick question, who do you think is going to gain the most interest in society?

The generations of mediocre, average, incomplete, held back, ill rewarded, humdrum, and unexceptional

or Generation D?

 

Stay Positive and End The Conflict Of Interest, Be Indispensable

Garth E. Beyer

The Need To Fulfill Expectations

Garth Beyer

Especially easy ones.

But fulfilling the wrong ones (also known as easy ones) can lead you astray, taking you off the course of fluidity and least resistance. For example, if you get woken up at 4:30am by someone being loud and insincere, it’s so easy to yell at the person who woke you. Why? The person expects you to. For some reason it’s been engrained in your mind that if you get woken up early, you have the right to be mad.

But are you really upset? Is it the end of the world? Did anyone die? Was it a life altering event? Could it have been worse? Maybe the person was in a rush to get to work on time? Maybe something woke them up early so they were aggravated?

Instead of listing more examples, discover your own. For one day, write down all the problems you have with people throughout the day. After you write them or at the end of the day, reflect on the experience and cross it off IF after you think about it, it really didn’t make you upset, but it was only how society expected you to feel. You will find that most of the problems will get crossed off.

If people expect us to act a certain way (typically negative types of feelings: sad, angry, upset, stressed, frustrated, injured), were going to feel that way and fulfill their expectations. Sure because it’s easy but also because you unintentionally don’t want to let other people experience the dissatisfaction of being wrong in expecting you to act a certain way.

Why?

It seems silly but the reason for it is that you feel that since they assumed you’re going to react a certain way- that they are prepared for it, that they deserve it, that everything is set in motion for you to react by fulfilling the expectation. (Status-quo is hard to break!)

The last attribute to fulfilling expectations is instinct. With instinct every person will act selfishly. When you do the experiment above and take that moment to write down the problem and reflect, you will see that you may be putting more trouble and stress on the other person than what troubled you to begin with.

It is damn hard to live in Zen and to prevent yourself from fulfilling the expectations of negative reactions. It’s difficult to remain relaxed, stay centered, and to be focused on the “why” of your reaction.

Stay Positive & It Doesn’t Do Good To Either Party When You Fulfill An Expectation Of A Negative Reaction

Garth E. Beyer