So, in the course of my reading, I came across an article that I literally ready 2 sentences from that prompted this post. I don't give a shit what time you wake up. You can wake up at 5am, or 3pm, who cares. It doesn't matter as long as you do something that day. If you don't have something that you can chalk up on the accomplishment board, then that day was wasted. 24 hours, poof, gone, say bye-bye, never-gonna-see-it-again, that-could've-been-time-spent-with-my-kid gone.

Now that's said, let's move on. I came into the office because I thought I had a meeting at 9am. I was here at 8:15am to get some work done. Some work that will not matter in the grand scheme of things because I did not personally help someone have a better day, a better relationship with a friend or family member, or help them get something done. I have nothing to personally show for the work I do Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. I want to change that. My goal is to get to the point where I work for my friends, family, you (the readers), and anyone else I can to better their life, and if I can do that without going to the office 5 days a week and wasting a large portion of my life doing work that I am not proud of on a personal level, on an emotional level, then by George, I've done something.

Roadblocks don't exist until you make them bigger than they really are. Then, they become obstacles. Obstacles lead to frustration. This is all because you are letting your wheels spin and not doing something about it.

I have other friends that like taking photos. They are incredibly good at what they do, and it seems like they make magic in freeze frame. I, for one, will never be as good as they will, but I don't mind this because it's not something I'm interested in. I love seeing their photos, of course, but it's not something I would do myself. I create some magic in one way, they create the magic in other ways. 

Now, doing it the right way. For every individual, when they do the right thing and get enjoyment out of it, they are doing it the right way. For me, this is playing the drums on Rock Band when no one's around and getting good scores and even full comboing a few songs (when you hit all the notes in a song and don't break streak). For my photography friends, it's lining up the right shot in the right light, having fun with whatever the subject is (guy, girl, neighbor's dog, that feisty looking plant, etc.), and keeping relaxed, all while letting the pictures happen when they do.

 The reason for this post is that I forgot all of this. I forgot to have fun when playing Rock Band drums. I've been working on getting a bunch of FCs and recording them for a project, and focusing on that rather than having fun. I was focusing on the fact that I was on camera, that I needed my timing to be just right, and I was making a ton of small mistakes. My FCs would come few and far between when in this focused mind set, when I WASN'T ENJOYING THE GAME. I had to take a step back.

I had forgotten to have fun.

So, I tried an experiment. Let the camera roll, if they happen, they happen. Don't count them, just play and have fun. I'm also trying different songs that I would not normally play. This is causing me to focus, but I'm having fun while I'm doing it. 

Next time you are getting burned out, stop thinking about what you are doing and just wing it a little bit, have fun. That's the key. That's when you are doing the right thing, the right way.

Close your eyes and take the leap, because the only way fear works is when you let it hold you back.

This is one of my mantras when I'm facing something that absolutely terrifies me. I feel like fear is something that is overused and dulling to our senses. At that same token, when we finally embrace our fear and conquer it (not decide to conquer it, but actually CONQUER it), it makes that victory that much sweeter.

YOU decide if fear gets the best of you. You can make any excuse in the world trying to refute this, but it is true. Period. You make the decision to freeze at the last moment. You are the one that feels bad and says, "I should have done that." You are the one that doesn't fully commit to the project. You are the one who should be willing to risk it all, and have that feeling of gambling on the line.

Remember this acronym if you want to tackle your next fear: EMBRACE.

E for Examine: Examine your fear and see if it's legitimate (A lion is about to attack me vs. "She'll say no if I ask her out . . .").

M for Make Note: Make note of what actually scares you about this fear. ("I'll be embarrassed because she rejected me.")

B for Build a Plan of Attack: Build some method to move through this fear and past it. It can't harm you if you know what you are going to do. ("First, I'll walk over to her. Second, I'll introduce myself . . .")

R for Reassure Yourself: Reassure yourself that if it doesn't go exactly as planned, it's not the end of the world. ("So what if she says no? There are still plenty of women that will date me.")

A for Act: Act out your plan. THIS IS THE MOST CRUCIAL STEP. If there is no action, then you let the fear get the best of you. (*walks over* Hi, I'm Jarrett. You are? . . .)

C for Confidence: You already took the first action. The ball is rolling. Have confidence in yourself to continue proceeding past your fear. (*thinking* This isn't so bad . . . and she likes a lot of the same music I do!)

E for EXCITEMENT: You conquered your fear! There's nothing wrong with showing a big toothy grin or a couple high fives with your friends. This is what fear is all about. Conquering it. This should be a HUGE adrenaline rush at this point. ("I've got a date for tomorrow night guys!")

 Don't make excuses if things didn't turn out. Learn from it and change up your plan next time. Account for this mishap and implement changes so things don't turn out the same way next time. A scientist doesn't do the same thing twice expecting different results. You need to change the way things are set up. You need to be making it so the cards are stacked in your favor. You don't go to the bar after working a hard day out in the yard, still smelling of sweat, expecting to pick up women, do you? NO! You take a shower, shave, throw on some cologne, and brush your teeth. You stack the cards in your favor so a woman says, "Hey, how's it going?" instead of "Hey, you reek!"

Try it next time. Show a little confidence. It's okay, because 90% of the other people that are in the same position as you aren't making that first move.

I don't accept Second Best for a few reasons. It's a waste of my time. It's not what I want. It doesn't fulfill the purpose when I use it.

It's a waste of my time because I'm not going to have that intrinsic care for it as I do about what I really want. What I mean by this is if I want a fast, nimble race car that handles great in the corners, I'm not going to buy a Bugatti Veyron or a Lamborghini Murcielago. I'm gonna by a Lotus Elise or Exige. I'm gonna buy a suped up Mini Cooper. There's no way I can possibly make that Veyron into that Lotus Elise, or for that matter as nimble and well-handling in the corners. It's wasting my time because I can't make it into what I want, no matter what I do.

It's not what I want because, well obviously, this is my second choice, not my first. I don't have what I want, so I'm not gonna care about it the same way. If I truly wanted a burrito and I get a cheeseburger, I'm not going to be satisfied because I didn't satisfy my craving.

It doesn't fulfill the purpose that I need it for because it may not have the features I need. If I want to go race track riding on a motorcycle, I don't need to buy a big Harley. I need to buy a nimble Suzuki or Kawasaki. If I want to go become a skydiving instructor, I don't go do a bunch of bungee jumping because "it simulates the experience". No Harley is going to do well in the corners, and no bungee jump is going to give me the time to perform the maneuvers to move on to the next test when getting my skydiving license.

Some people may bother me with the question, "Well, I really don't know what I need. What do I do then?" What you do then is ask. Ask somebody that has done it before or knows more about it than you. I recently took the initiative to do this very thing when I got a membership. I knew that I wanted to get in better shape and I wanted to put on muscle, but I had no clue how to go about doing this. So, when I went in to go do this, I asked if I could also get a personal trainer to show me the proper techniques and help me set up a workout routine. I was told that I could but it would cost me some money. I value doing this correctly and having that workout plan more than the money I spent.

The Second Best in this situation was the lack of correct information and the wrong workout routine. Doing it on my own would be accepting Second Best. It wouldn't be what I wanted/needed. It would be wasting my time because I would not get the results I desired and, on that same token, it wouldn't be fulfilling the purpose I needed it for.

Half-assing a project, whether it be a school assignment, a project at work, or simply cleaning out the rain gutters on the side of your house, is about the worst thing you could possibly do. You are going to create more work for yourself. You are going to have to redo it next time around. You are going to waste time. I'll tell you from personal experience that doing this makes me settle for about a 7 out of a 10 on the correctness scale. Here's a story why I know this to be true.

At a previous job, I was to implement an integration system. I was asked to tie our database in with another database, so that we could send information back and forth and keep the two systems in sync with one another. When I sat down to design how I was going to implement this, I realized I didn't have a solid understanding of how our database was designed. I asked my boss for clarification and he helped me out greatly. I also wanted to see where my piece fit in the puzzle, so I asked for a design document. I didn't realize it until the end of the project that my piece was 80% of the design. No one informed me of this and after asking a few times for the design doc, I said screw it and winged my part. I still did my design and tried to follow it the best I could but my part was GREATLY affected by the lack of overall design. My simple wing-it technique produced something that was about a 7 on my scale.

In this story, there were a couple of things that could have greatly helped me. I could have been told upfront that my part was a majority of the puzzle. At that point, I would have documented my part much more than I did. I made the assumption that my part was not a big piece and I didn't do a good job of making sure it was 100%.

Here's where I wasted other people's time. I could have designed it better and documented it more clearly. This would allow someone else to come along and tweak it much quicker, more stably, and with less effort than what would be needed to change it in its current state. I just made someone waste quite a few hours to fix something I should have done right in the first place. If I would have done it right, they wouldn't need to waste time to do it right.

1. A quick, assertive motion that is large in scale. ("Tom Jones will end world hunger next week.")

2. Something that requires a lot of resources in an abrupt and demanding fashion. ("This is going to cost five trillion dollars from a lot of people by next week.")

3. A mindset that you can do anything you set your mind to when you give it enough effort, energy, and resources.

What is the massive aggressive mindset? To me, it's a mindset that allows for no limitations. It allows for nothing to stand in your way. It is the mindset that anything, truly anything is possible.