I think I will end this part of my journal here with this thought. Of course, I would like to punctuate this with some emotion to trigger the thought machine to take on a new direction.

It’s amazing to me how we grow up and somehow, we still manage to stay the same. We age some and we grow some. If we’re lucky, we learn some. Hopefully, we can change some and improve some too. I am thinking about the things I see throughout my day. I am thinking about people who honk their horns on the expressway. I’m thinking of people who refuse to allow the car beside them to merge ahead of them simply because they want to be the one who gets there first. It’s amazing to me the way we take on arguments with people we don’t know or people we will never see again. It equally amazes me how we completely surrender our sanity. 

I go back to the point of this and the reason why I’ve decided to write this book or the others before it. At some point, I came to a staggering realization that I was part of the 85% who were unhappy with their work life, which bled into my home life. I was part of the mindless motions of everyday commuters. I had my traditional cup of coffee in hand and a newspaper folded beneath my arm. Each morning, I was heading to a job that was more of a habit than a passion. My body knew which way to go, when to turn left or right, when to pause, when to stop and when to go. I was almost Pavlovian in the sense that my day was mainly predictable. Nothing was ever exciting or fulfilling. Instead, mine was a simple case of life on the clock. I punched in to prove my existence and at the end of the day, I logged off to prove that I had ceased to exist in the corporate world.

Here’s a great quote from the Buddha who said, “We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world.”

I love this quote because this helps us understand more about the way we think. Therefore, if we think something is true then we believe this must be true. Meanwhile thoughts are neither true or false. They’re only thoughts. There can be a thousand variances and still, thoughts are only thoughts. Nothing else.

This understanding helps me formulate a simple deduction. On average, I have read details that we think an estimated 70,000 thoughts on any given day. I suppose this makes the mind a busy place to be.

Each year, we celebrate something old with something new. We celebrate birthdays and holidays, and of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas are claimed to be the most wonderful time of the year. We celebrate with our families. We enjoy meals at tables with unending plates of food. We exchange gifts. We welcome in the New Year and talk about our New Year’s resolution. Then we laugh and say, “Hey, maybe I’ll stick with it this year. You think?”

There is always someone around to tell you why your dreams will never work. There is always someone looking to disprove your theories. There will always be crabs in the bucket.
There is always someone who looks to criticize and point out your flaws. They’ll tell you what’s wrong to keep you down. And be mindful that this is about them. Not you.

This one comes from a personal perspective. The experience below is mine but I am sure that anyone can relate to wanting more. I am sure there are people who are brave enough to face the tides and make the changes they need. Yet, there are countless others who simply meander through their life wondering if or “When” something is going to happen. They wait so they can catch a break.
At one point, I was that person too.
So, please read on.

There is a lot of talk in the workplace about two words. Then again, there is a lot of talk about a lot of special words in the workplace. Some words you can say without a problem. Some words are sensitive. Of course, some are offensive. However, these two words are not offensive or sensitive to me but to someone else, the ideas of Emotional Intelligence could trigger a workplace dispute over whether terms like this should be used or not.

To be clear, we live in interesting times. I have sat in meetings that discussed empowerment topics. The main objective was based on wellness and well being proposals to create workshops in the workplace. The intention is to promote personal satisfaction, growth, clarity, interpersonal improvement, as well as to overcome obstacles and above all, to support transformational, personal and professional changes.

As a kid, I remember being told the story about the tortoise and the hare. I remember hearing slow and steady wins the race. Then again, as I grew older there was another saying. “Nice guys finish last,” which sounds a little conflicting if we think about it. As a matter of fact, I have seen production lines. I have been a part of crews that built machines. Come to think of it, there was a year in my young adulthood where I spent my time on a farm and at no point in any of these equations did anyone tell me “Slow and steady wins the race.” I was told to move faster. I was told “Hurry up,” but to be clear, the only time I was ever told to slow down is when I was firing off in too many directions. I was wasting energy and trying too hard. (Enter contradiction here.) Then I was told to slow down. This is when I learned about the rules of efficiency and the benefits of energy conservation.

I have said this before but this is a good time to say this again. I am a real person. I have faults and flaws but also, I have chemistry. You have chemistry. And sometimes, our chemistry doesn’t mix, which is fine. I cannot say whether I am the most liked or the most hated. Neither can you. But I can say that some people are often an acquired taste. In which case this could be me or you. Or better yet, maybe this is all of us.
I have always been amazed by the person who walks in the room and somehow, everyone seems to notice them. I have always wondered why some people have social talents that exceed the norm. There are people who can literally take over a room. They can walk into the office or the boardroom and somehow, the room becomes about them. They have a natural presence. People listen. This is amazing to me.