(2-28-2023)

This Week’s Adventures

‘This week’s adventures’ part of the newsletter may have to change 🙁 … At least for now. I find, left to my own devices, find planning an adventure – Not fun at all. The Trap house has since been disbanded (not in a bad way, we just all finished school and are starting our new jobs 🙁 ). This was the first weekend away from 3 goofy, like-minded, stellar athletes. And honestly, it was a bit of a culture shock. Just being by myself after 18+ years of always having friends from school always around and then – Nothing. It felt ominous.

I drove down to Las Vegas from Mississippi – Took me a few days and I slept in the back of my newly acquired 1997 Ford Mustang. It was the first time I spent an extended period of time entirely in isolation. When was the last time you didn’t interact with anyone you knew for days on end?

It was…. different. Peaceful. Introspective. But it was sad too. There will be no more Roomie Dinners. No more Roomie Movies. And adventures will look a lot different from here on out. I guess this is that post-graduation lull that everyone talks about… Not looking forward to it, but part of me is excited about the unknown.

Quote Time!

“If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will cried up as erudition”
– Anonymous

While researching the origins of last week’s quote, I stumbled upon this goodie from Quote Investigator. Pretty interesting, huh? Introducing new ideas is often unorthodox, unconventional, and eccentric … but once said new idea paves the path it becomes ‘revolutionary’, ‘brilliant’, and ‘ahead of its time’. There doesn’t really seem to be a transition phase. It seems to happen all at once. People are either entirely against you, or hop on the bandwagon and are totally for you. By the same logic, revolutionary ideas likely started out as outcasts. Makes you think twice about all the ideas we immediately discount – There are probably some gems in there.

A Juicy Quote

“We get behaviors we reward”

• Simon Sinek (The Infinite Game)
  
  
  

Such a juicy quote. I hadn’t really thought about this concept until I read the book [[How to Win Friends and Influence People]]. Author Simon Sinek wrapped it up super nicely in his book – Punishing people doesn’t really contribute anything positive. Punishments stop immediate behavior, but only temporarily. They don’t change people’s want to do an action.

If you tell a child to stop playing with the dog’s tail, well what should they play with? It’s far more effective to tell people what to do than just telling them to stop something. If a personal trainer wants Ryan to stop drinking soda – It’s far more effective to ask if he can drink 2 bottles of water instead of just cutting out soda.

Add don’t subtract. Tell people what they’re doing well if you want to see more of it.

“We get behaviors we reward”

Take Your 10 Seconds!!

396 days ago (eh, ballpark) I stared at the infamous ‘Skogafoss’ waterfall in Iceland and my buddy stabbed me with one of those verbal daggers:

“Lets quit with this tourist shit, put our cameras down, and just enjoy this dang thing for 10 seconds”

Alberto G.

As someone who prides myself on my ability to appreciate the moment, I was a little hurt by this man’s brutally honest and self-reflective words of wisdom. Bashfully, I put my camera down and watched as my eyes glazed over from the infinity of water flowing into the abyss. Skogafoss.

Damn. That was crazy.

My buddy has this thing he calls the “10 Seconds”. Next time you’re having a surreal moment or doing something you really enjoy, just take 10 seconds. Take 10 seconds to just pause, put everything down, and reflect on how dang beautiful life really is.

Enjoy your damn 10 seconds.

Some Helpful Advice

“Do you want help or a hug?”

My buddy’s ex-girlfriend gave me this advice after I pissed her off – Sometimes people don’t want you to solve their problems. Sometimes they just want you to listen. She gave me the advice to ask people if they’re ranting if they want advice or just someone to vent to. I was reminded when I saw it phrased in a Reddit forum – “Do you want help or a hug”

A great solution. I’m going to be asking that more often.

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What Is This ‘Newsletter’?

Apparently, people care (mostly just my mom) so this newsletter serves to ensure I can stay more involved with people in my life. The hope is if I’m able to share bits and pieces of my life, other people will share theirs, and the result will be a far more interconnected community. So if you would like to hear more (or less), just ask! 

The other piece of this newsletter will be to share interesting podcasts, songs, facts, or other pieces of information that had an impact on me in the hopes that they’ll be interesting or useful to someone else out there!

Also, I would love to hear from you so please respond and send some pictures!