Rambling Gen X’er: Recent Episodes
Rambling Gen X’er
Welcome to Rambling Gen X’er, a daily podcast (M-F) where I talk about whatever I want while I drive to work but it usually ends up being heavily influenced by my new study of stoicism. Cover art photo provided by Derek Story on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@derekstory
Knowledge is power, is a curse, is a responsibility.. What do you choose to decide with it?
Secrets & Mistakes..everyone has them. So why are we so surprised when we learn about other people’s.
“First Day Back” back episode and in the end it’s all about getting involved in life, not hiding from it.
Focus is a tool, discipline is the core value to measure against when making choices and dealing with distractions.
You can see wisdom in nature, but does your ego block you from absorbing wisdom from those that you think less of??
Opinions are like _____, everyone’s got one. And if it’s negative, your the only one living in that negativity.
Everything you do has a life tax. The power over it comes from choosing what tax you will pay!
Life throws up unexpected hurdles. The only person living in the anger and mental negativity of it is you.
Tired of being tired? Not going to get out of that without digging deep and pushing through for longer than you want to.
Why do people act differently when your not around? Is it because you proved a negative or positive influence to them? These are good self reflection moments.
Negative people exist, that’s a fact. Accept that and expect that everyday and you can shield yourself from it influencing you. With enough practice, you can be the positive influence against it.
What is nervousness? It’s just energy. The hard part is learning how to refocus that energy into productivity.
Crashing and burning is part of life. Success depends on learning to recover and growing from it to prepare for the next one.
We don’t worry about the opinions (of us) we don’t know about. Try not to own the ones we do know about.
Anxiety is worrying about things you can’t and never will be able to control. Focus your energy on how to respond to those things instead.
We allow our emotions and impulses to to make bad choices - decisions that we wouldn’t want another person make us do. Don’t be your own bully.
Panic in everyday life is actually regret. Regret for not planning well enough or lack of discipline on time management. Both are things you can do something about.
You don’t have to know about EVERYTHING going on for personal growth. Most of its useless distractions anyway.
Some days you just have to push through and go through the motions to get back to feeling self-motivated.
Even when didn’t like a new experience you still grow from it, if you analyze what and why you do didn’t like it.
Mantras can sound hokey but what do you lose by not trying? Only an experience and personal growth.
Humans are wired for perpetual personal growth. That’s why you can hit a rut during a streak of success. It’s your mind telling you that your growth is stalling and need to start pushing yourself again.
When your tired and drained, focusing on some personal project creativity can reenergize you.
Healthy relationships prosper w/ you building yourself, not on fulfilling the emotional needs of the other person.
When you procrastinate, your only hurting yourself. Push through today to make it easier to push through tomorrow.
January, a time of personal rebirth for a lot of people, a checking-in on progress for others. If your part of the former, get started right now.
Choose your pain. Instant relief, or push through the pain right now for long term benefits?
Even the most disciplined people have self-doubt, it’s instinctual. What you end up doing defines who you are.
Taking a day off, from life (like Christmas) is much more rewarding when your building yourself every other day of the year.
Holiday stress sucks.. but it’s just your brain alerting you of personal growth needs. Unwrap that present right now and take the first step of improvement for some holiday cheer!
Speak through other’s words while you learn but at some point you have to speak with your voice to truly grow!
Distractions that disrupt your routines can indicate that there are more important things to tackle, learn from and grow from.. which will make your routines stronger.
Day 5 and I was able to push through because of the tools I had built up over the past 3 years, which includes all my failures.
Day 4 sucked harder than day 3.. but still pushed through. You can’t get to day 4 without starting day 1. Start right now!
Day 3 and not perfect but improving.. what day are you on? If the answer is zero, make today day 1.
If you’ve been putting off starting personal change, why not right now? Even if it’s 3:30 in the afternoon, start right now. You can’t build until you start.
‘How’ is complacency.. starting a plan, finding flaws, having failures and the redeveloping that plan is taking action.
Nice to see businesses closed the Thanksgiving again as it’s great for the employees. But remember not everyone is the same and sometimes work comradely is all some people have.
Took time out to improve yourself and now it’s time to get back to work? Don’t expect a golden result, or to cross a finish line. Instead focus on and appreciate any level of improved performance, no matter how small.
You’ve been working hard to build yourself but there are some obstacles your running into. What do you do to take the next step?
Plan accordingly and don’t set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic expectations.
When you fail at self discipline, don’t throw the day away. Get right back on track and accomplish what you can. You’ll feel better and you’ll have more to build on for tomorrow.
Build for the skills you want by accepting and starting with the skills you have now. Jumping ahead of what your capable of leads to failure and increased frustration.
Forced time away from commitments is good (and needed) but using that time to develop and grow is even better!
We all neglect something about ourselves, life is busy. Once in awhile it’s okay to focus on those parts, it’s not vanity, it’s balance.
When your tired and exhausted because the world is just throwing “too much” at you.. you can only blame yourself. Your also the only person that can fix it!
Patience and wait? Or jump all in right away? There is no good, there is no bad.. there just is. Personal growth means moving beyond your comfort zone.
Even when getting dragged into things you don’t want to do.. it’s still growth opportunities for you.
“It’s in God’s hands now..” is not so much a religious declaration as it is a method to accept reality.
Accepting reality is different than resigning to it. You can accept and still work towards change.
There are two basic rules to life.. be a good person and pursue the occupation that you love. Just know that it will take preparation and hard work to achieve.
The larger world around us can be overwhelming when we dwell on it too much. Take a break and focus on you and what you can control and influence around you.
Don’t beat yourself up when you fail.. acknowledge it, own it and get back to good habits.
When you feel mentally bogged down by the world, focus on the moment.. right then, right there.
When your in a slump and checked out from life, go back to your routines. Draw upon the strength of the consistency to pull yourself back into the world.
Creativity takes time and experience. Grow your technical skills now to be able to live your life and let that creativity blossom.
To be happy in life takes practice and discipline. Start with the little moments in life and build from there. YOU determine your attitude at all times in your life.
Humans are strong & resilient. You can always always survive with less than you currently have - both w/ physical ‘stuff’ and mental clutter.
Change happens, change is life, change is good, change is bad… All of that is you. Change is change. How you accept it determines the rest.
The unexpected happens in life, whether we want it to or not - no matter how much prep we do to avoid it. Adjust and move on, but that requires self discipline.
Checking out for a break from life is okay, as long as your disciplined about how often you do. All good things in moderation!
The sooner you get out there and take those chances, the more you can build upon that experience tomorrow.
Always be open to new information, but at some point you have to focus on one topic to become successful at it.
Self discipline is the power to fulfill commitments. Fulfilling commitments reinforces discipline, even if you fail along the way.
Don’t be afraid to change your communication style for your listener. Your not compromising your standards, your becoming a better person!
Communication is tough, challenging and can be a pain in the butt. It’s a two way street but you only have control over your portion of it.
When creating product, to be put out in the public domain, are you “true to yourself” or mitigating to appeal to a larger audience?
Your for me, or against me.. yes or no.. black or white.. us vs. them.. no thank you. Reality not absolutes and nothing will ever be “perfect.” Live with reality.
Accepting reality simply for its face value could be the closest we can get to a conscious zen state.
Early morning energy.. it’s really annoying when others have it. Give it a try once in awhile. You might find you really like it.
What makes everyone different from each other? How do we use that for our own benefit and self growth?
Self-Discipline leads to reduction in stress which always good for mental health AND physical health.
How to communicate to others that you are obliged to is often the most overlooked part of working on a project with them. It can also be the most aggravating part of a relationship.
Relationships & friendships end sometimes in life. What do you do? Focus on yourself to become a better person.
Start practicing today so you can build on that tomorrow. You can’t get to step 50 if you don’t take step 1.
When it feels like you’ve “lost your passion” for something, it usually means you’ve put too much faith in others to provide the fuel to drive you.
Have a case of “the Monday’s”? We all get them. Success is pushing through those moments with discipline.
Overthinking can be done to excess just like anything in life. Develop your tools to balance yourself out and help give perspective when you fall too far into your gray matter.
One way to reduce stress is to learn to make decisions and understanding the results of those decisions.
A continuation of the last episode. Once you make your priority list, make a plan and get to it.
The amount of self reflection should be as much as needed to bring yourself into balance.
If you use mental negativity to fuel your drive to success, you’ll successful and still in a negative headspace. Enjoy the ride and the success will be that much richer when you achieve it.
Be the calm, take a walk and quit repeating the same habits that don’t get the results you want.
Productive weekends pay you in personal growth and results. That is just as valuable as a paycheck from an employer. Consider it investing in yourself.
Learn to live a life of discipline. It benefits you internally and supports your relationship with others when you need to take time out for yourself.
Carpe Diem! Seize the opportunities when they present themselves, even if you fail at the main task, you succeeded in personal growth!
It’s been a good day off and very productive despite having more to do than I can get done today!
What has been your incidental discovery that became a passion and possibly a hobby. For me, it’s been podcasts.
Just like with training for physical performance, you have to train and learn to deal with stress.
More discussion about getting out of our bubbles, breaking down our walls and listening to each other one on one. The hardest part is not making any judgements.
When someone close to you changes for the better - but their change requires you to change as well.. What do you do? Just some thoughts on a late edition of the podcast.
Stress can hurt you or you can use it to become more efficient and to grow as a person.. it’s your choice!
Embrace the opportunities to try new things and don’t sit in your butt when things are overwhelming.
Being disciplined I’m habits doesn’t mean you have to stick with them when they don’t work.
Some follow up to yesterday’s episode. Listen to a lot of things but don’t accept any of it as gospel. Make up your own mind.
We’re not perfect, and never will be. It’s okay to lose focus, it happens. Just analyze, grow and move on!
Find your refocusing tool. Apologize for the adjustment in sound quality, my car decided to get involved and the technology between devises were trying to play together when I didn’t want them too!
Failure is part of life, for yourself and others. Sometimes you have to let failure happen for others to learn.
When do you give in on discipline for some rewards or indulgences? The answer is when you set goals and achieve them.
The morning after.. how does it feel? Did you set yourself up for success or did you indulge and sabotage?
The biggest systemic problem is that the system is too big and we’ve relinquished all control to it. Go back to the life lesson of “there’s always two sides to every story.”
Setbacks in life happen. You can sit there and cry about them or use them for perspective and then get back to your routines. It’s your choice.
It’s a mad, mad world right now. A different two part episode while I’m adjusting to it all. Peace out home skillets!
Vacations are great for unplugging, not only from work, but your personal habits as well. Give it a try!
Don’t wait for vacation.. find your few minutes of mental peace and meditation wherever you are.
It’s Friday! A quick episode to follow up on a point from yesterday and setting goals for Spring.
What’s the one item you would want to have on a deserted island? And can you be happy being so negative all the time?
What’s the deal with Asparagus?? And isn’t everyone just doing what they think is right?
Three cups of coffee before recording and this is what you get! Look at what you’ll be trading away when you make life decisions.
(Real) Self assessment day. You need one of those once in awhile to shout out the truth.
When you get slapped by life, seize the day and make it the best day (for you) that you can!
America is too “woke” for France? Improvisation is most successful when you’ve prepped for it.
Delays happen, seize the opportunity! Also, not a sponsored ad, but could be if you want to throw some cash my way!
Wasn’t sure what to talk about today but knew I needed to get an episode out. So that’s exactly what I touched on today; self-discipline.
My apologies in advance for what is probably my most rambling episode yet. Today I try to talk about life balance.
Reaching milestones in life and reflecting on things. My youngest turned 21 the other day and triggered this episode.
How long into the new year can the positivity and goodwill towards all last? The cynic in me wonders.
Drinking coffee this morning while scrolling through Twitter got me thinking about how funny humans are.
Welcome back and Happy New Year! After a year away, starting up the podcast again in 2021 with a new series of road thoughts since I typically do my best thinking while driving.
In this episode I go on about how Getting in over your head can be what you need sometimes to get motivated back into life. But you need to prepare, not just jump in blindly.
Get tired of doing everything and start putting things off.. me too. Let’s acknowledge our procrastination together and get out of the funk!
Unofficial wrap up of Day 3 Star Wars Celebration. Check out photos on Instagram for some of the highlights.
Day 2 of the unofficial wrap up of the Star Wars Celebration show. Today it was all about lines and a teaser.
In today’s digital world we are more connected. Yet its really easy to not want to deal with anything because of that connection and so we close ourselves of to life and become apathetic because the tools we have make it so darn easy.
Just a quick minute of your time to spread the word that this podcast is now on other podcast apps and services!
”Adulting is hard” and it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Just because we’re not kids anymore doesn’t mean we have to stop learning and growing!
In this podcast we talk about fear in adult life. Much to our dismay it never really goes away and so we discuss the primary cause of it and how to possibly work through it.
Welcome to the first episode where I give a quick run down on what to expect in future episodes and a little snapshot of the host.