Falling Off the Treadmill of Life

I got sick a week or so ago and had to take the whole week to rest and do nothing in order to recover. I have found that when I stop everything (usually when I'm sick) it is really hard to get moving again. I feel sluggish and have no energy, and can barely find the strength to just get through work. Last night I walked in the door and collapsed into bed. Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was around 9 PM and I was starving.

Today I decided I HAD to get to the gym to get some energy moving. When you work out your metabolism gets working again and you start making energy. Yes you have to burn energy to get more. I hopped on the exercise machine and started moving. I went at a very slow pace and it took a lot of effort to move the wheels. Each step was an arduous process but I made myself do it. Then I started moving faster and got up to a full sprint. As my speed got higher, the resistance actually got much easier. It was so easy to keep going once I was moving fast. It was the very first steps that were the toughest.

I have found it is the same way with life. I need to back off and rest sometimes or I will collapse or get really sick. But it's very hard to get moving from a standstill. I just have to power through it for a while before the momentum builds and I find myself running again.

A Free Bike

Last weekend I was headed out the door to take my best friend to Olive Garden for dinner. On the way out, my neighbor caught me and asked if I could take a look at her computer. It was a brand new computer and the keyboard wasn't working. I figured out pretty quickly that one of the pins had been bent and was now crushed at the bottom of the plug. I grabbed my pliers and bent the pin back in and got the keyboard working. My neighbor was so happy about it she offered to let me use her bike since she recently got a new one. I was thrilled. I used to love riding my bike all the time and it's so much nicer riding around the neighborhood than it is in the gym. I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. It really pays to extend acts of kindness to strangers. Sometimes you even get repaid with things.

Stagnant

The other night I unplugged the filter in the fish tank in my room because it was making strange noises. Without the constantly flowing filtration, the water quickly grew stagnant. This morning as I walked by, it was actually starting to smell bad. I had to drop everything and change the water, then get the filter going again. It was a lot of work but I knew the fish would all die if I didn't do it.

It really reminded me how quickly life in general can go downhill if you don't constantly stay on top of it. I spent almost all weekend cleaning the house and taking care of little things that just needed to be done. I never realized how much work has to be done just to keep up with life. But if you fall behind, your whole life starts to stagnate and slip into a rut. I have to keep reminding myself of this each time I go to work out when I feel too tired to move. I know if I let myself slip, I won't ever have the energy to do anything. My work is draining enough as it is, so I have to do everything I can to keep the momentum.

Dents in a Car

Yesterday was a heck of a day. One of the things that just really set it off right was when I was pulling out of the office driveway to go to lunch. There were lots of guys doing construction next door and they all parked in our parking lot, until there was barely room for us. In all the congestion, the lawn maintenance guys backed their trailer right into my car. It left a dent a few inches long in the back door. It's not the worst in the world, but it's still there.

I was really surprised to see how honest the yard guy was. I was on my way out and would not have even looked at that side until it was too late. I wouldn't have even known there was a dent in my car or where it came from. But he waved me down and stopped me to tell me about it. When I looked at it, he offered me his business card and told me to call him about taking care of it. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. I want to reward him for his honesty but I don't really like having a huge dent in my car. I also don't like the idea of paying for someone else's mistake. I guess I'll keep thinking about it and figure it out in time.

Perception Test

This is a test of how perceptive you are. Pay close attention and you might pass the test.

Watch the video before reading further.



This is a great example of how we often miss things in life when we're so busy focusing on the details. Often we look so closely at the little stresses and worries of our life and miss the big picture. We get so distracted with the menial tasks of our daily routine that we don't look to what really matters.

So I want you to ask yourself, is it more important to make good money and impress the boss, or should I be worrying more about taking care of my family and friends? What really matters at the end of the day?

The Vicious Coffee Cycle

I was extra tired today so I broke down and drank coffee... for about the third day in a row. I did it because I couldn't sleep last night until really late... way past my bedtime... way past any time I could function well at work with. But I just couldn't sleep. When I really thought about why I would be so wired, I realized it was probably because I drank coffee earlier that day. Coffee really affects me and keeps me up sometimes most of the night after I drink just one cup. More like one fifth of a cup.

So when I was exhausted from not sleeping from the coffee, what did I do to wake me up? Drink more coffee. Tonight if I can't sleep I will know I'm caught up in the vicious cycle of coffee. I wonder if others get into this and just don't realize it. I can't imagine our bodies are built to handle so much adrenaline and so much caffeine. Yet we still subject ourselves to it because we need it to function. What ever would our world do without coffee?

Return to College

I went back to FSU campus tonight and had a great time hanging out with some friends who just started a class there. I went out on the field in the middle of campus and found myself asked to join a game of ultimate frisbee. I got out on the field and naturally was the team that went skins. We took our shirts off so we could easily be told apart from the other team...

And I realized how much I stuck out from the perfectly fit athletic frat guys. I've been out of college for 2 years and worked in 2 office jobs. I've packed on what could be considered a bit of chub, and it especially stood out in contrast to the other guys. To make matters worse, they were all incredibly good at frisbee. They had perfect strategies and formations, and ran all over the place without breaking a sweat. And I was winded after about 5 downs. I feel so old already and I'm only 24. Life seems to just come at us too fast. I wish I could slow down and just live in the moment, but I don't have time for that. There's too much to do.

When Work Clouds The Life

I work at a small business which I love, but it's very demanding. If I were at a big company there would be at least 3-5 people doing my job. Even in my company there used to be 3 people doing my job. I barely have time to finish all my tasks even when I give it 100% and buzz through the work at breakneck speeds. It leaves me pretty exhausted. And when I get home, I find myself watching training videos to make me more valuable at work. It's so hard to balance life and work sometimes.