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Happy Monday!

Random inspiration has the power to be one of the best things in life. It comes from an unexpected place and it overwhelms every instinct and every motivating thought process we have for ten minutes, an hour, a day or even an entire weekend.

If we’re really lucky, it’ll endure far beyond the boxy confines of any calendar…

This jolt of imagination and ingenuity can lead to an idea we never knew we could see in our wildest dreams. There’s the potential this random energy can lead to something worthy of being labeled genius. Or, it can just give us the motivation we’ve desperately been striving and searching for in our own journey of personal enlightenment and achievement.

The possibilities are endless, which is the good news.

Below is not the original Apple commercial, “Here’s to the Crazy Ones.” Instead, it’s the same copy, just read by someone different.

Truly different.

Happy Monday!

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
–Steve Jobs

Happy Monday!

The work week can feel like a treacherous labyrinth with a myriad of turns and trick doors that lead to only one rewarding exit. And once Monday morning hits, it can hit hard. Loosely planning our schedule for the week Sunday evening is instantly translated from an outlook to reality when our alarms abruptly ring Monday morning. It’s here and it’s real.

How are we supposed to approach the work week with this unwelcome jolt of musical tunes/tones?

Some days require laughter, some days require inspiration and some days require the mental equivalent to coffee with shots of acute cognitive awareness…with a timer.

This may even come from somewhere you never expected. But when you arrive and realize how to play the game, you never want to leave that place.

Happy Monday!

Don’t Reach for the Horizon…Redefine It

A Departure.

Is this a genuinely fascinating word, term and concept or what? There are not only multiple levels, but infinite levels of departure one can engage in and invest their time, money and breaths. Why are there boundless levels? Because life is limitless, even when impossibility stares us in the face with its inhospitable, starry atmosphere in the space above. If there is a glow, our instincts incredibly (and sometimes dangerously) point us due north, south, east and west to horizons before unexplored or thought unattainable.

The intriguing aspect of a random, mysterious departure is the lack of assurance or guaranteed safety. But, when reflecting on the inexplicable thrills of wild and crazy adventurers of today and of past generations, there in lies the rub. Anybody can walk on the sidewalk adjacent to a busy street. However, only a few will voluntarily walk across a tightrope, high above the circus, one gentle sway away from disaster.

Uncertain reactions are at the heart of the rush. Adrenaline isn’t taught, but felt instinctively.

And whether or not you believe it, true serenity cannot be known until one has felt the stinging sensation of the wisdom that states that, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” You can thank Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for that inspiration.

Astonishingly, we are only bound to our own imaginations. Our pursuits will change, evolve and intensify. Maybe there are too many variables to make a living out of jumping out of a plane and skydiving, but hey…it sure does look like fun (well, only if there is a rocket strapped to your back).

Wonderful is what is discovered internally when such a leap is taken. Whether it is a terrifying jump or a life-altering giant step, the rewards are boundless. It’s almost as if a light’s been turned on that has been dark all these years. Perhaps you never thought you could or should turn it on in the first place.

A capacity of magnificence maximizes adventurism,

Necessary to ourselves is the thrill of that moment, when our hearts are pounding out of our chest. In those seconds when we think we must be in a cartoon with the roadrunner with an actual heart pounding in and out of our chest, there is a surreal sensation. The realization of what the distinction between being alive and living is is clearly defined. The pulse is unmistakable.

Experience, which represents the 3D lens of life, elevates everything around us to another dimension and forces a new outlook on the people, places and things we thought we knew. There is a vividness in this environment that pops and reveals almost unlike any other medium we can imagine. It contains within itself a life of its own, ready to collide with its curious spectators.

We may look to the sky and the stars or to the depths of the oceans or to the road not taken just steps away, but seeing what’s around the corner is difficult to spot unless one is willing to walk, not look.

Live, or die, in relative terms of course. This reference is for the mind, which ultimately determines what gets done and what doesn’t. Even with a harness, would you walk the tightrope on and to the unknown?

For all of us to fully experience the world on our terms that will fill our own oasis of excitement, we must be willing to react and not think for a second. Just for a second. Just once.

A journey is only ambiguous and limiting until you take it and see what your mind and imagination wanted you to see all this time.

In a couple days, don’t forget to thank your wild curiosity. It just may thank you back with something truly unforgettable and even unbelievable…that is until the moment when you can tell everybody one hell of a story.

The Annexation of Patience

There is a trend in sports that has transformed analysts and “experts” into Bingo contestants that frequently stand-up with bravado and gusto to shout “BINGO!” for all to hear.

The only problem is that this occurs after only marking off one letter.

College football punditry is a perfect example of this evolving dynamic. There is a tendency to want to declare with absolute certitude the two best teams in the country each week. Admittedly, it is perfectly okay to speculate about teams and their corresponding achievements and failures. Totally fine. These are fun debates. However, it shouldn’t be exercised in the definitive nature that is done today. Three games into the season and the national championship is already being predicted with incomplete statistics from some of the aforementioned analysts.

Will the BCS Standings remain exactly same by the end of the regular season? Probably not. And that’s partly because of the unpredictable and inspirational dimension of college athletics.

It’s a weird phenomenon: these analysts love to watch college football, but they are more often than not so eager to chisel in stone certain bowl match-ups with incomplete statistics and records that they end up not allowing football teams the “ridiculous” courtesy to work hard, improve and then play their best game by the end of the regular season as a final exclamation point to their fall campaign.

As written above: weird.

While the schedules for most Division 1 college football teams list around 12 games, the attention span for most analysts seems to range from 5-7. At this point, most of the “experts” would have you believe the top two teams are pretty much penciled in (not with a pen, but pencil mind you) and that the remainder of those seasons are mere technicalities.

Of course, do you know how many “technicalities” have resulted in shocking upsets or surprising victories?

One of the amazing aspects of college football (and college sports in general) is that anything can happen…anything! In college, the underdog, whether a single player or an entire team, has the potential and opportunity to shine for that one play or one drive to win the game or to make a strong goal line stand to complete an upset for the ages.

What’s even more incredible is how many of these moments occur during the final seconds of the last games of the season when everything is on the line.

Hopefully, the lighting crew won’t turn off the lights in the stadiums on those players, coaches, teams and fans when those unbelievable plays happen at season’s end.

Technically speaking, that would be a terrible thing to do. And the same notion goes for day games as well.

Otherwise, the world may never have witnessed the incomparable, “Annexation of Puerto Rico” that only works as the last play…

Those “one time” moments help make up the magical fabric of sports.

So, let’s just sit back, relax and watch some football.

You just may see something special.