My Shitty Days - a Plague of no End

My Shitty Days, a Plague of no End

Outside, it’s raining cats and dogs, the streets are flooded and I haven’t seen the sun for days. Now normally, that would be a good thing for me but the days have been shitty and my roof is leaking more than usual.
The weather forecasters have predicted the El Nino will arrive soon, but the rains has already arrived to make the hills slide in motion with cruddy mud as gravel tumbles down to block the almost empty roads so some people are trapped where they are, hoping that someone realizes the storm has cast a darkness on their lives from the inside out and find them.
Inside, my current state of affairs a fire is spreading like a famine, much like the plague did back when as it traveled through cats and dogs and rats making my life even shittier. Having a good life is hard enough without having shitty days. The rain usually cleanses the soul and brings the sunshine back after a few hours. But not today, not yesterday and maybe not tomorrow.
As the heavy rain pounds the rooftops of the red brick house, the roof is straining in weakness as the newly cracks formed, allowing the water to enter inside where the pain is even more than desired under circumstances such as this. Negativity dwells largely inside those hollows created by darkness and depression.
All these thoughts are like a plague, the way the water is eroding the soil is equivalent as my house, still standing but being tested like a house of cards dampened by rain, ready to fall. Inside my mind, my sanity is eating away. I know that in a case like this, it’s time to fall down on your knees and pray.
My ears hear the devil’s dance, I know he is laughing and shouting out with glee how he has penetrated my mind and slowly depressing me. It is hard to keep my heart dancing to a spiritedly tune for the darkness I cannot escape as the light remains hidden now for days.
I swear to God, my sanity never escaped, my mind is struggling to fight this oppression by nature’s wrath cast by shadows and walls of water. Not with my death, not with my age, will I succumb to the darkness; as God is my judge, I swear l will only allow the darkness to remain only as my guest and then cast it aside when the light returns to cover the heart, the doubts and pain endured. I know it will come.
There is not much to say about nothing, this time of solitaire will soon disappear. I am worth living, I ride life’s highway in the fast lane, the eternal journey lane and the passing lane just so I can see who believes me and who can see me. I fear nothing or no one – I love life.
Some days, I get ahead, some days I fall behind but it’s not about giving up or dying. I’m thinking of the moments ahead when the sunlight brightens up the skies once again and dries out my house, my heart and my mind of all this darkness. I know it will come.
So if you can hear me, now is the time I am suppose to leave but as I said before, this is not about dying, this is about life and trying to live better than ever before, I’m doing better, better than before and I wrote this poem to let you know, that whatever the rain may bring, it will never make me quit and say, “I don’t need you no more.”
I pray to God, these words will find another, so I left it on the floor for you to see or read. Cause I am doing better, better than ever before. What am I supposed to do about the famine, the hunger, the wars and mass shootings? Where has the sanity gone as the morality is stuck on the bottom of the deck of cards that deals us misery and doom, darkness and gloom.
I can’t deal with all these problems, I refuse to get involved anymore than praying for those who died or harmed by the senseless cowardly acts around us. I grabbed a bottle and popped some pills but the pain won’t go away so I won’t do that again. I pray for wisdom and hop that this madness will soon end.
What is the common factor? How come every time the world deals the Ace of Spades, the world chases after it while the rest of us turn and run backwards away from the fight. I feel emotions; I have seen words unspoken as I am tired of broken promises of the pursuit of happiness and seeing the light. Take a look at me now, take a look at me now, I am doing better – life is better, because I am doing better than ever before. I took the time to talk to Jesus, I took the time to have the faith I needed to know that it will always get better. I know it will come.

The Seven Minute Rule - Restoring the face to face conversation

Seven Minute Rule - Restoring Face to Face Conversations

 

Every conversation has a purpose and every moment you spent talking to someone has a cause and effect that is based on the human values of your own emotions and intended consequences of such face to face interactions. Hence, this is where a text, voicemail or any other digital message can ruin a good relationship or cause a misunderstanding.
Every change I have experienced since the invention of the telephone has had consequences on the effectiveness of the different types of communication between humans and if mishandled or abused, can cause serious consequences for you. Communication contains elements of a person’s willingness to be exposed to information that might make you vulnerable to some kind of harm even with unintended purposes.
Technology does not respect the human heart or mind and does not contain emotion like a voice or tone can. This makes a face to face moment a better tool to communicate than an Iphone or any other digital device you may use today. These days, our family and friends have chosen to use digital dynamics instead of verbal face to face conversations, makes texting a convenience and not always appropriate in some cases as the manner used facilitates the ability to escape personal responsibilities by using time and space as disengagement tools.
After all, we are creatures possessed with emotion and the digital age has taken some of those qualities away from us as we depend on technology to communicate our daily tasks and events with a little too much dependence on less emotion and less empathy in our relationships. It has been my experience that every change in technology facilities emotions and or frustrations. Regardless which way you look at this, our human values are always challenged. We can see how texting or the use of digital communications such as emails; can make face to face conversation less of a priority as it is easier to disconnect the conversation at will.
In my opinion, it is time to start reclaiming some of those face to face conversations today. The manner technology is used today focuses on distance and solitude that may harm relationships in the long run. Although I understand this change can’t happen overnight, one should begin to slow down on the use of these devices as their main tools to communicate and restore conversations as they used to be before the advent of the digital age. This would also require a change in how we do things as we have become creatures of multitasking while talking or texting a message to supposedly save time or money.
In every aspect of our lives, this change will increase performance and decrease stress. I realize that doing one thing at a time is hard, especially today; multitasking feels productive in the short term but does not always makes things faster done or better prepared. Our most modern technology has encouraged detachment and as humans, we have a basic need to be either wanted or needed by someone in our life. We have made our phones, computers and other digital device our main source of communication and not as mere accessories. They are beginning to represent who or what we are and that is often easily misunderstood.
We are using this technology to protect ourselves from psychological and physical harm. We construct a mental distance between others on purpose. However, it decreased vulnerabilities and gives you a false sense of confidence to speak your mind. In order to restore attachment, empathy and at the same time, avoid solitude, we have to commit ourselves to designing our products and our lives to take that vulnerability into account. We can choose not to use our phones or other devices all the time. We can choose to put them away for a while and restore our basic human values even with a severe addiction by doing it for the sacred purpose of re-establishing human values and virtues of a face to face conversation.
Unlike using a device, we can become more understanding by listening to others in person and avoid many misunderstandings. Sometimes it simply means hearing people out. It takes at least seven minutes to see how a conversation is going to unfold. The seven minute rule to follow is you can’t go to your phone before those seven minutes are up. If the conversation goes quiet, you have to let it be and let the seven minutes expire. Even digital exchanges have “dropped moments” and silence or a break as the other person thinks of a response. This is natural and should be part of any conversation – digital or face to face. It is during these pauses of our minds, we learn more about the other person.
Face to face conversation teaches you more about your own vulnerabilities, your time management skills and your level of patience. It is quite revealing if you let it happen. Being unlike a ready made app or device, you can respond at your own convenience and think about what you want to say; what a concept to use as a human value. Life is already quick and efficiently made by those devices around you. why not use your natural abilities to make it better and enjoying life at the same time.
In order to get pleasure from life, talk to someone for at least seven minutes and learn more about yourself and others. It is well worth the effort in the long run and is guaranteed to bring about new revelations about your relationships. Conversation can change behaviors and attitudes; it builds empathy and friendships and in many cases, a new level of trust. Reclaiming your time pushes for rebuilding your own existence and teaches you about the complexity, flexibility and contingency of your personality and life. Isn’t it time for you to change how you communicate in your world?

Software, Apps, Checklist or all of the above?

Software or Checklist or Both?

Nobody doubts the need for software today in the technoculture we live in where information needs to move quicker than the eye can see. The business world couldn’t function or keep up with performance or productivity needs without computers and associated artificial intelligence software to help gain an edge on the competitor. However, one this that trumps all software functions and critical steps to be taken to ensure the work is done on time and completely is the human brain – still.

There are two simple reasons why many businesses find it so hard to track or finish what they started – procrastination and distractions. Regardless of how much you depend in computers, you still need to make mental decisions which computer to use, when, why or what to input and how to schedule it so it gets done. All those technological devices available can help you attain proficiency but the brain has to make the first and final decision.

The truth is, without your brain, you wouldn’t get much done. Certainly, any sales rep will tell you that apps are helpful but even if you found the right programs or products to help you with your business, you still need your own intelligence or savvy to achieve the final product. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge believer in the value of investing in software, training and more. But when it comes to productivity, I find that programs and products add complexity, and complexity works against what you're trying to achieve.

To get things done, simplicity is still the best approach. Working on the problem and finding the solution can be done in a reasonable time and effort if you can avoid your main reasons for not getting things done on time – distractions. Without going into the number or types of distraction you may experience, creating distractions happens quicker than the mind can resolve and resist. In fact, the amount of time wasted often escapes the reality that has always existed but hardly ever directly addressed or sometimes noticed.

Generally speaking, life has thousands of distractions on top of your business end. Social media alone consumes more time than you would like to admit and adding things like house chores, shopping, gym etc. your day is filled with scheduled events that encroach into your time and space. Truth be told, there are industries designed to create distractions and evolve faster than your brain could ever process or keep up with.

Even the smartest, the most intuitive and the best persons with excellent memory capabilities cannot keep up with distractions. These dynamics result in more time and efforts wasted than realized at any time of the process. Thus between distractions, procrastination, multi-tasking and other obstacles, you need some help getting your work done complete and on time. There is one solution that covers all these bases. The solution is a checklist. Getting back to basics has its advantages and should be done in order to get things done.

World-wide military and non-government agencies alike use checklists. Pilots, mechanics, astronauts use them. Military command posts, space exploration projects, manufacturers and sports outlets use checklists to complete their work assignments. When designed well to capture all your priorities and essential functions, they have been proven to be a good to know and do item for focusing the attention on the goal or outcome as desired or planned.

Checklists bring the focus sharply on the desired actions to be taken and when to do them. You don’t spend your time ‘spinning your wheels’ in a cause and effect that resembles a “whack-a-mole” concept. Start with a master checklist that contains a numerical list of between 10 and 30 items. These have to be achievable in a single day, every day breaking up timelines into daily, weekly, monthly etc. depending on the required needs.

The good thing about checklists is you can combine them with devices and apps that may facilitate tracking or setting alarms for things that need to be done. However, each function is based on the completion algorithm of the checklist and not a random or even pre-programmed database that does not involve the human mind as a safety precaution. Maintain a current copy at all times and created a backup of it in case you accidentally delete items.

Allow yourself to execute on checklist items in any order. Delay any items that can or should be handled later. These two tricks give you the flexibility to plow forward and make progress. The purpose of this approach is to develop daily habits that contribute to your bigger goals, but without the show-stopping barrier that goes up when goals are ambitious. The good thing about a checklist is the lack of a restriction or upper limit of your capabilities and expansion of your priorities. One can always add more to the list and keep the order in the sequence desired.

By now you must be wondering how checklists, some that can be so simple, get things done and end distractions. Certainly this all this sounds too easy, too good to be true, I'll tell you exactly why my checklist system works. Remember this – checklists keep you focused on the task to be done; it eliminates wasted time or space; it creates positive habits to rely on; it provides a tool of achievement that shows you are finishing what you started. Use a checklist system and get it done.
 

We should Learn from Wolves, not Sheep

We should Learn from Wolves, not Sheep

 

"If humans could react to controversy or conflict in the same way wolves did, we may see a higher incidence of co-operation and a lower incidence of poor productivity due to hurt feelings or feelings of resentment." Jess Edberg, International Wolf Center

As of late, we have become a nation of sheep that follow others blindly. No longer do we think for ourselves as a majority making the line blurred to some and very clear to others. Exploring this behavior of sheep draws inferences that will take us to the lessons learned from wild wolves who know how to survive under adverse conditions whether they are nature’s elements or man’s instinct to kill them.

From the very start, the biggest difference between sheep and wolves is the canine species ability to adapt and develop traits that are productive in leadership, teamwork cooperation and share or create clear communication as a pack rather than a flock of misfit unorganized and loitering in the fields. This concept of learning from wolves is not new for men. In fact, if you do a little bit of research you will find strong suggestions that humans learned much of their own vital skills to survive from wolf packs. Whether you want to admit it or not, wolves are not just predatory in nature, they are also social in nature. They know how to function as group better than most animals that live on this planet.

While sheep are without direction or cause, wolves have an attitude that is always based on the basic question that asks, “What is best for the pack?” similar to sheep, wolves have learned to live around people but know how to detect dangers and risks. Unlike sheep, they picked up human traits and adapted skills that allowed them a higher survival rate than most wild animals. Walking with wild wolves can teach us elements of leadership and team dynamics – fundamentally speaking wolves demonstrate behaviors which illustrate confidence, social independence [limited], assertiveness, team building and good at adapting and overcoming challenges or barriers created to make it more difficult for them to survive in the wild or whatever it is they need to do in order to create a situation that is best to their advantage.

Highly intelligent, these creatures are so adaptable, their dynamics are constantly changing to meet the need of the hunt or existence. One trait is the adaptability to change the course of action when their memory relates that it didn’t work out the last time so they avoid doing it the same way to see if this is how they can get away with the act rather than get caught.  Sheep, on the other hand, do the same routine over and over and get killed doing the same thing without adapting or changing their habits or survival skills. The similarities between wolves and human can be surprisingly close and more so than our relationship with sheep.

Sheep don’t re-learn things very well. They don’t work as a team and blindly follow wherever the lead takes them. Sheep don’t distribute the load or burdens like wolves do; they do things on their own and drift away from any herd responsibilities. Most sheep don’t have leaders, they just follow. Wolves don’t inspire to be a leader, they have a leader but share the burdens of the leader giving the lead pack wolf a break when needed.

Wolf packs rely on what’s best for the pack. Even at an early age, wolf pups learn their roles in their own social circle of the pack. Their flexibility of demands and roles provided to cope and function as a pack depends on every individual wolf to do its part of contributions made to benefit the entire pack and not just one.

Certainly, I am not suggestion we develop a pack mentality but what we should promote is the individual responsibilities needed to create success or survival. It is a matter of mutual benefit and respect that drives this attitude, not self-centered or lack of interest in the balance of the herd as sheep often demonstrate. Contrasting from sheep, every wolf has his own voice. Every wolf respects the voice of every other wolf.

Wolves thrive on the team spirit – they allow each member to participate and promote positive peer relationships that can lead to higher achievements and greater productivity within the pack. One can see how this bonds or creates a tighter relationship among the pack and in this respect, create a higher desire to work hard and play hard to boost their commitment to the pack.

Perseverance, focus and purpose thrive the pack’s will to live and survive. Hunting is best when done as a team. This is because as a pack, their use their collective talents and skills to overcome the prey as they collaboratively and methodically plan and stalk the hunt. Learning from their mistakes, they become more efficient with every outing. Every pack has a strategy and a goal – and all members of the pack know what this goal is before they go out on the hunt. There are rare cases of disorganization and failures are rare as their strategies are based on what they know what works and what doesn’t that makes the wolf strategy coherent and without controversy.

Lastly, wolf packs teach loyalty to the pack and constant training. Every pup is taught from the moment they are old enough to walk and are mentored by all in the pack who take their responsibility to train the pups voluntarily and instinctively. They know these pups are part of their future and their ability to survive the dangers. When the pack loses an elder pack member, their role is quickly filled because of the preparation put into sharing the knowledge.

Much like human organizations, “"giving people the opportunity and tools to improve themselves builds the type of loyalty that is an asset of inestimable worth.” If people would behave like wolves and use every means of communication at their disposal, they would improve their performance and knowledge by seeing and listening to everyone around them closely. The wolf’s power to observe is so finely honed in to be keen enough to detect subtle changes in each other’s behaviors as well as the pack's.

 

Branded Ronin - What is Feared is Lost - Part II [Fiction]

Branded Ronin

What is Feared is Lost

Part II

Many warriors are left behind in the desolate burning sun. Their bodies, twisted with bereavement by their families left behind and reeking with the smell of death silently lay there, no longer slaves to the world and the hollow regimes within this hollowed and bedraggled land.

From all four corners of the world, men, women and children old enough to fight for freedom and able to carry a weapon travel long distances to meet the branded Ronin who stepped up out of their sacred hiding places and sought the root of all evil – the greed makers and lust seekers of the tyrannical regimes that control the world today.

No matter where they go, the word is out these branded Ronin warriors are out to seek justice for those oppressed and kept inside deep dungeons and prisons in ball and chains and solid white uniforms marking them to be slaves and free laborers for those who hold the key to the newly created international labor force of slavery. Since the fierce fighting had begun, they have fought hard to stop the tide of darkness and stepped up their game to meet the enemy head on in the light.

They show no fear. They know that if fear rules them, then all is lost before the fight has even begun. They refuse to fail, they refuse to surrender and they know that if they don’t take on the opposition on their terms and position, then all is lost as the might and greed of these warped humans encroach on life and justice in a manner unacceptable by all rules of mankind and humanity.

In some instances, the power of the greedy ones is too great or too much but through perseverance, faith and hope, they struggle hard to come back and win a battle or two, taking out those key to plan to further this human destruction of the rights of man. Their efforts are spread world-wide through social media that is hot and wireless from land to sea and from desert to mountainous terrain wherever the signal may travel.

There is no great wall to block these pleas to join the fight. There are no great divides that stops the movement to cut into the corruption and power of the darkened regimes around them. There is fear but the fear is on the greedy side and not those warriors who never retreat under fire and keep on coming even when their chances are annihilation is in favor of the New Order of nations.

Day by day, these battles begin to take the toll of slow destruction as the warriors sense victory is not too far away. Their forces grow as free men and women gather near their hidden places to become a member of the branded Ronin warriors who have successfully defended their own sanctuaries with blood, sweat and tears that will eventually bring them the victory desired in the coming years.

There are no individual conquerors – there are no superheroes or special supermen or women in this fight. All contribute evenly and sometimes, when their resources dwindle, they draw upon the sword to carry them through the fight as they follow their leaders into battle side by side and facing the fear of death each time they cross those endless boundaries of enemy territories, whether on land or water.

Momentum builds confidence as the branded ones are gaining strength in numbers and their inner self is building into a sculptured block of ice trained to meet the enemy head on and stave off any defeat or surrender. Ronin warriors never quit – their strength is in their ability to fight until the end and conquering the fear is only a part of their challenges.

They don’t have the elaborate resources of the enemy; they do not own the planes, tanks ships and vehicles that ferry these troops via land, sea or air unlike the Ronin warriors and their supplements who ride, walk, run or crawl towards their destination as fast as their feet can carry them. What sparse resources they have they captured from their enemy.

What sophisticated weaponry they possess has been captured in battle and turned into defensive weapons rather than the purpose intended by the munitions manufacturers and each role of such special weapons designed. Thus far, the calls for the end of this war has been ignored by those in power and peacemakers paid to find a solution to meet somewhere in the middle and stop the killing.  

No battles have been halted or removed from the battle plan. In the meantime, more manpower has been created as the news of successful battles travels quickly. Strangers have turned from wandering desolate souls to battle seasoned fighters as they follow the branded Ronin warriors into the abyss of conflict and war.

Instead of being a group of scrounging men and women carrying guns and explosives, they have formed into a force to be reckoned with as time is on their side and as more flock to their side and cause, the war is taking a turn that the greedy must heed and notice that all that is feared, is lost.

A legion is forming and the tide is turning. Ronin warriors, freelance and mercenary fighters all gather to face their wrathful opponents and hand them the double edged sword of justice as they move slowly across the land, sea and air, taking back what was seemed to be forever lost and for a moment, even the darkness has shown some light in their plotting to win this war, peeking curiosity of the tyrants who are slowly shifting their forces to meet the daily losses that appear to be giving them more of a fight than ever anticipated or planned.

The world war is barely beginning. These Ronin warriors, branded as traitors, rogues or hired killers for the free world, are making a stand in the sand which has added a new meaning to patriotism and liberty. This is no longer a fight for one country one regime or one existence. This battle, conflict or war is about international rule by the greedy and how these free men and women are fighting to free those enslaved and imprisoned for profit or control and take back what was once the best things in life called the pursuit of happiness or heavenly bliss.

Branded a Ronin - Facing the Great War [Fiction]