How to be and stay HAPPY (Shortest post ever)

Choose to be happy. Everyday. 

What stage are you in?

There's a period in life when you are trying to figure out what works for you. Which phone, which cable service, which jeans, which car, which foods you can eat, which foods you can't. Add on whatever you want here because it's pretty much everything.  

Then you're in a stage where everything is fine and your start to wonder if you have all the best things for you and your situation. 

Then the stage of trying new things comes and you usually get burnt in a couple of sour deals. Or you try the grossest coffee or whatever. You get discouraged and go back to what had been working.

But then comes a critical stage where you may refuse to try new things.  Technology is changing and you're changing and you may get left behind.  

You have to stay alert to the new stuff and learn how to differentiate between what is going work and what is a not going to work. What's going to help and what's not going to make things better or easier? 

It's a constant temperature check to make sure you have the best tools working for you. 

What stage are you in?

THOUGHTS: Have You Seen My Creativity?

I tapped this out on my phone a couple weeks ago. I just found it. Thought it was pretty funny.

"Creativity is on the otherside of this wall. This wall, right here. I can hear it and envision it but I can't touch it. The wall is too thick. All my responsibilities and desires are thickly woven together to form a barrier. I'm still on this side. Not because I choose the side but because I incessantly add new pieces to the wall. I make no time for fun. I. me. Not her. Not you. I wish life was less boring routine and more fun but who made my life this way? I did. I chose this over that and that over this for a few years now and have landed myself in a rigid box.

I will now destroy this box. I will destroy it with my anger and self-worth. I need a new perspective before I pull an Alexander supertramp. All that's left is a crummy photo and an in-depth journal that doctors will study and share theories on the path my brain went. They'll say brain but it's MIND and we all know that.

I keep spurring on wih the notion that someday, I'll have time for my dreams." .

THOUGHTS: Hyper-Trippin

I have never done acid. In all of my strange past it never happened. But a few of my friends did and they used to talk about hyper-tripping, which I guess is putting acid in your eye. You trip fast and hard. The highs are really high and the lows are super low.

In order to put LSD straight in your eye, you have to be in a place where you want to change NOW. Right now. No question. You can't be sort of sure about acid in your eyeball. It's an all in mentality.

So far I liken my 30's to a hyper-trip. I wanted a change. So within 18 mos, I got married, opened a barbershop, had a baby and as I write this, am buying a house. I went from no responsibilities to all responsibilities possible for a man.

When it's going good, it's glorious. When it's bad, it's awful. So much is riding on every decision and it can get tense. But I'll tell you one thing: life is awesome since I adopted this "Geronimo" state of mind. Just jump off the cliff. Do it. I didn't do the acid, but I'll take a calculated risk any day.

*most of this is only because my awesome wife pushes me on

THOUGHTS: Surfing as a metaphor

This has been on my mind for a while.  I don't even surf, but I want to.......   I also never use semi-colons so this is a first on that front.  Any editor's out there, feel free to correct the usage.  I need to learn

Life is moving and pushing and slowing and quickening all around me. I cannot manipulate it more than anyone else. I cannot tell life how to happen. I can only ride the currents and waves as they come. Some are good waves, some are bad, but I ride them all anyway. I cannot stand up on this wave and tell it to stop or slow down or go another way. I can only ride it and get back in position to catch the next one. I can learn from each wave and apply it to the next run, but I can never stop the course of that wave. It's a natural force. It's not a product of my actions. My actions are a product of it and I choose how to act once said wave is unfavorable.

I notice a lot of people standing on their boards, facing the wrong way while waves come at them; while other riders come at them. And they don't get it. They don't understand the fact that the waves don't stop. The waves don't care about your idea of surfing. They don't care if you want to go the other way. They're bigger than you. You ride them. They don't adjust to you. So you cannot stand up in the face of these waves and an onslaught of other riders and get mad at the fact you keep falling off and eating it. Ride the wave. Go with the flow. You never know, a seemingly bad wave might take you to a better place; a place where every wave is awesome.