Hamenopi

2017 brings a new year and with it, a new direction. A direction out of hiding in the shadows into a world I am no longer ashamed of myself. Funny, how shame even creeps on me after all the success I've experienced. You'd think by now I'd find the cure! But shame is a slithering, sneaky, serpent of a dragon, not easy killed. I submitted and hid in shame for years. The thing is, just like in weightless, I can't cancel out the years with a couple of days. Shame And I don't even know why I struggle. I've spent time trying to figure it out. The result? Nothing other than I am afraid to the shame of failure to the point of paralyzation. For so many years, I could't stand losing. I was (still am in ways) ultra competitive. Even my wife refused to play board games with me for years because of it. We're only recently getting back to where will break out a game. 5 years ago, I'd get mad at the table if I rolled a 1. Man, I had some issues. Still do. Th...

"Stop giving same variables expecting different results." The third day of January, my birthday, I want to face my fear. My fear of how others will feel about my failings. You see, I'm pretty insecure. Better than before, but I still struggle daily. I need to confront my fears. I need to stop running from this Dragon and finally face it down. I need to reveal the ugly lizard casting large shadows for what it really is! I know my words aren't for everyone. They might not work for every person coming across them. But my words are not for those people. We are not all assembly line creations. There's no one size fits all. My words are for who they work for. Distilling my message to satisfy imaginary critics diminishes the chances it will actually help someone. But hiding words in order to appease people who might not exist, I'm robbing the people who might actually need to hear them. I know these words help people. I've seen it first hand. By restricti...

Many times I fail on the advice I give. Of course, I'm not perfect. I know I'm a work in progress too. But many times when I fail on my own advice, I struggle with the feeling of failure. Or rather I struggle with the feeling of the fear of failure. There's a difference. Even though I know failure isn't the opposite of success, it's a prerequisite to success. Even though I know progress is the true benchmark of success. I still fall into the trap from time to time. Then instead of remembering the 9 time I overcame, I fixate on the 1 time I stumble. Have you even found yourself in the same scenario? Have you ever fixated on the failures? Look, even Michael Jordan missed shots. Even the greats in baseball bat miss 2 out of 3. We all go off our mark but if we spend time concentrating on the missed shots, we miss more by not shooting. I'm not saying don't look where your shot went. I'm not saying don't recognize where you stumbled. Do that. You need t...