Category Archives: Perception

Unresolving Ducks of Confusion

This morning I was talking to a friend of mine in the UK, over the phone. I haven’t spoken to him in a while, but he is one of those friends that you just can pick up where you left off, you don’t need to keep up a lot of maintenance. Like if you have a pair of skis, you can just throw them in the garage when the winter thaws out and wait until next year.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s better to rent skis. I don’t think I use them enough to warrant buying a new pair every year, but some people get away with it. It’s like when you decide to try something new, and you put all kinds of effort and energy into it, and make big plans, then later decide that it wasn’t something that was as good as you thought it might have been back when you first started thinking about it.

But my friend was telling me about these new neighbors that he has, and they are keep strange hours. Not that they are loud or anything, it’s that they seem to be up half the night doing odd things. My friend wouldn’t really elaborate, but I got the idea that it had something to do with a new business they might be thinking up. His father, the guy next door, was telling him that they hope to corner the market on the particular niche that they are hoping to invest in.

Anyways, I was more interested in hearing if my friend was still married, because last I talked he was having some problems. Something about not being able to communicate very well. A lot of times people that are in relationships say the other person doesn’t’ communicate, until they remember that in order to understand what people are saying, you need to really pay attention to them when they speak. And it can be a lot more deeper than just words.

For example, my friend kept telling me that she didn’t like unresolved problems. Now those are two words that can mean pretty much anything. If someone asks me if I have any unresolved problems, I’d say of course I do. Everybody has unresolved problems. The problem with unresolved problems, is that in order to solve them, you need to make sure you are talking about the same unresolved problems, otherwise you might solve something that wasn’t even a problem to begin with.

When she started going on and on about unresolved problems, I thought she was talking about how her father treated her when she was a little girl, and she had all kind of deep emotional issues to deal with whenever she got close to being intimate with somebody. It turns out that her unresolved problem, at least when we were having the discussion, were about a phone bill she had called to inquire about, and the person was rude to her and hung up on her.  But then again, that might be related to her childhood after all, you never know these things unless you can really communicate in such a way that everybody knows exactly what you are talking about.

I was at a seminar once, and the teacher was illustrating this very point. She told everybody to think of a duck. And then she went around and asked everybody what duck they were thinking of. Some were thinking about a rubber duck. Some thought of a duck flying home for the winter. One guy thought of the AFLAC duck.

The point was, that even when thinking about a simple noun like “duck” a room full of people came up with a roomful of different ideas.

Now that is something to think about.

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Swing Free of Fear

Once upon a time, not too long ago, maybe even yesterday, there lived a monkey. He lived with his fellow monkey troops in their monkey village. His name was Larry. He was a young monkey that still kind of followed the grownup monkeys around, as he wasn’t sure how to be a complete monkey all on his own yet. He could do a lot of monkey stuff, like swing from branch’s, and peel bananas, and even find the best trees to hide in when the tigers came.

The tigers lived in the next jungle over. They were friendly tigers, at least when they didn’t want to eat you. But when they were hungry, they dropped all pretence and went after anything and everything that looked like it might be chewable and digestible. And if you ever had the opportunity to examine the digestive track of tigers, you’ll surely find that they can eat pretty much anything. Like that shark in jaws (not the bad shark, the other one) that ate that license plate and all that other junk.

Humans on the other hand, can’t eat everything, but this story isn’t about humans, so never mind that.

So there Larry was, sitting on his haunches one day, when his older brother, Bill, said “Larry, it’s time you need to find your own food. You can’t follow me around all the time. I need to find a lady monkey and make a monkey family. You need to figure out things for yourself. You need to find your own way. You have to become independent.” Larry understood. He had realized for quite some time that it’s better to be independent than to have to depend on others.

But there was one problem. One big problem. One giant, scary, terrifyingly seemingly unsurmountable problem. The monkeys had this ritual. Before being accepted as a grown up monkey by the rest of the troop, you had to perform a task. Kind of like a ritual, if you will.

You had to cross many jungles, through many dangerous areas, filled with tigers and elephants and sharks and piranhas and go to the cave of the mighty boar. And in this cave was a special tree. A special banana tree. They looked like bananas, except they were supposed to be a lot smaller than all the other bananas. At least that’s what all Larry’s friends said. They always talked about this banana tree, and the boar that guarded it. They all knew that someday, they would have to pass the rite of initiation into adult monkeyhood, and go steal a tiny banana from this gigantic and horrible boar, that liked to eat monkeys for breakfast. And lunch, and dinner.

The more the young adolescent monkeys talked to each other about this horrible creature, the more they became afraid of being his next breakfast or lunch. Or even his dinner.

Finally, the day came. Larry had to set off, all alone, to go face the evil boar, and steal one of the magic bananas. None of the adults gave him any advice. The adolescent monkeys were to afraid to talk to him. The baby monkeys were too busy playing with their ABC blocks.

So off Larry went. For days he swung through the jungle, branch to branch, vine to vine. Sleeping in trees, hoping they would keep him safe from the tigers and the leopards and the kangaroos.  With every passing night, the horrible boar transformed himself more and more into a unfathomable creature in poor Larry’s mind, and the banana’s became smaller, and less yellow, and less tasty.

Finally, the day arrived. The cave was in sight. Larry crept slowly to the cave. Trembling in fear. He knew now why they adult monkeys didn’t talk to him before he left. He knew now why the adolescent monkeys shunned him before his departure. He was not expected to live. Perhaps it was a big joke, a lie, a ruse. Perhaps there was some hideous monkey god living in the cave that demanded regularly sacrificed young monkeys to keep from bringing his wrath to the monkey jungle.

Larry crept closer to the cave opening. Slowly, carefully, almost devoid of any remaining hope that he would return alive to his happy monkey jungle.

He peeked into the cave.

There it was!

It wasn’t a lie. The tree was right there, in front of him. Filled with bananas. Hundreds of bananas. Huge bananas, rich in color, and even from where he was he could smell the delicious aroma wafting across the cool floor of the cave. Surely he could run, grab a banana, and return without being spotted by the evil boar.

Where was the evil boar, anyway?

Larry crept closer, slowly, slowly. He stopped, ever so quietly, and reached up and quickly snatched the lowest hanging branch. No boar in sight. He grabbed another banana, and another, and another.

“Please don’t eat too many,” said a voice from behind him.

Larry turned, and to his horror, was the hideously large boar, readying to pounce and devour him where he stood. Sort of. Actually, not at all. The boar was not even a boar. He was just a tiny field mouse.

“But…” Larry began.

“You thought I was a hideous boar did you?”

“Well, yea. What happened? Why did you change?”

The tiny field mouse rose up on his hind legs to his full height.

It is you that changed. It is you chose to see things differently than before. Something happened to you on the way here. You were able to make a decision. You were able to forget those thoughts that you had before, and see for yourself what was really in here. Because when you choose to approach your fears, with caution, as you did, you will realize that which you are afraid of is seldom as big and scary as you think it is. And that which you hope to achieve by facing your fears is a far greater reward that you will allow yourself to imagine. That is nature’s way of making sure you walk into situations with caution. You see Larry, fear is your friend. Fear helps to warn you of possible danger, and those feelings you feel are really just the extra energy which allows you to see better, to hear better, to think more quickly and more accurately. Fear is the juice of life. Fear is your friend, your guide, your helper, letting you know that you are on the verge of glory.You are never truly an adult unless you can accept and embrace your fears.

“But why the stories, why the lies?”

“No monkey can be an adult unless they face their fears. Today you are an adult Lawrence. Today you shall swing free.”

Larry turned and walked away. His arms full of the sweet bananas from the magic banana tree. They were the sweetest bananas he’d ever eaten.

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Exposure Yourself to Wonderful Success

I have a friend who is a fairly successful person. He is the area manager for a particular large manufacturing company. We were talking over lunch a few weeks ago about our lives, and how we came to be where we are. One of those lazy conversations on a Saturday afternoon, when you don’t have any specific plans, and are content to allow the conversation to flow wherever it wants to go, you can decide to just go along for the ride.

He used to be a line manufacturing technician. These are the guys that work on the assembly line, and are in charge of only one aspect in the larger manufacturing process. He had noticed that there were changes they the company could make, that would save them a lot of money. And not a lot of money in the long term, possible future. A lot of money, right here, right now.

And he went home and told his wife, and his wife of course suggested he bring it up at the next meeting. After all, he was pretty well regarded at his job, since he’d been there for a few years, and had a good record. But my friend was worried for some reason. He kept coming up with excuses why he didn’t want to express himself at the meeting. Luckily for him, and his company, his wife knew him well enough to see that these were merely excuses, and not the real reason. And his wife was also wise enough to let him discover the real reason in his own time, without any extra pressure from her.

Some people, when they notice a friend or loved one making a mistake, or living life less than with complete resourcefulness, tend to pressure the person with short term tactics that usually backfire. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Many times it’s better to discover things on your own than to be told about them.

So my friend kept going to work, and the more he saw that his ideas would definitely improve the bottom line of the company, the more anxious he got. When I asked him about he said that if he told them, they would almost surely promote him. Why would that be a bad thing? I asked him. If he got promoted, then he would be a supervisor, which would the next level above where he was. Then he would have to conduct meetings, and speak in front of people, and people that were new and were being trained would watch him as an example, and so on.

When he finally explained all this to his wife, she was very understanding. She said to him:

You are much more knowledgeable than you think. You have great talent. You are not doing anybody any good by hiding your talent. You may think that by bringing more attention to yourself will bring discomfort and unease, but in reality, when you express yourself, people will know how smart you really are. People will know how much you really do have to offer. And that’s important, isn’t it?

My friend said that he was really moved by his wife’s faith in him. The next day, he went and explained his idea to his foreman. They used his suggestion, saved money, and of course, promoted him. And he said a strange thing happened, something he didn’t quite expect. Because of the extra attention he got, he actually had a lot more good ideas that he was aware of. And not only that, people were more than willing to help him improve in areas where he expressed an interest, because he was quickly being recognized as somebody that was a great source of knowledge to other people.

So what you are saying, is that you owe all your success to your wife? I asked him. He just smiled, and drank his coffee.

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Shifting Road Rage into Scrambled Eggs

The other day I was riding my bike down to the supermarket. I was only going to pick up a couple of things. Dozen eggs, loaf of bread, maybe some peanut butter. I was trying to remember what it was that I was after when a car served just ahead of me, almost knocking me into the light pole. He didn’t even honk or turn and see if I was ok. People like that really make me mad. I get really angry when people are out driving around, and cut people off right and left, without even looking around to see if they are causing any danger to anybody else. It’s like they don’t care if other people live or die. The whole world belongs to them, and you’d better get out of the way. These are the things that can lead to road rage, rights, high blood pressure, and if something like this happens to you in the morning, it can ruin your whole day.

Like sometimes I’ll be driving to work, and the traffic is just totally backed up. And the interesting thing is, is that sometimes there really isn’t a reason for the traffic to be what it’s like. And no matter what you try and imagine, now, it’s hard to come up with a reason for this. And that can be totally frustrating. You are just sitting there, not moving, and you don’t even know why. The radio doesn’t help, they just say try to use this exit, or that exit. But it doesn’t really help because since you aren’t going anyplace, you can’t very well take the next exit anytime in the next three hours.

Which is why I usually bring some audio books in the glove box. I don’t usually like to listen to music in the car unless I’m driving at a reasonable speed. If I’m stopped, and can’t get anywhere, I usually prefer to listen to people talking rather than upbeat music. I’d read the paper if it wasn’t so dangerous. Sometimes I’ll pop in a language tape, sometimes I’ll pop in a lecture. Once I put in a lecture that was about the great tonal shift in the English language. Supposedly it happened about a generation before Shakespeare. Which is interesting because he wrote all these fantastic plays, and was using a language that had recently undergone a drastic change. Had Shakespeare lived a generation earlier, or had the great tonal shift happened a generation later, Shakespeare’s plays wouldn’t be as accessible as they are today. When you find something like this that is really fascinating, and really appreciate the coolness of it, it’s hard not to be amazed at how much stuff there is out there to discover.

Similar to people who make it their life purpose to discover things. Like scientists, doctors, and artists, and certain types of engineers. Some people can get so involved into what they are looking for they seem to use lose track of where they are going. Like when Edison was discovering the light bulb, he burned through about seven thousand different filaments until he found one that would be economically feasible. Because he was able to lose himself in search for new information, and be able to apply it in ways that would help a great amount of people, this tends to happen.

Which is why I enjoy doing things like this. And sometimes I totally lose track not only of time, but of how many eggs I have in the refrigerator. Which is kind cool because sometimes when you run out of eggs, you can find other things that are just as healthy that you hadn’t noticed before. And it’s important to stay healthy, so you won’t have to rush to the hospital, like my neighbor did when he almost hit me. He later apologized, and told me that he didn’t turn around because he knew I was ok, and he knew that he would have plenty of time to apologize later. And I was glad the heart attack he thought he was having turned out to tendonitis, from doing too many pushups.

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Remember to Forget for Fun and Happiness

I remember once I was watching my niece in a dance club performance. They were all doing some pre practiced dance moves that was choreographed to a popular musical number. In case they forgot their steps, their was a giant dancing bear on stage to follow for guidance. They were three and four years old, and the dancing bear, or the person dressed in the dancing bear costume, was eleven.

They had these ornamental neck wrap necklace things. I’m sure here is a technical name for it, but since I’m not that into three year old dance fashion, I’m not really sure what it is. It is kind of a long, frilly decorative thing that you loosely wrap around your neck, and it is supposed to enhance your dancing movies by trailing from behind.

What happened was that this girl stepped on her trailing frilly thing, and in the process knocked her stool over. Of course she naturally bent down, picked her stool up, and re wrapped the frilly thing back around her neck so that it wouldn’t happen again. And looked around at her friends, and once or twice at the dancing bear, and she was back in sync again with all the rest of the kids.

And then a thought struck me. She hadn’t yet learned that you are supposed to be nervous on stage. She hadn’t yet learned that you are supposed to be self conscious, and dream up a bazillion terrible things that can happen whenever you are standing up and talking or performing for other people. She hadn’t learned yet that there is many more important things in life than to simply have fun and express yourself. She hadn’t learned that mistakes are cues from nature to feel guilty and embarrassed. She was somehow under the impression that a mistake was something that you just lean over, grab and re arrange and then look around to see how everybody else is doing and then do your own thing.

And then I wondered about how I used to believe in Santa Clause, and now I don’t. And there was a time that I didn’t even know what a Santa Clause was, let alone worry about whether or not he was a concocted fantasy. I didn’t know who he was, then I was told about him and decided to believe in him, and later decided to discard this old belief. I began to wonder how it is possible to do the same thing with stage fright.

There was a time, obviously, when you didn’t know you were supposed to be afraid on stage. Then for some reason, some people learn to be afraid. What happens when you realize that fears are just a concocted myth, like Santa Clause, that you can easily learn to forget so that you can go back to being a kid again?

And that is when you can really start to find the cool stuff in life.

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Spinning New Beliefs

The other day I picked up a book of old Far Side cartoons. I can remember reading them when I was in high school. I was flipping through the pages randomly, and I came across one that I saw was pretty funny. It was of a spider, standing back looking at the web he had just constructed. You how you do, when you take the time to create something, and then you can’t help but to stand back and admire your work?

Like I had a Japanese friend once. She was telling me that Japanese enjoy their food twice. Once when it is prepared, and once when they eat it. If you’ve ever had the experience of eating a traditional Japanese meal, you know what I’m talking about. The colors, the smells, and porcelain dishes that are used. It is prepared with an almost religious ceremony, but not quite.

I understand that religion in Japan is quite different than in the west. In the west, you have churches, temples, mosques. In Japan, there are two main religions. Shintoism, and Buddhism. From what little I understand of Shintoism, the belief is that there is a Kami, or a god that resides in every living thing, even non living things depending on the branch you happen to be following. And they have Shrines set up all over that reflect this, on hills, riverbeds, city blocks.

I remember reading an article in the newspaper a while ago regarding this. It was kind of survey of the history of religion, looking at the difference between polytheistic societies, or societies that have more than one god, and monotheistic societies, or societies that only have one god.  And the author of the article was opining that polytheistic religions seem to be less ‘warlike’ than monotheistic religions. His argument was that they avoid the whole “my god is better than your god” fight that people get into so much. People that worship many gods, or worship one god, but realize that there are many gods to choose from, are somehow able to be more tolerant of other peoples beliefs.

Like the other day we met a business colleague from out of town, and he said he could only eat vegetarian food. We didn’t question his reasons or ask him why he was a vegetarian. On the way there, my friend told me that you need to be accepting of other peoples beliefs. Because you never know, someday they might be your beliefs.

We’ve all heard that before you criticize somebody, walk a mile in his shoes. It would be interesting if before people judged others, they could think a mile in their thoughts. Because when you try on new beliefs, the world tends to look a little bit different. And once you can free your mind up to try on different beliefs, a funny thing happens. You start to realize that you don’t have to abandon your old belief completely, or accept the new one completely. You can simply keep the parts of the new one that you want, and only get rid of the old parts that aren’t working so well. It’s pretty cool when you can do this on a regular basis.

Of course, the spider from the far side cartoon wasn’t too happy, because his web was all messed up, and he was thinking to himself “That can’t be right.” Which is ok, because if you are a spider, and you make a mistake, all you have to do is make another one. It’s not like you are going to run out of web spinning material, and there is certainly plenty of places to put your new ideas up.

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Make All Things New

Nothing ever new is invented. Or so they say. And they kind of have a point. Harry Potter has been compared to Star Wars, which has been compared to the Wizard of Oz. The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, has been compared to the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. The Ten Commandments, attributed to Moses, are said to be inspired by ancient laws taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

So what’s the point? It’s been said that when you begin to realize you can never really create something completely new unlike anything that has ever existed, it’s kind of comforting. It takes the pressure of. You can easily relax, because you know that building on previous accomplishments can give you a leg up. Many scientists admit they only have gotten where they are by standing on the shoulders of giants that came before them.

And this brings to light an interesting point about human nature. It can be comforting when you realize that all people have similar needs and desires. When you understand that most people really want the same thing underneath, it can make it easy to discover common ground when dealing with others. That is pretty much the basis of all contract negotiation. Discussing what both parties want, and figuring out to satisfy everybody. And in the end, more often than not, you may realize your needs, which you might have thought were far apart, are actually a lot more similar than expected.

On the flip side, of course, is the simple fact that everybody is different. Everybody has their own unique views and experience. You take several people and have them look at an abstract painting, and they all come up with a different interpretation, based on their own history, experience, and emotions. This can make meeting and getting to know new people one of the most wonderful experiences available. The more you expand yourself to seek and experience new ideas, the broader our perspectives grow to encompass things we never dreamed possible.

I was in a strange city once, talking to a friend over the phone. He was giving me directions on how to meet him the next day for lunch. They were fairly complex instructions, involving navigating a strange subway system, going in and out of multiple exits. The fact that all the signs were written in Japanese (a language I didn’t speak at the time) didn’t help. He ended the conversation by saying something surprising. He told me that because there were several subway lines and exits and landmarks to recognize and navigate, it was likely that I’d become lost and confused. He said “And that’s really awesome, because you can realize the opportunity, AND the excuse to talk to and get to know many people along the way.” Before then, I’d never thought that getting lost could be considered an opportunity.

It’s our differences, and out unique perspectives on the same things that everybody shares that gives us such a wonderful opportunity to experience life in new and exciting ways, even if we do the same things and see the same people every day.

How many ways can you find ways to experience something or someone new, today?

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Fishing for Results in a Sea of Certainty

Recently I’ve been eating a lot of fish. In fact yesterday, I amazed my friends with my announcement that I was regularly eating fish for breakfast. Well, not really. Surprised is probably a better word. Fish is really healthy. It’s too bad that people don’t have a natural craving for. Despite it’s obvious health benefits, many of my friends can’t stand the smell of it, let alone the taste. They say that it smells too, uh, fishy.

Catching fish is an interesting process. There are several different ways to catch fish. When most people think of catching fish, they usually imagine finding a place to sit close to the water, and have their fishing pole, and fishing gear nearby. Then you cast your line into the water, and wait for the fish to bite. Others like to use lures. And depending on what kind of fish you want to catch, you can use different lures. Like spinners, which you cast out, wait a few seconds, and then reel in. The lure spins as you reel it in, to create some type attraction for the fish that you want to catch.

I remember I was sitting with my brother once, on a lake in the mountains. We were fishing, and talking. He turned to me and said that this is one of those experiences, and you feel you must share this with others. Like when you find this interesting, and you want to show others. You want to see if they find this as interesting as you do. I don’t know if you’ve ever been able to experience something in such a way that you want to tell others about it, but I’m pretty sure you can imagine those things now that you’ve been able to experience in your own way.

Other ways to catch fish are commercial methods. For these, they use large nets to cast out, and catch many fish at once. This is kind of the opposite strategy. Instead of throwing out a small piece of bait, and trying to attract what you want, you go and find it. And grab it. In large quantities. It’s funny how that works.

Fishing for pleasure, you bait your hook, and hope the fish find you. And sometimes, sitting and waiting is the best part. Like with my brother. I don’t even remember if we caught anything, because I had such a good time just being able to enjoy the process.

Fishing for results, on the other hand, is something else entirely. You determine exactly what it is that you are after. You choose your tools, and you go and get exactly what it is that you want. You can use big nets, large boats, and whatever else you want to use at your disposal to get what you want, again and again, without any question that you will be successful.

And the cool thing about this is, is either way you can be successful. You can make a little effort, and enjoy the process of attracting what you want. Or you can determine exactly what it is that you want, and enjoy the certainty that you will undoubtedly get it. Again and again.

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Powerful Focus on the Present to Create an Automatic Future

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just stopped thinking about the future? I don’t mean forget your three year plan for a while, or even take a break from your exercise routine. I mean totally, completely live in the present. I read a book on dating that said the best thing to do when you meet somebody for the first time was to walk up to them completely cold. That is, not have any clue whatsoever what you were going to say until you actually opened your mouth and started talking. Just make it up right there, and let the words come out however they may.

Sounds pretty terrifying, and it is, at first. Then something really strange happens. You start to get really creative, and think of wonderful things to say right there, right in the moment. It’s like by releasing all the worry and anxiety about what you think you should say, you open yourself up to really pay attention to what is going on right here in front of you. And when you are talking to somebody, and you really feel present here, you can really begin to feel something special. It’s hard to describe if you have never been able to experience this, now.

I was reading a novel once, I believe it was The Vanished Man by Jeffrey Deaver. In this book, these cops were talking to an expert on magic and illusions. And he was saying that there really is no past, because all the memories we have are fairly inaccurate. And the present is unknown, which really only leaves us with the present. And when you focus too much on a future, through worrying about something that isn’t likely to happen, you lose mental energy. And when you bring up stuff from the past, that you don’t remember correctly anyways, you also lose mental energy.

By focusing your energy on the present, you can really begin to notice the abundance that has been around you all the time. Waiting patiently for you to dive into it and let the world know what it is you want.

Of course you always need to have an eye on the future, so that you can plan to be successful in the way that you want. It’s just as important to keep learnings from the past handy in case you discover an opportunity where you can apply them to receive immediate benefit. The trick is to leverage learnings from your past into your future by choosing the right actions and thoughts to have and do now, in the present. When you can optimize your present thoughts and actions, your future will pretty much take of itself. All you have to do is show up and meet it.

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Supercharge Your Life with Powerful Flexibility

So I was sitting there, waiting for the train. When I looked up the times on the internet, I mistakenly wrote down the train going the other direction, instead of the one going in the direction I wanted to go to. So I got on the train going the other direction, seeing I didn’t have any big plans, just to head downtown and maybe find a new coffee shop to hang out in. Funny how that works. You plan something, and then based on mistake or a whim, you can easily change your plans, that is if you can be flexible enough with your plans.

Some people make plans, but forget to dig deeper and uncover exactly why you are making your plans. Some people plan to do things because they think it is what other people expect them to do. Others plan based on what they did yesterday. I think It’s important to know the reasons for your plans, so if your plans don’t come through, you can always hold on to your reasons and put them someplace else that can be convenient. 

For example, my plan today was to find a nice quiet place to hang out, do some reading, some journaling, and dig into my thoughts to see if I can find something interesting that I’d forgotten was up there. Or maybe have a look around to maybe do re arranging or some general housekeeping type maintenance, which I’m sure you know is good to do from time to time.

But since I looked up the wrong time on the internet, I decided to catch the train going the other direction. I’d heard that there was a pretty decent shopping area that way, and since I’d never been there, I figured what the heck. I still had my backpack with my notebook, and pencils and pens to write with, so as long as I found a table that didn’t shake too much when I wrote, I’d be ok.

Turns out I was way more than OK.  I found a really cool little cafe that just opened a few months ago. They had some really tasty bagel sandwiches, and a really friendly staff and some pleasant background music against which I could easily write and think and arrange thoughts into more resourceful patterns.

Now had I gone in the right direction, I would have gone to the same coffee shop I’d already been to. I probably would have sat at the same table and eaten the same thing. Instead, I was able to discover something new, which was really there all the time. So when you think about it, I doubled a lot of things today. Before, I could only go one direction, but since I can now choose a direction, I have twice as many places to go. And because the new place I went to today is filled with restaurants, I now have twice as many restaurants to choose from. And because I can catch trains going both directions, I can be more flexible when deciding what time I have to leave.

It’s amazing how much the world opens up when you simply allow yourself to make mistakes, so that the unknown can become familiar and friendly. Because there are a lot of places in the world you can discover, and make friends with as you become used to doing new things for the first time. And one of the coolest things about that is you get to meet lots of new people along the way.

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