Be Brave Not Safe

By now, some may be asking:

• Where does he come up with this stuff? Some, I’m sure, are likely saying garbage 🙂
• Why does he write about this stuff?

I’ll address the questions in that order…

Where do I get this stuff?

With a family of 6, including 3 college students (2 living at home) and a senior in high school as well as having gone through lots of trials, errors, injuries, insults and heartbreaks myself, I have enough fodder to keep me going for years.

We haven’t even scratched the surface 🙂 Enough said about that?

Why do I write about this stuff?

This, I think, is the more important question.

First, if you haven’t done so, please refer to a couple of my introductory posts:

• About – this blog
• Be Brave Not Safe – Defined

Once you’ve gone through the above, I “hope” it is clearer. If not…A major purpose for this blog is to record life lessons that I’ve learned so they can be passed on to my 4 boys (maybe their kids one day), nieces, nephews and anyone else who might benefit.

Quite simply, it is my sincerest hope that others have an opportunity to “Live Their Dream.”

I wouldn’t want all my life lessons to vanish if I were to “evaporate” somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, on my way home from Bermuda (where my wife and I are, at the moment). Below is a picture of Tobacco Bay: “one of” the spots we snorkeled during the week.

One way to make life more enjoyable is to avoid activities (even STRESS) that are complete wastes of time. There are very simple practices that we can put in place to make this (more) possible.

Example: Where are my keys? We’ve all been there.

Seeing someone frantically searching THE ENTIRE HOUSE for their keys is hysterical. While they are going around in circles the best we can do is shake our head and ask “why, oh why, do they do that – TO THEMSELVES?!?” And, if they should observe our amusement they start throwing choice words at us, as if it is our fault…

What if there were only 3 places that we’d (normally) store our keys:

• In our pocket or purse (when away from home AND the car)
• In our car (can’t say ignition, as many cars no longer have a keyhole for that purpose)
• Hanging on the wall / fridge next to the front door

This is a simple (maybe dumb?) example, but you get the picture. This concept can be applied pretty much across the board. The result: freeing up time for more fun / productive activities and significantly reducing stress as we go about our day-to-day routines.

I know, I know, some may say: “Come on, why would I do these silly little things. I have more important uses of my time.” Do you?

Just remember this post next time you waste several minutes in a stress-induced frenzy as you try to locate your keys on the way out the door to an important appointment 🙂

Life can be so much simpler…That’s all I have to say about that…

In a prior post I shared thoughts on the “Art of Miscommunication“ focusing on the misuse of text and email, and followed up with the first, of two posts, on the “Art of Good E-Communication.” The goal: encourage “us” to make best use of these very effective tools to avoid miscommunication, embarrassing situations and present ourselves as courteous and professional contributors to society (a.k.a., position ourselves to EARN MORE $!).

Now, for texting

I’ve found texting to be very effective in sharing short bursts of information or asking a quick question, which would hopefully result in a short / immediate response. Good examples include:

• To my wife: “@ Walmart, need anything?”
• To my colleague: “Con call started, RU joining?”
• To my kids: “Will UB home 4 supper?”

I’m sure some are LOL (laughing out loud) as they could further collapse these verbose messages into far fewer characters. But, so far, I haven’t gotten into trouble texting 🙂

In my opinion, texting is NOT a method to carry-on meaningful conversations. And, it doesn’t (yet?) offer a way to “manage” information (past conversations, important facts, follow-up actions, etc.) for future reference (next week, month or year) the way email does.

Bottom-line: If there is a need or desire for “meaningful conversation” (Can I get more hours at work next week? Why were my hours cut? Why aren’t you responding to my texts?) it is time to get on the phone or meet face-to-face. If we take this approach, and only use text for what “truly” requires an immediate response to an important question, we are much more likely to actually get that necessary response. If, on the other hand, our phones are constantly alerting us to a bunch of ongoing “chat streams” it becomes pure “noise.” We then become numb to it and don’t respond promptly to those truly “important” texts.

By the way, the above becomes increasingly important with the introduction of “wearable” devices. Have a look at the Apple Watch, announced earlier this week. AMAZING! As you can imagine, these devices (and I plan on having one, once available) have small screens. I anticipate (but certainly don’t know for sure) that these screens will be conducive to reading short texts, but “may” not be so, for long / verbose text conversations and/or emails. That said, I could be wrong: I often am 🙂

REMINDER: I share the above for those who wish to present themselves as highly competent, courteous, even professional contributors to society. If you don’t care about these objectives you’ve probably already stopped reading this post 🙂