I was watching the playoffs, you know, the one where the Broncos lost to the Colts. Nevermind. Just nevermind.

  Self-Discipline can sometimes feel like you're cracking the whip on yourself. Not letting yourself get away with mediocrity is essential to breaking through creative blocks, financial pitfalls, or reaching new heights in your physical development. Self-Discipline can help you turn crappy situations into golden opportunities. Nike says "Just Do It." But personally, sometimes I can't "Just Do it". Sometimes I need a little extra push, shove, nod, or even earthquake to get me to "just do it". Caffeine you say? Yes, but things like energy drinks and "magic pills" are just a crutch for internal characteristics that some people have not developed. Using caffeine and "other remedies" to help you to "just do it" is like playing a game and using all the cheat codes to beat the final boss, bad guy, monster. But, then again, I value the mentality of getting it done by any means necessary. Just do it.   

Mesothelioma Information and Symptoms   I've been watching the news and commercials on TV lately, and it seems like a new legal craze has hit the mainstream health community. More specifically, lawyers are smelling blood. Victims of mesothelioma are seeing dollar signs for retribution, while negligent corporations are seeing dwindling profits from settlements. If there is one thing that corporations, lawyers, and victims of mesothelloma have learned, is that exposing people to asbestos can have huge financial consequences.   Symptoms of Mesothelioma: 1. Anemia  2. Blood Clotting Disorder 3. Bowel Obstruction  4. Chest Pain 5. Dysphagia  6. Fluid Effusion  7. Hemoptysis 8. Nausea 9. Peritoneal Effusion 10. Pleural Effusion  11. Weight Loss

Failure. I'm not going to lie. But failure sucks. It's like running into an invisible wall. We can't predict the future. We can only look back through the rear view mirror and move on. The trick though, is moving on. How do you know when to move forward, or stop and regroup. I'm not going to write the specifics, but yesterday I was at 25% (use your imagination) and today I dropped, freaking fell, to 0 percent. Now, I kept all the constants the same. Nothing was different. This just goes to show that you must always, always, again ALWAYS account for the unexpected, because life will throw things at us beyond our control. The only thing we can control, is our self control. How we react to the unexpected. I failed today at my particular endeavor. But I am determined to win tomorrow. 

Time. The typical human being sleeps for 8 hours. He then wakes up and heads to the shower, eats breakfast, and then works his 9 to 5 shift for 8 hours. There's only 24 hours in the day and 16 of them are spent sleeping and working. This leaves only 8 hours in the day for personal growth. But really, when you subtract the time spent in traffic, lunch break, phone calls, and emails, you're looking at probably only 4 hours of real quality time for family and personal growth. But what really shocks me, actually upsets me is that if you maintain this type of behavior and live to be over a 100 years old, one third of your life (about 33 years) will have been spent sleeping. Let's say that you retire at 65 and you have been working since you were 18, that's 47 years of labor. And to be honest, how much of our free time do we spend watching TV and surfing the internet? I realized that time is more valuable than money (unless you can perform a labor once that will give you enough money to have more free time). I can always make money, I can't always be in my 20's. In essence, the ones that we label as brilliant or are ultra contributors to our social systems, are actually the ones who make best use of their time. They know who they should not spend their time with. They understand places they shouldn't be and the focus that certain things should not get. That doesn't mean that the things they ignore are unworthy. On the contrary, it just means that they have a laser sharp focus on what really matters to them and everything else might as well not exist.

There has been a lot of things running through my mind the last few weeks. First of all, how do we know that we are on the right path? Actually, how can we be sure that a "right" path exists? I would like to think that I am the CEO of my life, the president of my decisions, but sometimes it seems like I allow outside influences to stunt my growth. Its the second week of the new year, and I am feeling like I am in more control over my life than I have ever been. Im ready to step it up to a higher level of acheivement and growth.