Success Starts Here!

You know you do it. We all do. Even people who say their only resolution is not to make a resolution do it. They just don't tell anybody. Let's face it, New Years just happens to be a seemingly logical start point to us reaching our goals, whatever they might be. That is why we are all so drawn to making resolutions. Sadly, we also know very few people actually succeed at accomplishing their resolutions. Just look at any gym the first week of January. You can barely walk there are so many people. By March, only the loyal few are still there. So what is the secret? What allows those "loyal few" to succeed where the vast majority of those who begin with the best intentions, ultimately fail? I believe it is two very specific things which separate those who will reach the year 2013 with successes in their resolutions and the majority of us who will be resolving yet again 12 months from now to do it all over again. I believe the secret to goal/resolution success are these

As Christmas day quickly approaches, those who celebrate the holiday are rushing to get last minute gifts, finish up last minute plans for get-togethers, and just hustling and bustling to prepare for the big day. Christmas has always been a very, very special holiday for my family and I. It has also regularly been the sharpest reminder the Army I serve is a jealous mate who regularly reminds me my allegiance to it must come before all other things. This has been the reality of my life for 21 years. It comes with the territory and at the end of the day I signed up for it and am proud of my service to my country. I hold no anonymity towards my Army. Luckily for me, my family has stood in support of me every time I have had to endure this holiday alone and far from home. So have my friends who always remind me I am not forgotten even when half a world away. This year, for what I hope will be the last time, I am literally half a world away from those I love. I believe in my mission and I

The holidays are upon us. We are all scurrying around between work and activities and the extra pressures of preparing for the respective traditions we participate in during this time of year. As some of you know, I'm just the type of geek who ponders the meanings of many things and who always looks for what might be learned from life. In this case, I thought of how interestingly the various world religions celebrate their most festive holidays. It may not seem like they have much to do with each other. I mean what do Hindu holidays celebrating the birth of Krishna have to do with Christian holidays celebrating the birth of Jesus? How do I tie the Muslim Ramadan to the Jewish Hanukkah? Oh, and then there's that chubby elf with a big beard and that red suit of his. Well, we'll leave the elf alone on this one. To me, if there is anything to be learned from these holidays and if there is any similarity among them, it is that good people long ago did noteworthy things which b

Well its not "Thanksgiving" day yet back in the states. It is here in Korea where I'm currently stationed. Before I forget, may all of you who celebrate this special occasion find great joy today in your families and loved ones and the memories of those who once touched your lives. I've been so busy the last few days I haven't had the chance to jot down some notes about the topic of giving thanks. But I have a few moments now so here goes. First, many years ago I was quite a negative person. I had to "learn" and then practice being a positive, thankful, appreciative person until it became a part of me. I couldn't be happier with the me I am right now. Believe me, there are A LOT of things I don't like about myself, but the one thing I truly am happy for, is my ability to look at the bright side of things. Every morning when I wake up, I spend just a quick minute laying there thanking my God for all the great things he has done for me. Its ok i

As I write this we are exactly 49 days from wishing each other a Happy New Year. As I look forward to New Years 2012 and reminisce back to New Years 2011, I was reminded of some of my posts almost a year ago. Many were designed to hopefully spur myself and anyone nice enough to read my blog into action. I spoke regularly throughout the early part of the year about New Years Resolutions and reminded my readers to please push towards their goals so that during this time of the year, they'd be closer to them than not. As is every year, I can pretty safely say many of us probably didn't follow my advice, me included. Too many times I looked for excuses not to work out, too much stuff I had to have to worry about making smart financial decisions, too many hours at the office away from my family because some project which really wasn't that important came before my loved ones. I had opportunity after opportunity to move closer towards my goals and yet, I didn't. I'm just

Veteran's day is a little bit of a strange holiday for me. Soldiers are a little different than the rest of the population.  We do what we do and we know it is in defense of our country, our constitution, and most importantly our citizens. Having said that, we aren't big on attention. We don't expect anything from our fellow citizens other than hoping they fulfill their full potential as Americans. Even if it means they use that potential to hate us as soldiers. Today I'm reminded of the experience of Corporal Dave Stevenson. Corporal Stevenson left for Vietnam when I was a baby. He left the summer of 1970. During his tour in Vietnam he was hit four times. He fought for 24 months straight. No idea if he would even return alive. His fourth "hit", the damage to his body was so significant, that he was finally sent home. He came home to a country that hated him and a population which blamed him for the "war". I remember hearing this motivational speake

Most of us will be sending our kiddos out to get their Halloween candy this weekend while the actual holiday is Monday. Halloween is that one day of the year when we can all dress up as ghouls and goblins, sexy or scary, and have a little fun acting like children again. It is a special day in my mind because for one day adults, teens, and children are all on the same level. Just having some fun. As a society we don't do that nearly enough. I submit to you my friends that Halloween doesn't have to be the only day we play dress-up. While this day in particular is solely for fun, we can use the lessons of this day to help ourselves be successful the other 364 days of the year, if we'll only learn and apply those lessons. I've spoken of Napoleon Hill in many of my prior posts. To say he is a personal hero of mine is sort of an understatement. Mr. Hill spent a lifetime studying the wealthy and successful. One of the lessons he learned was many of them created themselves in

On this day in 1492, by mention in his own log, a man named Christopher Columbus discovered what would become the Americas. A place which had indeed already received European visitors from the likes of the Nordic tribes and ultimately, the original descendants of this hemisphere, the natives whose ancestors walked across the then land-bridge between Siberia and what we call Alaska today to populate every area from Alaska down to the southern tip of Chile. We all heard the story in 4th grade so I'm not going to get specific about the trip. What I want to focus on is the kind of courage it took a relatively regular guy, to make arguably the most important land discovery the world had ever known. It sounds so stupid today but let's face it, in Columbus' day, practically every human being on earth thought the world was flat. A large percentage of people believed the seas literally fell off a cliff in the horizons and went straight to hell. If this is all you know, if this is

Remember when playing the stereo at full power was the only way to listen to a good rock song? Remember when we did crazy things with our hair? Remember when we knew "exactly" how our life was going to turn out? Oh, and remember how "old people" in their 20s and above, let alone our ancient parents just couldn't understand us? I suspect regardless of your age, you can relate. There has always been a cultural divide between older and younger generations. For most people my age, we are now the "ancient" parents. Yet a recent Princeton study concluded the cultural separation between older and younger generations which is a natural and positive thing as we transition through the stages of life, is wider than ever before which is having a negative, visible and dangerous effect on us as a society. I, in my non-scientific, "this is what I think" method, have also come to some conclusions about this great divide. My biggest conclusion, its our faul

On the ground level of the Pentagon there is a small chapel which stands at the very site where American Airlines Flight 77 made impact with the building. It is a quiet, serene place I visited shortly after its opening a few years back. Just outside the chapel itself is a memorial area with information on the victims who perished that day. One of them, a gentleman whose name escapes me, is the only man listed as a fallen casualty at both the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. An inscription tells his story. I remember reading he was a government civilian. He wasn't at the Pentagon that day; he was away on business. Had he been there he would have died in the attack as his office was one floor up from the chapel, in the exact spot where the giant jet-engine of Flight 77 would have torn into the building. Sadly and ever so tragically, the gentleman didn't escape the terrifying events that day. When flight 77 ripped through his office in the Pentagon, the gentleman had already

I'm a fan of the movie Rocky. Pretty much every single one except Rocky V cause that was um, well, every franchise series has to have a little room for a flop in there. Having said that, I love the premise of a "nobody" becoming a somebody. I love the idea of the underdog and I find myself always identifying with characters who fit that mold, both in theaters and far more importantly in person. I have a lot of friends and I will tell you my closest are a hodgepodge of average, regular folks who can be just a little on the crazy side. They're regular people with all the problems, issues, flaws and insecurities I have. I am by far not the strongest, fastest, or most perfect guy. I am far from a natural. I think the only thing I've ever been a natural at is talkin' smack, eating, sleeping, and watching tv. I'm actually pretty good at those things. Other than that though, all those things which would actually help me? Nope, not a natural at any of them. I h

This week has been an eventful one in my household; sending our older son off to college and getting our younger one ready for his freshman year of high school starting next week. It has been a busy and emotional week for our family. This week I've had to remind myself multiple times, something I learned a long time ago which has served me well. Be "in the right now." Be "in the moment." Too many times the milestones in our lives come and go without much fanfare and later we are left with an emptiness as we look back. 2,500 years ago, a guy named Siddhartha Gautama was figuring out all kinds of things on his way to "Enlightenment." One of the things he learned through trial and error and a cornerstone of the movement he began which was eventually called Buddhism was to be in the moment. To be in the right now. To truly treasure the moments of your life "as" they were happening. In our 24/7 go, go, go world very few people do that anymore.

Well for most of my friends on the east coast this has been one heck of a few days. Hurricane Irene definitely made an impact on all our lives this weekend and as I write this she is still battering my home state of Massachusetts. Hurricanes, like other natural disasters are interesting phenomena. They are mother nature's unfortunate spring cleaning mechanisms. They destroy everything in their path. Yet something interesting happens after the hurricane; life always returns. Life is so incredibly resilient. It exists in places life really shouldn't exist. From boiling sulfuric vents in the bottom of the ocean, to aresenic-filled lakes in Latin America, to the coldest ends of Antarctica and the driest spots of the Sahara, life somehow finds a way. As surely as a wildfire will singe entire forests, after the last embers have cooled, seeds will seemingly miraculously begin to grow plants out of the ashes. As surely as this hurricane has knocked trees down, pushed houses into the

In this era of coddling youngsters, of buying them everything they want, of not daring to raise your hand to discipline them, of 2-year olds knowing exactly how to get their way with dear old mom and dad by throwing a hissy-fit at Walmart to get that toy they want, I am probably somewhat of a relic. I'm more of an "old-school" parent. I can't tell you my way of parenting is better or worse than anyone else but I can tell you it is the only way I would want to parent. A recent article in the Associated Press noted that for the first time in history, moms (the story was about mother/daughter relationships) spent more time trying to "be" like their daughters than the other way around. Really? Are you kidding me? Come on! There is a particular dynamic to parenting and trying to look like your 16 year old daughter and wear what she wears and listen to what she listens to when you're 45 so her friends will like you is darn-right ridiculous and shameful. Good

A recent paper by a researcher at the University of Cambridge suggests the first person who will live to 1,000 has already been born. The author purports genetic medicine is advancing at such a rate, science will literally be able to "cure" old age within the next 10 years in laboratory animals and the next 25 in humans. If that is the case, I don't know how I feel about it. Sort of seems like a huge change to our human experience. Someday not too far in the future, my romanticized ideas of life and death, of the human experience may be as ridiculous as the earth being flat I assume. Yet, until sience proves me a neandrathol of a bygone era, I will continue to believe the human experience, what makes us who we are, is a cycle which begins at birth and lasts long after our death. I believe we already have the ability to live forever. Not in the sense science measures, but in a far more important way; we survive in the lives we touch. Yeah that probably seems corny but co

Over the years I have had the opportunity to meet thousands upon thousands of people in my travels and here at home. I've had the chance to make some amazing friends along the way and I've been able to observe some of them make great strides in their lives while others fail miserably (I have personally experienced both ends of that spectrum). There are many factors in success or failure of course but in my opinion the most significant variable is you . I believe we all have a base, a default setting. That base is very powerful and is a combination of our genetics (what we picked up from mom and dad) and our experiences. It is that state which you always find yourself defaulting to. For me it is a lazy procrastinator who views the world just a little bit on the pessimist side. My base individual is one who is constantly in fear of failure and of ending up where I started. Why do I feel this way? Well I don't know exactly but I know growing up in a very poor environment whe

I have a friend who is always wondering "why" this happened or "why" that happened to him. He lives in this constant emotional state where he feels like everyone and everything is out to get him. He wonders why bad things happen to him all the time. Of all my friends; the funny one, the successful guy, the one who has the seemingly perfect life, he is the "victim". Recently he asked me why I thought something or other happened to him and I said (rather callously I'm embarrassed to say) "did you ever think that maybe it is your own damn fault?" I'll be honest, I felt bad saying it. I'm usually the guy everyone comes to talk to. I'm usually the guy who will sit there and listen and try to share words of encouragement. Usually because most people who come to you with problems don't actually want you to fix them. They just need an unjudging ear to bend to let out their frustrations. So I try to be that person. Having said that,

You might remember Chris Medina. He was a 2010 American Idol contestant. More specifically, he was the contestant whose fiancee had suffered a horrible vehicle accident and sustained permanent brain damage. The reason he was memorable wasn't for his talent or her accident, but the fact he stayed by her side even after it was evident she would never fully recover from her injuries. This wouldn't be so uncommon if it wasn't for the fact it is uncommon. Chris promised he would stay by her side through thick and thin long before her accident. Two years earlier, he took a knee at a Starbucks where Juliana worked and asked her to marry him. She accepted and he pledged he would be by her side until the end of time. In our throw away society where we don't fix anything anymore, we just throw it away and buy a new one, relationships have taken a toll. Many people take the same attitude towards relationships they take with "things". Everybody loves the honeymoon stage

I was reading about a series of Buddhist writings which were recently discovered (cause reading about Buddhist scrolls is what a cool guy like me does on a Saturday night). The books were placed in clay jars about 2,000 years ago and hidden away in caves. Taliban members found them sometime around 1997 and since they had no use for the "rubbish" sold the writings as junk to a British archeologist. Scholars called it the Gandhari Canon. Does that ring a bell? It probably should since the Jewish/Christian Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a very similar way in 1947. Similar to what was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, experts began sifting through the early writings in hopes of figuring out which current Buddhist teachings were the "real" ones. What they found was unbelievable and yet at the same time so obviously predictable it really shouldn't take a PhD to figure out. They found the early writing had little bits of all the current Buddhist sects. Just like the D

Independence Day weekend is here and while I know the overall holiday holds a similar meaning to all of us, I am of the belief Independence holds a unique meaning to each of us. For some, it was that first slumber party as a child. For some, the first day of college. Yet for others it is a day which holds a collective feeling. Ultimately though, Independence means one thing, freedom. Over my career I have been fortunate enough to participate in a number of historical military events. Alone they were nothing but grown men and women in uniform fighting for grown men and women in business suits. All by itself it sounds pretty silly and ridiculous. Yet, as you step further back and look at the context of the bitter wars which have occured during my time in uniform; wars such as the first Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fundamental truths and ideology which I believe in to the death were reason enough for me to feel I was doing the

Change!!!!!!! If there is one thing we humans don't like, it is change. Summer is full of it. It's the one season when the most change happens in our lives statistically. High School kids head off to college. College students head into the "real" world. More people get married and have kids in the summer than any other time of the year. More people move and start new jobs in the summer than any other time of the year. Summer is all about change and change is scary. We humans like things just the way we like them. So change is not usually welcome, even when we aren't in the best situations. That is why so many of us do the same exact thing day after day, month after month, year after year, and complain the entire time that nothing ever "changes". We are a HOT MESS the lot of us. Yet no other species on earth is better at adapting to change than us (well, maybe roaches, but we'll keep roaches out of it). No other species is better equipped to turn cha

I have friends who are stuck in an era. You know, that girl at the office who still uses a can of hairspray every morning to puff up her 80s Debbie Gibson look, the guy who wears nothing but Def Leopard black t-shirts and listens to nothing but the 70s rock station in his car, people like that. Luckily for me, I'm not like that. I consider myself a pretty "hip" guy. That right there should tell you I'm not, but I like to fancy myself a man of the times. I have a social media presence, I watch Youtube videos, I know the latest music in the top 40, I have an idea of the latest fashions (not that I wear any of them), the latest tastes in cuisine, the cool tv shows, the new trends. I am pretty damn hip. That is, until I speak to my 14 year old. There are thousands, no millions of videos on Youtube, so when I want to impress my 14 year old, I talk to him about the lastest "viral" video spreading across the net. He normally gives me the "ohmygodthatvideocam

First, Happy Father's day to all the dads out there, past, present, and future. I looked at my Facebook page earlier and a friend posted a story which said FB profile pics had reached new highs today with members placing photos of their fathers for the day. It was pretty neat to see so many of my friends' dads as their profile pics. So many black and white photos, so many old ones, very cool. I know each photo held a special place in each individual's heart. Most of the pics were of bygone eras; with times, dates and people lost to the world and only significant in their memories. Yet most of the dads seemed to have that "oh yeah, I'm the man" look :). I'm sure they once were. One cool thing about father's day in my opinion is we honor that guy who was once the king of cool to us. The guy who was the strongest man on earth, the smartest human in the universe (well to everyone but mom usually). Most dads are considered heroes to their kids at one point

Well about 24 hours ago, in a moment of holistic goodness (I might have been eating granola at the time), I decided I was going to deactivate my Facebook account. Not permanently, but for some unspecified time which I called "the summer". I didn't lock myself down to actual dates just in case this would be harder than I expected but I mean come on, it’s just a stupid website. There are a million other websites and social environments online. I wouldn't even notice it was gone. Fast forward till 7pm last night. There I am, staring at a blank Google search engine page, feeling a little sick to my stomach and confused as to what to do. Hours earlier I had said my goodbyes to my close friends on Facebook who saw me off with words of encouragement reminiscent of eulogies as I disappeared into the internet sunset like a cowboy disappears into the western plain. Now, I was a free man. Mark Zuckerburg could no longer control me. I was free to roam the internet as I pleased.