Life - Changing in an Instant

This morning I was filming some workout tips for another blog that I maintain. Interestingly enough (or perhaps ironically enough, as I don’t know how totally interested you will be) I managed to twist my back just a tiny bit and now I am bent over double in pain. Why was it ironic, you may ask. I was doing a piece on working out and talking about avoiding injury during a work out. Nice, huh?

The injury occurred before I began filming. I was moving the bench that I was going to be lying on for the lifting portion of the demonstration. Unbeknownst to me my son had a few dumb bells on the floor by the bench and when I went to move the bench there was an extra 25 pounds. An unknown obstacle and an unsuspecting force…and down I went. *groan*

Why do I share my pain? Not to gain sympathy, although that would be appreciated, but to say, we never know from one moment to the next what is going to hit us. So if you are putting things off until tomorrow, remember that tomorrow may not come, or it may find you in an entirely different state of being.
Quite a feather in her cap

Quite a feather in her cap

One of my favorite quotes from Janis Joplin is “Tomorrow never comes man. It’s all the same f*ing day” There was something in there about cats, too, but I’ll leave that to Janis. She was a person who embraced life and didn’t give a crap about what people thought. She did what she thought she ought to do, and if you didn’t like it, well, too bad.

She also had a lot of issues, but I’ll also leave that alone. The point is my back spasms, a temporary thing, could have just as easily been something different. Situations arise and some of them we have no control over, so you know, don’t put things off until tomorrow. It’s all the same day, and we need to take care of things now.

This is rambling a bit, and that I’ll admit, but if there is something you need to say or do, take care of it. Appreciate what you have and what you could have if you would just reach out and bridge that gap, hold out a hand to someone that you know and let them know you are there, and you care.

Appreciation and gratitude are two of the biggest pieces to the mindset of success.
My "Other" Blog

Laid Off - Heading to a New Day

Thursday I got laid off. This came as a total shock to me, although probably it shouldn’t have. I was told, don’t know if this is true or not, that I was just the first of a small group that was being let go. I was talking a vacation day (comp time) Friday, so I was first in line. Everyone who gets laid off, gets laid off on Fridays, or so I am told. Except me. So when is a three day weekend, not a three day weekend? When it’s the start of an extended lay off.

Not extended, because there is going to be no recall. Now my side efforts are building, but not making money yet. We are close to breakthrough on a number of projects, so I can hope that perhaps soon, I won’t need a traditional job at all. Time will tell.

The funny thing about the layoff is that I had joked with Deb about quitting and going to the unseminar in Texas with her. I said let’s live on the edge, I’ll just quit and go with you. I also had a dream that I was going to be laid off. I should trust my instincts.

I was already putting in applications prior to getting laid off, so perhaps I did know that it might be coming. I had been handed the job of safety manager, which I had emphatically told them I did not want. I told them that when I was hired. I told them that at my review. Then they gave that position to me, on top of the training job. Same pay, of course, as they said and others have said to me “You’re lucky to have a job.” Well, that’s done with now.

I don’t have sour grapes. I offered to do training for them as a consultant, and I think they are going to take me up on that. Of course it depends what they are going to pay me whether I do it or not, but the bridges aren’t burned. Walls turned sideways are bridges. Have you ever heard that saying? It’s a quote from Angela Davis. I am looking at this as a bridge for sure. A bridge to a life I’ll be more happy in.

It’s also said that when a door closes a window opens. I have always been a glass is half full kind of guy. How many more clichés can I throw in here?

If anyone knows of any training gigs, let me know. I can teach OSHA stuff, Forklifts, Cranes, Communications, MS Office. Most of those I have certificates to teach, with the exception of office, but that I have been using effectively for many years and can teach basics of it very easily. I am mostly looking for consultant type work. One time or repetitive gigs, and I am also open to a ‘real job.’

Life is good.