Tag Archive - Life

The Sound of Quitting

October 20, 2009 in Leadership, Life with 3 Comments

I got this picture from a friend who was able recently to tour the Navy Seals training facility in San Diego. Notice two things in the picture: the row of helmets and the bell. This is the bell they must ring if they decide to quit during the intense qualification time (think Lone Survivor). After they ring the bell, they lay their helmet down in this row as a monument to those who didn’t make it.



My friend was being given a tour by a current Seal. He asked the Seal, “What causes someone to ring the bell?” His answer: “I have no idea, I would never ring that bell. You’ll have to ask one of the guys that did.”


I wonder what emotions you’d feel as you approached the bell and then physically went through with ringing it? What does your hand feel like as you grab the rope? Does it sound different to you than the others that hear it?


More importantly, what if there were a bell for us whenever we took the easy way out on something instead of pushing through the conflict? Would we try harder? Would we give it more time? Would that actually be a deterrent for us? But I also realize, based on the Seal’s answer to my friend’s question, that there are essentially two types of people: those that can fathom ringing the bell, and those that have no idea what that would be like. So which one are you?

How I Harnessed the Wind

October 19, 2009 in Leadership, Life, Social Justice with 3 Comments

This is an incredible story. What have you dreamed about doing lately?




A Chilling Irony

October 7, 2009 in Life, Reading with 3 Comments

Don’t know how I missed this one in July, but in talking with my Dad this morning he told me of the recent controversy of Amazon deleting illegal copies of the book 1984 from user’s Kindles. The irony of this story, to any who have read this book, is so unbelievable that I’m amazed I’m seeing this on verified news agencies and not in Hollywood.


Click here to read the article. Here is my favorite quotes from it: “‘Of all the books to recall,’ said Charles Slater, an executive with a sheet-music retailer in Philadelphia, who bought the digital edition of ’1984′ for 99 cents last month. ‘I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased.’”


Apparently most Kindle users didn’t even realize Amazon had the ability to do this. It seems that they’ve designed their very own system of “memory holes.” Makes me glad I haven’t jumped on the Kindle bandwagon yet. It would be like me going to my bookshelf to reference one of my books and it has mysteriously vanished. I’d be a little ticked.


I’d love to hear your feedback on this. What do you think of Amazon’s ability to delete books? Are we on track to 1984 or is this blown out of proportion? Would this hinder your desire to buy a kindle, or does this not bother you at all?

Short Term Memory

August 17, 2009 in Family, Life with 2 Comments

As I’ve watched Gavin grow and develop over the last nine months, I’ve come to a shocking realization: adults could never be babies. Let me explain.


I don’t know what the first memory that you have is. I’m not counting what you’ve seen on home movies or in pictures, but what you can actually remember yourself. Most of us start at a few years old and anything beyond that is left up to our parents’ memories. So I guess you could say that babies have an extreme sense of short term memory. Normally this phrase implies something very negative. We criticize people for having short term memory or we fear that we’ll suffer from it when we get older. But as I’ve watched my son develop I’ve realized that short term memory has some huge advantages that we seem to overlook.


As a baby grows, he needs to learn everything about life: how things work around him, how his own body works, how he interacts with people, etc. Each of these is learned through trial and error. Gavin will attempt to stand up, then fall on his face and cry. But the amazing thing is, he’ll try it again only moments later. Put an adult in this situation, and they’d conclude that it hurt the first time so they better keep things the way they are. In a bizarre sense of irony, babies are able to develop much faster than adults because they want it more. To them, it is all about trying–>failing–>trying again–>learning. Most of the time for adults it looks like this: trying–>failing–>reflecting–>quitting.


So if we had to insert our current selves into our bodies when we were less than a year old, we’d never develop into the people that we are today. We got to where we are by a foundation of short term memory and a persistence to keep growing even after numerous failures. But life has taught us to hold onto those painful memories and avoid repeating them at all costs. We pride ourselves in our long-term memory. But are we missing out on more of life? Has your long-term memory caused you to stop developing as a person? If it has, then it’s time to start acting like a kid.

Competitive Fitness

July 23, 2009 in Life with 2 Comments

Competitive FitnessI started going to a gym about a week and a half ago called Competitive Fitness. It is in Chandler and it has a unique approach to helping you get in shape.


Every membership comes with personal training. The gym isn’t filled with a bunch of machines like your typical gym because the idea isn’t that you go in for a bit and work out by yourself. Instead, there is one workout a day that everybody does, and then they write your time or weight on a whiteboard. This creates an awesome community feel to it since everyone is doing the same thing. It is also tremendously encouraging since there is always someone to walk you through the excercises and encourage you along the way. Most workouts can be done in about 15 minutes or less. They use a system called Crossfit (think P90x in shorter time).


So far I feel great and I feel overall much more healthy and strong. If you are looking for something to help you get in shape, definitely check them out.

Page 3 of 5«12345»