Momentary thoughts

Just a thought, but does anyone ever take a second to realize that life can change drastically at literally any single moment? Isn't the possibility of an unexpected spontaneous life altering occurrence exciting? 

I truly feel that there should never be a moment of boredom in life merely because of the endless possibilities and variability that life brings. 

Yeah, it's awesome to look forward to a vacation or an event planned but you don't always have to look forward sometimes you just look 'here'. The spontaneity of life and the second to second potential of amazingness is something to be excited about. I feel looking at life in this manner offers the opportunity to live at the edge of your seat like your constantly watching that raptor in the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park... but, in a good way. 

At any moment you can be at CVS shopping for Q-Tips and at the same exact moment Scarlett Johansson reaches for the same box and then you end up boyfriend and girlfriend. It can happen!

Your life path can be altered at any minute, and it sounds scary, but that's excitement and possibility. You never know what will happen, who you will meet, or what's next even if you have a plan. Whether that alteration is up or down it will lead you to a better place as long as you perceive it that way. So, if you ever need something to look forward to then just look forward to the potential of every moment. 

I don't know about you but I'm pumped to shop for some Q-tips.

Happy Friday the 13th.

HK

Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?

There is a very popular and truthful quote in Ferris Bueller's Day Off that I think a high percentage of people reading this are familiar with:

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know"... wait no, thats not it... It's..

  

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." 

When I moved to Los Angeles I came here with a heavy sense of adventure and high sensitivity for life. I still have both those in me but somewhere along the timeline of me being here there were times and there are times where I forget those feelings were what drove (literally and figuratively drove me here in my Acura) me here. As I get older time just goes faster and faster. The only reason I see for that is that I am slowly magnetizing more responsibility which eats up more of my time therefore exponentially expediting each day that passes. Sometimes I become forgetful to take a breath, stop and really look around. And, I hate that because I've always thought of myself as someone who is very conscience of that. 

I think slowing life down should be entered in to our DAILY routine. It is good to take a vacation once in a while to get away from all the hustling and bustling but I think quantifying these vacations to mini-daily-mental vacations does the mind, body and soul good. 

Get lost in what is around you by realizing what is around you. When you find yourself in the middle of a task, so entranced with completing the mission just randomly stop for 30 seconds. Really look at your surroundings to acknowledge whats around you. It levels me out at least.

This may sound heavy but somewhere along the line the human species became so obsessed with evolution, progression and technology that I feel a lot of us forget to peak inside of ourselves. All of our progression and innovativeness is SO important in so many ways but take a step aside once in a while from all this clutter to stop and look around because life really does move fast and it only moves faster as you stack more on your plate.

Don't miss it. 

HK

Decisions, Decisions..

"Riches begin with a state of mind, with definitiveness of purpose, with little or no hard work." - Napoleon Hill

The word riches aforementioned is completely subjective. It is not necessarily defined monetarily but can be if that is what you desire. DESIRE stems from a state of mind and is where it all starts. Desire is then proceeded by decision. If you desire something, whether it be money, to be the next great pianist, ball player, florist, yogaist (yogaist is a term I just created meaning one who practices or teaches yoga) or etc then stick with that DECISION and become obsessed with it until it is obtained.

By the way, this is coming from someone who used to be (I am still working on it) one of the most indecisive people in the world. Ask my mother, sister or brother in law. The weight of the world came upon my shoulders when I looked at a menu that read; penne vodka or fetticini alfredo. Do I want to wash it down with a Shirley Temple or do I just want a coke? HOW CAN I MAKE A SATISFIED DECISION WITH SO MANY OPTIONS?

I think I suffered from severe FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out. But the fact is, whether it be by decision or lack of decision you will in fact be "missing out" on something.

Do not fear making a decision because when it comes to all 'successful' people they have the ability to make a decision and stick with it. Do not fear of making a decision due to fear of making a wrong decision, either. Because I believe that if one makes a wrong decision and fails it is okay. Because as Napoleon Hill also stated, "Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater Benefit."

So, if that is the case, how can you go wrong making a decision?

*Disclaimer: If you are not seeing results to obtain what is desired, that does not mean give up. That means your current plan isn't working and you just need to revise your plan and try another!

- HK

To fail or not to fail..

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.” 

- Ben Okri

Be scared, we're human. 

But, an amazing part about being human is our ability to overcome. Overcome the fear and step out of your comfort zone. By stepping out of your comfort zone you are trying something new. (When I say trying something new it doesn't have to be as big and crazy as packing up and move to Croatia) By trying something new you may be more susceptible to making mistakes. GOOD. Make beautiful mistakes, or "failures", because each failure takes you closer and closer to your great success*. 

The way I see failing is that you need a perfect blend long term memory and short term emotional memory. I found an excerpt from a Johnny Cash quote that says it perfectly:

"You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it"

In the moment, when the mistake is realized you may feel an overwhelming wave of "what did I just do!"  Embrace that feeling, breath and realize the deed has been done so the only way to retroact is by remembering your failures by learning from it. Leading to growth and improvement. 

In one of my sales jobs I had a couple years ago we were taught to say to people who said "no, thank you" after our sales pitch by saying "thank you." It wasn't necessarily a lesson on etiquette but it was rather a "thank you for saying no, because I am now one more no closer to a yes". I see it as a similar analogy to our failures. The more we fail the closer we are arriving to where we are looking to get go. 

Let's be human. Let's be emotional and passionate. Let's try new things and gain a new perspective. Let's stop seeking control on other people and gain energy not from pulling it from each other but from the beauty that has been on this earth before us. Let's not be scared to tell each other how we feel unless your significant other asks if that dress makes her look fat, the answer is always "no". Let's leave everyone we meet in every encounter no matter how small or big just a little bit better off before they crossed your path. 

*  "To laugh often and much; 

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you Mr. Hooker in law for bringing this quote back to memory. 

HK

Heightened Expectations

So, recently I officially became a Real Estate Agent for Rodeo Realty. And, one of the first lessons  I have written down is that it is my duty to manage the expectations of our client. This duty not only applies to my clients but it relates to my self and our own life on a daily basis.

How many times have we prepared ourselves for a scenario that is approaching? Imagined how it is going to play out? Creating step by step what is going to happen which exponentially builds up stress and makes us sweat and say 'holy fuck!.' We attempt to predict what is going to happen because as human beings we are terrified of the unknown and the only way we will sleep at night is if we know how everything is going to unfold. Well, if you haven't realized it yet, you certainly will. Rarely does everything go as planned. So, manage your expectations. A high percentage of the time the way we foresee how a situation will pan out (I.E a date, a sales call, an interview, a surgery etc) turns out being a lot less hostile and much easier than anticipated. If you think back, how many times have you exhaled the air from your lungs after you went through 'it' and said, "that wasn't so bad." And, if it went as badly or worse than you imagined, well shit, deal with it - by the time you realize that it is just as bad your already in the shit storm anyway.

The stress that continually builds, from my unqualified psychiatric opinion, is fear. Fear doesn't exist. As corny on the cob as it sounds, fear doesn't exist in the real world. It is solely created in our own minds. I find that incredible. Sit down by your self, close your eyes and bring up that fear. Let it overwhelm you and think about why you are so scared. Why are WE so scared when it hasn't even happened yet? IT HASN'T HAPPENED! We fear something that hasn't even happened and might not even happen. After a lecture from a CEO, he made it clear to me how ridiculous that is. I am not saying don't be ignorant of what can happen but don't let it consume you because if you do then it WILL happen. The mind is a powerful son of a bitch so just like the saying coming from your mother, "I brought you in to this world and I will certainly take you out"; if your mind is powerful enough to create that expectation of negativity it is certainly powerful enough to destroy that expectation of negativity. Fake it til you make it even when you don't believe it yourself. Do it enough times and it becomes habit and then habit can become reality.


One Love.

HK

4 Quarters

“The real journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” - Marcel Proust (Thank you Andy)

Quite often I hear friends, family and even strangers in which I have brief encounters with hoping for a change. A change that is going to get them out of their "rut" to do something different with their lives. Well, the fact of the matter is you cannot hope to change. You cannot wait for change. YOU have to change. 

Start with the way you think. As simple as that. Change the way you think and perhaps you can change the environment rather than you waiting for the environment to change you. You can discover and come across new landscape but if you look at that landscape with the same eyes then it won't seem any different than where you were. I feel as if change is more exciting than scary. You cannot grow with out changing. So, I push the importance of keeping an open mind. Consider the other perspective and create your own future. New eyes will only lead to new experiences and perhaps the change you want.

Take a step outside because if you don't start with the way you do your things how do you expect different results?

Tupac Knows

I'll do this one myself..

Long time no write.

I'm going to make this brief like boxers. 

The cliche' is that we have no one to blame but ourself, si?

Well, I've always kind of over looked that in the past. But the more experiences I have been going through and the further out of my comfort zone I step, the more I realize the validity in that statement. At the end of the day there really is no one else to blame. (With the exception of when some asshole rear ended me at a red light because that was completely his fault) But, when it comes to pursuing things you want to do, or be (like happy), it is under your control. We literally have the ability to go for anything and I feel the reason that some don't believe in that statement aforementioned is because the fear of self liability. No one likes to be wrong or fail so to deflect it off them self we make excuses. So, people then avoid any opportunity that has a chance of failure. There is risk we cannot take but there is also the risk that we have to take to get where we want. 

I don't know about you but I have been more attentive in making sure I am not blaming anyone but myself. Because we can say anything you want out loud but when I do that I get that feeling inside of "I totally am lying to myself right now." It's like pumping out those last couple push ups at the gym and the last two reps you know you did not go down all the way. You KNOW you didn't, but you still tell people you did 100 when you did 98. That may be a bad analogy but sometimes having that internal conversation with yourself can reveal a lot. 

What I am saying is the more you accept responsibility the more opportunities will present itself. I'm doing my best to accept fear and jump in naked.. butt ass. Because the fact is everyone is scared. Everyone, in every situation, no matter what they say. The best of the best at whatever it is are scared too. But they do what they have to just dive in and just Nike that shit.. JUST DO IT.

Life really isn't all that scary. I'm quoting some big heavy rapper on this one but, "N*ggaz bleed just like us".

HK