Gotta Laugh at Yourself

It's Friday! I don't know if that has anything to do with my especially good mood but I am certainly in one this morning. I woke up and could tell today was going to be a good day. Don't ask me how....just have a feeling.

So I grabbed my shower, hugged the family and off to the office I went. As I pulled out of the driveway I felt like a little rock and roll so I powered up the IPOD and got my wireless adapter to tune in perfectly for my car stereo. I scrolled down and found my man Bruce Springsteen. I have virtually every album he has ever made loaded on the IPOD but went to Born In The USA, the first CD my sister Sheri ever bought me way back in 1985.

As I drove to Starbucks to get my caffeine fix Bruce was in fine throat. A flood of memories came rushing back as I realized just how long it had been since I had played this particular set of tracks. It made me smile a little bit more and jam a little bit harder. I still remember jamming out to this cd and thinking I was so cool pulling into the high school parking lot.

So with my venti dark roast in hand I steered my 'horse' back into traffic somehow seemingly not irritated by the number of crazy drivers at such an early hour. I sipped my piping hot coffee allowing it to massage my singing pipes as I pounded out my best Springsteen voice impression. My free hand tapped the steering wheel in perfect rhythm while I charged down the trail and then it happened....

The song Glory Days came on. I love that song and for some reason I felt especially called to get into it this morning. So there I was blazing down having my own little Ford Explorer concert when I came upon the red light. I stopped with nary a worry about the minor delay and continued to jam.

I was digging deep for my best vocals and gyrating like Tom Jones in room full of women when I looked up and noticed. There to my immediate left was a car full of three women, eyes about as wide as humanly possible. One had her mouth open in total shock. One looked at me like I was the anti-Christ. And still the third looked at me with apparent pity and concern for my apparent altered mental state.

Two things could have happened at that point. I could have shrunk like a wilting violet and sulked back into my seat with embarrassment. Or I could follow Tom Cruise's advice in the movie Risky Business and say "Sometimes you've got to say what the f***" and go with it. I went with the second choice.

I just pushed down my sunglasses and gave them the biggest wink and smile you could imagine. I don't think Springsteen himself could have looked as cool. Each of them got this embarrassed red-faced look but couldn't take their eyes of me as smiles erupted on each of their faces.

The light turned green. I pushed my glasses back up and flashed them the peace sign with my left hand and off I went smiling to myself the whole way down the road. Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself.

Maybe I made their day. Maybe they made mine. Either way....it's Friday and I suspect Bruce will be waiting for me when I drive home too. Can't wait to see who tunes into that concert.

Ripple On!!!

Steve

Tonight's Question

I will be delivering a keynote presentation this evening for Austin Chapter of the Help Desk Institute. The question I plan to ask in relation to my presentation tonight is something worthy of asking you, my loyal BLOG readers. So here it goes:

Are You Prepared and Ready?

Prepared and Ready to....

Meet the people you most need to know.

Recognize opportunities when they appear.

To have a strategy to set yourself apart from the rest of the herd.

To take a chance.

To step outside of your box.

To not be so eager to let things just happen.

Just try.

You know I believe everything happens for a reason. However so many of us are not prepared and certainly not ready when opportunity shows itself and we miss a lot. When we are prepared and ready to seize the opportunities as they appear we are all far more likely to take full advantage and benefit ourselves well beyond our wildest imagination. It takes a constant reminder and drive within ourselves to stay in a state of constant awareness and anticipation but it is possible and actually is a lot of fun. It's fun to expect the unexpected!

When we are prepared and ready we are certainly more likely to meet the people we most need to know, be in the situations we most need to be in and recognize our ultimate hopes and dreams. Now doesn't being prepared and ready somehow really worth it?

So again I ask you my friends....

Are you prepared and ready?

Ripple On!!!


Steve

Push Yourself

So the alarm clock went off at 5AM announcing that it was time to get my sorry butt out of bed and go run. Since returning from Chicago last Wednesday I have run every day and my tired old body is really feeling it. I was hurting so bad yesterday that I decided to go for a long bike ride instead which, because of my seat that I am convinced was crafted by a hairy Hungarian woman named Elga, only proceeded to bruise my tushi.

So there I sat...staring at the red ominous glow of my alarm clock. I could feel my poor knees saying, "Don't thinking about it." My cowardly feet pretended to remain asleep; amazing how they won't do that for me when I am stressing. My shoulders and lower back said "Isn't this nice comfortable bed so much better than getting out there in the dark?" And then by butt said, "I am still hurting from that thing you call a bicycle seat so don't even think I am going bud. You can go without me!"

It was a struggle but I got up. All of my body parts were complaining in full force let me tell you but I refused to listen. I popped on my IPOD and found something jazzy and off I went.

Sometimes my friends we have to push ourselves. Life will inevitably make it easy for us to choose the path of least resistance. Yes a warm comfortable (well sort of, our mattress sucks but that's a different story) bed sounds so much more appealing than getting up at the ass crack of dawn and going running. But if I had let myself go the easy route, I would have only been letting myself down. I have done too much of that in my life and refuse to do it any more. So I push myself.

I trudge mile after mile with two bad knees, bad lungs (thanks to childhood and adult asthma) and plethora of other physical aliments that tell me to quit NOW! No one is pointing a gun to my head and saying go run or else. Nope it's just me, me and my conscience. And no matter how bad I feel at the end of the run, I feel somehow oddly way better. I feel better on so many levels.

Pushing ourselves whether to lose weight, have better manners, acquire more education, be a better boss or whatever, takes work and it takes commitment. Procrastination and more appealing alternatives will always exist and will inevitably look so much better then the work you have to do. But will it make you feel better about yourself? Will it bring you further to your goal or take you much, much further away from it?

You know the answer. I know the answer. My body parts hate the answer but alas they don't get a vote here.

Push yourself this week, next week and until you achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve. For me, I just want to look and feel more healthy and you know what, I am.

Like our friends at NIKE say, "Just Do It!"

Ripple On!!!