Category: Perception Is Reality

The one you have about yourself…
and who you are…
what you went through…
what you stand for…
who’s on your side…
who isn’t…
your worth…
your value…
your abilities…
your inabilities…
your cans…
your can’t’s…

Is just that…
dialogue.

And the thing about dialogue
is it can be edited…
rewritten…
updated…
expanded upon…
improved…
made more clear…

Choosing not to do this is exactly that:
a choice.

And choosing to act in accordance with an outdated…
demeaning…
belittling…
restrictive…
subdued…
incomplete…
script

…seems like a silly choice to mentally agree to
…to me.

At a recent weekly meeting, my boss asked my associates and I what we did first thing that morning.

Two of them said let their dog outside.

He asked them what they saw… they said, in not so few words, pee and poop.

He proceeded to tell us that when he looked outside… for whatever reason that morning… he was completely captivated by the trees… and the way they were swaying… and the beauty of the snow and how it blanketed the early morning neighborhood.

They all probably opened their door to an almost identical snowy scene.

…But couldn’t have seen things more differently.

After a really good music show, some describe the feeling after as a crash—a drastic come down back to reality—even as post show depression.

Because when you’re at a really good music show, you’re not attached to reality as you know it. You’re somewhere else. Somewhere transported, somewhere high above, somewhere freeing and loved filled…

But as I heard someone describe it today… it doesn’t have to be a crash followed by depression… it can be something we gracefully carry back down with us and intentionally integrate into our reality as we now know it.

Because being at a really good music show isn’t a detachment from reality—it is reality. And what’s happening there can happen elsewhere, too. We just have to learn how to carry that updated understanding of reality with us.

I took a picture
Of a mountain today
I don’t know why

To capture permanently
Light rendered
Off converged rock

To share socially
Document something
Get likes, impress, hype myself up 

Or maybe because
Everybody else was
And looking was pressured; timed

“Can you get the whole mountain, please?”
“Try one the other way.”
“Ew, the angle—get another shot.”

What does this mountain mean to me?
Will it ever mean anything to me?
…Is this even for me?

I don’t know why
I took a picture
Of a mountain today

But I guess I’ll leave it
Maybe one day I’ll remember
That at the very least

…I was here.

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P.s. You can read my other poems here.

Boyyyyy… could it be worse.

But, you already know this… Here’s why I bring it up: you know that expression, “A dollar saved is a dollar earned”?

Think about your life situation in a similar lens: “A worse situation avoided is a better situation earned.”

Because when things are rough… sometimes the only thing we can control is our perspective… and if you can imagine all of the ways your situation could’ve been worse… and in fact, isn’t… then maybe—just maybe—it’ll help you make your situation feel better.

Because when you feel better—you’ll act and perform better.

…And that’s the first step towards actually making things better.

Good luck.

I was reminded yesterday of where all the time came from that was required to build my quote website…

…And it came from all of the time I might’ve otherwise played video games.

See, I had two experiences with video games that essentially made me quit cold turkey. One was from an inception-like experience where I played for 16+ hours straight and got stuck in a nightmare that night for what felt like a year. The second was when I saw a stat tracker that said I had been playing this other game for 13+ days in total time.

After that, I recommitted this freshly available time into the creative act of building MoveMe Quotes.

“…And so you worked full time and then came home and kept working some more, huh?” …Is what this person asked.

But, that’s not how it felt at all.

Building this website was like a video game in itself. I was trying to create this beautiful user experience that felt like I was building a home on SIMS or an amusement park on Roller Coaster Tycoon.

I was trying to maximize my organic marketing and SEO exposure to build an army of dedicated followers—like if I was playing Dynasty Warriors or Age Of Empires.

I was selling digital products and even built a merch store to offset the costs of running this popular website and maybe even make a profit—like if I was playing any business oriented game like Lemonade Tycoon.

The point is, I wasn’t working: I was just playing a different game—one that was IRL oriented.

…And maybe there’s a similar perspective you can adopt, too?