“Resistance is Futile”

“Sometimes you can meet your destiny on the road you took to avoid it.” 

This is a quote from someone that I can’t remember the moment, but I cannot take credit for it.  What I can take credit for is knowing that this statement is absolutely true.  A straight line is the most direct path from point A to B, but we can also get there by other paths that are often times more difficult and take a little longer, but lead us to the same place.

How often do we find ourselves turning right because we don’t want to go left only to find out that left is where our “right” path took us?  There are some things that God charges us with that we just cannot get away from.  He called us to complete certain tasks that He equipped us with the talents and gifts to do.  The sooner we get in agreement with Him about those things, the sooner we can step into our destiny and fulfill all of the potential He planted inside of us.

One of the challenges of life is enjoying the journey on your way to the various points in your life’s road.  If you avoid what’s coming, you’re just delaying the inevitable.  Stop resisting.  Go with the flow.  Meet your destiny and embrace the road that will take you there.  “Resistance is futile” (The Borg, Star Trek: The Next Generation).

Change Your Scenery

Have you ever felt stagnant in your life at work, at home or in a relationship?  It seems as if everything is the same and monotony has an entirely new definition based on what you’re going through.  How do you get out of the rut?  Everyone has something that they do to help them break from the routine of everyday.  Some people take a drive, take a walk in the park, read a book, meditate or even take a trip.  The point is to do something that is not part of your routine and is preferably a little radical to your schedule.  Add some spice to your life!

When possible, I enjoy taking a trip to change my scenery.  While everyone everywhere in the world has to do the same thing – get up, go to work and buy groceries – experiencing a new environment works wonders for my stagnation dilemma. Even travelling 30 minutes or 2 hours to spend time with a relative that I don’t get a chance to see that often is a change of pace that injects freshness into my routine.

If you’re stagnant or feeling staleness in your life, take a moment and find some spicy options for your life routine.  Get a different cut or color for your hair, spend time with a longtime friend, take a trip and change your scenery!

Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers is a great program that creates a space of accountability and a simple way of counting calories for people who are interested in “watching” their weight.  This generally means losing or maintaining weight, and essentially involves a healthy diet, some cardio, weight training, resistance and strengthening exercises.  Here in the U.S. we seem to have great difficulty eating healthy food and maintaining healthy lifestyles so that we live long and prosper without being obese with crazy health problems. 

While I definitely have more to say about the matter, I’ll leave that for a future post.  The important point is that there is a two-pronged approach to watching your weight – a healthy diet and sufficient exercise.  AND within that approach sufficient exercise includes cardio, weights, resistance & strengthening activities. Consider that while some people may need to lose weight (preferably fat cells) and gain muscle mass and build strength, other people may need to simply gain muscle mass and build strength (just because you’re skinny doesn’t mean that you’re healthy.. yes, I'm talking about being "skinny fat"..more later...

Also consider weight watchers as a metaphor for your spirit.  Each of us has a spiritual part of ourselves whether we acknowledge it or not.  As spiritual beings, there are some aspects of our lives that can weigh us down emotionally, mentally, financially and spiritually that we need to lose.  This could be an unhealthy relationship, unwise spending habits, a legal or an illegal addiction (alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, drugs, etc.), or a negative attitude or a pessimistic mindset.  When left unchecked, these things affect our spirits, our connection to God and all of the love and blessings He has for us.  We aren't in a position to receive because we are weighed down by excess baggage. We need to lose weight.  We need to shed some things in our lives that are a ‘drag’ and pulling us down spiritually.

For others, we need to gain.  We have to improve our spiritual health by adding some muscle mass with weights and resistance training.  This means that we need to build our spiritual and emotional strength.  We can do this by studying our faith and internalizing the words and insights that help us to move through each day.  We can meditate on the words of strength and spiritual power that our faith gives to use and use these words against negative influences that present themselves in our lives.

All of us need to join a spiritual weight watchers plan.  Maybe we need light or heavy cardio or weights or both, but every now and then, we all need something.  Find a group, and join a program for your spiritual health.  The results are truly awesome!  May you Live Long...and Prosper!

In Memoriam

On Sundays ABC airs a political show called “This Week”.  At the end of each show, before the Sunday funnies, there is a segment called “In Memoriam.”  During this segment people who have died during the week, who have made an impact on our society in some way, are honored. I mention this because since our invasion of Iraq after 9/11, George Stephanopolous (host until January 2010) started the segment by saying (don’t know what previous hosts said) “This week, the pentagon released the names of # service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan…” Music played in the background (“Adagio For Strings "The Village"”), and there was a listing of the names, rank and ages of the service men and women who were killed that week.  Christiane Amanpour has continued the segment after a brief period of not airing it.

I mention this segment because depth of the human sacrifice is crystal clear every week.  It is a sobering reality check that all of us should remember.   We may read or hear about numbers of the lives that are lost, but the names, the people, the flesh and blood, the REAL men and women who risked and are risking their lives every day need to be in our thoughts. 

Today, I honor those individuals who lost their lives in wars and battles and I pray for the families and loved ones they left behind.  The greatest sacrifice of any one person is to give their life for their country, a cause, a person, an ideology or a belief. 

THANK YOU for your choice to serve.  We are, as a nation, indebted to you and your family for the sacrifice that you’ve made.

Get off of Facebook…!

As I watched the news this week the “fun” reports included a piece on graduation ceremonies and the commencement speeches for Spring 2011.  Two of the sound bites stuck with me and one I will share with you.  One of the speakers (I cannot remember his name) told graduates to “get off of Facebook and get into someone’s face!”

While this may make you smile, the truth of his statement resounded with me.  While there are a “gazillion” benefits of social media and virtual networking, some of the millennium generation is losing the art of basic face-to-face communication.  They do not have the strongest skills in actually shaking someone’s hand, looking a person in the eye, and communicating with words beyond “LOL”, “BRB” and “TTYL.”  There are subtleties in body language, voice intonation and eye contact (or lack thereof) that you cannot read between the lines and convey or receive in the same way while emailing, texting, IM’ing, chatting, tweeting and “Face booking.”

In today’s economy with 75% of jobs being found via networking, it may be good to make the first contact online, but at some point, you have to talk to someone, and it is that conversation that may make the difference between getting the job or referral or not. We have to know how to talk about the weather, the world and our value-add to the company or institution.  We must remember how to give our elevator speech.  

You know, it’s the 1 minute (ok maybe a little longer, but very short) spiel about ourselves that we should be able to give to anyone on the spot (or perhaps in an elevator!).  It should entail who we are, what we can do, what we add, and what we want or are looking for.  This is something that is ideally done live, in person (cara a cara) or on the phone or video conferencing only if absolutely necessary.  It’s something that you can type, but it really isn’t the same as the passion that would be coming out of your mouth when you talk about yourself to a person - not a computer screen.

You can’t do that on Facebook!  I concur with the commencement speaker.  Get off of Facebook!  Get in someone’s face and make LIVE connections with the real world.  There are people behind the computers and phones who are just waiting to meet you! .. Facebook them later! :^)