Bryan Parady's Blog, page 44

Just Start

Often starting a journey is the hardest part of anything.  We find reasons why we shouldn’t, think of all the things that might happen or that could happen.  The what if’s plague us until we just give up on what we were going to do.

And so we never even start, we just go on dreaming hoping that something will change one day, while we take no strides to make it change.

Change is scary, it isn’t always easy, it gets us out of our comfort zones and disrupts our routing, and heaven knows how we like our routine.

But change also brings things we really can’t even dream of.  Change brings new hope, new ideas, and new beginnings, we just get so caught up in the negative aspects of change that we lose sight of the good.

But when facing decisions on whether to start something keep in mind the benefit of that change, and what you hope to see happen.  Keep your eyes on the goal, on the end result, and push the fear aside.  Most of what you fear will never happen anyways.

Sometimes You Have to Let Go

It’s really easy to get caught up in something so much so that you can’t let it go. Part of moving on and getting on with life though is letting go.

Sometimes my job requires using old equipment and getting it back up and running. While there are a lot of different methods you can use to do that, there are times, when no matter what you try it just won’t work, and you’ve got to rip it out and put something new in.

Knowing when to try something new can be a challenge, when does the time you put into trying to make an old method work, outweigh the cost of just starting over.

It’s easy to get caught up in one single focus, but sometimes it doesn’t work, and you have to get creative and try something new.  I’m not saying change your goal, but at least the means to get there.

Don’t get tunnel-vision.  Look for new and creative ways to do things different.  It will broaden your horizons.

Positive Vs. Negative

In our strive to be right day an age, it’s really easy to get caught up in arguments over what is right/what is wrong.  To argue on social media, and to put blatant opinions about everything out for the world to see.

Amidst all this there tends to be a lot of negativity, posting of why this or that is not good, why you should not vote or support x, y, and z.

But all that negativity really doesn’t get anyone anywhere.

Rather than always stating what we are fighting against, we need to start fighting for different things, fighting for what is right, for the lost causes.  Showing support of what we believe.

This goes so much farther than fighting against something, because when you stay positive and live your life for what you believe, you will find there will no longer be a need to argue against anything, because your life will serve as an example of what you feel strongly about.

Try taking a positive approach.

“Those Places”

There’s this well known list among most Christians of the places you are and are not supposed to go, the list of things you should and should not do, and the people you should or should not talk to.

Christianity often becomes a large clique, with only those  who are on the up and up invited.

Most of this is just plain silly.

Often times if someone starts a ministry that is geared towards a certain area, that is out of the ordinary, some will turn up their noses, point their fingers, and otherwise look down on those who are trying to step out in a way that defies current tradition.

But that’s the same thing Jesus did.  He was hanging out in the places that the Pharisees said he shouldn’t. He was befriending those who the church had either hurt, or treated as outcasts.  He was a friend to those who rarely had anyone visit them.

If he was here today, he would be in the bars, in the strip clubs, in the brothels, in the prisons, in the harsh places, visiting and showing love.  He didn’t just die for those who sit comfortable in their church pews and keep a list of do’s and dont’s.  He died for every person, regardless of their background, creed, or past.

“Those places” that are looked down upon are the very places where true love, and true friends are needed.

Coping Methods

We all have different methods of coping.  For some it might be writing or drawing, for others it might be jumping in the car and driving with the radio blasting, for others it might be some alone time, others might head off into the wilderness.  On the other hand, some may turn to some type of substance, whether that’s in the from of a chemical, drug, or person of the opposite of sex.

At some point in all of our lives we are hit with something that sucker punches us and we find ourselves having to deal with the pain and cope with it.  The true determination of our true selves comes not with whether we handle the blow with a straight face, but rather how we cope.

Coping can be a very good thing, it can calm us, lead us to new things, and restore us. Or it can end up destroying us.

Plan ahead of time what you love to do, what helps you calm down. When you do this in advance, then when the time to cope comes you will have a game plan to help you through it.

Healthy Eating, Healthy Mind

It’s amazing the drastic difference you feel when you eat healthy.  My wife and I strive to eat healthy, we don’t always succeed, but we stay away from processed foods, rarely eat any kind of fast food, keep things whole grain, low sugar etc.

It’s amazing when you keep this up how much better you feel.  Our lives have been busier than normal (which I didn’t think possible lol), and it kind of caused some food habits to slip for a few weeks.  We are now back at it, and it feels great.  It is amazing the difference you feel mentally when you know you are feeding your body what it needs.

You have more energy, you are sharper, and are more healthy as well.

So if you are debating on whether to make the shift into eating healthier, let me assure you it is more than worth it.

Digging In

Life has been crazy lately.  Between work, college, family, writing full time, and the million trips and exhausting paper work required to join the military, I have not been hitting the gym like normal.  And I feel it to.  Not just when I look in the mirror, but just with my overall alertness, endurance, and mental well-being.

I’ve started back up on my regular routine, which includes my strict diet.  Diet to me is about 70% of the battle, while working out takes the right foods and turns them into muscle.

It feels good to start my typical routine again.  I was out of it for a good month, and I hate that.  I’m somewhat ahead in my studies, the military stuff is squared away and now I can start focusing on my workouts again.

If you’ve hit a dry spell and haven’t been able to keep up your routine for a little while, don’t sweat it, just jump back in and get right back where you want to be.

It’s too easy to miss a week here and a week there and abandon it all together.  Life happens, and sometimes there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to juggle everything, but as soon as time becomes available again, start pushing yourself.  It is worth it.

Keep the Spark Alive

You remember that spark you had?  You know the one I’m talking about.  The time in your life when you couldn’t wait to get out of bed in the morning, you couldn’t wait to face the day. Couldn’t wait to see your significant other, couldn’t wait to get to work, (okay maybe not the last one).

You lived carefree, you may have been absolutely broke and eating ramen noodles but you had a blast.  Why is that?

Somehow you get older, have more money, more responsibility, more structure, and more deadlines, and that flame might become only a really dim flicker

But we have to keep that flame alive. It takes more work to do so as you get older and get more “mature”.  You have to be more creative, have to make yourself flexible, and remember it’s okay to laugh, it’s okay to have fun.  After all that’s part of living a full life.

 

 

Go For It

 

Sometimes we all need a little crazy in our lives.  Not the crazy going nuts kind, but the do something out of the ordinary shake up life kind.

We all need to get out of our boxes.  Deep down when we get past our comfortable chairs, beds, and warm mocha lattes, we desire to get out and do something wild, that we’ve never done.

This is normal.  I get this itch a lot.  While I don’t always get to see it through, I do try to keep it alive and feed it every now and then.

What is it that you love that is crazy?  What puts you in a good mood, when life seems to be knocking you off your feet.  What is the one things you want to run out of the house and do?

Maybe it’s time to start doing that more often.

Priorities

 

Priorities.  It’s really hard to balance them in life. It’s easy to get priorities confused too. Often we let others priorities become our own, we let people tell us or at least influence what we should be doing.

We put our own dreams on hold, the things that would make us a better person on hold, so that we can meet someone else’s expectations.  It’s an easy trap to fall into.  Often it starts with being unable to say no and usually before we know it, we have so many things on our plate that we don’t even enjoy or want to do.

If you find this happening.  Take a step back and examine.  Am I fulfilling my passion in life?  If I continue to do this will I look back on my life and say “man I’m glad I did all those things for other people,” or will you regret not taking the risks, and the steps to pursue your dream.

When you abandon the things in you that you truly desire to do, you not only hurt yourself but you hurt those around you, because you are not able to be your full true self.

Stop making excuses, stop catering to everyone else’s need, and become who you were born to be.