The Dip

Not to copy my friend's post...

But that's exactly what I'm doing.

The Dip is a (short) book by Seth Godin. It's short because, like a good self-improvement book should, it gets right to the point. It doesn't flirt with what it's trying to say. It just comes out and says “Hey, if you do this or this or this, your life will be better.”

Because of it's straightforward approach, it didn't take me long at all to “get it” and understand that I had to take the advice it was offering.

There were a couple things I really got from it, and these things are hugely important:

Be the best in the world.

Seek out difficulties.

Do what you're best at.

Quit as often as possible.

First, be the best in the world. If you aren't going to try to be the best in the world at whatever it is you're doing, you're wasting your time. The minute you say, “I'm happy with where I'm at,” you resign yourself to your current position and are pretty much just waiting for death at that point.

He doesn't define the world as the planet Earth. He defines it as whatever it is you want your world to be, it's adaptive. The best in your world could be your city, county, state, country, genre, product, or anything you want it to be. But the key is to strive to be the best at whatever it is.

The ability to define your own world, allows you to always be able to improve. When you reach your goal of being the best magician in the country, you can then reassess your goals to be the best in the state.

Because you make your goals manageable, you're able to engineer your own dips, which leads me to...

Seeking out difficulties. The idea here, is that difficulties, or The Dip as Seth calls it, is what sets apart the good from the great from the best.

The dip is where most people get stuck. They reach a point where a task is no longer producing the same good results as it was when you started and so they quit, because it's not fun and it's not producing what they want.

The good and great and best push through these difficulties. They are able to see past the dip to their goal and say, “If I give up now, I'll never reach my goal of being the best magician in the state and all the glory and title that goes with it and all these illusions will have gone to waste.” So, they push through.

So you know what these dips do to people. Big deal, anyone could have told you that accomplishing anything you want is going to be difficult.

But, not many people use these dips as an advantage. And that's exactly what it is. Every dip you reach is a filter. It sorts you out from the rest of the people trying to do the exact same thing and every time you make it through one of these filters, you set yourself apart from the rest of the world.

The key to using these dips is to expect them. “I know I'm going to have trouble sawing a woman in half when I get to that point, but I can't let that get me discouraged. When I get there, I'll be prepared to push through and saw that damn woman in half.”

How can you possibly be caught off guard when you're expecting something?

And because you're expecting something, you'll be subtly be preparing for that eventuality. Because you know that you'll have trouble sawing the woman in half, you'll be getting ready for it long before you ever make it there, making it much easier when you are actually ready to take on the task.

By seeking out these challenges, you prepare yourself for them unlike your competitors. You won't get bogged and discouraged when you hit the dip. As the author says, “You'll lean into it,” so that you'll get out of it as fast as possible.

Next is to do what you're best at. Pretty simple.

A lot of people don't though. They spread themselves too thin, trying to do a number of things they're good at. Thereby dooming themselves to mediocrity in every venture.

In The Dip, he uses an example about how a new CEO of GM came out with the new hard line of “If we're not number 1 or 2 in that division, we're shutting it down.”

But why would you cut something that's profitable? Because it's detracting from your most successful ventures. What little profit you're making is detracting from the possibilities in your better goals through time and effort.

Sure, you may be making a profit of three dollars with A and B, but if cutting B allows you to make four dollars with just A, doesn't it seem like that's the way to go?

Finally, quit as often as possible. This seems to contradict the idea of pushing through the dips. Don't give up, push through the difficulties!

It's not a matter of quitting when the going gets tough. It's a matter of recognizing what does and does not work and quitting what doesn't work.

Recognizing the dead ends in your goals for what they are, will prevent you from wasting a lot of time and effort and money. If your goal is to be the greatest theoretical physicist of all time, you have to recognize that goal for what it is.

That's something that can't necessarily be trained, like throwing a football. It's not something you can just realize you want to do, your mind had to being shaped for that sort of comprehension at a very young age.

Not that just anyone can train to be the world's best football player, but having the physical prowess for football could lead you in many directions. Whereas, having the mental prowess for physics, the options are a lot narrower.

So, when you decide your goals you have to take an honest look and question whether or not it's a venture you can really succeed at.

Likewise, when you get to a slow point, you have to ask yourself whether it's just a dip or if it could possibly be a dead end. Not “this is too hard, I don't want to,” but “I can't possibly go any further.” If it's the latter, you have to quit.

So that's what I picked up from the book. On Thursday, I'll talk about what decisions I've made because of what I've learned from The Dip.

Live Through This

First off, sorry for the lack of post on Tuesday. Could think of nothing to write about they few times I had the motivation.

Yesterday, was probably the worst day of my life.

I'm not saying that to be dramatic or because my phone crapped out and then i got into a fender bender and then found out I bombed a test.

I'm pretty sure it was the worst day I've ever lived through. Never before have I had to continuously remind myself there were reasons to live the way I did yesterday.

NOT that I was planning on killing myself, but I had to keep saying, "Well you've got X or Y." But, it seriously went on like that until a couple hours before I went back to bed.

Luckily a friend offered a few kind words and it knocked me out of it.

It was just a scary and miserable day. Trust me, you never want to be in a position where you have to tell yourself that living is better than dying outside of a philosophical discussion. Meaning it seriously.

I'm not suicidal. I just want to say that. Like most everything, I've reasoned out why that's such a stupid idea. But, I think most people think they would rather be dead than alive at some point. Yesterday was just a rather intense example of that for me.

But I lived through it. I'm still here and that's a big something, to not see any reason to live, at times, but keep on.

Yesterday was my rock bottom, I think. And I don't want to be there again. At one point, a friend showed me a video of these cyborg wheel chair things, that I knew was funny. I was laughing. But laughing made me cry.

I can't go back there. I hope that was my rock bottom, because from there I can only go up.

If I can live through the worst day in my life, I can live through anything.

I am still here.

Word Becomes Song

It's amazing how much you don't know about something until you actually try it.

For about the last month, I've been writing songs. Up until that point I'd written one song. Which, I'd mostly forgotten and rewrote anyway.

At this point, I've written ten complete songs, with two more partially done. It's astonishing how far I've come in about 25 days. I listened to the one I wrote first and the difference is laughable.

I never realized I knew virtually nothing about what makes a song compelling to listen to. I still know pretty much nada, but I'm getting better at faking it. I'm writing stuff that's a lot more complicated and dynamic than when I started out. I'm improving and that's always a great feeling.

I'm still trying to find my voice as a singer, how I want to sound. So I'm writing a range of stuff, this week it's been more poppy stuff. It's really fun to actually listen to music with the intention of creating some later. What's good and what's bad about songs. I tried listening to a band the other night that I used to have a huge boner for, but I couldn't make it through a single song because generally every aspect was terrible and not something I wanted to recreate.

I haven't really been able to write much when I'm not particularly inspired, but I'm still writing something everyday. Whether it be poem or song or short story.

My poetry is definitely becoming more dynamic and my latest short story was one of my best ever I think. Exactly the style I wanted, loved it.

I'm reading a fair bit too most every day. Finished Dharma Bums by Kerouac over the weekend and I'll probably finish The Road by Cormac McCarthy tomorrow. Both of which are highly recommended.

All in all, I'm loving words right now. I'm loving reading them, working with them, singing them, being inspired by them, and finding great ways to make them mean something when there may have been nothing before.

Cortizol Shmortizol

Huzzah and sweet action on fire!

Went to the doctor today and got some good news. Well, not good like, "Nothing's wrong! Hooray!" but good news like I know what might be wrong.

Hooray!

So, apparently, my cortisol levels are absurdly low.

It was tested at four different times throughout the day, 8 AM, 12 PM, 4 PM, and 12 AM. The normal range is 13-25nM, 5-10nM, 3-8nM, and 1-4nM of cortisol, respectively. You want to be somewhere in there.

Mine however, were 2nM, 3nM, 4nM, and 2nM...

Respectively.

18% of the lowest range of normal when I wake up.

He seemed fairly certain this was why I have such low energy throughout the day. It's a sign of adrenal deterioration, so my body isn't producing what it needs to in order to jump start every day.

That's what I gathered anyway, I realized I didn't ask as many questions about it as I should have and most information online is about too much cortisol, which can also a factor in depression.

But: "Low cortisol results in cell receptors failing to adequately receive thyroid hormones from the blood, and can explain certain emotional and behavioral symptoms even when a patient is on thyroid meds, such as the need to avoid leaving one’s house, seeking peace and quiet, unable to tolerate stress, low tolerance to loud noises, rage, emotional ups and downs similar to bi-polar, panic, obsessive compulsive tendencies, hyper sensitive to the comments of others, phobias, delusions, suicidal ideation,and more."

I definitely have several of those symptoms.

So he prescribed me a cortizol supplement and said I should start to see improvement within the month and I might even able to start curbing my intake of the supplement when I do.

If I don't see improvements in three months, then I'll report back and take it from there.

So some good news finally on that front. Hopefully it'll provide the boost I need.

Bittersweet

Tuesday was a wonderful day for Americans.

Our first black president was elected. It was a(n)historic day. Hopefully, Obama will inspire millions to be all they can be, live up to his promises, and incite real change in our country when we desperately need it. I'm pulling for him.

But.

Tuesday was also a terrible day for Americans.

In California, Proposition 8 passed.

For those that don't know, prop 8, once again, made it impossible for gay and lesbian couples to be joined in holy matrimony.

For little more than four months, couples were able to fulfill their dreams and be joined as one. And now, it's been shattered.

Not only is it forbidding couples from getting married, it nullifies the EIGHTEEN THOUSAND marriages that have taken place in the short time it was legal.

18,000 couples.

36,000 people.

Think about that.

36,000 people had a life's dream fulfilled. Only to see it taken away.

I never thought I would be upset as I am about this. I have literally had to wipe tears from my eyes a number of times today. I didn't even think too much about it before last night.

"Oh, there's no way that will pass. Especially not in California."

Florida and Arizona, where a similar proposition also ran and failed (they were to make gay marriage legal), yeah I could have seen that coming.

But not in California...

I can't even say why I'm so upset. As a friend pointed out, "You're not gay. Or married. Or gay married."

I have a lot of gay friends, and I know this is an important issue to them. But I can't say I ever gave it a whole lot of thought.

No, I don't know that it's the issue necessarily. I think it's more my intense disappointment in the people of California and America as a whole on the issue.

I believed people were more accepting than this. That people loved their fellow man and their wishes, no matter what.

This is essentially not only shattering the possibility of happiness for thousands and thousands and thousands of people across the nation. But also, my own world view.

Despite how completely fucked up the world is, I've always thought people were inherently good. That they would do what was right, and kind, and would benefit people the most. I know I haven't had much proof to this theory. But it's still one I've held dear.

But that's not the issue, that's for me to reconcile.

The issue, is that this proposition is cruelty. It's beating up on a minority with archaic, personal, ideologues and fear-mongering. There's not one justifiable reason to not allow these people to be happy.

People are upset because they don't want gay marriages taking place in their church. Solution? Go to a different church. The state isn't FORCING the church to do anything. Every church has the right to refuse a marriage, regardless of sex, creed, sexual orientation, whatever. Do people really think because it's legal now, gays are just going to crawl out of the woodwork to be married and piss all over your beliefs? No, they're going to be married somewhere they're accepted, not in your haven of hate and fear.

People are also afraid it's going to pervert children and they're going to all become gay. Get real. People don't just decide, "WELL I GUESS SINCE EVERYONE ELSE IS GAY, I WILL BE TOO." That's the kind of ignorance that has kept social advancement at a crawl. Yes, children are going to be told it's okay to be gay.

Because it is.

If you, as a parent, don't think it's okay, then it is your RESPONSIBILITY to explain to your child why you think so. It's not the government's job to shield your child from life.

It is not mine, nor yours, nor the government's, nor God's, nor Allah's, nor L. Ron Hubbard's, nor anyone else's place to say what makes a person happy or what is holy or what is sanctimonious.

Nor should it be a democratic process that decides this.

Nor should the rights of a person be infringed upon because they are of a different sexual orientation.

Nor should who is and who is not family be decided by anyone other than the people in that family.

All of those things lie within the self. Not the church. Not the state. Not hate groups. Not the PTA. Not anything but the self.

This is not justice.

This is not fair.

And luckily, this will not stand.

But, unluckily, it will take time.

I can only hope that time comes soon.

Please don't get caught up in the historic moment that is taking place, no matter how great it is. Don't forget forget that while we've come so far, we've yet so far to go. Don't stop caring for your fellow man.

It's a bittersweet day for me and I pray I'm not alone.

Unamerican

It's election day and I'm invoking my constitutional right to abstain from voting.

I'm unamerican.

According to some at least. Mostly by people who don't want to see this election stolen by the Republican party again. But, before I'm crucified, I've got a couple reasons for this choice.

One: I don't like either opponent.

HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE OBAMA? HE'S A BASTION OF HOPE!!!

Six months ago (maybe less) I would have agreed with you. But, when he voted in favor of warrantless wiretapping, he lost my support and became just another easy-talkin' politician.

To me, personal freedoms are the things that make America great. These freedoms include being able to talk to whomever I want without the fear of Uncle Sam listening in on me. Whether it's to prevent a supposed terrorist threat or not. (If it weren't for America's terrible terrible terrible foreign policies, we wouldn't have a terrorist threat.)

I don't want to see America follow the same path Great Britain has started down recently of having everything under closed circuit surveillance and absurd assumed police jurisdiction (when people start being hassled for taking pictures of and video taping buildings, something's gone horribly wrong.) Not to sound like a Big Brother, 1984 nut... But sounds sounds a lot like Big Brother.

As such, I can't support a candidate who supports these actions.

McCain/Palin is just a joke. Most of the joke is by fault of Palin, but that falls on who she represents. And he represents a continuation of failed policies and lies.

Two: Here in Dothan,Alabama, Houston County, my vote won't matter.

Yes, yes, I know. The 2000 election was decided by 537 votes (and a little creative counting by the GOP).

But, some rough numbers:

"According to unofficial vote totals for 2004, Bush received 26,868 votes and John Kerry received 9,141 votes.

In the November 2000 election, Houston County strongly supported Bush. Countywide, 22,150 people voted for Bush and 9,412 voted for Gore. Nader received 257 votes."
-http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/politicalInfo.php?locIndex=11901

That's not 537. That's 17727 more votes for Bush in 2004. An increase of almost five thousand votes from the 2000 election. We had already seen how much Bush could screw up in four years and the voters here were more eager to reelect him than to elect him.

I have no doubt that it will be closer this year. There is a marginal black population, but the majority of the voters here are still white middle class Christians.

This county has also voted for Republican congressional candidates since the seventies. All seats.

Not to mention it's Alabama. There will be a few counties that Obama will win, but not anywhere near enough to win the state.

I have friends in Austin who reply with, "Well I'm in Texas! I'm still voting!"

And more power to you. But, I don't work that way. I don't get satisfaction from doing something just to do it. With the exception of my emotions, I completely rationalize everything.

Three: I don't support our current election system.

Electoral votes are absurd. Plain and simple. When the popular vote matters, I'll care a great deal more.

The electoral votes are meant to protect the smaller states. So states like California and New York don't control the White House because they have superior populations. So you've got people in New York who's vote don't count nearly as much as someone's in West Virgina.

That's hardly fair either.

I understand the concern, but it just doesn't work. It doesn't benefit people like me who live in a town where he's one of the only people who shares his views.

I feel that by participating in a system I don't agree with, all I'm doing is prolonging the institution.

Four: Cos fuck you.

It's my choice whether I vote or not. Don't guilt me for making a decision.



In summation: I think Obama is the better choice. But it still doesn't matter. He speaks of change and hope, and for our sake I really really really hope he's able to deliver. We're in it in bad way right now and I don't think one man is going to be able to change that.

The economy's in shambles, there's a god forsaken war going on, our educational system is a joke, we're still the most hateful and ignorant people on the planet, and we can't learn from our mistakes.

Obama may be a politician we all like, but he's still a politician. Very few politicians in this country have ever had the public as their focus. Call me a cynic, but I don't think it will change.

I HOPE it does.

I HOPE he proves me wrong.

It may be that I made up these reasons because I'm too lazy or apathetic to vote. I don't rule out that possibility. So, take these reasons at face value, they may not mean anything.

But, whether they came about before or after I decided not to vote is irrelevant. I believe them now and I'm standing by my decision.

I have a choice too, even if it's different from yours and doesn't support your revolution.

I'm just as American as you.

Just a different kind of American.