Month: March 2023

“He who improves an opportunity sows a seed which will yield fruit in opportunity for himself and others.”—Orison S. Marden

I frequently use the phrase: “opportunity costs.” What I mean by this is that every opportunity comes at the expense of another. Every moment in life is spent doing or not doing what we need to be doing to succeed and accomplish our Purpose. We sow the seeds of opportunity—if we choose to.

Circumstance is going to be what it is going to be. Good, bad, or indifferent, the choices made in the past—by us and others—have placed us where we are in this moment. What we choose to do in the moment? That is up to us. No matter how crappy the situation, we decide what we do next. Each decision is an opportunity—an opportunity to sow a seed that will yield fruit.

We can and we must improve every opportunity. We must approach each moment with grattitude (attitude + gratitude, i.e., an “attitude of gratitude”). To do otherwise will cost us the opportunity. Acceptance of our circumstance as a seed of opportunity will undoubtedly produce the fruit of success when properly cultivated.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

After taking my daughter to the theater to see Scream 6, we have been watching the Scream series from the beginning. The movies intentionally follow a pattern—it’s sort of a theme in the movies, after all. It has me thinking about routines—how we can be trapped by them.

In general, routines are good things. We should, for example, be in a routine of brushing our teeth after every meal (or at least morning and night). Having an exercise routine is good (generally speaking). For some behaviors, however, routine can be wearing a ghost mask.

Merriam-Webster defines routine as “a regular course of procedure; habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure.” Those who have a growth-mindset can likely see the trap. Routine and habit are fixed behaviors. Things we do with little to no thought or progression. In some cases, we can get into doing the wrong things as routine. When exercise, for example, we might do the same intensity and volume every session or training period. There is no overload (for a body system to adapt, it must be challenged to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed). Without progressive overload there is no improvement. Routine can be counter to the principle of kaizen (i.e., constant improvement).

Ask yourself: “Are my daily routines making me better today than I was yesterday?” An overall daily routine can certainly benefit us (e.g., a routine bedtime and wake up time, scheduled exercise, consistent diet and mealtimes, journaling, health and grooming habits, etc.). Self-imposed daily challenging healthy activities (SIDCHA; see my other posts on the topic or visit https://joshuaspodek.com/sidchas-the-series) can certainly benefit us, though not necessarily progressive. The key to this question is “better today than I was yesterday.” If there is no personal growth resulting from the routine, it is just a pattern. Don’t let your life be a programmed loop. Eliminate the unhealthy habits, establish healthy patterns, and fail forward. In other words, let your new habits challenge you beyond your comfort zone and….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don’t let anyone limit your dreams.”—Donovan Bailey

I realized I was a hypocrite. I was listening to an interview a former student recorded with me. He asked me, “What message would you want to deliver to your kids.?” I responded: “Just go forward and fail.” I tell them frequently to go out and fail. If they fails, they are growing. Advice I stand by. At the present time, my son is preparing for college. He had for the last year or so been planning to major in Mechanical Engineering. Safe. Something he would be good at and could make a living at. Over the last few months, however, he has talked about majoring in English. English! How could he make a living in English? Okay. He could minor in English, right? He could double major. I would not pay for an English degree (unless he majored in something more lucrative, as well). I was being a hypocrite. If literature is his passion, I should let him follow it.

My son has a passion for literature. We have had some powerful conversations about literature. He reads and comprehends what most have never explored. He read Beowulf (Seamus Heaney’s translation—and he wants to read other translations, e.g., J.R.R. Tolkien’s) just for fun. He wants to learn Finnish to read Nordic mythology in the original text. He should study literature. Landing the lucrative career might be difficult, but he may find that he is the Tolkien of his time.

I forget that my dad felt much the same about me switching from Mine Engineering/Geology to Exercise Physiology (and I had years of financial struggle before I found my path in exercise physiology). My dad even got a good chuckle when I brought up the realization of my hypocrisy.

So, I have told my son that I support whatever he decides. I just ask that he go forward with wisdom. I also ask that fear of failure also not play a role in his decision of whether he wrestles in college (he has the opportunity and will likely see much failure before he succeeds).

If we have a passion for anything (and we must if we are going to truly carpe momento) we must be willing to fail. Failure is inevitable when we are pursuing our dreams. If not, what is the real value of that for which we are passionate. Be passionate and don’t let anyone limit your dreams.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!!

I came upon the above cartoon this morning and it caught my attention. It should catch our attention. What is our world becoming as we fall (or rather jump) into the hands of technology?

Sure, technology has made our lives easier and, in many ways, better (and safer—I love the Ford 360 Co-Pilot 360™, for example). Nevertheless, we must consider what we are losing. Some may say I am whining about nothing when I complain my kids can’t write in cursive (or how crappy my students’ penmanship is), but…. Sure, Spellcheck and Autocorrect are great features on my computer—provided I don’t lose my knowledge of grammar or my ability to spell words correctly. The latest concern for academics in Chat GPT. I admit, I like some of the potential for this, but…. The cartoon depicts a robot reading (hmmm, Chat GPT??) and a robot drawing while humanity is staring at blue screens. There are apps now that can “create art.” What future is there for the human artist? Computers can and will learn—and learn to learn. On one hand, this should scare the sh** out of us. On the other hand, we can see a level of benefit—if approached with wisdom. The challenge will be: what happens while we are staring at our screens?

The most disturbing thing about the cartoon is the disconnection among the humans. I see it in my classrooms and in the hallways—students on their phones rather than conversing with the person next to them. I am awed when I see a group sitting at a table in a restaurant all staring at their phones. We have laws about texting while driving, but pedestrians who text while walking are minimally annoying, if not dangerous.

I love that we have a world of information at our fingertips, but there is a cost. What that cost may be is determined by how we engage with the information (or often misinformation).

Technology should lead us to more social interaction rather than less. We should have more time to build relationships rather than less. We should become more connected rather than less.

We should not yield our creative mind to AI. If we do, humanity will be lost–not to mention the true gift of the artist. AI can mimic the expression of emotion, but it will always lack the human spirit.

We should not yield our intellect to AI. If we do, we become the robots.

It appears that humanity is at a fork in the road. Which path will it take?

What will be lost of our Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social well-being if we give ourselves over to technology?

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!