It occurred to me today that it would be easy to just say “I failed” and give up. Accept my mundane life and stop striving for anything better. But as anyone who’s read anything in the Personal Development sphere knows, that’s exactly the wrong thing to do.

So what is the right thing to do? Well, after a year of spinning my wheels, I know a whole bunch of things that don’t work. If I want to see different results, I need to do different things this time. Actually, that’s not quite correct. What I really need is to do things differently…

I think I was on the right track last year. And don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t really a wasted year since I did learn a lot. I also have another child who brings me insane amounts of joy and on the health side, I’m now lighter than I’ve been in 25 years (my entire adult life and then some). Still, I think things could be better. Should be better.

Hmmm, I had this post mostly written in my head earlier in the day but now I seem to have lost most of it. At least the good parts. All that’s left is some vague ramblings and a quasi pity party. Ah well, I’m going to post this anyway because the one thing I do remember is that the biggest thing I need to do differently is to take action! I’ve become really bad for thinking things to death and trying to plan for every possible problem along the way. That doesn’t work. In fact, the areas of my life where I have experienced growth are the areas where I took action instead of “planning” (which is really just procrastinating once you have the basic plan sketched out).

So, stay tuned for more thoughts. After all, taking action includes posting regularly (at least for me it does). If you’re at all interested in the tech work I do, head on over to my tech blog and if you’re interested in online business opportunities such as internet/affiliate marketing and info product creation/sales, you can check out my newly created onlinebiz blog.

- Dave

It’s sad to realize that so many people in society today have few, if any, really close friends. We live our lives on autopilot, going through the motions, doing what’s expected of us. Never taking the time to truly connect with the people around us. I can relate. I’ve been through this. In a sense I’m still going through this, at least some of the time.

There are those who’ve embraced online interactions as a replacement for face-to-face relationships. This does help fill the void but it’s not the same. Sure there are advantages. It’s easier to find like-minded people when you have a much larger pool to draw from. But our current technology only allows shallow facsimiles of true communication. In person interaction is such a high bandwidth channel encompassing all the senses, both known and yet to be discovered, that we can’t even come close to duplicating it. Maybe someday, but not today.

Despite being blessed with a good group of friends that have held together across five work areas in three different companies, I still feel the pain of loneliness from time to time. As we age, it becomes increasingly difficult to hold on to our friends. People change, times change, life goes on and people once close to you drift away as their interests and activities take them in different directions from yours. You find yourself trying to connect with people you see rarely and with whom you only have a tenuous commonality. Dare I say this is a curse of modern society?

I have no answers here, only observations. And a depressing awareness that I too, share this curse with the masses. It’s easy to wallow in self-pity or drown oneself in busyness in a vain attempt to forget. Maybe it’d be best to just accept this current state of affairs and find solace in the few relationships remaining. Embrace the fleeting interactions with neighbours and coworkers brought about by proximity. Celebrate the fleeting moments of true connection that occur oh so rarely and cherish the memories of the truly wonderful events of our lives, as few as they may be. I don’t know…

We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone. – Orson Welles

- Dave

I’ve also added the sociable plugin to the blog. It’s the “Share and Enjoy” thing at the bottom of the posts. I see it everywhere and figure it might encourage people to share my content. Is that a good thing? I don’t know but I’m willing to try it out and see what happens…

- Dave

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- Dave

Today I received a special invitation to The Trump Way to Wealth Introductory Seminar. I thought to myself, “Hey! Great! I’d like to check out a seminar and it’s free!”. I’ve been thinking lately that maybe a seminar or two would be good to get me inspired to move forward. Unfortunately, the seminar was last weekend so I missed it already.

The invitation was actually for my dad, but he wouldn’t have used it anyway (since he passed away a few years ago). What’s even worse is that, not only was the seminar free, but it included a free copy of Trump’s latest book. I’ll have to check the reviews and maybe buy a copy.

- Dave