night by the lake

Are you excited to be where you are?

People all move at different speeds. In fact, it's rare that you walk down the sidewalk, or drive or that matter, at the same pace as those that are around you. I once watched a golf video that said I must learn how to swing in tune with my body's rhythm. I suppose that makes sense. I should probably do everything in my body's rhythm.

But, how do you figure out your body's rhythm?

When you're not stopping to smell the roses or rushing to get somewhere, what pace do you walk at? I believe that your normal pace is your body's rhythm. Furthermore, I've an unproven theory that we like music that is in tempo with our body's rhythm.

This morning, @janezander was walking to the car and I was trailing behind. We walked at a much different pace... of course, my food tank was on empty and I was out of energy and she was off to the airport. In other words, she was trying to get somewhere and I was trying to stay somewhere. When we got into the car, her music choices were loud and uptempo; I wished for earplugs.

So, I asked her why she was in such a hurry all of the time and she said, "I'm not in a hurry, I'm just excited to get where I'm going." What I wanted to say in reply was, "Why aren't you excited to be where you are?" Unfortunately, I was braindead, but her reply would have likely been, "Ohhh, Roberto."

I've been writing a lot about being in the NOW. It's been a long time since I thought about body rhythm, but this morning I began to wonder if people need to have the same tempo in order to be good in a relationship. Mind you (especially you, JZ), I was merely thinking about this objectively... does your body rhythm change with age and/or experience? Is your body rhythm different on different days? I can say with complete honesty, that I don't think my body rhythm has ever been any different in my life, faster or slower, than it is now.

My dream is to be with someone that will walk next to me (as often as we can), not behind me or in front of me. Therefore, I think that we'd have to walk at the same pace. Fortunately, most of the time, JZ and I seem to do that, but there are definitely days when she's a few steps ahead.

Go forth, be in the now and do it at your own pace.

Read more bigBADbobisms.

My Morning Repeat: Radiohead

I've been listening to the same Radiohead song on repeat this morning because the beat and the lyrics are in sync with my mood. This morning, I woke without rest and left a place that I didn't want to leave. My restlessness was because I felt hearts part--protection due to confusion--11 hours earlier than the actual, physical good-byes.

Well, if you're really gonna leave, then it's time to get ta goin.' Unfortunately, this is not a "Live in the NOW" mentality.

Street Spirit (Fade Out) lyrics
Rows of houses, all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out

This machine will, will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again

Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again

Immerse your soul in love
IMMERSE YOUR SOUL IN LOVE.
--
"Fade out again." Ack. No, not again.
"Immerse your soul in love." Yes. Immersion, please.

I still need to work on being in the NOW... we all need to work more on being in the NOW. Take advantage of what's right in front of our eyes because tomorrow we may, once again, be worlds apart... otherwise, our morning repeat will be to fade out again.

Read more bigBADbobisms.

thurs afternoon ballgame! woot!

Padres, Angels, Dodgers, Giants, A's, Mariners, Dbacks (no game), Rockies, Rangers, Royals, Cards (old), Brewers (old), Cubs, Twins, Nationals... White Sox. Check. I've now visited 14 of the current MLB parks. Looking to tick off the new Yankees and Mets stadiums later this summer.

Who's Driving, Creative or Concept?

Last week, in the midst of a super-tight time line on a project that was a rush to begin with, I ran into a business experience that I'd not before encountered.

I was surrounded by a passionate team of extremely bright, creative individuals that were burdened with the challenge of developing and presenting concepts at the same time; it's hard to build the concept and the presentation at the same time.

We'd meet. I'd rewrite slash strengthen. We'd meet. They'd design slash strengthen. The concepts kept slipping off into these tangential ideas instead of focusing on their core depth. They question was, who was in charge of defining "strength?"

The project needed a leader or a leadership process. The best that I've come up with, so far, on how to improve this process under such demanding time constraints, is to make the loop smaller.

As a friend said, "Yeah, like the size of a fruit loop."

If leadership is the team, then we needed to agree on the core concept and engage in a process of approval for any tangent to that core... as a team. When a new idea arose, we should have shared it immediately, instead of letting it sink it's teeth into the arm of the concept. When that happened, the incisors got a firm enough grab that the concept itself kept becoming something else... a concept with something trying to tear its arm off. I'd walk into the meeting, see the thing and say, "What is this thing that's trying to tear the core concept's arm off?"

The loop was too large; it took too much time for the concept to circle back to the parties on the other side of it.

Frustrating. We could have let technology be the route by which we could have made quick decisions about whether the tangent strengthened the concept, thereby decreasing the circumference of the loop.

Fortunately, the team kicked ass and the presentation went well... though I'm damn sure we could have avoided at least one of those all-nighters with better process AND presented an even more impactful, emotional story to the client.

Next time.

Society Needs To Detoxify

From a friend and astute psychologist, Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, in his recent newsletter:

We now suffer from a collective social disease that I call the Joan of Arc Syndrome--people walking in the street like zombies, hearing voices. These people are not really there, they are ELSEWHERE.

This is the elsewhere generation.

They are always on their cell phone and when they have dinner with their spouse, each one is looking not at the other one, but looking at his or her blackberry. Love is not looking in the same direction anymore or into somebody’s else’s eyes but looking into somebody else’s blackberry. They don’t even speak to each other, they simply text each other. Elsewhere people used to be put into mental hospitals, now they're CEO’s--and we wonder where all this toxicity is coming from!

Society needs to detoxify not just our bodies but most importantly, our minds. We need to return to local products, to meeting real people and to producing real products, like cars that people want to buy. We need a Reality Renaissance, or a Reality Revolution. We need to get Real again, to touch people; really touch them with our hands. We should play sports together and create real team spirit instead of using video conferencing and the internet. I am not against e-technology; I just believe that we let technology take over our minds and bodies. The robots have taken over and now have all the power. They are buying and selling stocks without us having any control. We lost our control over the real world and it is time to take it back.

Technology should be used to enable and enhance real communication and should not be a substitute for it.

This is the new plague, the new social disease that we are now facing. It is an epidemic of incredible consequence. We have created a generation of Joan of Arc’s, of zombies who can play with billions that they never earned and who don’t have to pay for their mistakes. There is no responsibility in a non-real world.

The cure is the return to reality.

Sign up for the good doctor's email newsletter by visiting Archetype Discoveries Worldwide.

--
From bigBADbobby:

I've recently made a focused effort on being in the NOW. When I go to a meeting, I don't take my phone or my laptop, I take a pen and a piece of paper. I focus on the conversation at hand, not to be fragmented by an incoming text, email or IM. It's your meeting and you deserve my full attention; this is how I give it to you.

Guess what? I like it. Try it.

pokemon & legos = my afternoon :)