Month: March 2019

I wake up to my phone alarm, often finding welcome messages and alerts.

Except I don’t like clouding my head with other people’s thoughts first thing in the morning.

Nor do I benefit from countless checking for messages, listening to podcast/audiobook/YouTube, reading the news, or watching Star Trek Discovery (yes, I know!) or hilarious comedy shows.

I sleep later, get up at the same time, and am annoyed with myself upon reaching for the phone.

I am tired. Annoyed. I need help!

Starting tonight, all digital devices are disallowed in my room from 10pm to 630am.

I’ll do this for the next 30 days and see how my life changes.

We run away from fear.

We run towards desire.

One pulls us. One pushes us away. Is it opportunity or temptation?

How do you strike the right balance?

Maybe we should run in opposite directions. Maybe we should forget everything we know and do what feels hard. Do the hard part first.

Do you ignore it? It’s only a penny after all. Mere one cents or a dollar. Do you hear it? Where does it go? Does it roll away? Is it face up or down?

Do you care? Are you one cent richer or poorer?

What does it mean?

Will you take out a piece of paper, eraser and pencil to work it out? It should be easy enough. Only one cent after all?

But perhaps it was the coin that kept the door ajar. It was the one cent you needed to buy the one dollar lottery ticket that couod win you many millions. Or a cent to pay for an exquisite meal.

Or a cent holding you back. The one small ounce that broke the camel’s back? The one cent that you don’t need in your purse full of dirty and useless change you carry with you but cannot be used.

When the penny drops, do you chase after it, or do you let it go?

I am choosing to work out the problem to see whether the penny should stay or go

Covered from head to toe in self doubt.
Blindfolded and bumping into all the wrong people and all the wrong places.
Blocking out all sound.
Shutting her mouth, and closing off the world.

Until her skin burned.
Until she grew tired of all the bumps and bruises.
Until she grew too bored.
Until she starved and parched away.

She disrobed.
She opened her eyes.
She unblocked her ears.
She unlocked her jaws.

Light radiated from her body.
She could see farther and clearer than ever before.
She could hear her loved ones calling out to her.
She could taste the bountiful food and water bursting with flavor.

She was awakened and she was alive.

Stop screaming at me. I can’t hear you.

There are no headers. No taglines. The executive summary is missing even though the title says otherwise. My eyes don’t know where to focus. Rainbows jump from all four corners. Too many graphs, pictures and icons makes me feel like I’m in a hoarder’s house. And why are there tens of slides that don’t tell me anything?

You spent a lot of time on this. You had fun and went a bit overboard. But… It’s as if your presentation swallowed up the English dictionary and threw up all over the pages. I don’t want to read your slides. My eyes hurt and I don’t know where to focus.

You’ve made it too hard. Why won’t you just tell me what I need to know? Before getting upset, please remember I’m just trying to be honest. The purpose of every presentation is to tell the story. To get the message across.

I can’t hear you through the clutter and the noise. Take a step back. Figure out what you’re trying to say. Say it! Get rid of all the other stuff that doesn’t tell the story.