Zy Marquiez – Breakaway Consciousness

5 Lessons From Owning & Operating Businesses In The First Year [Part 1] | #Business | #Finance | #Investing | #Growth | #Mindset

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
– Farrah Gray

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
– Confucius

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 23, 2019

The first year in any venture can be a rollercoaster ride, particularly in business.

Such ventures can include incredible highs and torrential lows, but it’s the full length of the journey, what you learn from it and what you ultimately implement that will really set you apart from the of the field.

Based on these ideas, key insights will be discussed in this blog post based on lessons learned from the initial year and change of operating small businesses. Future blogs covering additional insights will follow thereafter, so keep a look at for those in the near future.

As a preamble offering background to the following insights, the following considerations will be based on the experienced gained from two small business owners, one of them being my close friend Jabai and that of myself.

Hussien Jabbai, who conceptualized this post nigh a week ago in one of our business brainstorming discussions, is CEO and Owner of Jabai Performance, wherein he also focuses on Personal Training, and is also the Founder of the Fire Fighter Training Systems (FTTS Project), which aids in Injury Prevention for First Responders. Conversely, I myself am CEO and Owner of both a LEGO-parts store on Bricklink named Blocked up, and also the Square One Productions Ebay store. Both of us have known each other for about six months and have learned a great deal from our business platforms and numerous business conversations.

The advice that follows is a conceptual collation of significant lessons we have learned in our respective businesses in hopes that other business owners may have a foundation to venture from and some idea of what to do, and what not to do. Examples will follow from either one, or each of our respective fields where applicable.

#1: Know What You, Your Products & Services Are Worth

A business transaction, is not unlike any other transaction. Agreements, whether contractual or not, are purely two parties agreeing upon a set of parameters and/or a certain price point. Not all price points are created equal, however.

To give you an idea, while business A might offer to sell their services to customer B, at say $500 per transaction, that doesn’t mean that this is the ideal price-point for the product or service. An exact or very similar transaction could take place at the $750-1000 price range between business C and customer D, and if that is true, then selling your services lower than what the regional, national or global average is, is highly detrimental, and could even set your business back when compared to the competition.

Within personal fitness, how much each trainer charges is obviously a personal choice that is coupled with experience, not unlike any other business. The model that Jabai chooses to employ is one where the services he offers aren’t the highest priced, but certainly aren’t the lowest either. If he prices his services too low, he’ll just get swamped with customers, his time won’t be as efficient given the value he puts on his time and the experience he has garnered in the field, and he would ultimately undercut himself. Likewise, if the prices he sets are too high, it will not only narrow down the range of potential customers who can afford his services, but it will also limit the likelihood of garnering repeat customers as well.

Now, in my own personal aside, when launching the LEGO-parts selling business platform I have pursued on Bricklink, I employ a software used Brickstock. Narrowing down a lot of information into a bite-sized piece, each particular LEGO set has parts lists that can be viewed as the inventory sheet, and each of these parts is sold for a certain price.

Now, the key part here is that each LEGO part is priced at a global average within the Brickstock software, not a regional or national one. This means that, if you don’t know, and I certainly didn’t know this at the nascent stages of starting the Blocked Up Bricklink store, the your regional (or national) price of most individual parts could be much, much higher than the global average, then you would be leaving significant profits at the table. Some of the reasons for this price discrepancy are that in Bricklink (1) some buyers do not like purchasing from sellers over-seas because of the additional shipping charges they incur, (2) many Bricklink stores outside of the United States have (surreptitious) hidden fees, and (3) the issue of waiting much longer for parts is highly problematic when many of the LEGO MOCs (My Own Creations) that are designed by independent LEGO creators are on a time table.

These reasons are why many LEGO creators don’t mind paying a higher premium or a much higher price in certain instances for individual parts within their actual region. However, this isn’t something that’s written about anywhere within the LEGO community that I have noted. It is definitely something to take note of because if you happen to have a store with tens of thousands of parts, hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of parts, then adding even $0.05 cents per part is netting significant profits over the span of a hundreds of orders, entailing tens of thousands of parts, or more.

I have seen Bricklink Businesses who I wholeheartedly support, and whom I appreciate greatly that have been around for over 10 years and whom I have also learned a LOT from that have done this mistake and still do so, and whose business model stays stagnant or grows only slowly, and definitely not at the rate that it could. To be fair, I am only talking about stores where people are doing this for a living, and not selling parts as a hobby.

Also of note, I am also not stating that people need to have the highest prices for their parts, nay. What I am saying is that, if a product is selling for a given price within your region, pricing a hair under that price is something to at least be considered at minimum, since many times these parts would be cheaper than any other store out there anyhow. Pricing parts any lower than that is financial suicide given that you’re only going to grow slower and not take advantage of the supply and demand price mechanisms that rule economics. Just as important, carrying out such glaring oversights in my honest opinion are also a colossal time waste given that this time could be allocated to further grow the business or even free up personal time if that is what you seek.

#2: Always Pay Attention To Your Competitors

Learning is growth, and growth should entail learning. A significant way individuals can learn in life is by learning from others, and in business this is no different. And thankfully, one of the best ways to learn is from those that came before you, or those that partake in your business field.

As touched upon lightly in the aforementioned point, some business products/services have established price ranges, while others do not, in which case you would have to figure out what the price range and market is for that given product/service. In most businesses however, if you look hard enough you can ascertain what prices are optimal for your business, and one of the best and simplest ways to do this is by keeping an eye on similar businesses.

This advice might seem ‘obvious’ at first blush, but it’s something I often see overlooked on Ebay every single day, and that’s not an overstatement.

In addition, other notable things other businesses could do is (1) move prince ranges up or down, which affects your product and profits, (2) have complete control of most of the market, which (a) gives then incredible flexibility in the control of setting the market price, (b) often aiding them in pricing products/services at a much lower price point given that they are in it to flip-products quickly, not unlike a convenience store or even Wal-Mart, which follows a different model than simply pricing products at a specific price point. And (c) this affects the speed at which your products sell.

#3: Know What Your Lowest Price-Point Is & Don’t Go Below It

From what I have gathered, in many online businesses, sellers will undercut each other relentlessly to the point that they are barely profiting from their products. In my personal view, this is like willingly choosing minimum-wage when you could make a higher per-hour rate, or per-transaction rate, than that.

As a business owner, this used to bother me because I always felt the need to have the lowest prices with certain products, but that’s not always feasible (or reasonable), and many times it’s downright detrimental to your business model. In Ebay stores, as well as in Bricklink, there will always be stores with lower prices, but that doesn’t bother me now because prices aren’t the only thing that people rely on, which brings me to the next point.

#4: Know Your Business Model

In business, like in life, it is incredibly important to know your business model in its totality.

Now, in the case of my friend Jabai, he has set his business model with a price point at a happy medium where not only he is satisfied with, but at a point where his customers are as well, which encourages customer loyalty. I follow a similar mindset with most of the products sold, although not in the exact manner because where Jabai sells a service, I sell thousands of different products/parts between both stores.

Along the same line of thought, could each of us set the price of our products/services much higher than we do so now? Yes, we certainly could. Why don’t we? There are a lot of reasons for these, but we will focus on two of these.

The vanguard reason for this is to have happy customers, which encourages repeated business and customer loyalty. Secondly, there is a moral point of view in that although we do want to profit from business, we don’t want to fleece people, which is a delicate balance at times in business. That said, what people considering ‘fleecing’ is entirely subjective, but the majority of people usually agree upon certain price-ranges before something just gets downright expensive.

Due to those reasons, we have each settled on our respective values for our business practices and what we are ultimately satisfied with. This is ONLY a cursory glance of this notion, and can be gone into further detail later on, but it is mentioned simply to give a bird’s-eye view of the concept.

#5: Make Sure You Consider A High-Value Or Rare Product/Service – A ‘Strong IP’ (Intellectual Product)

Let’s now consider the notion of having a high-value or rare product/service.

Having a high-value or rare product/service is something to take note of given that not all products and services, although sometimes exact in nature, are similar in the way their execution is carried out when infused into a business model. As the first example showcased, two businesses can have the exact product, but the initial business values it much lower, thus nets less profit than the latter business. Adding incredible value and/or rarity to the product/service only increases the profit, or the magnitude of the mistake made within such an example.

Expanding upon the notion of having a high-value or rare product, let us now contemplate what I jokingly call having ‘Strong IPs’ within your business. The reason I have chosen this jargon specifically is because one of the greatest lessons I have learned from watching Nintendo as a company.

The lesson that I have learned from Nintendo is that they do not devalue their intellectual property (IP), which is the reason why (1) their products net so much profit, and (2) why their products maintain their value over time.

In the last few years, what I have learned is that even if you go back a decade or more, the products created by Nintendo, not only retain their value quite well, but in some instances increase in value with time. This is one vanguard reason why having a strong IP and knowing what it’s worth is paramount.

Besides, since Nintendo creates the games themselves, they set the global market; the prices that individuals pay for Nintendo video games is nigh always the same across the board, and given how much Nintendo values their IPs, those video games rarely go on sale, thus securing greater profits in the long run. To be fair, Nintendo also has high standards when publishing video games, whereas some other companies do not, which is why they can’t keep their IPs at such a high price point. This is why it’s noteworthy to see Nintendo take their craft seriously, because not only do they carefully craft their IPs with careful consideration, but they deliver on the vision of having a high-quality product through and through.

Now, in my personal case, neither do the Bricklink nor Ebay stores have items that are created by me. What I do offer instead as a smaller subset of the Square One Productions Ebay store are items that are incredibly rare.

Case in point, something I invest heavily in are rare video games and collector’s editions, Playstation 4 Collector’s Editions to be precise. From time to time, a particular game will get a physical Collector’s Edition for a video game that was never produced physically and only produced digitally; given that, the mintage of that item will be somewhere along the lines of 2000-3000 copies. While that might sound like a lot of copies to some, when one realizes that there are nearly 100 Million potential buyers as PS4 owners, you realize that you have a very rare item. It gets even more interesting from there though.

Most of those 2000-3000 copies will be purchased by collectors. For example, let’s say that 50% of those collector’s editions are purchased by collectors, and I could make an argument that the number is much higher, but let’s roll with that number for simplicity’s sake. If such is the case, then you now have only 1000-1500 copies available for purchase, if not much less than that. (In my daily pricing research on EBay, I would say that the numbers is closer to 5-10% of that, but either way, you have an incredibly rare item, which only makes it that much more valuable.)

An unwritten rule that most resellers take is selling the item for double what you paid for it. So if you paid $50 for a collector’s edition, selling it for $100 is not uncommon. Even so, in my opinion, a mistake that some individuals do is pricing these items incredibly low; say at $75 or so. While that might seem like a 50% profit if you were to take Ebay as an example, such is not the case for EBay keeps 10% of that, so the profit is only $67.50, or is it? PayPal takes another 3%, which would is $2.25. Now that ‘profit’ went from $67.50 to $65.25.

If the reseller had sold the item at $100, the Ebay 10% fee would drop the profit to $90, with PayPal taking its 3%, leaving the profit for the item at $87. Although how each seller sells their item is obviously their choice, there’s an enormous difference between selling a product between $65.25 and $87 after fees. While an item sold at $75 will net you a % 30.5 profit, an item that sells at $100 will net you 87% profit. Those kinds of returns will snowball significantly, or at a snail’s pace, depending on which price point you pick and business model you choose to employ.

In the Square One Productions business, 80% of the products or so, perhaps a bit higher, all are priced ‘to-go’ at near the lowest price-point, with the rest of the items having much higher price points, the highest around in fact. This is because when your item is limited, and cannot be created ever again unless by some unknown circumstance or ‘miracle’ later on, the value of that item is incredibly high [1]. This is why it’s not uncommon for some of the rare video games and collector’s editions that are sold to have a 3x-5x return, and in rare cases higher than that even.

Given all of that, knowing exactly where your product falls on the spectrum of rarity and value will net you significant profits in the long run and only make it easier for your business to succeed, or continue its success.

Final Thoughts

Please keep in mind, none of the above thoughts are shared as end-all-be-all ideas. These thoughts are shared to offer individuals perspective for those seeking insight when perhaps considering starting their own business, or who know others that have done so or are planning too.

There are a lot of additional ideas that can be discussed, but these initial five were chosen given that they set a sound baseline for the next part of this series.

In business, like in life, there are unlimited options that individuals and business owners can undertake. What options are chosen and what follows there in isn’t only directly related to the quality of research carried out within your business, but the perseverance and focus applied to each particular idea and/or venture.

The more focused and precise the actions undertaken, the greater the net benefits and profits that will accrue over time, and the more rapidly those benefits will manifest. And in business, like in life, these benefits are what increase the quality of life, or business, which is why careful consideration should be given to it.

As such, each step that you take should not only be taken with incredible thought and mindfulness, but it should not be taken lightly, either.

______________________________________________________________

[1] The notion of rare video games, or games minted in limited runs, is not something new, although has garnered a lot of attention the last few years. In fact, ‘Limited Run’, is the name of the company that I invest the most heavily in and support not only in my business practices, but for my personal endeavors as well. As a small company that is doing what to keep physical media for game cartridges of video games in an age where most companies are seeking to make everything digital, I appreciate what they do heavily and will continue to support them for the rest of my life.
[2] Some of these examples were only delved into in a cursory manner, and could be expanded upon at length in the future.

___________________________________________________________
If you find value in this information, please share it. This article is free and open source. All individuals have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Zy Marquiez and BreakawayIndividual.com

___________________________________________________________
About The Author:

Zy Marquiez is an an author, business owner, CEO, avid book reviewer, inquirer, open-minded skeptic, and writer who aims at empowering individuals while also studying and regularly mirroring subjects like Consciousness, Education, Creativity, The Individual, Ancient History & Ancient Civilizations, Forbidden Archaeology, Big Pharma, Alternative Health, Space, Geoengineering, Social Engineering, Propaganda, and much more.

Poker, Writing, And Life – Seeing & Accepting Things As They Are | #Mindfulness | #Life | #Writing | #Poker

“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.”

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. ”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

BreakwayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 19, ,2019

Poker and life share many commonalities, as previously discussed.

That said, in this particular piece, we will also couple writing to it since this also shares many commonalities with the aforementioned, and in the original conceptualization of this write-up, writing and self expression were the main focus. Given the poker theme that gets addressed in this blog at times, I chose to merge all of these to expand upon the ideas a bit. Essentially, we are going to explore some of the commonalities that self-expression has with poker, writing, and how that delves into viewing things at face value and accepting things in deeper ways from a subjective level.

One vanguard commonality that poker shares with life (and writing) is the expression of an individual in the way they play their game. Just like an individual in poker expresses themselves with what they wear, how they speak, how they act, and how they ultimately play, in writing, as in life, it is no different.

In writing, however, the individual uses a different array of tools for self expression. Writers can employ themes, diction, metaphors, arguments, insights, and much more. Tempo, imagery and reliability are also things that can create a huge feeling of kinship between the writer and the reader. All of this allows for thoughts and emotions to be conveyed in countless forms, and for self expression to take place.

In my personal case, I find that when I subject myself to certain emotions conveyed through writing, or even news, and videos, my emotions can get quite affected. Not always, but enough that I have been cognizant of this for a very long time.

Now, allow me a quick aside that merges into what will follow thereafter.

Throughout the full latitude of my life, I have had certain issues with reading thoughts that people share which are negative (or could be seen as such) in nature. These types of feelings and thoughts people share that have a certain ‘negative’ vibe to it are merely individuals expressing themselves. And I say negative loosely, because perhaps a person is simply expressing themselves, and they are misunderstood. Some people might only want to express thoughts on a darker subject, not with the intent of creating a negative vibe to it, but perhaps in a cathartic way. And just because a reader (such as myself in this instance) takes it negatively, doesn’t mean the aim of the piece was to create negativity in its intentional nascent conception.

Though this above example talks about reading from my subjective point of view that stems from my willing exposure to those who express themselves in writing, the same can be said for poker and life in my personal case.

Instances where a player berates another at the tables, or a person mistreats another with disrespect and so on, have always bothered me at a deeper level. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t be affected, only that allowing your emotions to run you over if such is the case with me, isn’t exactly healthy. One can be bothered significantly by an issue without letting that issue overrun them.

Now, if you think about it, an individual’s ‘self expression, whether it stems through the medium of writing, in poker, or in life, that expression is simply one side of the polarity of positivity and negativity, albeit, through the gateway of emotions and the mind.

That a negative circumstance or thought (or my misperception of it) bothers me so much says a lot about me on many levels. Though, what I think it says more than anything is that, even if I have always found such things stressful since my youth, that doesn’t mean I need to let it affect me, if that makes sense. In other words, while every single person has the freedom to express themselves as they so desire, I also have the freedom to accept that in its totality, and NOT let it affect me, and even learn from it if possible, as I am attempting to do now.

I say this because I’m trying significantly to take a slightly more Zen-like mindful approach to reading certain things in particular, which I usually avoid in general due to it causing stress.

Then a thought struck me: just like I can lockdown my emotions in a game of poker and keep them in check, as well as the stress involved in it, why couldn’t I do that in reading or seeing something that bothers me? This doesn’t mean I excuse poor treatment of another human being in any way shape or form, if such has taken place. I am merely stating that I should not allow my emotions to override my logic center, which is something that can easily take place and it’s a social engineering weapon employed often by the mainstream media.

Why do you think the mainstream media nigh always appeals to emotions and nigh never to logic, or even better, a holistic approach? Ponder that one.

Individuals that are highly emotional are much easier to manipulate than those that have a sound and holistic mindset. But just like too much emotion can affect a person, too much logic can as well, which is why a delicate balance has to be struck.

Seeking a delicate balance and a more mindful Zen-like state of being coupled with acceptance of what I s taking place is the approach I have been slowly taking the last few days, and I am appreciating it because one thing I learned a long time ago is that, anything that bothers you says something about you. Anything that bothers you a lot, says even more about you. While obviously, this can be positive or negative, the point is that our emotional response to a situation has endless ways in the way it can play out, and being able to come to terms with it is incredible for seeing the world as it IS, rather than how you think (or wish) it could be.

The world, just like individuals, simply are. And just how I am okay accepting myself for me, as everyone should accept themselves as well, I should be cognizant of others and their thoughts, feelings, and so on.

That need not mean that I need to agree with them, not at all, or give a pass to something that’s downright wrong that goes against what I feel is right. It’s just that seeing things for what they are is one of those obvious, and yet, not so obvious subtleties life offers. It’s not unlike the sky, it’s there, but most people don’t pay attention to it. Not seeing the subtleties in life, is not unlike having a kaleidoscope at hand, and not seeing the countless intricacies that it offers due to its unique perspective. That’s missing out on a LOT of things one could see, and even learn from if exposed to such.

Is the glass half full or half empty? To me, that doesn’t matter.

What matters is what is inside, and what you can learn from it.

In this case, my cup has been half full with fear of myriad things, which has historically affected how I see and accept the world for it is, which is why my stress increases proportional to my inability to accept things, and which has undoubtedly has affected my health throughout my life.

But at least I am coming to terms with it. Hopefully, that’s a big first step in the right direction.

____________________________________________________________

Author’s Note:

[1] I know I meandered a bit hither and thither, but, there was just a lot I wished to address, and I just took a more instinctual way of constructing my thoughts, rather than a logically structured way in which I aim to follow at times, so if this seems like a lot of spaghetti got launched at the wall in order to seek what sticks, it’s EXACTLY THAT!

[2] I have posted an iteration of this elsewhere in the form of a letter, or perhaps, journal entry might be more precise. I have opted to share it here, though in a significantly more fleshed out way because I think the topic deserves some serious consideration.

This started simply as me putting my thoughts to paper based on many things I had been thinking about of late, with what is shared being that which I thought most noteworthy.

I find it highly fascinating how many points of views different circumstances can offer. Not learning from them when you can if you simply make an a proactive effort is leaving life lessons by the wayside. At least, for me that’s how I feel.

And what’s life about, if not about growth, to a certain extent?

Hope you all have a great evening.

Zy Marquiez is an avid book reviewer, inquirer, an open-minded skeptic, yogi, and freelance writer who aims at empowering individuals while also studying and regularly mirroring subjects like Consciousness, Education, Creativity, The Individual, Ancient History & Ancient Civilizations, Forbidden Archaeology, Big Pharma, Alternative Health, Space, Geoengineering, Social Engineering, Propaganda, and much more.

____________________________________________________________

Suggested Reading:

Passion Project: Book Release – A Kaleidoscope Of Possibilities by Zy Marquiez | #Writing | #Poetry | #Poems | #TheIndividual | #Life | #Obstacles

KOP1
BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 10, 2019

Life is fascinating in innumerable ways.

Sometimes, you have certain goals, and everything you try to do to carry out those goals seems to work against you. Other times, you seem to care not for those goals, and somehow someway everything flows into place like water settling down from a river into an ocean becoming part of something more.

This last week or so, I’ve been deep in thought considering many things in life. Some thoughts are in respect to personal goals, some are passion projects, some of it regards health, so on and so forth. Irrespective of that however, I find myself venturing in a thousand directions unable to pick and choose whether to continue tackling things on an instinctual level, or whether to take a laser-like focus approached into a particular goal or project. Time will tell on that front.

With that in mind, one of the projects that is officially complete, although it has been for nigh two weeks, is the book A Kaleidoscope Of Possibilities which was published on May 29^th.

KOP2
The poetry book A Kaleidoscope Of Possibilities is incredibly significant to me for countless reasons, not the least of which is because this book is in essence an overarching view into many of the struggles I have personally faced, or have seen others face, along with many other noteworthy issues. Also, unlike most other poetry books which feature only poems, this one features personal notations through and through of varying length as insights or personal notes. These can be as short as a couple of lines, or as extensive as a few paragraphs. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and might do something similar in the future.

Most of the poems featured in the book have been shared on many social media platforms, whether it was on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., as well as quite a few websites as well. Some of these poems go back to what was written when I was a teenager, up until early this year.

While most poets that I’ve seen usually wait until their best work is published to start off, I thought I would take a different approach. I don’t want people only to see ‘the finished product’ of what my writing entails as I wait for more polished pieces. If that is what you seek, I would suggest waiting for Halcyon Days, or another other book thereafter.

What I want everyone to keep in mind with this particular book, including myself, is how my writing has grown over time, so I can go back and reflect on that. I simply want people to read that and say, “Hey, I can’ do that too!” This type of can-do mindset is much easier to impart into others when they see your ‘skill’ in its most basic form, from the ground up. I say ‘skill’ loosely, for I am only an amateur writer, but no other words come to mind that seem to fit.

Many times, in life, society as a whole sees the finished product of someone. They see the movie star, the athlete, the Olympian, et al., in their latest form. What people don’t see is where they came from, how they started, how they struggled and so on. Autobiographies cover this to a great extent, but that is usually after individuals have considerable experience in particular field, which does a great disservice to people who want to learn from others to the utmost degree.

Excerpt from *A Kaleidoscope Of Possibilities.*

That said, some of the topics featured within the book that can help with an individual’s growth include love, pain, suffering, fear, abuse, mistakes, addictions, life lessons, mistakes in poker that translate to life, and much more. Almost none of the notations in A Kaleidoscope Of Possibilities delve into incredible depth unless absolutely necessary (as can be seen above), given that this is primarily a poetry book, but the insights that are there are included for those seeking deeper rumination of such a full spectrum of subjects. A handful of the notations really seep into more mindful depths, but in the full totality, there’s a little bit of everything [1].

In other words, the notations in this poetry book, which encompass nearly 3/4^th of the substance of the book, are just as important, if not more important than the poems themselves. This is because the insights that may be drawn from these for me personally, or for others as well, are just as important as the finished product, those being the poems, which is exactly what I was getting at earlier.

Either way, this information is shared so it can serve as a baseline for some of my future works, so I can see, and others as well, where I have come from so others can take a “Can Do” attitude from it if at all possible.

No matter where you are from, what you have gone through, what goals you have or what you wish to ultimately get in life, you always have options, there is always a choice. These choices encompass the full breadth and scope, the veritable kaleidoscope of possibilities that life offers every single day.

These possibilities that exist every single day, and the choices that may stem from them, are what life is all about. Good choices, bad choices, it matters not, for individuals will always have choices, whether to start something great, or rectify past mistakes. What matters most is that we DO have a choice to live a better life, a more meaningful life, a life of possibilities.

That’s what A Kaleidoscope Of Possibilities is all about; it is about gazing into the abyss of life, sifting through the deeper levels of your being and life itself for the significance of every single choice you make, no matter how big or small, and how that couples directly into the lifestream.

You, the individual, are a microcosm of that lifestream, and ultimately significant component of life itself. And as you make your choices on your path, life itself changes accordingly, your life, as well as those of others, contributing to the larger tapestry of wonder that the world holds.

This tapestry, this timeless art piece called life, is intimately woven within you. Don’t ever underestimate the power in your ability within this grand tapestry.

But to contribute to this grand tapestry, your grand tapestry, choices have to be made. These choices start with you.

You – The Individual – are the key to the kaleidoscope of possibilities, and will always be.

____________________________________________________________

Author’s Note:

[1] While that notation might seem obvious at first blush, and even simplistic, much of the advice in self-help books can be seen just as such, and still manages to help millions of people. Given that, one should never underestimate the power that an insight, not matter how seemingly ‘obvious’ it is, can do to help others on their path.

____________________________________________________________

Suggested Reading:

Book Review: The Elements Of Style [4th Edition] by William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White #SmartReads | #Writing | #Creativity

“If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.”
– Victor Hugo

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
– Lous L’Amour

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 2, 2019

Once rated “one of the 100 most influential books written in English” by Time magazine in 2011, The Elements Of Style [4th Edition] by William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White is a systematic book which employs a no-nonsense approach on enduring principles of sound writing.

Cogent, concise and methodical, The Elements Of Style provides the firm foundation upon which writers can construct or improve their repertoire.

Featuring advice that is as simple as it is timeless, the book’s easy-to-follow approach allows for the incisive individual to become more robust with the principles of writing, while honing their own individual style as well.

Undoubtedly, some of these tenets might be familiar to anyone that has dabbled within writing before. Even so, many of these tenets are oft-overlooked (at least by me!) and having them around to reference is quite convenient.

For a book that is nigh a century old, it still ‘packs a punch’. Incidentally, that prior figure of speech, “packs a punch,” for instance, dances along the line of Style Rule #18: Use Figures Of Speech Sparingly.

The reason that last bit is because, perhaps that figure of speech shouldn’t have been used, or perhaps so. But having read this book, as a writer, I am now consciously thinking of how the use of diction and phrases affect everything. Ruminating a bit, perhaps, instead of writing that the book still “packs a punch,” I could have written “this book provides a treasure trove of insights for writers.”

Even though the first sentence gets the meaning across, the second one is smoother, and accomplishes the same thing in amenable fashion. That is merely one example of the possibilities that this book will allow the shrewd writer to undertake once he begins to firmly inculcate its lessons and employ them therein.

Great writing, like a sound structure, can only take place with a firm foundation. The scaffolding for that will undoubtedly require the insights of this book. If you know all of them by heart, you’re one step ahead. If not, then ponder getting this book. And considering that these days, many people communicate with others through the written word on the Internet, it would be prudent to learn these tenets since they will undoubtedly help those who need to employ them.

___________________________________________________________

Suggested Reading & Watching:

What Is The Difference Between Education & Public Schooling?
Logical Fallacies Employed In Every Day Life
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Weapons Of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
13 Great Reasons To Study Logic
How A Generation Lost Its Culture – by Professor Patrick Deneen
A Different Kind Of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto
Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Philosophy 101 by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
What Is Education? The Elite Curriculum – John Taylor Gatto
Breakaway Guide To Censorship, Disinformation, Logical Fallacies & More
How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
History So It Doesn’t Repeat – The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America With Charlotte Iserbyt
Classrooms Of The Heart [Documentary] – John Taylor Gatto
Sumerhill School – A New View On Childhood by A.S. Neil
Social Engineering 101
Dialectical Thinking – Zeno, Socrates, Kant, Marx by Tommi Juhani Hanjijarvi Ph.D.
Underground History Of American Education With John Taylor Gatto
The True Purpose Of Modern Schooling
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Open-Source Method: Genius Education – Examples | John Taylor Gatto
The Trivium – The Liberal Arts Of Logic, Grammar & Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph Ph.D.
Cultural Literacy – What Every American Needs To Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.
A Rulebook For Arguments by Anthony Weston
A Workbook For Arguments by David R. Morrow & Anthony Wesson
Drilling Through The Core – Why Common Core Is Bad For American Education by Sandra Stotsky & Contributors

___________________________________________________________
About The Author:

#Book Review: 1984 by George Orwell | #SmartReads | #Orwell | #1984

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 1, 2019

Much has been side about the book 1984, the magnum opus of George Orwell, and for good reason. Not only did 1984 introduce us to Big Brother, but it is a veritable warning that will forever echo the dangers that can take place of a totalitarian society.

Interestingly enough, George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Blair, who was an staunch opponent of totalitarianism. We will continue to use Orwell to designate Blair’s work, as that’s what people are most familiar with.

Orwell’s view of a totalitarian society is brought into fruition in this stunning, yet prescient piece of work. Prescient, because as some may already know, we as a society are already within the folds of a corrupt system that is taxing people in every way shape or form and mirroring many of the subtleties that 1984 showcased.

Likewise, the Social Engineering that is taking place is so vast and all-encompassing that most people don’t know about it due to how bad the system has dumbed down a significant portion of society or how this significant decline has taken place. That doesn’t even begin to take into account powerful technologies like entrainment technology, and how propaganda is employed and has been for a long time or even astroturfing.

Of course, most of those who are familiar with Orwell’s 1984, are also familiar with Huxley’s Brave New World. Some people get really caught up on which of these books our current world mirrors most. In reality, it’s a combination of both books in many ways. Depending on where you liv, and what country, it could be one ‘system’ more than other, or a close merger of both.

What’s quite distressing is the fact that many people don’t even know the extent by which totalitarianism and all other tyrannical systems rule their lives. As a society, we will never be able to solve large all-encompassing issues if the lot of the populace allows itself to divided by the left-right divide and conquer paradigm as well as be brainwashed into believing that everything the establishment mainstream media says is gospel when much of what the MSM expounds upon is significantly duplicitous.

The populace needs to be more discerning, and this particular book shows where part of society is heading if we don’t begin to change things quickly.

1984 gives us a snippet of what Orwell saw, and its taking place right before our eyes.

Another notable component in the book is the use of ‘Newspeak’, which in its basic form is just using language to socially engineer a less capable person and society; 1984 does wonders in showing how this issue can manifest and how censorship can spawn from that.

Speaking of language, ever notice, that when the mainstream media talks about some really important issues, they often do so quickly, and there is no extensive discussion of the issue. One-liners are used more than most realize, and often the reporters move on to the next story without ever even getting to anything of substance within the current one, and it’s all become normal. A soundbite reality Du jour!

This is obviously done on purpose, for the quicker the MSM moves through issues without analyzing them, the less attention individuals will give to it, often forgetting about those issues within minutes with the constant bombardment of other issues, which leaves the viewer at a loss at what to think, if they’re even thinking deeply at all. That is just but one of the ways that language is used to manipulate society, and 1984 is a veritable crash course in this regard.

Orwell also aptly delineates the control of history that can take a place within such a controlled society. In 1984, history literally changes by the day in many notable ways. Although within our official reality things haven’t gotten that bad yet, individuals must be cognizant because ‘Fake News’ has come about, which is merely a different shade of Newspeak.

Please keep in mind that anything that questions the official narrative is not approached with open-minded skepticism. Ready-made answers are always ready, even when they don’t even make any sense.

Instead, individuals who employ critical thinking and open-minded skepticism are derided, ridiculed, shunned and even lose their jobs at times if they bring anything of substance to the floor. This has happened to countless individuals, and it still happens to this day. Essentially, although history isn’t being ‘changed’ daily, it sure is being carefully manipulated to show the reality that the comptrollers wish us to see, and not what’s really taking place.

There are countless additional issues that Orwell covers, and all very pertinent to our contemporary age. Regardless, what we each learn about these issues is up to us, because we are the ones that allow, or stop what happens in its tracks, not only as individuals, but ultimately, as a nation.

Each individual has a choice. Do we believe the official party line in every single issue, knowing what their track record in lying is, or do we carry out our own trenchant research to find out what’s what?

Orwell’s 1984 will show us what will happen if we don’t begin to think of ourselves as a nation, and better yet as individuals. That alone is worth the price of the book.

___________________________________________________________

Suggested Reading & Watching:

Lessons From Orwell’s 1984
What Is The Difference Between Education & Public Schooling?
The Catastrophic Decline Of Public Education: 21 Facts About Why Public Schooling Performs So Poorly
What Our List Of Most Banned Books Says About Our Society’s Fears
Logical Fallacies Employed In Every Day Life
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Weapons Of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
13 Great Reasons To Study Logic
How A Generation Lost Its Culture – by Professor Patrick Deneen
The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse
A Different Kind Of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto
Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Philosophy 101 by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
What Is Education? The Elite Curriculum – John Taylor Gatto
Breakaway Guide To Censorship, Disinformation, Logical Fallacies & More
How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
History So It Doesn’t Repeat – The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America With Charlotte Iserbyt
Classrooms Of The Heart [Documentary] – John Taylor Gatto
Sumerhill School – A New View On Childhood by A.S. Neil
Social Engineering 101
Dialectical Thinking – Zeno, Socrates, Kant, Marx by Tommi Juhani Hanjijarvi Ph.D.
Underground History Of American Education With John Taylor Gatto
The True Purpose Of Modern Schooling
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Open-Source Method: Genius Education – Examples | John Taylor Gatto
The Trivium – The Liberal Arts Of Logic, Grammar & Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph Ph.D.
Cultural Literacy – What Every American Needs To Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr.
A Rulebook For Arguments by Anthony Weston
A Workbook For Arguments by David R. Morrow & Anthony Wesson
Drilling Through The Core – Why Common Core Is Bad For American Education by Sandra Stotsky & Contributors

___________________________________________________________
About The Author:

Poker & Life – Old Roads, New Roads & Pursing Dreams | #Life | #Goals | #Freedom | #Writing | #Poker | #Inspiration | #Motivation | #Change

“The turning point in the life of those who succeed usually comes at the moment of some crisis.”
– Napoleon Hill

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
– Gandhi

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 1, 2019

Life offers infinite choices. Choices are one of the gifts that make life so grand, vast, and intriguing.

Some choices arrive instantly, such as slamming on the breaks not to rear end someone, while others, such as choosing a major in school, allow for extensive thought.

In this blog, choices are a subject that has been written about extensively. This is because no matter what happens, life offers a wide well of choices to draw from on a daily basis, many more than most individuals realize given that so many choices are done on autopilot, such as not having to think about directions to the grocery store. But there’s a lot more choices than the autopilot ones, and many can be significantly life changing.

For quite some time I have stood still on my path, mindful of two separate choices that can be, though not necessarily need be, joined at the hip when it concerns what I chose to do for a living. At this proverbial fork in the road I have pondered long and hard about what to do, which choice to make and the ramifications of each one to a considerable extent. While these choices have been a long time coming in a sense, for years in fact, I knew that eventually the longer it took for me to make these choices, the longer I would have to wait to chase one of my dreams.

Now, to chase certain dreams in life, an individual isn’t always required to sacrifice other things or dreams. Often, individuals can just chase a dream in a manner that doesn’t affect other parts of their life considerably. Other times, dreams can require a certain level of sacrifice, certain choices that you perhaps might not want to (or need to) make.

With this in mind I’ve chosen to stop one of my career paths, which is playing poker for a living, and only focus on business. In conjunction with that however, I have also chosen to take up writing on a more serious basis, hopefully 4-8 hours a day, if not more. Writing isn’t being chosen as a career path, though there are certain financial possibilities there as well that I am open-minded about, but that is in no way shape or form any of my main reasons for choosing writing. If I was concerned about making money or increasing income I would just log more hours playing poker. I simply choose writing because that is what I love doing.

The final portion of my poker bankroll was liquidated and converted into business inventory, as has been taking place for weeks and now. This way I can just pursue the two small businesses as a career in conjunction with writing as a passion as well.

I have loved writing ever since I was a teenager although I never thought about it seriously as I have the last few years. I have grown to love it more and more every single day. It matters not what the topic is about, I love writing about imagination, creativity, inspiration, research, non-mainstream matters, and more. And when you couple that to creative writing in the form of short stories, prose and poetry, I’m in absolute heaven when I write. I can’t get enough of it in all honesty.

Admittedly though, I did contemplate not writing as a passion, because being open-minded by default requires considering all options, even the unpleasant ones, like quitting poker.

But couldn’t I simply add writing to my plate and not quit poker? Yes. Haven’t I been writing somewhat regularly the last few months? Yes. Could I add writing to a more serious extent, even more so than now, in addition to poker? Yes. Would that be the best choice? Not in any way whatsoever.

Why is this? Because if I choose to write regularly, irrespective of what I write or to the extent that I wish to do so, it’s going to require a lot of time to write, but more importantly, to grow as a writer [1]. As Rappaport once stated, with writing, you are either all in or you’re not – not unlike poker! If you’re going to write seriously, it has to be part of your life, if not part of your being. Writing is something that I will absolutely sink myself into and have already been doing so for weeks.

In fact, just yesterday, while at the gym, I wrote 7 blogs while I was there, at least the first drafts of them as an outline format with bullet points; this very write up was the second one of those [2]. I don’t usually employ bullet points as a first draft in writing, but when you’re writing on a traditional notepad and not on a laptop or notebook, streamlining key points is all that matters in my opinion. Such an approach also allows for the honing of logic given the sequential order that’s needed to maximize effectiveness in writing, just like in life, and also simplifies to a significant degree as well. That said, I think doing that and only that at the nascent stages of writing would be detrimental to the process as a whole. I just employ an outline format when need be, and also because I like simplifying, though I think writing in the traditional sense is much better since it allows for thoughts to be written in their full breadth and scope.

Even with all that, there’s a more crucial reason why letting go of poker is a no-brainer and this has to do with health. Poker, by its very nature, is an incredibly stressful game. In a regular every day 9-5 job, you show up, you get paid. In poker, such is not the case. You could go days, weeks, or months (if you’re a tournament player) playing flawlessly and still lose. Some have even gone a full year without any profits, YIKES! Though I’ve played countless tournaments in my life and dabbled considerably in them, this was mostly before the fateful ‘Black Friday’ date that poker went through years back.

Poker is just a game (or career) that creates a never-ending avalanche of stress that most people cannot handle, and even with those that do, it can still affect them greatly, like it has affected me in the past and many others that I know.

Being cognizant that health is my main concern at this point, choosing to stop poker isn’t even a choice. That said, just because I have stopped playing poker doesn’t mean that I had to add writing. But, given that writing is my main creative passion in life and it allows me to vent to a significant degree, thus relieving stress, which is the opposite of what poker would do, I see no reason why not to venture head long in it.

I always knew (or at least hoped) that poker was simply a means to an end, a way to make a living while enjoying the love for the game. The chief binary reasons why I love poker are (1) not only because poker allows more freedom than what a traditional job could offer, but more importantly, (2) poker allowed me to stay home, and staying home was important for someone who’s always had family in mind ever since I can remember.

In fact, having family has always been a big dream of mine in a weird sense and something I thought about often while growing up. Before my parents’ divorce, my father used to work for FEMA and he had to travel a lot. At times, he was gone for months at a time, with one time him being gone 9 months if I recall correctly. Whenever there was a disaster he had to bolt with no warning. Whether it was the Mississippi river flood, the Oklahoma City bombing, or anything similar, he had to be gone because it was his job to set up the communication networks when things went haywire and nothing could be accomplished during emergencies without communication.

The fact the he made that choice never bothered me or anyone else in my family that I know of. Yes, we all wanted him home, but that’s what he had to do given his career choice. Those circumstances always made me think that if I had the option to not be away from family, then I would actively seek it out. Had I followed through with Aerospace Engineering as I originally planned on after ASU, I knew having a lot of time for family would never happen, which is another major reason why poker always seemed amazing.

While at ASU I spoke to many current or former engineers that worked at Lockheed Martin or other aerospace companies that would venture to campus occasionally, and the vibes I got most of the time were that even though they liked (or even loved) their jobs, they all worked a lot, and a small amount were even downright miserable because they didn’t do what they were told they would be doing out of college even though they were all making great money and a fantastic living in the traditional sense.

Don’t give me wrong, I don’t mind working hard at all, or spending lots of time at work. Working hard has never been an issue. If anything, no matter the job, if there’s anything I could be accused of being is a workaholic. Not the best trait to have, but it’s one that’s true, or at least it was many a year ago. But given a choice, the adage of working smarter over working harder should always be chosen. These days I’ve simply taken the 4-Hour work week approach, whether it was poker or business. Not that I only work 4 hours a week, nay. Essentially, my goal is always to accomplish as much as possible with work (or writing) in the narrowest time slot available at the moment. This approach has kept me focused and saved me from serious heartache whether it was poker or business.

It’s odd because although I played poker for a living for well over ten years, I never went to Vegas. That’s even more mind bobbling due to living in Arizona, which is a stone’s throw from Nevada.

I can hear it now: “YOU PLAYED POKER FOR A LIVING AND NEVER WENT TO VEGAS!?!” My friends will never let me live this down, and I’m sure many are still laughing. No, I have never been to Vegas, even when we only lived 5 hours (drive time) away from Vegas. Eventually I would like to visit, but that’s definitely for the future.

It’s incredibly paradoxical because you would figure that someone like me that loves meeting people, having dinners with friends and family, the night life, dancing and so on, would easily choose visiting Vegas, at least once. But no, Vegas never appealed to me like that. And although I do enjoy the aforementioned inclinations to a great degree and those are things I like or even love doing, like dancing, those past times were never my defaults.

By default, I enjoy writing, reading, thinking, meaningful conversations, and so on. Every single one of those is something I love doing, which is why those are some of my defaults, and not the prior proclivities.

In any case, because of that assemblage of reasons, making the choice to play poker (though it certainly wasn’t set in stone at the time) was a no-brainer, just like pursuing writing as a passion is now. But unlike poker, which was done primarily out the freedom it offered coupled with the potential for profits and income that allowed for the capacity to make a living, writing is strictly chosen as a passion, as one of my dreams.

In all honesty, I couldn’t chose writing if I didn’t have something to fall back on. In essence, the Ebay and Bricklink stores have replaced poker, and allow an approach that significantly decreases stress in more ways than I can express. Also, writing is simply going to take the time slot that poker used to take, as it has for the last 2-3 weeks, with the usual writing that I do sprinkled in the mix that I’m liable to do at anytime, anywhere, for any reason.

Will I ever play again? Heavens yes, of course. My Mom drags my wife and I from time to time to the casino and not the other way around as it might seem [3]. Interestingly enough, my Mom draws a lot of inspiration from that actually. I hope to write about how that inspires her in the future.

Now, am I following writing as a career path? Nope. I will do it because I love doing it, because I have an unending passion for it.

Writing is one of the ultimate freedoms of expressions of the individual. And in an outside-of-the-box sort of way, writing is one of the biggest investments an individual can carry out, not unlike an individual’s proactive focus on health.

Writing as a passion is essentially going to become my drop into the aether in hopes to spawn change at a grassroots level with individuals. The way I have always seen it is like this: if every single post I share within this blog reaches only one person every single day of my life, then that will have meant thousands of people helped over the course of my life. Thankfully, the blog has done way better than reaching one person a day, but I don’t want to try and get too ahead of myself.

I employ this mindset due to a particular scene that played out from the action movie The Core if my memory serves me right. Within the movie, one of the protagonists is stressing about saving the world. Within that key moment, one of the other protagonists goes on to share their sentiments, where they said something along the lines of, saving the entire world is complicated, so why not simplify. He stated that in his case he was simply attempting to save 3 people, which were his family, that’s all. If he could save those 3 people, which were his wife and two kids, then everything else would follow. That simplicity and depth always stuck with me.

That’s taking a huge complex problem, and boiling down to only its core aspects, which allows for significantly less stress and more focus to be had, some of the very things that a sound mindset would employ.

Now, something I have noticed in the alternative research community is that many people share news articles, perhaps dozens, hundreds, or thousands of them over many years and expect the world to change in a heartbeat. Change at that ferocious speed is nigh never going to happen. Not that it cannot happen, it certainly can and it very rare instances has; it’s just that change at that rapid rate is incredibly complicated for innumerable reasons. Such is not how the world operates. The world is fluid, its chaotic, it’s wonderful, its boundless, it’s growing, and it’s a blank canvas at its foundation. Life is a blank canvas that requires constant application of an individual’s dreams for significant change to not only manifest, but to create resonance with others.

Blank canvases and the resonance they create allow for individuals to express themselves as they see fit while affecting the world, whether it is artistically or academically. This self expression allows for creativity to be explored, which allows for roads to be ventured.

And in synchronistic fashion, the very road that allows me to make my drop-in-the-bucket type of contribution to help others, also allows me to follow my passion, which is writing. In that sense, choosing writing is simplifying because writing, compared to poker, is a walk in the park, when it comes to stress at least, and almost everything else as well.

But what’s most incongruous and intriguing is that is that, if you think about it logically, what is simpler than doing what you love, which in my case is writing?

____________________________________________________________
Author Notes:

[1] One aspect of writing that takes a considerable amount of time is editing, particularly in more objective and lengthier research-based pieces. The longer the write up, the more editorial sweeps an individual must do to make sure the writing has quality, unless someone has considerable skill level at editing. I don’t mind editing, and at times it’s even fun, it’s just that editing is not something that’s talked about as one might often think, but at least it’s a developable skill.

For instance, this entire write up took me more than 10 sweeps to get to a satisfactory point and at least a few hours. Could it be better? Probably. But given how much time I had already spent writing this and editing it, I think that for what it is, it gets the point across with no glaring mistakes (that I can see at least). That said, most of my blogs don’t take that many sweeps, particularly the ones that are 2-3 pages long, as opposed to this one, which is 5 pages in total.

[2] I mention the amount of blogs I made first drafts not in a bragging manner, especially since anyone else can do the same, but to show how excited I was at the time that I was finally embedding myself into what I have wanted to do for years, which was writing. I derived a lot of inspiration from these thoughts and still find them incredibly inspiring.

[3] Why would I not be leading the charge to the casino on a regular basis? Because the poker I played was mostly online, since it saves on average 500 hours of road time a year, and for someone that’s incredibly cognizant of time, how precious it is, even if all you get is minutes within an individual, 500 hours of year is lot of time that can be allocated for other things.

[4] I hope to eventually write a book on poker and life, similar to some of the blogs that I have written on this very topic within this blog, but that’s something that I will probably begin to tackle next year. As it stands, my year is already jam-packed with countless ideas and goals that I wish to accomplish or at least begin, but I will take proactive steps towards the goal of writing a Life & Poker book though.

[5] I hope every single one of you takes at least one step, every single day, to whatever goal you wish to accomplish, no matter how big or small. Those individual steps, while seemingly inconsequential, will accrue to a significant degree and eventually snowball into something more magnificent. Or as grandpa Yoda said, “Do or do not, there is no try.”

____________________________________________________________

Suggested Reading:

Meandering Mindfulness | #Mindfulness | #Health

“Every morning we are born again. What we do today matters most.”
– Buddha

“Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience.”
– Jon Kabbat-Zinn

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
May 30, 2019

At this current point today, I’m well over a dozen cups of coffee.

You might ask, how does that couple into mindfulness, to which I would respond, how does that not couple into mindfulness?

This is not the first time that I have struggled and this has happened to me. I have made poor choices like this when it comes to health in the past, but at least I am being attentive and pondering them [1]. Stress is the vanguard reason for me drinking so much coffee, but I know deep down inside that if I am being totally mindful and in control I wouldn’t allow such instances to take place.

This is brought up for others to contemplate whatever it is that they struggle with when they are stressed out and life brings the waves that it inevitably does. Obstacles will always be obstacles, but (1) they can be avoided by finding a new approach, a new path, (2) they can be tackled head on, or (3) they can be ignored altogether if the choice is possible.

Running headlong into an obstacle as if I am Juggernaut from X-Men, as I have done today, is definitely not the prudent or logical thing to do, and yet, here I am, dancing self-torched amid the rubble of uncommon sense.

Obstacles always come to pass, and we should be prepared to face them as best as possible to our utmost abilities. But this can only be accomplished by a proactive approach, which involves Mindfulness as one of the tools.

This is because Mindfulness is the skeleton key to innumerable solutions and the port from which the individual traverses into healthier pastures. But such cannot be accomplished unless we are focused on each step we take.

Those steps can lead to a healthy or unhealthy life, to a mindful or mindless approach, or to a positive or a negative future. Given that the future is fused to the past, and both center upon the present, now is all we have to be mindful.

Mindfulness starts this very moment.

____________________________________________________________

[1] When I’m very healthy, drinking lots of coffee isn’t a big deal. But right now, it is. I’m done drinking coffee for today, but I know I have to remain cognizant every day after.

____________________________________________________________

Suggested Reading: