Do you have the art of living?

You may wonder what I’m talking about. Living doesn’t have an art. You get up in the morning, you go to your job, you come home, you go to bed and start the while thing over again. Right?

At one time, I would have agreed with you. I still live that way some days. The truth is, there is an art to living; at least living a truly enjoyable life.

• A truly artful life must have passion.
• An truly artful life has attitude.
• A truly artful life must have purpose.
• A truly artful life must have joy.
• A truly artful life must have health.

Without passion, you life is dull and listless. There is nothing to get you out of bed in the morning.

Without the proper attitude, you will never fight off the negative forces that will continually try to beat you down.

Without purpose, there is no point. You look at all that goes on around you and you wonder where you place in it all is.

Without joy, the passion is false and the purpose has either eluded you, or gone sour.

Without health, mental and physical health, you struggle each day just to remain alive. The purpose, joy, and passion are shoved to the back burner.

What is artful about your life? What is there in your life that could be more artful?

P.S. You need not be afraid of leaving a comment. I really am rather friendly!

Do you practice Yoga? Do you go to class where you have an instructor? Well, today what I want to talk about is,

How to dress for yoga and give your instructor a break, especially if he’s a man.

Now, I teach yoga. One of the things that get me about teaching yoga is that people don’t seem to know how to dress. Especially women! Now I know this is a touchy subject.

The human body, to me, is not something that’s terrible. I used to go to nude beaches years ago and would probably be a nudist today if my wife were willing to do that.

The human body isn’t a bad thing, and yet, there is a couple of problems with some young ladies and even some older ones who come to yoga class.

Last night I taught a yoga class and it was kind of interesting. There was one young lady who came to class in very short shorts with kind of baggy open legs. The thing about this was that in many of the postures it was a little indelicate.

I also had another young lady who was, shall we say, rather well endowed in the chest department. She was wearing a very low cut top.

Now if you’ve ever done yoga you know that there are particular postures that you get into that having this kid of clothing is a problem.

Here’s the deal. In a lot of these postures, you have to move your body in such a way that, if you’re wearing inappropriate clothing you’re going to be showing a lot more than you intended.

Now this young lady with the short shorts, let me just say that, without my being a real pervert and staring, that she shaves, and don’t just mean her legs. Also, that I had to alter what I was going to have the class do because one of the postures would have put her in a position where I would have known her as well as her gynecologist! I just didn’t think that was appropriate.

Now you may be saying, “This guy is just a perv.”

Let me tell you, as a yoga instructor, you have to look at people’s bodies. You have to look at the hip area. You have to look at the chest area. Are they sticking out the chest, are they arching their back, are the shoulders down, are the collar bones wide?

These are the kinds of things that yoga instructors look at. If you’re a yoga instructor you know I’m telling the truth. I’m not pervin’ out here or making dumb excuses.

So when a person is in position, these are the areas I’m looking at.

So this gal with the short shorts, I had her in bridge pose. Bridge pose is where you have your feet on the floor and you’re laying on your back. You push with your feet and lift your hips so you are in a back bend, your shoulders are rolled under. Your hips are up in the air. I have to look to make sure you are in proper position. I was looking at areas that were a little indelicate.

The same with true of the others postures. Postures that cause the chest to come forward and the weight is down. Like down dog. If the lady is wearing a low cut top and is well endowed, it can be a problem.

Last night, with the lady with the low cut top, one of the times I thought, “My God, I think her nipples are going to pop out! If they do, what am I going to do? I’m gonna notice and everyone else is going to notice. I’ll probably never have her in class again because she’ll be so embarrassed and besides that, she’ll probably slap the crap out of me on the way out!”

Well just don’t wear that kind of stuff and it won’t be a problem!

I have to look at body parts. It’s happened to me. I’m looking to make sure that shoulders are down, collar bones are wide and I get a look like, “Quit scopin’ out my tits, man!”

Just don’t have ‘em hanging out there then! Okay.

So, when you go to yoga class ladies, and it happens for guys too. I mean, you’re wearing short shorts with no underwear and you have testicular escapation! Dress appropriately!

This is a tough one. I understand, you want to wear something low cut because it’s hot, especially in the summer! If I had my way, I don’t care, come to class topless, but then don’t get pissed if I look!

Wear loose fitting clothes and wear something comfortable. For goodness sake, if you don’t want people seeing various parts of you, dress appropriately!

P.S. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. If you think I’m just a perv, say so, I want to hear it. Don’t forget to sign up for updates!

I’m not going to transcribe this one. I know that’s a big no no, but I could never write the passion I have for this subject. The fact that exercise is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves would not come through with the same fire! The video isn’t that long.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment or story of your own!

The title of this post is a bit deceptive. I don’t think there is any other way to succeed. Normalcy usually means fitting in with everybody else. If you do that in the blogging world, or in any area for that matter, you will disappear. Don’t be normal!

How To Not Be Normal And Succeed!

One of the things that I have struggled with the most, and still do, is wanting to fit in. I don’t mean so that I can be just like everyone else, but how do I fit in the blogging world and how do I fit in in helping others. What makes you want to read my blog, watch my videos over anyone else? Sure, I’m forty years older than most of them, but that doesn’t exactly make me cool. (Maybe it does!)

I think nearly all of us who are working at this blogging thing can feel the suck of the quick sand that is called fitting in. We strive all our lives to be “normal” to fit in, to be part of the crowd, only to find that this strips us of our individuality and our uniqueness. It doesn’t make us more acceptable, it makes us disappear.

An example

I remember a guy who transferred into our high school my senior year. Yeah, we did have high school back then. We just had to chase the dinosaurs away for football.

Anyway, I remember this guy. He was so unique! In our school we had the hippie group and the jocks. This guy didn’t fit in either. He didn’t want to. He was who he was and he made no apologies. Pretty soon, like within a month, he was the most popular kid in school. He didn’t try to be like everybody else and everybody else wanted to be like him, different.

What’s my point?

My point is, don’t try to be like everyone else. Be yourself. I see people get on the net and push their blog and it is no different that ten thousand others in the niche. Let’s say their thing is cats. The first thing you know they are reviewing the same cat scratcher thingies that everyone else is. Gag me! Be authentic, it is much more enjoyable!

Tell everyone that your thing is learning how to get your cat so high on catnip that she gets a glazed look in her eye and attacks the neighbor’s Doberman like she’s a frickin’ mountain lion! (Don’t be afraid to use run-on sentences!)

Every time I see my stats go down, I go back over my posts and videos that I’ve done and usually, what I see is that I have fallen into the same mindless crap that everyone else is doing.

When I start getting lots of hits and comments, it is when I have stepped away from the crowd and been my very own self. (I feel a lot better too!)

I read recently that one of the keys to success is to stand out from the crowd. See what I’m sayin’?

This ain’t Kansas anymore!

Some of the giants in the blogging world today had it easy. They were the first. There was no one like them. Now I’m not saying they don’t have good content, but when they started, they had much less competition. How many bloggers do you think there were in your niche ten years ago as opposed to today.

Don’t be normal, be abinormal!

(anyone seen Young Frankenstein?)

In today’s world, ya gotta stick out or you’ll be stuck! Actually, I don’t think that has ever been untrue. It is for those who dare to stick out that greatness comes!

There is an old saying that says if you stick out, you’ll be knocked down. That may be true, but in the world of blogging, if you don’t stick out, no one will notice you. I would rather be knocked down than ignored!

Don’t Be Normal!!!

P.S. What experiences have you had in sticking out or not being normal and having it work to your advantage. Leave a comment and share it with us!

I wanted to talk a bit about why it’s important to question authority.

You can probably tell by the no hair and grey beard that I’ve been around a while. I grew up in the sixties. I was a hippie and all that jazz. Now a lot of people today will say that the baby boomers have ruined the world. I don’t know, maybe we have, but I don’t think so.

The biggest crime that the baby boomers ever committed was that we gave up our ideals and our values. As we used to say back then, “We sold out to the man.”

It reminds me of a political cartoon I saw a long time ago. It showed a young man with long hair and the goofy stripped bell bottomed pants, wearing a piece sign. Then it showed the same guy years later, with a bald head and a fat gut, hmmm, sounds like me. Anyway the piece sign and turned into the Mercedes symbol.

You know, we cashed in all our hopes and dreams, for a paycheck. That’s a terrible thing.

Why it’s important to question authority is that if we never questioned authority, we’d still be living in a cave with some guy holding a big club who called himself chief, telling us what we could and could not do.

Every time a people have been oppressed, they have risen up and fought against their oppressors. They questioned authority. The problem is, most times, the people waited until things were so bad that there was a big revolution. If they had questioned authority, if they kept asking why does it have to be this way, then things might not have gotten that bad.

When I say question authority, I don’t mean if you get stopped by a traffic cop, you should punch him in the nose and drive away. That’s really a bad idea. Don’t do that.

What I do mean is, question the rules and the laws. When people say that things have to be a certain way, ask why.

Now driving eighty miles an hour through a school zone is not a good idea. Even then, question that. Why do I have to slow down to twenty miles and hour in a school zone if the school is not loading or unloading children, or the school sits back two hundred yards from the street. Why do I have to do that?

Maybe there is a good reason.

If you don’t question, then nothing changes. If you don’t question the government, or if we don’t question the corporate world, who really runs everything, then it’s the same as staying in that cave with the guy holding the club.

Is that what you want out of life? Do you want to be in subjection to somebody who holds a bigger club or has a louder voice? Is that what you want out of life?

It’s not what I want and I don’t think it’s what you want either.

Now if you start to question authority, then you might get a little upset, but that’s okay.

It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.

Well, that’s my rant.

Why is it important to question authority?

It’s how we make progress in this world.

It’s how things get better.

It’s how things get done, and that’s what we are about.

P.S. Leave a comment! Tell me what you think. Don’t be afraid! Sign up for updates. It won’t kill you and you’ll get something out of it!

Do you want to know the secret to life? Here’s a story about how a king found the secret.

Once, many years ago, in a land far, far away, which is always the case isn’t it, there was a king. The king was a very studious man and wanted to learn everything he could learn. So he called all his wise men and advisors and told them to go out into the world to find the secret of life.

Some came back in a month, some took longer. He asked each one if they had found the secret to life. Each one answered that they had. One told him it was to have a lot of money. Another said it was to have the right relationships. Another said it was to make the wisest decisions.

The king knew this wasn’t right. There was still one wise man left and the king waited. When the last wise man came back, he came with an assistant carrying a large tray with two huge books on them. The king asked the wise man if he had discovered the secret to life. The wise man said he had.’

The king asked what it was and the wise man said that the secret was in the book. The king asked for the book and the wise man handed him one of them.

The book was very large. It was leather bound with jewels on it. The king opened the book excitedly and started to look at the pages. After turning several pages, there was nothing on any of them until he came to the very last page.

When he came to the last page, there written in beautiful calligraphy where these words.

“There ain’t no free lunch.”

The king said, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Is that it?”

“Yes it is,” The wise man answered.

“Isn’t there anything else? What’s in the other book?”

The wise man handed the book over. The king, with a suspicious look in his eye, opened the book. Just like the first time, there was nothing on all the pages until the last page. There, written in beautiful calligraphy was written, “And there ain’t!”

The secret of life is, “There ain’t no free lunch, and there ain’t.”

Whatever it is you want to do in this life, whether it’s an online business, a brick and mortar business, a relationship, whatever it is, it’s going to cost you.

Sure there is lots of people out there who buy lottery tickets. The reason they do is because they want something for nothing! Now I have to admit that I enjoy the gamble of getting something for nothing, but that isn’t how life works. Your chances of winning something like that are millions to one.

Everything that you want to do in life is going to cost you something. In the business world it’s called the cost of opportunity. If you want to do one thing, it’s going to cost you something. It’s going to cost you effort, time or money, something.

So remember, the secret to life is, “There ain’t no free lunch, and there ain’t.” Whatever it is your life to do, it’s going to cost you!

So figure out if the cost is worth it. Figure out if it’s something you want so badly that you are willing to pay the cost, then go out and pay it!

That’s the secret to life.

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up!

Everyone talks about getting traffic to their blogs and websites. There’s a bunch of different ways to do that, but I’m not going to try to talk about them all here, I don’t even know them all!

One thing I think is important and it has increased my traffic lately. It is really simple!

You want to get traffic? Get involved.

So often, we as bloggers, think that all we have to do is build it and they will come. The thing is, there are millions of blogs out there. People just can’t find you! You need to draw traffic one way or another.

What I want to talk about is getting involved.

Many people talk about building relationships and that is right on. That’s just what I’m talking about. If you are involved, then pretty soon you make friends and people get to know you and know of you.

Let’s talk about commenting on other people’s blogs. The problem is, most people just say, “Great post” or something like that. That isn’t going to get it!

Talk about the post, add something to it.

“Great post, Bob! I loved how you talked about giving your cat catnip. When I give my cat catnip he goes crazy! I got him one of those scratchy things and he goes crazy on it. Try giving your cat one!”

I recently heard a podcast where someone said they never leave a comment that is under five paragraphs. It’s a minnie post in itself.

If you have something to say, say it!

You get involved and people get to know who you are.

Or, how about Twitter.

So often people get on Twitter and say, “ I had oatmeal for breakfast.” Maybe it’s, “I’m on my second cup of coffee.” “I went poop today!”

We all talk about those things.

Well, I don’t talk about poop.

It’s fine to do that as long as you also get involved. You see someone say that their wife just had a fifteen pound baby. Get on there and say, “ Congratulations to you and condolences to your wife! I hope everything is okay!” Maybe someone says that their mother just went into the hospital.

Tell them your thoughts and prayers are with them.

You get involved in people’s lives.

One of the strongest influencers is when people feel obligated to you. You do something for them and they feel obligated to do something for you!

Now I don’t mean this is a sleazy way, not at all. What I mean is that people return favors and good will. They get to know you and they look at your blog, they might make a comment. They might tell others about your post or your site.

A relationship builds.

Get involved. It’s an important point, it really is.

You want traffic, get involved!

P.S. Get involved! Leave a comment. Don’t be shy. I don’t bite, Not hard!

What is it you want to do in life? Are you working at starting a business? Are you trying to hang on until retirement? Are you an artist, creating something that you hope will be appreciated by others? You hear a lot about passion. You should have passion for whatever it is you are doing, they say. I think this is right, but I think that there is something closely linked to passion that will be beneficial as well. Do whatever you do from the heart!

You may say that this is the same thing as passion. In a way, it is. I am talking about passion and I am talking about more than that. Passion, having a strong desire for something, is very important. Without passion, you will quickly lose interest in whatever it is you are trying to do. That isn’t all though.

I practice and teach yoga. I can tell which of my yoga students practice from the heart. Sure there is passion, but there is a love, an ability to throw themselves in, that is visible. They exude a sense of love for the art and of doing the art. They may not be able to talk the lingo like some others, but they love the forms and postures. They practice from the heart.

I also play music. Have you ever known someone who could read music and play a piece, but it just didn’t seem to have any feeling, any heart? I have. They can play it, but you know that something is missing. The music is lifeless and dull.

I have also known people who, while playing, close their eyes and they breathe life into their instrument. They feel every note, every beat. They can play for hours and it doesn’t matter if they are alone or playing for an audience. The music is what drives them, not the notes on the page.

Life must be lived from the heart. If there is no feeling, no sense of oneness with life, then it is dull and lifeless.

Here is another thing about living from the heart. If you are not living what you love, from the heart, then that means that you are living a life that is not your own. You are living a life that is controlled by someone else. Is that what you want?

Recently, I had someone say to me that if I really wanted to do something, then I would have done it long ago. Really? That would be true if I had always lived from the heart, but, unfortunately, that is not how I lived much of my life. I lived according to someone’s rules other than my own, someone’s vision of my life. Living from the heart would not have allowed that.

Do you live from the heart or are you living a life that belongs to someone else? Living from the heart takes guts, it takes nerve. It isn’t something that can be done without criticism from others and maybe some down right nasty comments. You won’t fit into the mold like they have demanded from you for years.

The question I have for you is this. What do you want your life to be? What is it you want to do? Who is the person you want to be? Do you have the courage to live from the heart?

P.S. To learn how to live from the heart, check out my ebook “The 7 Universal Laws of Life”

This morning, I woke up thinking of things I wanted to do today. My wife groaned a little and tried to go back to sleep, but the alarm had gone off and she has to get up and go to her cubicle prison.

I asked her, “What do you want to do today?”

Her answer was, “Nothing that I can do.”

I asked her again, but said, not what she could do, but what she wanted to do. You see, as I thought about the things that I wanted to do, I realized there were really two lists. What I could do, the things I would work at today, and things I wanted to do.

The first list included things like writing this post, doing some yard work, playing my guitar, working on a shelf my wife wants made.

The second list included most of that, but also had, go for a sailplane ride, Play music with a bunch of friends, get a little drunk, have sex (more than once), drive to the Grand Canyon, and a bunch of other stuff.

I think we all need a little daily motivation. We need something to make getting out of bed worth the effort. I don’t know many people that have a life that is so full that every single day is an adventure. Let’s face it, there are days that just aren’t that exciting. I mean, who get excited about cleaning that kitty litter box?

The more we live our dreams, the more exciting it can be. To find the daily motivation we need, we have to cultivate those dreams. We have to use our imagination! Before we can live our dreams, we need to dream them.

Try this right now. What would you like to do today. If it is late in the evening, make it what you would like to do tomorrow. Let your mind go. Don’t hold anything back. Watch what kinds of things come up. Do any of them surprise you? How did you feel afterwards?

I have to say that I have been thinking about some of those things ever since this morning. They have inspired me to do more today. I have already done more this morning than I usually do.

Try waking up each morning with this thought in your head, “What would I like to do today.” Don’t let anything stop an idea. Don’t think about how much it will cost and the fact that you don’t have that kind of money. Don’t think about how strong you would have to be to do that and you can hardly find the strength to walk around the block.

What would you like to do today? Find your daily motivation in this one simple question and it very well could change your life!

What can you learn about yourself from the things that distract you? You can learn while being driven to distraction, you just have to know what to look for!

1. What are your distractions? List the things that take you away from being successful.
2. Understand what these distraction say about you. Why are you pulled away? What is the positive and the negative?
3. What can you learn? Are you lazy, afraid, or need structure?
4. How can you make this work for you? How can you turn the negatives into positives?

Know the things that distract you and what they mean can be a huge stepping stone to becoming more successful.