It's 9AM.
Be a beast, he said.
Be nice, she said.
Hit Beast Mode.
Be a Monster and learn how to control it.
All advice I’ve received when I was younger.
All contradictions.
Enough over the years that I’ve stopped arguing with everyone.
Almost everyone.
Time and energy are best conserved for important things.
None to waste on arguments.
There’s too much to do and too much to be done to waste time on it.
Because I’m not going to change your mind.
No amount of fact or data or imperial observation serves to change anyone’s mind after thirty.
Or forty.
Especially not fifty.
The same goes for convincing me.
Despite trying to be open minded about a lot of things, I still find some of the thoughts I have to be based on decisions I made in my 20’s.
Back then, older guys who got laid off from factories would tell me it’s hard to find work.
And I would counter that maybe they just didn’t want to work.
Which was true in a sense.
A guy who ran a bank wearing a tie every day didn’t really want to go work in a warehouse or a factory.
He wanted work, he just didn’t want to work.
Then the tables turned and I now get twenty year olds giving me life advice.
And I’m thinking, I’ve got shirts older than you.
It’s not even an “Okay Boomer,” moment.
It is actually an arrogance of mine, because I know that 23 year old has never suffered like me.
A lot of suffering of my own choosing to build and develop mental discipline.
I wish I was open minded enough not to think, “Who are you to give me advice?”
Because I know the answer.
And most people won’t like the answer.
It makes me sound arrogant, which I’m not.
Except in my face, where I can’t hide anything.
The answer is, who am I to give advice?
I wasn’t born during the greatest economic run up in history, where everything was easy.
I was half raised by a single hippie mom, and half raised by conservative depression era grandparents.
I was raised in a small town in Arkansas where all I thought about was going out into the big wide world around me.
Now a lot of my world is thinking about how to improve, repair or save that small town, even though the consensus is it is beyond hope.
That upbringing and location conspired to give me a unique outlook on life.
It also put me on a path that had me in California at 18, Africa in my early 20’s, then parts of Europe and back home again, all to learn about people and culture and worlds way beyond the borders of Pine Bluff.
That path put me into college for a degree, the first in my family, and put me into a bunch of different jobs, because my degree wasn’t specialized in anything.
That path taught me self reliance and growth and discipline and frugality and mental aptitude.
A lot of it was learned through failing, both big and small, but part of the advice I learned when I was young was that failing was learning, not “FAILING.”
Maybe that was one of the best pieces of advice I ever received.
That and discipline.
Because discipline has been the foundation of a lot of successes in my life.
It made me a powerlifter when I was younger. It made me an ultrarunner when I was older.
It made me a writer through it all, and a guy who can create a lot of stuff.
A jack of all trades and a master of none.
Discipline and advice.
You can take one and leave the other.
The second best piece of advice was to stop arguing with folks because you can’t convince them and instead focus on your own discipline.
Papaw told me when I was younger, but I didn’t heed it.
Maybe he was talking about himself.
Now I’m not saying that I’m set in my ways.
At least, I hope I’m not.
I try very hard to keep learning, keep trying and keep failing AND succeeding every single day.
Sometimes I fail to follow my own advice and get embroiled in a finger battle with another driver.
Or maybe we’re just waving at each other.
I try to practice discipline on movement, and eating, and writing and mental strength every single day.
Sometimes I want to share what I’ve learned, because maybe it sparks something in your thought process.
Which is why I ask, what do you think?
But I don’t think I want to change your mind.
Unless that sparked thought is for the better.
Or your mind is entertained.
Which is the discipline I practice all day long.
Rise of the Droids — a Sci Fi Story
Kaida — Nano Samurai — a story
All we can do each day is try to treat each other with dignity and respect, particularly when a 2x4 upside of the head is what we prefer. sure hope you make a difference in Pine Bluff. It is a nice little town.