Curiosity kills the cat and...

Mediocrity kills the man. Maybe not a death of the flesh but at least of the spirit.  When we live in mediocrity there is something in us that is dying and if it lasts too long, or if we resign ourselves to mediocrity as normalcy then our spirit can be in need of life support.

We need a fire in our bellies that drives us to greatness in the things that we love.  Isn't that what we all want?  Something that we want to be passionate about?  I know that I desire that and struggle with the idea of "my passion" constantly.  It is a tough proposition and can change a man's life to come to a realization that he has no passion and he is living a mediocre life.

I also know without a doubt that mediocrity is more times than not the easiest path.  Less heartache and less resistance, but also less exhilaration and less triumph.  I know we all have things we love like our families or things like that.  What I am really touching on in this post is the things that we spend the majority of our time on and is it something that we enjoy or get satisfaction from.  Are we using our talents and gifts in our careers or are we just working to pay bills and go on a couple of mediocre vacations every year?

You can apply it to every single aspect of your life... your spiritual life, your physical life, your home life, your social life, and your professional life.  Once mediocrity sets in these things will go downhill, maybe gradually or maybe quickly, but they will go down hill.  I am definitely speaking from experience.  I know now that, at least for me, the stakes are too high to not live passionately.  We are short for this world and I want to look back at the end of the journey and not think about how I let mediocrity creep in.

This was just on my mind... I know it is short and it has been a while since I have posted but this is something I think is in line with the meaning of this blog.

Let's get rid of mediocrity and find our passions.

Have a good one

Follow up...

Just a quick follow up from my last post about resolve.  I want anyone that reads this to know that most of what I throw on this blog comes from my own experiences which coincidentally are usually failures.  The whole reason I am passionate about modern warriorship is because I have not been that great at being honorable, faithful, and courageous with every aspect of my life at any given time over the last 18 years.  The reason I write about these things is directly related to the fact that they are things that I am going through or have recently been through.  Rest assured that I have a very hard time with some of these concepts and I find that writing about them, delving into discussions about them with  people I trust, and simply thinking about these subjects in a way is therapeutic and  gives me a since of accountability, as silly as that might sound to you. I just want you, the reader, to know that I come from a spot of humility.  I am no expert just a normal dude and I hope that I relate to you in a way that conveys that.  I welcome comments and feedback both positive and negative and hope that we can start some discussions up in the near future that have a multitude of different perspectives.  I do however want you to know that I believe that some of these ideals could really fix what is wrong in our culture.  I believe in them... so just like when you go to a bike shop you want to, at the very least, talk to a person that has actually ridden a bike I to actually try and practice some of the ideals that we kick around on this blog.  I have been knocked down plenty of times and I expect to be knocked down plenty more, but I hope that I can continue to have the resolve to get back up and keep going.

Once aging with a humble heart and attitude I solicit  you to help me on the journey of kicking some "normal" arse and turning this world on it's head.

Enjoy your weekend.

What is missing?

Commitment: [kuh-mit-muhnt] 1) the act of committing. 2) the state of being committed. 3) the act of committing, pledging, or engaging oneself. We have made a commitment to pay our bills on time. How many commitments do we make throughout the weeks, months, and years?  There is a whole market that revolves around new commitments coming into and right out of the New Year.  We buy gym memberships, start books, countless new diets, and commit to a better “me” so often it becomes a joke.  I personally have at least 10 books that cover 10 different diets.  Do the books help me lose weight?  Even when I read them and decide to put the information into practice what happens?*

It has become easy to make commitments in our modern society and usually without a second thought we move on from these commitments without fulfilling them because they are easy to forget or look past.  It seems until it is something that has to change or is necessary for our survival we look at these commitments quite flippantly.**

I am as guilty as anyone especially when it comes to things that are hard… i.e. working out, working on my spirituality, or eating healthy.  Like in my previous post our lives have become more complicated but yet easier and I guess what I really mean is that it is simply easier to be lazy.  We don’t have to stay in shape to chase food or work the fields; we do not spend time reading and in meditation because we have television and the internet, and we do not dwell on deep serious thought because it is easier and more “relaxing” to crack open that beer.

Our lives are inundated with enough worthless distractions to keep us from really bettering ourselves and achieving what we desire.

The question is what can we do to make these commitments stick?  How do we go about looking at things like our health and the wellbeing of our souls as necessary for our survival?  I believe that we lack something that should coincide with our commitments.  I believe that something is resolve.

Resolve: [ri-zolv] to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine (to do something): I have resolved that I shall live to the full.

Read the two definitions again one right after the other and you tell me which one sounds a tad more serious.  Another definition of resolve is to break things down into elementary parts.  When used in this manner the word resolve is usually followed by the word into.  I think this is very interesting.  I like the idea of starting to strip away some of the things about myself and resolve into what I need to be at my core.

The ideas of resolve absolutely fits into the theme of warriorship.***

So my belated challenge for this week is to try to find our resolve.  Strip away some of the things that are unnecessary**** in our lives, maybe even negative and get to the meat of what is at our core and what gets us fired up.  I want to show some resolve… I want to go further than just making the commitment, I want to follow through.  I want to be a leader in my circle in this world.  I want to have the resolve to work on my discipline.  I want to be the definition of resolve.

* I tell you what happens I get fired up for about two weeks then hit some sort of monster that whispers in my ear that a pizza and a 6er would be about perfect right now.  Then the ball starts rolling backwards and flat-out squashes me until I start seeing zero results and then move on to the next diet with usually the same outcome.

** At this point I am not including our commitments to wives if we have them or our children.  I also believe that there should be a real commitment to work on our spiritual side that I did not address in this post but hope to in the future.  I honestly believe that if you are neglecting your family and your time with God then almost no matter what you do to work on yourself will not be as successful as it could be and you will not enjoy or reap the benefits fully.

*** Remember that most of the codes that warriors lived by were centered around three principles which are honor, faithfulness, and courage.  I have to believe that when you live your life with these things on the forefront of your mind in all endeavors you will have more resolve and therefore more discipline.  These things are important and in the world of the warrior, which was the ultimate survival of the fittest, you have to imagine that their resolve was like steel.

**** Unnecessary doesn’t always mean negative.  I think that is a misconception that many of us males believe.  I think it comes down to priority.  Obviously watching something on the tube or playing a round of golf is not out-and-out bad for us but if it causes us to take away from other things that might be more important than I believe we must evaluate that.  Obviously that is a personal thing and is different for everyone.  I am bad about wanting to do all kinds of things as in hobbies… I have a mtb, a kayak, take bjj, golf, we have a boat, and I like backpacking and camping.  I am also trying to change careers and that requires me to go back to school and I am pretty much taking a full load not to mention that I am a father of three and a husband.  Obviously some things have to take residence way down on the priority list as much as that pains me, maybe not forever but for right now without a doubt.

Warriorship

Warriorship – the practice of being a warrior.   This blogs focus is going to be about my life and the pursuit of living like a warrior.  You might ask… so you are going to walk around with a sword and fight evil?  That would be sweet but no it is more the idea of living like a warrior and adopting the ideals of a warrior.  In many societies the warriors were part of their own specialized class which was easily recognized by normal civilians.  This is important because I would love to live in a way that people could look at me and say; man that dude is different for all the right reasons.  Most warrior societies had a code or ethos that they lived by.  The warrior society valued honor, faithfulness, and courage and were not corrupt so that they were not dangerous to normal society.  Samurai had the code of Bushido (the way of the warrior) for medieval knights it was the laws of chivalry and the list goes on with the same basic principles in place.

It is the warrior’s approach to life that I want to mimic.  I want to approach everything with honor.  I want to have courage to try new things that will add depth to my life and to cutout the things that are negative and take away.  I want to be faithful to the things that I believe to be important and worthy.  From my spiritual life to the times that I unwind and everything in between I want to approach it all with the idea of warriorship fresh on my mind.

In the upcoming months I will write about the journey I am currently on chasing after a new career, about my training that I am doing to get my body in the right shape, the things that I put into my mind and the conversations that these ideas lead to, and most importantly I will talk about being a husband and a father with a new approach.  I can guarantee there will be things that you can laugh at and learn from.  I am going to work diligently at pursuing things out of my comfort and I hope through some of the feedback from you the reader I will be able to look at things from different perspectives.

I will take a deeper look at what being a warrior today could/should look like compared to some of the examples from history.  It should be a fun ride and I hope that you will stick around and check back often.