I usually go out and get in some walking time about 4 or 5 days per week.  Walking is something that I truly enjoy doing.

Not only is walking easy to do, but there are so many benefits that come from walking.  If you have issues like arthritis or other types of health issues, the nice thing about walking is that it is relatively low impact, and most anybody can do it.  You don’t have to be a big “workout” person or really strain yourself.  Depending on your level of health, you can do a higher impact exercise by “power walking,” which would be faster and more active.  If you are not up to that, just do a bit of a stroll around your neighborhood.

Walking is good

What are some of the benefits of walking?

• Getting to know your neighborhood better
• Meeting neighbors and making new friends along your route
• Makes you feel good!
• Some “alone time” where you can reflect and think about things

Of course, there are other benefits, especially benefits to your health.  I find that when I walk, I physically feel better.  If I miss a few days of walking, I don’t feel as good.

If you do miss some walking sessions, it can be hard to get back on track.  I mean, if you were to miss walking for a couple of weeks, you may find that you have become lethargic, or just plan lazy.  Maybe because you have not done your walking, you are not feeling so well, and that becomes an excuse to not walk.

I’m not feeling so well today, so maybe I’ll just walk tomorrow.

Problem is, tomorrow you won’t feel well either.  If you get out of the habit of exercising, like walking, you have to literally force yourself to do it again, and when you do, you will start feeling better.

Try to do a little walking and see if you don’t feel better!  I know that I do.

Want to make your walking a little more fun?  Try these tips:

• Get an MP3 player so you can listen to music, books on tape or some other entertainment while walking
• Bring along a water bottle so that you can stay refreshed
• Try to vary your routes so that you see new things, and new places often
• Talk to people that you encounter along the way, you never know when you’ll meet a great new friend

How does it help you?

Well from experience, it gives you a feeling of well being.  It helps you realize how lucky you are with the things that you have.  I makes you appreciate life more.  All in all, believe me, it is a good thing for you to help others.

Of course, like all of us, I have helped people all of my life.  Most of that time, though, I have helped others in a very half-hazard way.  I helped when it was convenient to me.  I helped when something really needed to be done and caught my attention. I never really just helped for the sake of helping, though.

About a decade ago, though, my wife and I, on Christmas Eve, decided to do something to make our Christmas more special.  We decided to do something special for strangers, not just for our family.

We gave this man some food for Christmas

We went out and bought a lot of food items – everything from hamburgers from McDonald to bottles of juice.  Christmas candy to snacks, and such.  In later years, we even bought things like pork, chicken and other foods that the people could enjoy with their families on Christmas.

After purchasing a LOT of stuff, we put it in our car and just started driving around the city and giving the stuff out to homeless people, and others who were obviously poor.  Do you know what?  Because of what we did, it was the best Christmas I had ever experienced.

One year, when we did this, we went out in a very remote area in the mountains.  We saw an old lady walking along the road, obviously very poor.  We stopped and gave her a bag of food that she could use to prepare a Christmas feast for her loved ones.  When we did, she was astonished, she looked at me and said:

I don’t know what we would have done if you had not shown up.  You are an angel.  We ran out of money yesterday, and also have no food.

It honestly brought tears to my eyes, and I have never forgotten the lady.  By doing something for her, I was helping myself, because I felt so good.

In fact, I am somewhat ashamed to admit this, but in doing this year after year, I am really doing it for myself, not others.  It is a selfish thing to say, but I like the feeling that I get when I help others.

Our kids really enjoy visiting the orphanage

More recently, my family and I have been visiting an orphanage not far from where we live.  The place has somewhere between 50 to 100 children who live there.  Some have medical problems.  Others are only there because their parents cannot afford to care for them.  I really enjoy visiting those kids, because it is so obvious that the children are starved for attention and affection.  If you just pick up the small kids and hold them for a few minutes, you can see the good feeling that they get.  Sometimes it is sad, because the kids don’t want you to put them down.  But, you have to put them down eventually, there are so many other kids who want a few minutes of attention too.

Helping others is therapeutic.  It makes you feel good.  It makes you understand that your problems are really so small compared to what others are facing.

Try it.  I am certain that you will come away with pure joy, as I have.

I use rechargeable batteries in my office a great deal, mostly AA batteries.

But, that is not what I’m talking about.

I mean charging your own internal batteries.  Relieving your stress.  Re-energizing your self.  Breaking away from everyday life for a bit of relaxation.

We all need to recharge our internal batteries from time to time.  We need a break.  If we don’t take the time to get such a break, we will burn ourselves out and will not be productive in our work or in our personal lives.

Basically, taking a break in a far away place is what we all need to do this.  Doing nothing is a big part of it.  What I especially mean by “nothing” is not doing any of the “regular stuff” that we do day in and day out.

A different kind of recharging

Doing nothing is different for every one of us.  For example, I was going to say that we should not cook, and let somebody else do the cooking for us.  But, on reflection, I decided that I was totally wrong about that.  What about somebody who has such a busy job that they don’t have time to cook, even if cooking good food is something that they are passionate about?  To say that they should not cook may be exactly the opposite of what needs to be said.  Maybe what would be a recharging experience for that person would be took cook a gourmet feast for their family.  Taking the time to cook to their heart’s delight, something that they don’t have time to do on a daily basis.  I mean, for a busy working person who stops at the drive through window every night, to take the time to prepare a feast might just be a very rewarding experience!

Recharge!

Where do you think you should go to recharge?  The first thought is to go to the beach, especially some deserted beach with no crowds and such.  But, for somebody like me who lives near the beach, I would need a change of scenery, not the same scenery that I see day in and day out.  Maybe for somebody like me, a few days in the mountains are what the doctor ordered?

The truth is that only you can know for sure what will recharge your batteries.  Where to go and do it depends on what you find peaceful, and what you would find different from the daily grind.  What activities you will do on your R&R session are also a personal choice that only you can decide.

But, one thing cannot be argued.  We all need a little rest and relaxation in order to recharge our bodies and minds.  Without it, we will simply burn out.

Well, for sure it would be a good habit, right?  I mean working keeps us active and busy, it keeps us thinking.  It keeps money in our pocket, and food on our table.  It’s got to be a good thing to have a job.

Think again.

I would say that having a job is a bad habit and creates more bad habits in our lives.  For one thing, having a job, working for somebody else stifles our creativity.  It boxes us in to a defined role and does not give us much chance to move our thinking outside the box, something which is very important.

I also feel that having a job limits us and limits our potential.  Working for yourself, even in a very undefined way gives us so much space for creativity.  It gives us the freedom we need to reach our potential.  It is empowering to us.  All in all, not having a job, and working for ourselves is the best way to go, in my opinion.

Reach for your full potential

What about money?

We all need money to live, I cannot dispute that.  What I do know, though, is that I have been self employed with no real defined job, for about 20 years now.  I have never made more money than I have during my time of self-employment.  When I had a job, I was limited to the salary that I was paid.  I was at the mercy of my employer.  If I needed to make more money, I had to convince my boss to pay me more.  As a person who is self employed, I get to decide how much money I will make.  I get to set my prices for whatever service I am offering.  I get to decide if I will work more hours, thus earning more money, or if I will rest more and spend time with my family.  It’s all up to me to decide.

Some people need a job

Don’t take me wrong.  Even though I feel that life without a job is the real way to go to empower yourself, it is not for everybody.  Some people need that structure that comes from working for somebody else.  Some people don’t have the self-discipline to make a go of self-employment.  I can’t argue with that.  But, for somebody who has the get-up-and-go that is necessary, I think there is no better path in life than self-employment.

Some people just can’t understand where the money would come from if they didn’t have a job.  Believe me, friends, when you strike out on your own, the money will find you.  You will find creative ways to make money.  You will reach much higher than you ever did when you had a “real job.”  It will work.  The money will come.  You’ll be OK.  Of course you need to develop a plan and put your plan into action, but you can do it.

So, if you are down on your luck, out of work, don’t despair.  You may have just gained the freedom you needed to reach your full potential, or at least come a lot closer to that potential than you ever have.  I know, I did it.

You can too.

Firefighters

I am a bit conflicted in my feelings about this article, and the training session in general.  Generally, I am opposed to any kind of racism, and this was indeed racism.  The fact that eligibility for the class was based on a person’s race could be nothing but racism.  I have only one other thought, though, and it is based on this quote from the article:

Joseph Basile was one of those who didn’t get in.

“It wasn’t a good feeling. It felt like it was discrimination,” Basile said.

In some ways, I feel that it is a valuable experience for white people (like myself) to experience racism themselves, because it is a real learning experience.

Why would I say such a harsh thing?  I know that this statement will be controversial among those reading it.  But, you see, I have experienced racism.  It was a valuable experience for me, and it helped me learn what it feels like to be discriminated against because of my race.

How was I discriminated against?

Well, as many of my readers know, I am an American, a white person, but I’ve lived in the Philippines for about 12 years now.  Basically, there are very few white people here (or blacks for that matter).  We are a very, very small minority of the population.  As such, there are times that I am treated in some way only because of my race.  When I first moved to the Philippines, it took a while to realize that this was happening, but when I did, it made me feel really bad.

While I have never been a racist before, I would say that we all have some, hopefully minor, racist thoughts or tendencies from time to time.  There was a time when I was a teenager that I lived in an area that was still very racist, and through peer pressure there were times when I said or did things that were racist, albeit minor things, nothing too bad.  And, I am not blaming my peers for what I said or did, but only giving that information as a point of reference.  I never really thought about it, though… until I was treated in a racist way a few times in the Philippines.

Looking back at my past, when I did racist things to a small extent, and then was treated in a racist way, it really opened my eyes.  Even though things I have said in the past were very minor, I am sure that the people I said those things to many years ago were hurt deeply.  Or, maybe they are just used to hearing such things, because they get it so often.  But, being on the receiving end of racism opened my eyes and my heart to realize and accept that I did wrong in the past.

So, when Joseph Basile in the article, whom I presume must be white, since he was denied entry to the firefighters class, says that “it felt like discrimination,” I feel that in some ways it is an educational experience for Mr. Basile, due to the reasons I gave in the previous paragraph.

But, as I said at the beginning of this article, overall I think that the class was a very bad thing since it was closed to people of certain races.  Racism is never a good thing, and we should all strive for equality in our thinking and our actions.

However, I am not talking about your body being comfortable when you sit or lay down.  What I am talking about is more of an inner feeling of comfortable which is related to staying within your “comfort zone,” and not venturing outside the comfort zone.  Believe me, that is not a good thing.  So, yes, there are times when being comfortable is a bad thing indeed.

If you don’t venture outside your comfort zone, you cannot grow.  You cannot learn about things that are foreign to you.  Doing things that make you nervous brings understanding  and learning.  If you do things that are uncomfortable enough, they become part of your comfort zone.

Resting in Comfort

Back in 2000, I decided to move to the Philippines.  I am an American, but my wife is Filipino.  Starting in the late 90′s, I had a desire to move to the Philippines and experience life here, which was something that would be totally foreign to me.  When I had finally put everything in place for the move, though, and was getting close to the time when I’d get on that airplane and fly to my new home, I got quite nervous.  Was I doing the right thing.  Was a move to a foreigner country the right thing for myself, my wife and my kids?  Frankly, it suddenly scared me to death.  But, because I had the desire to move, and I had worked hard to put everything in place for such a move, I went ahead with my dream.  Yes, things were scary, and it took time for myself and my family to adjust to our new home, but we came to love living in the Philippines, and we are still in the Philippines after all of these years.  My feeling of being uncomfortable worked out great for me.

A Philippine Jeepney

Just last year, I took another leap into the discomfort and it worked out well.  What did I do?  I decided to start riding jeepneys.  A jeepney is basically the most widely used public transportation vehicle in the Philippines, where I live.  When I moved here, I bought a car, we Americans are so used to having our cars, so that is what I wanted.  All these years, I drive around wherever I want to go.  But, I have always been somewhat curious and also enamored with jeepneys, so last year I decided to give it a try.  I was very nervous about doing it, because it was something so unfamiliar to me, and so far outside my comfort zone.  But, that was about 6 months ago when I tried it, and to this day I still ride jeepneys almost daily!  I drive too, but I take the jeepney much more often than driving, and I enjoy my time riding jeepneys.

So, I would say, based on my experience, that going outside your comfort zone is almost always a good thing.  It almost always works out for the best, and is productive.  Even if you try something and don’t like it, you have still learned and grown from the experience.  Learning is always a good thing to do, and one great way to do that is by making yourself a bit uncomfortable from time to time!

If you don’t have goals, you might end up just wandering aimlessly.  With goals you have a constant reminder of where to focus so that you can achieve your goals.

Many people make a mistake, though, when it comes to goals.  They set their goals way too high.

For example, if you set the following goal, what are you going to do to achieve it?

I want to be a millionaire.

Is that a realistic goal?  Not really.  I mean, I am not saying that it can’t be achieved.  In fact, it is not hard to achieve at all these days.  Truth is in this age, a million dollars is not a huge amount of money.  But, if you do want to become a millionaire, you need to set some smaller goals first, because you cannot become a millionaire overnight, or even by the end of the year.  At least most of us cannot.  Instead you need to start out making more money than you are now.  You need to earn enough money that you can start setting some money aside.  Maybe you will invest that money, either in something like a stock, or perhaps use that nest egg to start your own business.  Starting from such an investment will allow your money to keep growing.  Once you achieve that goal of earning extra money, it’s time to move on to another small goal that will propel you on the way toward your ultimate goal of becoming a millionaire.

Hitting the Target

What are the problems with setting such a lofty goal from the beginning? Well, I can think of at least a couple of problems with that:

• Setting a huge goal may become a burden.  It may discourage you since you cannot meet your goal in a short time frame.
• You may set such a large goal and not be able to figure out how to do it.  If you set smaller goals you can more easily get it done and work your way toward your larger objective.
• Because achieving your large goal may take so long, you may lose focus and eventually just consider it impossible.

One way you might work is to figure out what you ultimate goal is, and then set smaller goals that would be like steps toward your big goal.  Setting a goal that will not be completed, though, for 10 years or even 5 years is somewhat unrealistic, though, because you will lose interest and abandon the goal before you reach it.

Goal setting is a good thing.  It’s a smart thing to do. Just remember to also be smart about the way you approach goal setting.

So, because I am a sinner, I am not really in a position to pass judgment on others.  But, there is a friend that I have on Facebook who’s actions really bother me.  I wonder if he has stopped to consider his words.

You see, this fellow that I am friends with on Facebook, at first, came across to me as a very religious person.  Every day on Facebook he posted things about his Christianity and religious type messages.  I always thought he was a very nice guy.  In fact, a week or so before the New Year, he posted a message saying:

My goal for 2012 is to be more like Jesus.

Is his attitude really Christian?

Nothing at all wrong with that, it’s commendable.  If we were all more like Jesus, the world would probably be a better place.

A couple of days after he posted this, he started posting what I would consider hate filled messages on Facebook.  In fact, the other day, he posted a message talking about US President Barack Obama.  He said that Obama is the biggest crook in the world.  He then went on to say that he is planning to vote for Obama to get reelected, so that Obama may get arrested for some crime.  He went so far as to say that he hopes that the American people will hang Obama just like the Iraqis did to Saddam Hussein.

Huh?

Is that really a Christian attitude?  I think not.  In fact, even if this person had not shown himself previously to be a devout Christian, I would still have a problem with his statement about hanging the President.  I am not an Obama supporter, in fact I am a life long Republican.  But, this is not about Politics.  I would never hope for a President to be killed by the people.  The US has had a number of Presidents who have been assassinated, and that just never has helped the country in any way.  In fact, it is a sick thing to say, in my opinion.

After reading over this statement and really pondering it for a while, I found myself even questioning my Christianity, which I know is not the correct reaction.  But, I felt like, if this guy is a devout Christian, is that what I want to be associated with?  As I continued to think, I realized that this kind of action or statement is not what Jesus would have condoned, so his statement is not consistent with the religion or belief system that he espouses.

Hatred is never a good habit.  Listening to such hatred is a bad habit too, something that I should not have done, and certainly should not have allowed to influence me.  But, then again, judging him, which I did is also a bad habit for me.  It’s all very confusing, but also has really impacted me for a couple of days now.

Last week, I was watching an American TV news network.  They had a story about some organization who had come out with a list of 10 things our children will never have to worry about.  Many of the things on the list I agreed with, they were simply things that technology had allowed us to pass by when it comes to education.  But, the number one thing listed as being unimportant for kids to learn these days was something I was in big disagreement with.

Typing

The organization had said that the number one thing that kids no longer need to learn is typing.  What?  Personally, I would argue that technology has made it even more important for kids to learn how to type.  I mean, with computers today, we use keyboards constantly to input data to our PCs.  Typing skills are critical today in my mind.

I am a pretty good typist.  I took two years of typing in High School, and have been using my typing skills ever since.  Today, I am nearing 50 years old and I type more now than I ever have.  With my work being computer based, it is critical.  I can type about 100 words per minute, which I think is pretty good.  Because I can type accurately and fast, I can get my work done pretty quickly.  For a person who doesn’t know how to type, but has to hunt for the key he wants to use, well, his working speed can come nowhere near somebody who is an accomplished typist.

Now, there can be a legitimate argument on this, though.  Voice recognition technology is coming.  Actually it’s already here, but it is not good enough yet to replace typing, in my opinion.  Over the past few years I have had some trouble with arthritis in my hands, and have thus tried voice recognition and using a microphone to enter data into my computer as opposed to a keyboard.  It works.  But, it’s not as good or as fast as a keyboard is for somebody who knows how to type.  Maybe in 5 or 10 years we will enter data into our computers with a microphone and the keyboard will be a thing of the past.  Or, maybe in 50 years we will still be using keyboards.

For now, though, I think that learning to type is critical for a school kid.  Of everything I learned in my years of schooling, typing has been the most valuable in my profession.

What do you think?

Even if you are doing things that you enjoy and love doing, if you overextend yourself and take on too much, it becomes burdensome.

For example, I enjoy publishing on the Internet, it is a passion of mine.  Of course, all of my websites are focused on topics that I am passionate about and enjoy writing about.  But, it is inevitable that I take on too much.  I put up too many websites, to the point where I get behind in writing on many of my sites.  Once I get behind, then I sort of get depressed that I am not keeping up to the schedule that I expect from myself.  Once I get depressed, then it discourages me from writing further, thus putting me further behind schedule.  It’s a vicious circle, frankly.

Are you overextended financially or otherwise?

What about you?  Does this sort of “over extension” happen in your life?  Maybe it’s your work, as it is for me.  Maybe it’s  a hobby or something else in your life.  I enjoy helping people and could easily over extend myself on that.  In terms of assisting people, I like helping poor people by giving them things.  I recently went and bought a basketball to give to a poor child that I know.  With this kind of assistance, if you do too much of it, you are not going to get behind schedule, but you may leave yourself in financial trouble.  So far, I have been able to no allow that to happen, but I only use it as an example.  When it comes to this kind of assistance, I always enjoy it and get a smile on my face when I am able to assist somebody, but if I were to let myself go into financial disaster, it certainly would not be pleasant.

Ever heard the saying that too much of a good thing can be bad?  The things I am talking about are all good things.  Things that I enjoy.  But, if you take on too much you will become burned out, behind schedule, and stressed.  Overextending yourself is certainly not a good habit.  A smart person will do what is necessary in order not to become overextended.