The Dream Dean

January 22, 2021

Meditation: Lullaby for Grown Ups (Liquid Mind) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyqss5-_AFM

Question: What is one thing you would like to change about your present self?

Answer: You mean I have to limit it to just one thing? The first thing that came to mind was to be more open to outside ideas. I’ve been stuck in my ways for years – and as I expand what I’m doing and including other people, I need to be open to new ideas. For example, with the Life Design Catalyst work, I’ve created it from scratch and watched this baby grow…and it’s hard and scary to hear ideas on how to take it to the next level. But I also believe that my stubbornness might be the thing that’s holding it back. That’s what happens when you’ve invested your entire working life to building this “Life Design Catalyst Project.”

I also have to stop being so, so hard on myself. I know that I’ve been really good about moving away from expectations and toward showing more appreciation for others, but I am still really hard on myself. For example, I’m going through a swing change for my golf game to have a more consistent swing…of course, you’re going to get a little worse before you get better, but I’m expecting positive change right away! And I’m getting easily frustrated because I’m not seeing any positive results; in fact, I feel like I’m regressing. I need to be patient, but that’s not happening right now. Plus, I only get to play on the weekends, so that doesn’t make things any better.

And last, I need to let go of the little shit that happens in life…because in the grand scheme of life, they mean nothing. This probably goes to the OCD tendencies, where something of mine is out of place and I want to point it out, typically in a sarcastic way. If I don’t have a spoon to eat my cereal, do I need to let it fester inside of me and get angry – or should I just wash a spoon. Is it really worth the energy and emotion? It reminds me of that video I shared earlier, when Tony Robbins talked about reducing the amount of suffering by letting shitty thoughts go by, instead of dwelling on them and letting them ruin your day. Yes, that’s something I definitely need to work on.

So, I guess it was pretty easy to come up with three, eh? That’s okay, maybe by sharing what’s going on in my head might help someone else think about what’s going on inside their head. Nobody ever said that this “life” thing was easy, right?

Other Stuff

For my elliptical workout this morning, I watched a playlist of YouTube music videos that I’ve put together. Instead of following my typical playlist, I decided to play the most inspirational songs on my list – which isn’t easy when you have 200+ on your playlist. But one stood out for me, because I’m teaching my side hustle class this semester. Today’s song is “Learning” by Jason Gray. It’s a great song because he talks about failure in the context where you either “Win” or “Learn” – which is a great message for the students in my side hustle class – and students in general.

Here’s the link:

• Learning (Jason Gray) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGWi6KynB8s

And here are the lyrics: