Musings: Quote Wednesdays…
Just a little mid-week food for thought as a follow up from this week’s episodic musing.
Hope everyone’s having a great week.
As always…
Stay cool.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Yeah – touched on this a little a few episodic musings ago. Let’s expand a little.
Photo by Juan Di Nella on Unsplash
I was talking to a friend the other day about some things, like mostly just what’s going on in the news and what not.
I usually don’t like to watch the news too frequently – it’s boring and just a shit show of different depressing things.
When I say depressing, I mean it just amplifies the chaos that I know is already going on in the world.
But then it also tends to over-exaggerate things, too.
One thing I’ve learnt from travelling is that news is told differently, in different places. Different countries.
One country may minimise a problem, the other may blow it out of proportion, yet another may not even consider it news worth reporting.
Photo by Holly Mindrup on Unsplash
And that got me thinking – just how often do people do this in their everyday lives?
There’s a saying, “1st world problems,” usually accompanied by something like “using your smart phone to log onto your bank account only to see it has 0.16 pence in it” or something similar.
Or “1st world problems: Driving to the gym only to realise you forgot your headphones so now you can’t workout”.
There’s a lot of superficial problems floating around.
In the context of friendships, business, family, and relationships in general.
Superficial problems which people have a skilled habit of creating.
Superficial problems which are created, and while initially seemingly harmless, create larger, real problems for another party – rarely the party that ever creates them.
Why do we create so many superficial problems?
Is it because of convenience?
Of comfort?
Family “can’t” meet for the holidays because of -xyz.
Maybe it’s feeling like they all have to spend time with their new “extensions” of family, rather than making an effort to get everyone together under one roof.
So a superficial problem like that causes a real problem of family disconnect and discord.
Friends stop physically hanging out with each other because of distance.
And by distance I mean laziness of getting in the car and taking that “cumbersome 30 minute to an hour drive”.
So they opt for chatting on social media instead thinking this “nourishes” the relationship, which is nothing close to what they called just a couple of decades ago “socialising”.
A superficial problem like that causes, as the Chinese say “the tea to go cold”, or the real problem of not building a healthy, real social network of non-apathetic people that are there when you need them most.
Then people say they’re “lonely”.
Photo by Clint McKoy on Unsplash
Not educated enough? Underqualified.
Go to university, get an education.
Got an education? Well, that’s great but you don’t have work experience.
No work experience? Get work experience.
Have work experience and an education? Not quite enough education, get more education.
Got more education? Now it’s too much education.
You’re overqualified, ergo not eligible for the role in fear you may “find something better”.
So you try for part-time work to keep food on the table.
Nope, sorry, try again.
Can’t get it because employers don’t want you sticking around temporarily.
So a string of superficial problems like that costs a person their human security – their dignity to live and enjoy life as a respectable human being.
No food? Go grocery shopping from your smart phone – and get it delivered.
Hungry? Cook what’s in the fridge.
Don’t wanna cook? Order out.
Don’t know what to eat? Say you’re “starving” then end up snacking.
The food you bought in the fridge goes off. Then you’ve gotta throw it away.
A superficial problem like that causes a person’s nutritional profile or daily diet to go down the tube, leading to a very real problem of long-term health issues.
Photo by Francisco Moreno on Unsplash
Or my favourite – this new “food shortage” everyone’s raving about.
It’s called over-consumption and waste, dumbass.
Convenience. Convenience and laziness. Convenience and laziness seem to be ruining the basis of human self-reliance.
Lack of self-reliance or independence causes a sense of dissatisfaction.
Have dissatisfaction? You’re not happy.
Find your happy place.
Join a yoga class.
Happiness isn’t yoga, motherfucker.
Happiness isn’t finding your zen.
It’s not meditating.
Meditating is about reaching a neutral place.
It’s not the quinoa in your fucking bowl or your morning chamomile tea.
If you have all the creature comforts and more in life, and you’re still not happy, well…
You’re not happy because somewhere…you’re disgusted with yourself.
Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash
Disgusted because somewhere you know you’re not really pulling your weight when it comes to your existence, which is affecting other people’s existences, through creating simple, silly, superficial problems, which turn into very real problems for other people.
Happiness is in your existence. It shouldn’t take yoga, or tea, or “woosah” or any of that other bull.
You’re not happy with yourself when you’re not being a decent human being.
You’re not happy with yourself when you know you’re creating superficial problems.
Sure you may know this – it may fester and eat away at the back of your subconscious, but you’ve grown quite comfortable with ignoring it by indulging in your little world of convenience, blowing the “news” in your head out of proportion thus justifying your actions and feelings.
I’m not saying convenience is bad – I’m simply saying indulging in too much of it can cause an absolute shit storm.
Get out of your bubble.
Realise you’re not the only one that exists in this world…
…and understand that your “superficial” problems, may very well be affecting other people’s lives on a very real, and very detrimental level, because you’re too senseless to realise it.
Think about it.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Musings Episode 86: Problems… is a post from and appeared first on Rego’s Life
Musings: Quote Wednesdays…
Photo by Alessio Lin on Unsplash
Thought this needed reiteration from this week’s episodic musing. Don’t let people hold you back – and don’t hold people back.
Love yourself enough to dump your ego and develop real confidence, self assurance, and certainty, by getting out of your comfort zone and going for what you want, without crushing other people.
Hope everyone’s having a great week.
As always…
Stay awesome.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Musings: Quote Wednesdays…
Like I mentioned in this week’s episodic musing, your competition is not other people. There is no such thing as competition – it’s about being a better version of yourself than you were yesterday.It’s about being around people that are good for YOU – not just the other way around. It’s about remembering that there is no such thing as lack – but there is such a thing as a lack of people cooperating with each other more and more these days – the latter being something that people will still try and manipulate for their own benefit.
Don’t let you stop you – let alone someone else stop you. But more importantly, if you see someone trying to contribute something to the world, trying to better themselves, without stepping on other people’s toes or crushing another person’s throat – don’t pull them down.
It’s a two-way street…
Hope everyone’s having a great week.
As always…
Stay awesome.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Since I talked about the pros and cons of comfort zones in the last episodic musing, I figure it’d only be right to have an appropriate follow up. This one’s for the millenials. Hell, this one’s for everyone. Let’s get started.
So, last episodic musing you figured out there are some pros to comfort zones…along with understanding how to harness them during transitions you may have going on in other aspects of your life.
But there’s something else you’ve got to think about – competition – and I don’t mean in the conventional sense.
In other words, technically, no one is your competition.
No one.
The only person you’re ever really in competition with is yourself.
“Standing on the shoulders of giants; climbing the corporate ladder,” these cliche sayings are unnecessary.
It’s unnecessary to step on other people’s toes in order to get ahead – or their shoulders for that matter.
There are people that exist that may tell you there’s not enough caviar to go around – that there’s not enough pie to share and you’ve got to focus on grabbing your piece before anyone else – but it’s just not true.
What society has been feeding people is a message of lack.
Lack fuels panic.
Lack fuels anxiety.
Lack fuels BAD selfishness (there is such a thing as good selfishness).
There is no such thing as lack.
There are such things, as assholes though. Selfish, greedy, assholes, that often like to take shortcuts. The quick success. The quick buck. The quick fuck. The flash car. The fancy title. The big house. Quick quick quick. Instant gratification, at the sacrifice of others.
There’s no such thing as sacrifice.
Sacrifice seems to be built up these days as a glorious thing to do – but essentially when you strip it down, it’s two things: either giving up something you already love for something else you love, or feeling you have to crush others to get where you want to go.
It’s a joke…and it doesn’t have to be so.
There is more corruption and greed laced into corporations and organisations today than there was almost 30 years ago, and I think this is being bred primarily from this “lack” thought process.
This all ties in with competition.
People have been led to believe the guy next to them in an interview room is their competition.
But really, it’s not about competing with anybody – not even yourself.
It’s about building a better version of YOU.
Constantly working on being yourself, improving yourself, becoming a better person than you were yesterday.
When you focus on this, you end up being too busy to look at what other people are doing.
You develop tunnel vision. You seek your own finish line – rather than trying to race someone to theirs.
You end up becoming such a fantastic version of yourself, you don’t worry about the guy next to you, because you know you have something to bring to the table that’s unique to YOU.
Forget about being a carbon copy.
You know you have something to contribute to the world.
You know you have something that you can leave your mark with.
You know YOU – something that when the last company falls, and the last pound, euro, or dollar is spent, no one can take away from you – the art of self-improvement.
The other main thing to remember is, is that this is the single most important thing to remind yourself of everyday.
Because there are people out there who will try and tell you that you’re no good. That someone’s better than you. Hell, there are people that will try and tell you that you’re overqualified, and credit that as a logical reason for still not giving you what you want.
What you have to understand is, is that their opinion has nothing to do with you.
Because the same way you’ve been taught that there is lack, that there is competition, they may very well be approaching you with the same thought process.
But all that matters is what you want to do with your own life.
They do not have the right to tell you what to do with your life.
This is largely why I think unemployment is becoming greater.
That mindset, that lacking, competitive, insecure, fearful, selfish mindset has the potential (and often does) to bleed into people’s professional lives, the potential to create a loop.
Recruiters ego’s become enlarged, the power they’ve been given can make them feel like gods, determining someone’s short or long-term financial future at the click of a button.
The lack is false – it’s simply misplaced power with zero social responsibility.
The surging increase in idiocy, of this thing called “human resources” is insane. Do not heed to it.
The only person to compete against, the only person to improve, is yesterday’s version of yourself. Other people are only a reference point – and if you’re going to have a reference point, let it be someone positive – someone successful, someone REAL.
But at the end of the day, if you’re putting in the work, you’ll know where you rank – and if you’re not putting in the work, you’ll know that too. The guilt of not making a better version of yourself will eat at your gut – your instincts will nag at you.
Work on yourself, work on what you love to do, then take a break. Analyse your progress. Change your angle if need be. Maintain this balance. Then do it all again.
But remember – there is no such thing, as competition.
There is only you, and how good you want to be at something.
Think about it.
As always…
Stay awesome.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Musings Episode 80: Competition… is a post from and appeared first on Rego’s Life
Musings: Quote Wednesdays…
Like I mentioned in this week’s episodic musing, while comfort zones aren’t good to stay in, the key to remember is to utilise the confidence you’ve built in your comfort zone, and use it to transition to new beginnings.Just because it’s an unfamiliar environment, doesn’t mean you can’t use everything you’ve learnt up until this point to help you navigate the waters. Be humble, but confident.
Hope everyone’s having a great week.
As always…
Stay awesome.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Last episodic musing I mentioned a thing or two about comfort zones.
I figure now’s a good time to elaborate more on that.
So comfort zones…for the most part, they’re something you don’t want to get stuck in. They’re limiting, and they can easily stunt growth – whether it’s mental, physical, or spiritual.
In essence, comfort zones are where people become complacent. A person may complain about where they are in life, but be too comfortable (read complacent) to actively move themselves towards where they want to be.
It could be wanting to accomplish going to the gym more, quitting a shitty job you hate, making a commitment to put aside money for a trip you’ve always wanted to go on (rather than blowing it on consumer items), or maybe just cutting toxic relationships out of your life.
Comfort zones are a funny thing though – sometimes they can be hidden, in disguise.
I think it’s largely because of the fact that there are some (and I do mean some) pros to comfort zones.
Waaaait.
Before all you self-help gurus who may stumble across this post get out your pitch forks and torches, hear me out.
Comfort zones can be, well, comfortable, because they’re familiar.
Usually when a person’s familiar with something, they feel safe in the familiarity, and have a slight bit of confidence with the situation they’re in or people they’re around.
The downside to this is, it can also make a person a complete asshole when around new people – meaning one can become “arrogant” in their comfort zone, only to be crushed by whatever they encounter that may very quickly, very abruptly, remind them of their place.
That’s a whole different blog post though, one I won’t touch on today.
But, if you put the confidence side of it into the simplest terms possible, it’s like playing an old video game you love – you’ve mastered all the controls and can play it with your eyes closed. You’re confident in your ability so you don’t mind changing the difficulty setting to hard, maybe even extra hard.
That’s confidence in a comfort zone.
But then a sequel or continuation of that same game comes out – and the controller formatting or battle system is completely new.
Let’s say you just buy a whole new game and everything’s new.
Now play it on hard – no, from the beginning, straight out of the box.
Little nervous? Extra cautious? Get frustrated at the game when you fail the first few missions, or keep getting your ass handed to you, so you go back to playing the other game, and talk about how much the new one sucks after only trying it a few times?
That’s you getting your confidence crushed and wanting to step back into your comfort zone.
The primary difference between the two scenarios is that in the first one, you’re making very tiny, incrimental, baby steps to challenge yourself in moving forward – albeit in a contained environment.
While in the second one, you’re facing a whole new wave of factors being thrown at you, and because of the unfamiliarity of the whole thing, your confidence is dropping…even though your hand-eye coordination, your ability to analyse and your mental agility may still remain intact.
In both scenarios your skill set hasn’t really declined at all – it’s just the “newness” of the environment in the second one, and the pre-existing knowledge of the first one that provide a sharp contrast in regards to perception.
The same goes for life.
Bear in mind sometimes there are some situations where you can keep getting knocked back despite your best efforts and willingness to step out of your comfort zone – DON’T internalise it. These can sometimes be the rare situations where it’s actually best to step away from things for a moment – it’s here where you may want to adjust your angle a little bit.
It’s like Einstein says…
For the younger generation that may stumble across this quote 10 years from now: this is not how Albert Einstein actually looked.
Remember to remain agile and reposition yourself when it’s time.
All in all though comfort zones are ultimately, not very healthy to stay in…but they do give you a certain amount of confidence.
The key is to teach yourself to take that confidence, while still keeping your current abilities at the forefront of your mind, and transfer it into whatever new context it is you’re encountering.
So in effect, one could say it’s a bit like you creating and creating an antidote (confidence) for poison (comfort zones).
I think if people started to conceptualise comfort zones like that, the transition process from that old, comfortable rut some get to stuck in, to shiny new beginnings, may become a bit easier.
It’s a lot like knowing how to cook, but learning a new recipe.
You’ve got confidence in your ability – now it’s just up to you to recognise that ability, take the leap, and try something new.
I think this is also one of the ways a person can learn to be confident, but humble.
You can know your abilities, have confidence in them, recognise your potential, and then take on new things; rather than holding yourself back out of fear (which again, stems from a comfort zone) OR, diving in too recklessly.
So the next time you’re in a comfort zone, and you may not want to admit it – how about doing yourself a favour and acknowledging that yes, taking a step in a new direction can sometimes be intimidating, BUT you have all these skills you’ve acquired up until this point in your life – some of which are bound to assist you in accomplishing whatever it is you’ve got your eye set on now.
Approach it with confidence, but humbly.
Do what you fear – don’t fear what you do.
As always…
Stay awesome.
– Rego
Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™
Musings Episode 79: Comfort Zones… is a post from and appeared first on Rego’s Life
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