Strength

Time after time, proven point after another, through contested endurance, and relentlessness... will only the strong survive.

Redemption

Redemption is life's secret ingredient. We can fail, F* up, lose our way, make bad decisions, make more mistakes than deem acceptable, or get screwed over. I don't support, find excuses, or can rationalize what people do, but learning from it and becoming a better person is something we all try to strive for.

Vacation

Where should I take my vacation in February? (Please take survey)

Live, and live well

It's been a very eventful transition the last three weeks concerning my living situation. I am moving out of Santa Ana! My goodness! I am moving into my own place to call home. This is my vision. Through the sacrifices I have made, I have planned accordingly to enhance the quality of life, improve my well being, and continue to become a better person. I only have vacancy to fill my mental capacity with good thoughts. Welcome to my home on the lake.

The move involved lots of furniture dumping, lots of garage sales, all the logistics of transporting my belongings, purging what I don't need, rediscovering lost items, reorganizing personal items, and although busy, still basking in the excitement and anxiety of looking forward to having my own place to call home. MY OWN PLACE? SAY WHAT? This will be a foreign landscape for me to discover.

The thought of having your own place does something to your identity. It's a change of gear from the 4th to the 5th gear. It's a heightened sense of awareness of self. It's establishing the fact of becoming a fully responsible adult. It's time to build a nest.

It's an amazing feeling to sprawl out and call it a home. Your home. Your rules. Your own enjoyment. The mental satisfaction of fully adhering to your own vision.

When I was young, I have lived in a household with three to four generations of family. I love Mom and Dad, and I love visiting home, but my shoes, hats, and ego need their own closet to hang in and welcome mat to wipe on. The last ten years, I have lived in a community type setting going from 50 house mates in a dormitory, living with immediate family, living in a closet with six other gentleman, and even living with four nurses and five dogs in a Latino community. Sharing space can get kind of complicated and inconvenient at times. The fact that not every member of a community shares the same values, life style, or level of respect and consideration, may tend to cause strain on the situation.

With many living situations abruptly changing throughout the nation due to economic downturn, I think a big trend will evolve into more frequent cases of communal, cross generational, and co-operative living. Respect and consideration are the fundamentals to making a community of any size work cohesively. There is a lot of support to gain from living in tight knit communities. The division of living expenses brings forth the opportunity to ease living expenses which definitely benefits all members. Another benefit to community living is the convenience and increased availability of social and emotional support. I am all about shared living.

But now, it's time to separate from the den, remove oneself from the pack, and survive on one's own terms and means. I am home.

Priceless Advice

My colleague at HHF, who sits on our Board of Directors, lives at a rate of a million bucks per ounce and per second. He is the type of person who has owned several business, a jack of all trades, lives by the beach, and drives the fancy cars and eats at the expensive restaurants. But what I've come to respect about him most is the fact he also lives a very well balanced life: working with underprivileged communities, active in his church, has lots of friends, has a great sense of humor, witty, compassionate, exudes lots of positive energy, and has something valuable to say with every conversation. Today I got to pick his brain.

Upon my conversation with my colleague. I asked him for some advice about managing money, and where to live, the overall direction of my life, and he began by giving me some pointers.

In relation to self, establishing yourself, creating your identity and living the lifestyle that you imagine is what it means to be 26 y/o. In terms of work, he said you can work for somebody or you can work for yourself, and people can work for you. Typical conventional thinking, I thought, but then he gave a spin to what he was saying..

"At 26, you need to be creating your identity and lifestyle. You need to be on your own to develop a higher level of existence and personal satisfaction. The "figuring-it-out" mentality will remain throughout your lifestyle, because we continue to figure it out step by step, one day at a time. "Figuring-it-out" only continues to refine itself, as your values change, and as your lifestyle changes. While you are ahead of the pack, stay ahead. Live in the moment and live in the now...naturally figuring it out will come on its own"

Sometimes it takes one tip of the iceberg to cause an avalanche. I can feel the rush just thinking about planning, developing, following through, and making things happen. I feel I've only scratched the surface of the mental bombs I plan to drop. I am revolutionizing my existence and marking my identity. This train of thought will contribute towards my well being and personal development. At the end of the day, what matters is self satisfaction. I have no fear. I have no doubt in my ability to make it happen, and I will continue to sharpen and elevate this innate ability. If I choose the easy and dull route, I will not fully rectify my development and limit myself from exceeding my full potential. I am warming up to taking my drive to another level. In fact, it may hold me back to digress, more than it will push me forward. Throw away convenience and complacency out the door or it will hinder with reaching your potential and may slow down your drive. The evolution in mindset and accountability will take you further than you can imagine. My skill set is polished and refined to withstand the biggest storm.

Pray

KETCHUP

There's so much catch-up to do and share and debrief you on current events in my life, but the attempt to express them get stuck like a mustard plug. I wish I can do a better job to keep you updated, but my brain feels like millions of pieces of gigabytes floating hastily in a storm. When it begins to clear, then I can sit, reflect, and extrapolate an entire streamline of consciousness. Be easy...