Month: July 2023

How many of us are walking around with the damage done (to us) in the past, severely coloring our steps into the future? All of us. Yes, past mistakes are to be learned from but not a constant whipping in slavery to the past mistake. Learning from mistakes is important, but what is equally important is moving on. We must learn the lesson and MOVE ON. If we don’t, if we stay in agony over the mistakes made in the past, it breaks down our mind and messes up our future (we don’t perform well in the next shift.)

Sports Coaches have ways of dealing with this. In the NFL you will see players do push-ups who drop passes. You will see the coaches often throw the ball right back to the same player, so the dropped pass doesn’t stay in the players’ head and his future performance hindered. you will also see basketball players with rubber bands on their wrists. The rubber band is to snap their inner wrist in punishment for a mistake made, but once the sting is gone, so is thinking about the mistake.

I wear this. A rubber band with the Smile in the ARENA logos (and website here) scrunched to show the writing. When I make an error, I snap the band in punishment for the mistake but also as a reminder to move on and not let the past mistake mess up my next shift out in the world.

whether it’s push-ups, rubber bands, or anything in between: when you make a mistake, minor or major, accept the punishment, learn the lesson, and most importantly – MOVE ON.

Now, equipped with the knowledge of lessons learned, let the past go, do your pushups, snap your band, smile, and get out there and have a great next shift out in the arena of life!!!

I sit here about to play D4 hockey, I started playing ice hockey after a 20 year break 6 months ago. I am not good enough. I sit here and think: Roosevelt was Man in the ARENA, I play at 3 different ice ARENAs, what is this word, ARENA? Apparently the literal translation is latin for “sand.” The coliseum has a sand floor. Arena is a place for combat in public. Ready or not, here I come, smiling in the (ice) arena.

Whether it’s a professional path, you deciding you are going to better yourself, or in any other aspect of life where you are going in the right direction and are overwhelmed by haters, complainers, negativity spewing obstacles preying on your will – horse blinders. Focus on what’s in front of you, go only FORWARD

Behind Us: They say the windshield of a car is so much bigger than the rear view mirror because we should focus all that much more on what is in front of us, not on what’s in our toxic past only serving to weigh us down.

To Our Sides: we are constantly bombarded by people attacking our journey- organizations asserting dominance over your path, complainers too coward to get off the sidelines themselves, the world happier with you being a sheep. Put horse blinders on and focus forward.

People love to tell people what to do. A little bit of power infecting their ego. People criticize what they don’t have the courage to do. Even saying you are going to eat better, eat more fruit, simple, right? Go tell someone they will say but the sugar is high and isn’t healthy. Nice attitude, you should probably have more fruit.

To those with power over us: jobs, organizations, the public, government, they all want you in line and quiet. It’s better to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission because you just won’t get it and be sure if you need to ask permission that the right entity have dominion over you.

I started this blog as a resource for those fighting in life, a meditations for my son, which makes this next part a little weird but I am telling my son anyway, even if the person in power is me. Connor, when you are going in a direction you know to be correct, righteous, and honorable, smile and nod to those that need to block your path, and go forward. Only God above you, in that direction, towards the good, the righteous, let the chickens cluck