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Passing Trains

Sometimes the adjacent trains zoom by so fast you can still see the other side, uninterrupted, just through two additional windows instead of one.

Passenger head silhouettes pop in an out of view rapidly, none of which look the same. The people standing up look like giants.

Perspective is whatever you want to see plus awareness. Life moves fast. It’s vital to stick to a vision unimpeded while being equally aware of your surroundings.

You have to know what’s in your way. Sometimes a hurdle is an open door to opportunity. You’ll never see other opportunities if you solely focus on your main goal. Tunnel visions blinds.

The environment is open to adherence and mutation. Nothing stands still, time always keeps moving. But everyone has the ability to stay composed and open-minded as keen students of life.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Never too late to try

Interests should evolve. As a kid, it was toys. As a teenager, it was video games. In college, it was social networking and dating. As a young worker, it was a continuation of college interests minus the time.

As a settled adult, interests are now wide open. With a clean slate, you may explore new activities, re-pursue an old ambition, appreciate art.

As you grow older you take an active interest in things you thought were once boring growing up. But you’re also less likely to experiment actually doing those things. Maybe you would make a good writer or History teacher?

Experience doesn’t equate to expertise. Once people get good at something, they stop wanting to get better. You can catch up to them with time and patience.

Obviously, things come much easier if you’ve been dribbling a ball at your feet or playing the piano since you were a kid. Those skills appear innate. But you don’t have to be great to try those things. Play pickup.

You can always convert curiosity into doing. Don’t settle with full consumption and leaning on others to make stuff for you. Create things you can call your own, even if they’re shitty. Learn what it feels like to start again.

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“It’s yours to lose.”

Success contains both pleasure and pain. Working hard backlashes when the gains run out. That’s when you seek success elsewhere.

Everyone wants continued progress, positive results. The problem with this sort of thinking is that is causes perpetual stress and inevitable disappointment. One can’t possibly achieve promotion all the time.

Instead, try thinking about success in terms of preventing failure. Make sure the business operates smoothly and then success may come.

You can be both a pusher of pleasure and preventer of pain at the same time. Innovation excites while maintenance relaxes.

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Be Like Mom

The most amazing help goes unseen. It’s the help you never notice because it’s been going on since childhood.

You don’t realize how much Mom did for you until you’re grown up and have to do everything yourself: work, pay the bills, clean up, buy the groceries, feed the dog, negotiate the lease, make/answer all the calls, basically organize your life so nothing goes undone while ensuring that there’s always something to do. Mom never wants to see you bored.

Responsibility is hard. It’s stressful just imagining Mom taking responsibility for you, herself, and everyone else in the family including Dad.

It was never about Mom. It was always about us. Did she ever get time to herself? Mom makes me feel so selfish.

Mom still calls herself Cinderella. She’s a workhorse, constantly on the move, inspiring others to get up and go. I’m not even sure she sleeps.

Mom always encourages us to take risks and do good. She finds ways to poke us when we get lazy or lose hope.

Rarely does Mom do things for us anymore although she still sneaks money into our pockets now and again. Mom wants us to figure it out on our own and fail to succeed. There’s no learning in fear that goes untested.

Mom is plain bold. I always felt sorry for anyone that irritated Mom. They got it back good.

Mom epitomizes hard work and care. She sets the bar high for anyone to follow in her footsteps.

Every Sunday I re-read one of my own hand-written inspirational notes to get me focused for the upcoming week. The last sentence is always “Be like Mom.”

I want to be like my Mom each and every day, every way.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

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Taking the Local Versus the Express Train

The main differences between the local and express trains are the number of stops and speed.

You can take an express train that leaves 15 minutes later than the local and still get to the same destination 5 minutes quicker.

However, seats are limited on the express train while the local has plenty available. The faster train may save you time but it may also be the least comfortable route.

In many ways, life is a perpetual decision between taking the local or taking the express train.

You can fast-track a goal and be done with it but be really stressed along the way. Or you can gradually get to your destination by slowly progressing, enjoying the process.

Everyone has to choose the path that’s right for them. Some people will mix it up depending on priorities that day or simply what’s available at the time. For instance, you may completely alter your original intention of which train to take simply because it’s running late and the other is available at that moment.

Most important is the realization that you’ve got to get on the train and just go. Once you’re on, you’re on; there’s no turning nor looking back. You have to live with your decision.

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The Downfall of Vicarious Living

TV is a distraction from reality.  So are video games, books, Internet, and social media.  We consume these things mostly for entertainment but also because they allow us pass time and dream.

But the content becomes dangerous when we actually start thinking that’s how life actually works. 

It turns out that life is much harder than what appears on screen.  You’ve got to work for things, and so does everyone else.  Every human is fallible even though the people you admire want you thinking their life is 100% glamorous.  

Perfection is a script to be unfollowed.  How you react to the demands of daily life determines the real person you become.    

 

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The Family Leach

Everyone has a famous relative. I’m related to Mark Twain, Dad says.

Some people use lineage as an excuse for work already done, living through the success of somebody else. But inherited fame is a cop-out. People are responsible for their own individual success.

What matters is your own work. You can take inspiration and even steal ideas from others. Combine the past into the present. Do whatever it takes to get started but get started now.

Recognition just happens to people that persist and ship again and again. Be the person who recognizes success and the machine that works even harder to repeat it.

Don’t be afraid to throw your shit out there and see what sticks. The Internet is a great place to publish and get instant feedback. Fame can be a drag anyway.

Be proud of who you are and those that put the effort in before you. Learn and let live.

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The Bar Car

The bar car is no different than any other standalone bar. The people that tend to sit there want to drink and socialize. The people that pass by the bar car wonder what life is like in it. The people that get stranded in the bar car because all other seats are taken keep their earbuds in.

Occasionally, the morning and afternoon trains include the bar car. It’s no surprise that the people that fill it up at the earlier hours use it to enjoy the silence without the beer and without the raucous. During these hours, the bar car might as well be a library car. It’s probably a good idea to offer coffee during this time to create a caffeinated bar experience. A bit of background noise keeps people inspired and more productive.

The roundtable couch-seating arrangement in the bar car contrasts the front facing and backward facing seats of all the other cars. It’s designed to promote relaxation and conversation with people looking face to face as opposed to the back of their chairs. There’s even a community drink holder which typically goes unused, mostly because people feel more talkative when they have a beverage in hand.

The “bar car” name and design ultimately sets expectations and dictates behavior. But it can also morph into other uses depending on time of day. Every place, thing in life shares elasticity and permanence. It is what is isn’t.

(Follow the Train Diaries collection on Medium)

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Superiority/Inferiority

Act confident yet remain vulnerable.

Lead and yield ownership.

Celebrate success; work even harder to repeat it.

Know everything | Question everything.

Do the right thing; understand the other side.

Be aggressive yet respectful.

Aim high. Achieve reality.

Excel. Get and give back.

Endure. Dent the universe.

Own it; take fault.

Live in the now, penetrate the future.

Contrast and conform.

Allow greatness and humility to merge.

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