Monthly Archives: September 2015

Reaching Selectively

Posted on by kgoodman

Vector Icon Of Hand Reaching For Stars - Concept Of Ambition

You have been told to reach for the stars. It’s good advice. But remember to reach for one at a time.

I am attending a technical conference this week. I always get very “into my head” at these conferences. Sure there is a strong technical component for learning and connecting, so my brain gets into that and starts to build new models for how the universe works.

But the part where I really get into my head, involves people watching and comparison. Oh my goodness, the comparison engine goes into overdrive.

I know more than that person.

I know better than this person.

I wish I knew as much as her.

Wow he really comes across as put together.

Wish I could present like that.

Wish I knew that level of architecture.

etc…

etc…

The voice in my head is having a feast.

I am constantly ‘dialoging’ with myself that I should know more technical details. I should know more computer languages. I should know how to manage web servers better. I should be a better system administrator. The list of perceived deficiencies goes on and on. At the same time my head voice wants me to know more about architecture and how systems are put together. I should know more about security. I should know more about internet infrastructure deployments. I should be able to design large systems…

The truth is, I can do a lot of these these, but I can’t do all of these things. I know a lot of programming languages, but I don’t know all programming languages. All my brain needs to see is a single example, where I don’t know something, and the judgement starts.

Why did you never learn that?

Why don’t you know more about that?

He’s younger than you, how come he is better at that then you?

The truth is I know a lot. The truth is that I know enough.

The truth is that I am adequate and perfect. I am exactly who I am supposed to be.

The truth is, there are lots of days when I don’t believe the truth.

I often find myself judging my own experiences as inadequate. When in fact my own experiences are perfect. They are exactly what they need to be to make me the man that I am today. Adding a burden of perceived gap between what I know today and what I think I should know, doesn’t make me better. It actually degrades my value.

By seeing myself as inadequate or lacking I am simply feeding the voice of doubt in my head. This voice is in need of a diet, not a good hearty meal. There is no need for me to spend my precious time preparing food for the voices in my head.

This inadequacy leads to reaching. But reaching from a place of inadequacy is like looking for balance from a place of imbalance. If the foundation of your search is all wibbly wobbly, then no matter how strongly you build on top of it, you will always be wibbly wobbly. So the reaching becomes frantic and instead of reaching in one direction, or picking a few discrete goals, you reach in all directions, you pick all goals.

Instead of trying to reach a single star, you find yourself reaching for all stars.

You cannot do everything at once.

You cannot reach in all directions at one time.

You cannot boil the ocean, you must heat up one pot of water at a time.

Remember one of the most important skills for reaching the stars is focus, not having long arms.

Focus, breath.

You are adequate and perfect.

I am too.

 

Namaste,

Kevin

Taking Fear Out Of The Drivers Seat

Posted on by kgoodman

taking-fear-out-of-the-drivers-seat-text

It’s been a long year. It seems like every time I turn around something tragic is happening somewhere. A story comes through about a young life drowning as a family flees tyranny. A story about a small town being wiped off the map overnight by fire. All around me there are stories of fear and terror. How could that happen to them? Could that happen to me? How can I protect myself and my family?

While processing the news, or even the events of our own daily lives, our emotional response often sends us to a place of fear. Our focus on the tragic will drive us to hand off the steering wheel, of our lives, over to fear. At some point we as a culture seem to have decided this was a reasonable framework to operate from.

From there it was just up to the clever media moguls to realize what it took to get our attention. Fear. Scare the heck out of them and you’ll have their attention. Sure the attention you get will be from a stressed overwrought and foggy headed crowd, but you’ll have their attention.

And so it goes on and on.

We hand over control to our fear and our fear becomes so strong that we can’t take the wheel back. We even begin to identify with the fear and without noticing we think that we’re in the driver seat. We’re making rational choices about our kids safety and how we should treat other people. We’re thinking through the way we treat strangers and who we elect for office. We do all this without realizing we are being driven by fear.

I have good news, and I have bad news.

The bad news.

We all die, sometimes tragically and sometimes in boring ways. Death is a natural part of life, usually the last part. Every story ends.

The good news.

We all die, sometimes tragically and sometimes in boring ways. Death is a natural part of life, usually the last part. Every story ends.

I do not wish to downplay or dismiss the tragedy that is occurring in the world this year. However we need to stay focused, or rather become focused once more. We need to take the steering wheel back and clear our heads.

So politely and affectionately I offer you this, A STRONG slap in the face. <SMACK>

Snap out of it! Wake up! Find your center.

You are here now. You are a miracle. The world is a wonderful place filled with puppy dogs and kittens. You came here for a reason. Without feeling like I am overstepping my bound, I am confident in telling you, the reason was NOT to live out of fear. The reason was not to worry about things that are out of your control.

I dare say the reason you came here was to live and to learn and to love.

The reason you are here is to experience life to it’s fullest and to help out where you can.

Take back the wheel. Think for yourself. Operate from a place of love. Compassionately tell your fear to take a hike.

Namaste,

Kevin

 

Living The Dream

Posted on by kgoodman

Living-The-Dream

What if Money was no object? What would I do if I didn’t have to worry about paying bills, feeding my family, etc.

 

I always find myself in a duality when I think about this. Money is an object. Money is what pays for the food and the shelter. Money fuels the car. Money pays for the electricity.

 

How much house do you need? How much food do you need? Why do you need fuel? The answer to these are sometimes simple and sometimes convoluted. The deeper the story gets, you may need to unravel to get to the truth.

 

We unraveled a bit last year, we got rid of one of the cars. We are now a one car family. We are also a 6 – 8 bike family. We bike all over town, to Groceries, to chiropractor, to visit friends, etc. It’s increased our happiness and lowered a bills.

 

Need to lower the bills a bit more before I quit my day job… But finding passion and connection with the idea in the video below will remind you, money is not the object. Money is not the destination.

 

Let money be a tool for your life. Don’t let yourself be a tool for money.

 

Namaste,

Kevin

 

 

 

I’ve been editing a releasing old blog posts with new memes on facebook (ChakraChime) and instragram (ChakraCommunity).

If you haven’t already, liked us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChakraChime feel free to do so now.

 

Here are a few popular links to stories that have been well received on facebook.

 

Allowing for Chaos – Trapped in this duality between boredom and adrenal fatigue, I tend to oscillate back and forth between, alternately seeking out change and running away from change. As you can imagine, it is a rather frantic way to live and leads to a lot of energy spent for not much result. AKA, much ado about nothing… – http://wp.me/p2w7BK-8E

 

Breathing Through Transition – We love births! We love having a new life to wonder over and to see the world through fresh eyes. But for a parent, birth is merely a transition state. After the birth, your work isn’t over. Nurturing this newborn is a lifetime practice.
– http://wp.me/p2w7BK-6y