Author: drrock00

A bartender and Postal worker by trade I was witness to the overwhelming negativity that is so common in todays society. A firm believer in the motto "Better to light a candle than curse the darkness" I created this site to bring some of the positivity back into the world and share with otheres.

I COULD NOT DO IT ALONE 😊

Today is the 999th day in a row we have posted content on this website. That means tomorrow is day 1000! It was an arbitrary goal set almost 3 years ago. When it was set, there were no thoughts of how long that actually was. Simple math could have shown it was a lot more of a journey than it seemed.

Some of the challenges faced in maintaining this content were vacation in the Bahamas. Yes, that doesn’t sound like much of an obstacle. Let me tell you, when you have to write before you can try the buffet or swim in turquoise water, it is a challenge. There of course were health challenges. Allergies, a cold, a Dislocated shoulder to name a few. There were also times I had no idea what to write about.

That is why it is so important to surround yourself with people who not only encourage and assist you with your goal, but hold you accountable to it. A debt is owed to so many. My friends Mary and Eduardo who are so kind as to share these posts on their social media. My mother who shares ideas of subjects she would like to hear discussed. This is very helpful. Everyone who engages through comments, likes and other manners. Even my friends in the great country of Greenland who give me other goals to reach.

A very special amount of gratitude to this lovely lady, my fiancee Margie. She not only provides the occasional idea for me to write about, but puts up with all of my crazy thoughts as a writer. She also does her best to make sure I get enough rest, and keeps my belly full of delicious food.

Each one of these amazing people helped this site reach 1000 days in a row of content. Without them, it would have been far more difficult, if not impossible. No great feat is accomplished alone. After tomorrow, I look forward to setting my sights on the next horizon. I would be honored if all of you would join us as we continue to help each other become the best version of ourselves and discover the secrets to an amazing life.

SHOUT OUT TO MY KIND OF PEOPLE! 🗣

I want to give a shout out to my kind of people. People who are just kind-hearted. Not for the want of getting anything, be that material or favors. No, just kind because that is who they are. It is my sincere hope that we all know people like this.

Do you know what hope I have that is even greater? That at some point, we all become one of those people. I can promise you this – your life is a lot more magical and full of joy the kinder you are to people. People treat you better when you treat them better. You get less stressed. You stress other people out a lot less. People smile more at you when you smile more at them.

With all of this being the case, why would you not want to live a life of kindness? I would love to hear your experience with a kind person and what you think others can do to be a kind person.

LET THE FLOWERS REMIND US 💐

It rains a lot here this time of year. Fairly gloomy and uninspiring. This is what happens as winter turns to spring. As we venture outside, we can be greeted by a cold spring rain and overcast skies. Hard to feel motivated and energetic in that situation. All you want to do is go back to bed.

Life can be like that too. Problems can seem to crop up one after another. Your job can feel like a dead-end. Just like the gloomy sky in our weather example. All you want to do is go back to bed.   Then just when you have no energy or motivation, another problem comes at you out of nowhere. Just like that cold spring rain.

As the season moves along, we start to see a little more of the sun. Before long, the temperature begins to slowly get warmer and one day you wake up and it seems the world has bloomed! Beautiful shapes and colors fill the land where once there was the gray drab of winter remained.

To people like my good friend Shannon, who loves plants, this must seem like heaven. To me, who hates winter, this feels like freedom after the prison of winter. To Margie, who longer has to put up with me, it must feel like she is free from her own punishment. Seriously, it is a magical time.

Life is also like that. After our rain and gloom, flowers start to bloom. When we look back, we see the rain was necessary for the flowers. Without the rain, they would never bloom. Without facing some of the adversity we face, the joy in our lives may never have bloomed. When we see the spring flowers, let them remind us the rain was necessary.

LET THEM BE HAPPY 😊

One of the things that every child seems to remember is a grandparent telling them the same story again and again. They tell it with such enthusiasm and gusto forgetting that they told it to you last time they saw you. This is not only true with stories told to children and not  only by elderly adults. It can happen in many friendships and even with coworkers.

This can lead to frustration and on a rare occasion, anger. “How can they not remember they told me that story countless times before?” We think to ourselves. That’s the problem here. We are only seeing one side of the equation. I think if we do our best to look at it from their perspective, we will create joy, or at least a lot less frustration.

Do you recall in the beginning of this post how I described the joy and enthusiasm in which they told the story? Often, their eyes light up and you can see a far away lol in their eyes as they are transported back to the time of their tale. Let them have this joy. Be glad that they are experiencing it through you.

Life is far too short. Before you know it, they are gone and all we have left is the memory of that story. “I would give anything to hear them tell that annoying story again. ” we catch ourselves saying. Enjoy it while we can. Celebrate that joy and stories we share.

THE BEST DEFEAT, THE ONLY DEFEAT 💪

If we are to rally against anything in life, it should be the version of ourselves that is less than we know we could be. It is one of the greatest battles we will ever face, and one that never ends. This may sound overwhelming, but it really is not.

Yes, it is true we must be diligent every day to make sure we strive to be the best version of ourselves. Even when we achieve that goal, we must work hard to maintain it. If we conquer our temptations and fix our diet, we know that sugar craving is there hiding waiting to stage a sneak attack. If we go to the gym and get our body back in shape, we must fight to maintain that. There will be the temptation to take a day off, which will lead to another, then another.

This fight will go on for the rest of our lives. It is not that we can never claim victory. We can, in fact, claim victory every night that we know we did our best. Every time we live up to our standards. We can win the battles daily. When are days are winding down, we will know if we have one enough battles to win the war. That is to say, we have lived enough good days to have made it a good life.

One final note. Far too many of us meet sudden and unexpected ends. That is why it is so important to defeat the bad version of ourselves daily. We want to start stacking those victories as soon as we can. How about you? Can you declare victory today?

REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN 👍

Here is a reminder that in the midst of spring cleaning, working on getting that summer body back and wondering where our New Year resolutions went, that we should always have a little fun.

The quote in the picture above captures this perfectly. Feet dirty, hair messy and eyes sparkling. The first thing that came to mind was a charity race I did a few years with Margie’s daughter. It was 30 obstacles in about 5 miles. Raised money for children with cancer. At the end of it, we were covered in mud, scrapes and pride. Not only had we completed the challenge, we raised money for a great cause. Our eyes were sparkling.

The next thing I thought of was children. When we are young, every day is an adventure. We dive right into life. Our feet are usually dirty, our hair is usually messy, but our eyes are usually sparkling. I think we need more of that as adults. I would love to hear what you do to put the sparkle back into your eyes.

6 TYPES OF REST EVERYONE NEEDS 😴

I can see my mother, and many others who know me, rolling their eyes that I am writing this post. Truth is, I am not very good at getting rest. I average around 5 hours of sleep on any given night. About half of that on Sunday night. Like I have mentioned many times on this site, there is always opportunities to improve life and to learn. One of my main areas I could improve on is rest. As you can see, rest involves a lot more than sleep. Different aspects of our being require different kinds of rest. Looking at this list, I…well…kind of suck at all of them. Let us look at a few.

The type of rest that everyone knows is sleeping. Even though we all know about this, sleep deprivation is at an all-time high. As mentioned earlier, I am guilty as charged. It can seem like we have 36 hours of things to do in our 24 hours. What has become painfully obvious to me is that you are far less productive when you are lacking sleep. Not to mention the health risks this can bring on. These include, but are not limited to, increase risk of heart disease, increase risk of diabetes, obesity and depression. Not much good stuff there. Just thinking of that has me feeling tired. Quick note. That is not me in the picture. When I am sleeping my hair looks like Albert Einstein and Don King had a love child.

This is also not me. Not only am I not flexible enough to sit that way, but I do not look good in orange. Mental rest can be just as important as physical rest. I love meditating. There are so many great guided meditations on YouTube and different platforms. All you have to do is pop on headphones and push play. One of my favorites is a company called ‘Brain Sync’. I would encourage you to check them out. The benefits of just a few minutes of meditation are well documented. Even if meditation is not your thing, try a nice quiet walk, It is kind of like a form of meditation, but that is beside the point. What the point is, your brain needs rest just like your body.

Skipping to the bottom of our list from above, is sensory rest. We are bombarded with electronic stimulation from the moment we wake up (the alarm) to the moment we go to bed. Whether that is the radio in the car, listening to headphones at the gym, watching television or surfing the internet, take a break. Your mind may have important things to tell you that cannot get to the surface because there is too much stimulation. Do your best to set aside time each day to just sit and think You will be amazed at what comes to mind. When I am working on a book, I get more accomplished doing this that forcing myself to write. It seems to get the creative juices flowing.

Do yourself a favor and get some rest. Not just sleep, but rest in all of the areas listed above. My struggle is to stop working and get into bed. I am going to work on that. What area of rest do you struggle with the most? I would love to hear your answers and any suggestions you have to help the rest of us get more rest.

JUST 1 DEGREE 🌡

While I continue to celebrate ice melting as winter turns to spring, I thought this quote was a great one to meditate on. It is the end of the week. It may have been a tough one. Things in the world are pretty crazy right now. There are lots of lives being turned upside down daily. The temptation to quit has never been greater for many. Sometimes just hanging on can seem like quite a struggle. Change and improvement can see like a far off horizon we cannot even see.

Think of the fact listed above. The shift of just one degree turns water, a liquid, into ice, a solid. One degree transforms it into something else entirely. I have heard this same advice applied to hitting a golf ball. Your swing can seem terribly far off, but if you just make a one millimeter change in the way you hit the ball, after going the distance, your ball will land in an entirely different area. The change is small. The result is huge. Can you see how a slight change in angle can result in an entirely different landing? How one degree can turn a liquid into a solid?

This is true is matter such as water and ice. It is true in golf and the effect of changing your starting angle. Do you know what else it is true in? Life. It can seem like everything around you is collapsing, and it might be. You might still be just one degree, or one millimeter off from a complete transformation of your life. Think of decisions we have made in our own life. Just like our examples above, the change was obvious right away, but given some time and distance, dramatic change will occur. Water takes a bit to freeze after you hit the temperature. That golf ball as to travel after you hit it at the new angle.

Think of decisions you have made. Maybe you decided to quit smoking. The change may not have happened by putting down that last cigarette, but making that decision can radically improve your life. Same with starting a new morning habit like meditation. You may not notice something on the first day, but after a month your days will feel radically different. How about writing in a gratitude journal at night? Once again, the first day may not yield any new results, but by the end of the month your life will be different.

Life may seem very overwhelming at the moment. Don’t give up. You might just be one degree, one millimeter or one decision away from an entirely different life.

2 SPECIAL DAYS IN ONE! ✌️

Today, in the Northern hemisphere, it is the first day of spring. I am normally excited for this day as I am really against all things winter. This year has been especially tough. My lovely lady and I were unable to get away as we are saving for our wedding. Making through an entire cold and gloomy winter without an escape to the tropics is quite difficult for this author. Make no mistake, it will not be warm and sunny because the calendar said it is spring. This I know. Somehow, it just is a little easier mentally knowing that it is not that far away. As I write this, I sit in a warm coffee shop staring out at a gloomy day filled with freezing rain. I know, sunshine and flowers are right around the corner.

The second thing I discovered is that it is national Neil Day. I cannot make this up. I did not realize there is such a thing. The fact that it falls on the first day of spring prompted me to take the day off of work. I am going to relax and spend the entire day with the lady I love. That gives me two fun things to celebrate. One of the great keys of life is always having something to celebrate. It not only puts you in a good mood, and allows you to be creative, but it helps you focus on being grateful as well.

To assist in that endeavor I made a small purchase. It was a desktop calendar that gives you a holiday on every day of the year! If you combine that with a day by day motivational calendar, you got a good start to any day! For just a few dollars, every day you will be greeted with a different holiday and a fun picture. You could always look them up online, but I feel it is a lot easier when it is hanging right on the wall. What is your favorite holiday? What new holidays could you discover and celebrate?

LET US CELEBRATE TOGETHER 🙌

Today is International Client Day. A celebration of all the people that make your business possible. If I am being honest, I think of the people that follow this site, or purchase my books, more as a family than clients. A like-minded community of individuals striving for a better life and to become the best version of themselves.

I am certainly grateful for every person who has ever read a word here. You are part of the family. Even more impactful are those who comment. Sharing your thoughts and opinions add quality and content to what we all share and learn here. Whether that is on this very site, in our Facebook group or anywhere else. In places such as Italy, Lebanon and England I have received great advice on books to read, people to listen to and thoughts to ponder.

All of our family, which some may call ‘clients’ I am eternally grateful! Thank you for sharing this journey with me!