Sorry for the delay getting this week’s vlog up. Between being at class and getting laryngitis I wasn’t able to do the video Wednesday and Thursday I was in class and travelling back home. I apologize if I’m a little scratchy in the vlog. I’ve got my voice mostly back but not totally. This week’s vlog is about starting over. Let me know what you think. Leave a Like on YouTube if you enjoy the video. Subscribe and click the bell if you want to be immediately notified every time I upload a video to my YouTube channel. Peace.
There used to be a show on I loved to watch called American Gladiators. The show had many events all of which were designed to pit weekend warriors against the professional gladiators. The idea was simple, compete in an event against the gladiator doing the best you can and if you did well enough you’d get points. Collect enough points and out score your fellow weekend warrior and you won.
Each individual event had its own challenges. Powerball required you to be fast, but also agile. You had to meet the dual goals of getting soccer balls into the baskets and avoid being train wrecked by a gladiator. Or Assault, where you had to advance toward the gladiator who was shooting tennis balls at high speed your way. Get hit you were done. To take it up a notch you’d have to stop at certain stations to attempt to shoot and hit a target located right behind and above the gladiator. Assault required you to stick your neck out to make the shot. The event I’d like to focus on today is Hang Tough.
Hang Tough was simple in concept. You start on one platform holding onto a gymnastics ring. And then you’d swing from ring to ring, attempting to land safely on the platform on the opposite side of the field. There were a couple of minor hiccups, though. First, you were working against the clock as you were holding up your entire weight by the hands as you went from side to side. Anyone who’s been on a jungle gym knows that the longer you go the more tired your arms get. If the warrior’s grip gave way before he or she reached the other side they’d fall and lose the event. Oh, and there’s the small issue of a gladiator coming your way on the rings from the opposite side, intent on taking you out. And I don’t mean dancing.
The rings were spaced such that you could reach the next ring while still holding on to your current one. You didn’t have to let go until you were assured you had a good grip on the next ring. But the presence of the gladiator could rock that boat. Sometimes you’d have to quickly move from the one ring to the next and couldn’t test your grip first. And on some occasions the warrior, in an effort to dodge the gladiator, would have to let go of one ring before even grabbing the next.
Life can be like Hang Tough. It’s nice when you have the time and energy to go safely from one life choice to the other. Being in a position where you can test your “grip” on the new life event before releasing the past one is awesome. But sometimes life throws you a curve and you’re left with a decision. Go before you know, or stay the steady course and risk the gladiator.
Maybe you get lucky and dodge the gladiator safely. Maybe you get lucky and the gladiator’s grip gives way before yours. If you’re not so lucky and the gladiator catches you, now you have a lot of extra weight on your shoulders to deal with. The gladiator, and life, try to drag you down.
Then again maybe you’re that person who decides to be bold and go for it. You understand the risk. If your grip isn’t true you fall. But if you grab that next ring securely you’re past the danger and on your way to victory. You just have to be willing to assume the risk and live with the consequences.
The consequence, of course, being you fail, and fall. Cool thing about Hang Tough was that many a warrior fell, but all would go on to compete again. Failure was embarrassing. A bit regrettable. But never fatal. So they’d pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get right back to competing.
What set the risk takers apart from the guys who played it safe wasn’t so much that they’d take the risk, it was the understanding that even if you risked it and failed, you still could come back and succeed.
So remember this week to Hang Tough. And if you’re the risk taker, do so boldly, knowing that as long as you’re willing to accept the risk, even if you lose you can still win in the end. Have a great week. Peace.
So I’m going for another interview tomorrow at 1pm my time. It’s definitely a job I’d like, which is a plus. I’m guessing like the last interview I talked about, though, I won’t know for sure how I did right after the interview. They have a few people to interview so I’m guessing that even if I do well I won’t be offered a job for a few days. I’m good with that. There is a similar position at another company that I’m interested in as well, so I’d like to have both interviews done before getting an offer.
Speaking of the last interview, here we are weeks later and I still haven’t heard anything back. It’s easy when you don’t hear back to assume that you didn’t get the job or that you didn’t interview well, but it’s important to always keep in mind that they are only assumptions. Until you get confirmation you were passed over you just don’t know. And even if you do get passed over it doesn’t necessarily mean you interviewed poorly. I’ll give an example.
Years ago at my current company I applied for a promotion. At first there was only going to be one promotional slot and I knew I had some good competition for the job. The day of the interview came and I gave it my best. They passed along at the end of the interview that because they did have such a good talent pool they were actually going to promote two people. I left the room feeling really good. I felt I had answered all the questions well and carried myself with great confidence. Plus I now knew my chances of getting the job had just doubled.
Alas, a few days later, I got a call from the head of the promotion board telling me that I wasn’t chosen. I thanked her for considering me and asked if I might get feedback on how she felt I could improve for the next opportunity. She told me that, as I had felt, I had interviewed very well and there wasn’t much room for improvement. They just had numerous, highly qualified candidates and they had to pick two out of a larger group of very deserving applicants. She told me the differences were minor and shouldn’t be looked upon as suggesting I wasn’t a good choice. I was highly encouraged to apply when the position opened again in the future.
The head of the promotion board was a straight shooter, and definitely not one to needlessly flatter someone just to make them feel better. So I knew the feedback was genuine. And the ones who did get the jobs were excellent choices. There was no shame in losing out to them. I had done a great job, it just wasn’t my time.
Which is why it’s important to stay positive about these things, even if you do get some bad news that you didn’t get it. There’s no reason to assume the worst before hand. Plus, sometimes the Universe just sees a better option for you around the corner. Which is what happened in my case.
About a week after finding out that I had not gotten the promotion a totally new position opened at my location. A position I very much wanted, well more than the one I had just been passed over on. Had I not been passed over, though, I probably wouldn’t have applied for the new position. Which would have been a shame as I got it and really enjoyed doing that job. The Universe was right, it was better I had waited.
So I go into tomorrow’s interview with that same mindset. I’ll do my best answering the questions. I’ll answer the questions with confidence. And when the interview is over I’ll wait and see in patience. Maybe I’ll get the job. Maybe I won’t get that one, but I’ll still go on to get the other similar position at the other company. Either way I just trust that the Universe will put me where I need to be when I need to be there.
So whether or not you have an upcoming interview or other life choice, I hope you carry that same mindset with you. Trust that things are as they are meant to be, knowing the Universe has your back. Have a great day tomorrow. Peace.
So I told you all a bit ago that I had put in for a new job that I had to go take a typing test for. I took the test and scored well over the speed requirement. Because of the score I got on the typing test and the skills test I took at the same time I moved on to the next round of the hiring process.
Today I completed that round, which was an interview panel. So for today’s blog I thought I’d give some suggestions on how to do better on an interview. Now of course I won’t know for a bit how I did in regard to moving forward in the job process but I can say right now that I did do a good job on the interview.
First thing to keep in mind is going to be an obvious one. How you dress. As you walk in your appearance will be the first thing they judge. It gives a sense of how seriously you take the hiring process. I chose to wear a nice set of clean and ironed khakis and a long-sleeved, button up shirt, with polishable black shoes. Why did I pick that? You should aim for something slightly more formal than you’d wear on the job. For that place the employees can dress in jeans and polos. Very casual business casual. My outfit would be at the upper end of business casual. It showed I was serious about the job without overstating it. Wearing a suit would have been overshooting the mark and could work against you if you’re better dressed than the people doing the interview. It can come across as snobby.
The second thing to keep in mind is your answers are your answers. Right or wrong, good or bad, those are the answers you gave. So give them with confidence. Giving an answer with confidence at least tells the interviewer(s) that you believe in your answer. You didn’t just babble on to get an answer out. That was the answer you wanted to give. It may not have been the one they were looking for but they’ll appreciate the fact that you owned it. Confidence is an attractive quality.
Speaking of confidence, be mindful how you sit. Slouching or leaning back in the chair makes you seem disinterested and possibly slovenly. The impression will be that you’re not taking the interview seriously. Leaning forward toward the panel can also be problematic as it could be perceived as challenging or aggressive. The best posture is to sit up straight, knees slightly apart with your hands on your legs. It’s a dominant stance and exudes confidence. It’s ok to have your hands up and moving to make points or gestures that are germane to what you’re saying as long as you’re not just moving them without purpose.
At the end of the interview you should remember to do two things. The first is to thank the interviewer (or panel) for their time. It’s polite and shows respect. That means the last thing you’re doing will be leaving a positive impression on them. The second thing you should do is pull an Elsa and let it go. The interview is over. There’s no point in second guessing your answers at this point. There’s no point in worrying how you did. None of that will change what just happened. Having said that if you can review your performance without beating up on yourself that’s a useful thing to do. But getting on yourself for not having the “right” answer or assuming you failed the interview is counterproductive to moving forward. You did your best, be happy with that. Besides, it’s silly to beat yourself up over an interview that you haven’t even found out the results for. Which will be even more silly if you get the job.
The final thoughts I’ll share relate to if you find out you didn’t get the job. When they call you with the news that you didn’t get it thank them anyway. You look magnanimous for doing it and it leaves a bridge there in case there’s another opening you can apply for in the future. Also, if given a chance, ask them if they have any feedback for you about the interview. It gives you information on how to improve your performance while letting them know you’re all about improving. That’s a win/win.
Finally, remember it’s the results of a job interview, not a commentary on you or your life. They had to pick one person and it didn’t happen to be you. That doesn’t mean you aren’t qualified or were a bad choice. Think of it this way. A McLaren P1 can roast a Bugatti Veyron in a drag race. Does that make a Veyron a bad car? Of course not. It’s still smoking fast, the P1 is just a bit faster. You could still be an excellent candidate for the job but if they can only hire one person and there was someone slightly better than you, it’s not a negative reflection on you. Being a Veyron is ok.
With that I’ll remind you to stay positive, keep looking, and have a great day. Peace.
Here’s to the power of positive thinking. As those who regularly follow me know I have a YouTube channel where I post a weekly vlog about the ketogenic lifestyle and living a more mindful, conscious life. I started it back in October to create a bit of accountability for me (as the camera will show my progress) but also as a way to try to give back to the community of people out there, some I know really well and some who were complete strangers to me, who’ve helped me along the way.
I try to spend a little time each week working on ways to better track how things are going on my channel and ways I can improve it. I realized that the app I use to track it is nice but I wanted to see the big picture in a different way so I created a spreadsheet to track my views each month, and the minutes people watch. Putting it together I noticed something interesting that made me smile.
Keep in mind that since I started back in October I’ve put at least one video up every week on Wednesday. I have added a few extra videos in there on top of that. But my uploading has been consistent so none of what I’m about to tell you could be explained by being off schedule or failing to upload during the week.
When I first started I was of course nervous, but also very excited about the project. And the numbers reflected that. My channel had the most views and minutes watched since I started. I was very positive about the channel. My introduction video had gotten a lot of views but over the next few weeks the views tapered off a bit. Which of course made me a little nervous. The next month the views and the minutes watched dropped significantly. This added to the nervousness, and the next month (December) the numbers were even lower.
And then a funny thing happened during the first video I did in 2019. I don’t script my videos (as is apparent at times I’m sure) I simply have a topic I want to cover and just talk to the camera. When I first started my channel I had committed to 52 videos, one per week. So I would have been done at the end of September 2019. But as I was talking about 2019 in the video and what I wanted for this year it came to me. I committed in the video to a full year of videos starting with that one so that all of my 2019 journey would be on the record.
Why did this happen? As I was filming the video I had become positive again because it was a new year with new possibilities. And I was excited about tracking them all, not just up to October.
This morning I looked at the number of views and minutes so far for this month and that’s when it hit me. My numbers were back up again. Here we are only two-thirds of the way through the month and my numbers are already beating my second month’s numbers.
I’ve done a little research. January is supposedly a lull month for YouTube so my numbers should be flat or even down. But they’re up. And I think it’s no coincidence that if you track my views, the minutes watched, and how positive and sure I was about my channel you’d see the exact same graph each time.
Could there be other explanations. Sure it’s possible. But as there’s no real downside to being positive I think I’ll just keep on with that game plan as the numbers keep getting better. If you haven’t seen my channel before, I’ll leave my latest vlog below. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have a happy and positive week ahead of you. Peace.
I’ve talked a bit about the Law of Attraction. I’ve mentioned how it’s important to have faith that the things you wish for will come your way. Jumping without a net level of faith, even.
That’s a very high level of faith. And you might think that I’m saying it will only work if you’re willing to put all your eggs in one basket without any concern for the future. To be clear that is not what I’m saying.
Nothing in the LOA says that you have to put yourself in a tenuous spot for it to work. Nothing in the LOA says that you can’t prepare a little just in case.
Think of it this way. The 2019 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is a pretty fast car. It can go from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds. So just a little faster than my Prius. It is a well-built car with many safety features like ABS brakes, traction control, and Active Handling. So it’s designed to be driven hard while maintaining a good level of safety. And I like to think of myself as a pretty good driver. One would think between my good driving skills and the Stingray’s safety features there’s going to be little chance of a crash. And yet I still put on the seatbelt.
I don’t put on the seatbelt because I don’t have faith in the Stingray’s design. I don’t put on the seatbelt because I lack faith in my driving skills. I put on the seatbelt because it’s prudent. Because no matter how much faith I have in the myself and the Stingray there’s a world out there beyond the two of us that we have to deal with.
So don’t mistake me for saying that if you want to become rich with the LOA you need to take all your money and invest it in something risky because that’s the only way to show true faith in the LOA. Feel free to invest some money with absolute confidence things will turn out well, but hold a little to the side. Again it isn’t a lack of faith, it’s just prudence.
The LOA is here to help you, not ruin you by taking unnecessary risks. Just know that when you do use it that the LOA will provide, and it will. But feel free to be prudent and wear your seatbelt as the LOA sometimes gives us what we need, not what we asked for. Have a great day.
Remember when you were a kid and you had climbed a little higher than you should? So high you couldn’t get yourself back down. An adult, maybe a parent, came out and found you in your predicament and held their arms out to you and said “jump.” Of course actually jumping was a little easier said than done. Even though part of you trusted the adult to catch you, the same fear that kept you from descending by yourself also made you a little worried that they wouldn’t be able to stop the fall should you actually jump.
The problem was you didn’t have faith. As an adult the equivalent might be wall climbing at the gym. If the wall is high and you’re not very experienced they’ll put you in a harness for safety reasons and up you’ll climb. If anything happens you know you can safely jump away from the wall and the harness will keep you safe. Funny thing about that is you still don’t have faith. You have knowledge. You logically know that the rope is designed to carry your weight. What you’re making is a scientific assessment, not a leap of faith.
Faith requires true belief in something that you can’t otherwise know to be true. It’s jumping without the rope, or outstretched arms, to catch you knowing you’ll still be fine. The only way you can truly believe is to accept it on belief alone. Any doubt means a lack of faith. This is important to know because that’s the level of belief you need for the law of attraction.
It’s why, despite most everyone you know dreaming about being rich, probably none of them are. I dreamed of getting fit for the longest time. Visualized it in my head often how great my life would be when I had bulging biceps instead of a bulging belly. But for the longest time I didn’t get into shape. My dreams of being better weren’t enough. And then I started the ketogenic diet. I can’t explain how, but I just knew this was the one. I had faith it would work. And sure enough a year later I’m down 85 pounds.
I’ve stated before that how the law of attraction works isn’t really important. And I still believe that. Whether it’s self-fulfilling prophecy, a beneficent god, or a magical energy field doesn’t matter. What does matter is for it to work you truly have to believe. You have to have faith. You must be certain in your mind it will happen. That’s when it will.
So in the days to come think about what you really want to come into your life. Be it money, or love, or health, whatever. Just know it’s what you want. And then take the next step to attract it into your life. Truly believe that it is already yours. That it’s a certainty you’ll have it. It might come to you as a blessing from above. It might be that you’ll become a vibrational match and you’ll attract it into your life. Or maybe you’ll just finally do the things you know you need to do to make it happen, without any supernatural help.
However it happens, if you have faith, it will certainly happen. Maybe not in a few minutes, or hours, or days, but it will happen. Your faith will see to it that it does. Have a great day.
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