Had one of those weird, interactive and connective experiences with a sales person at Carpet Outlet Plus today as I was ordering a rug for my hallway… The computer went down for a few minutes and while it was restarting, she apologized and I said it wasn’t a problem I was ahead of schedule anyway and she asked me what I was doing… Me, being me just stated the truth… I told her I recorded a podcast this morning that needed editing and talked about this blog…
“Oh, so you do fun stuff!” she exclaimed… Now I’m not sure if she was truly interested at this point because she was a sales person and I just spent $250 dollars but she asked me the wrong question… She said, how do you find the time to go to work, write a daily blog and podcast?
This is the moment when this particular blog slid down the birth canal…
When I gave her my response, the question of whether or not she was genuinely interested became a non-issue… I said, there is a secret to getting to do “fun stuff” as you so eloquently stated; it has basically two parts… Part one where you decide what you care about you care about those things… Part two is you decide what you don’t give a fuck about and then you don’t give a fuck about those particular things and suddenly you will find your whole life rearranged to suit you… She leaned forward, made eye contact and said that really made sense to her because she always wanted to write a book but so many things she didn’t care about or didn’t want to do got in her way… I said, well, you need to stop doing unnecessary shit you don’t want to do because you might write the next great American novel… I told her that there are short stories, poems and novels out there looking for a writer and they keep running into people wiping down baseboards mumbling stupid shit like “as soon as these baseboards are clean, I’m going to start that book…”
The computer came back up and we finished the transaction and paperwork was signed and she continued talking to me about how simple that really was and I told her “you just had an epiphany, don’t waste it…” I told her that I have to pick up my rug next week and I am going to track her down and make sure she put words on paper, or into some type of electronic document… I don’t know, but I suspect she might, she looked relieved, excited, motivated and a little stunned all at once. That’s the look that I write about, dream of and pursue in my life… That little “oh shit, that makes TOTAL sense” moment…
As I have said before, I use to think about writing blogs, painting, poetry, working on multiple books, scripts, podcasting, playing guitar and a thousand other things that I swore I would somehow, some way find the time to create and foster my talents… I used to dream of these things while I cleaned my toilet twice a week, on schedule and always without fail… How fucking stupid and self destructive can you be? The coulda, woulda, shoulda Bob Perrine is dead… I drowned him in his clean toilet... That same toilet isn’t nearly as clean as it used to be but just how clean can something you shit in be anyway? I mean really? Now I have hundreds of drawings, a book on meditation, I play guitar, I write blogs, I exercise and I do pretty much what I feel like doing… Don’t get me wrong, I take care of my family but that helicopter partner bullshit is O-V-E-R… I like my life…
Isn’t that strange? I won’t keep you long tonight because my podcast pretty much sucked up my time today and if you want to listen you can do that here but I understand if you don’t I have created a lot of content lately and uh, yeah, I know… You can be tired of me, I don't really mind... I still wanted just point out that one simple, profanity laced statement one more time because it is profound in its simplicity but the weight of its profundity is enormous if you can truly grasp it… The secret isn’t in the choosing the things you care about because choosing things you care about is easy. Taking care of those things is easy, it’s just a matter of showing those things your attention. The trick is in choosing the things you don’t give a fuck about… I gave up television pretty much… I don’t even know what is going on anymore… My television is more of a large screen Pandora Radio player now… In fact, The Counting Crows are singing whilst I write and it makes my heart so happy… Way better than the news, Jeopardy!, or some other inane nonsense shit that I really never truly wanted to watch… I don’t “binge watch” shows, I write or paint or practice or do something productive for me and healing for my soul… Now if binge watching is your thing, by all means binge until you have memorized every episode. Seriously, I am not preaching and ever since I lost my religion I don’t tell people what to do… That’s silly... If you’re here reading this, it’s because you want to be… What I am saying that if alarm bells are going off in your head and you feel restless when you’re binge watching television, that’s your creativity being starved… When you feel that, act on it… You will be a lot happier…
So get to work deciding what is meaningless, eliminate it, don’t feel bad about not wasting your fucks and jump on something that makes your soul happy…
Love you, truly mean it... If I didn’t I wouldn’t bother…
See you tomorrow…
The 90 Day Life Change Challenge update… I am going to make my goal of 100% this week for the first time… Everything checked off, every day… In the last 7 weeks I have lost 8 pounds, took 2 inches off my waist, added to my chest and arms, am experiencing boundless energy, last night I learned how to play Happy Birthday on the guitar in about 20 minutes, I have written well over 100 pages, and pretty much changed the game for me… Unbelievable that just 40 days would make such a difference in a person’s life but yeah, this is amazing… I am in great shape, sharp minded and am wondering that if I can do this, just what the hell am I capable of? We humans are able to achieve amazing things.. We just have to put down the alcohol and the Taco Bell and get off the couch…
Get to work…
Good one, please update later if she put it on paper or tablet etc.
ReplyDeleteI will certainly try to follow up... People are easily intrigued but have difficulty following through...
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