But I didn’t eat it!!!
Did I getcha? 😎
No, I bought ice cream bars for the peeps at the Bentonville Autozone today. They’ve been super awesome to me lately–lots of job referrals, and that’s been nice. It was a tradition last summer at the Rogers store that, at the end of the day, I’d come in with popsicles or ice cream sandwiches, gummy worms, etc. Only one of the people at the Bentonville store was at the Rogers store in those days, but I’ve made friends with the peeps in this store, and might as well start some traditions that people look forward to. 😊
It was also nice that it was a slower day today. Granted, the first job was a mess. It was just a simple battery job leftover from last night. The lady didn’t speak English very well (Chinese, I believe), and I had trouble communicating to her that her battery was bad, and despite her battery being toast, she insisted that it just needed to be charged (she said she learned online that it was good and just needed a jump 🙃), so I took it in and had it charged–three times. It tested bad all three times. But she wouldn’t listen to us. When we got to her car to put it back in today, she’d called another company as well, and they were out there when we got there.
Anyway, long story short. Neither of us ended up charging her anything. I think the other company didn’t because they knew that we’d been trying to help her for two days, and they didn’t want to be in the middle of it with that kind of a customer, and I because I didn’t want a bad review on Google from a lady who thinks I don’t know what I’m doing and just wants her money.
Reviews are so critical. I’d rather lose the money and my time than get a bad review from a customer.
Well… so that one was a wash. David and I did one job together in the Autozone parking lot, had lunch, and called it a day because… well… there wasn’t really anything on the schedule. Two of the jobs we could have had were uncomfortable for David, and if he’s uncomfortable, then I certainly don’t want to take the jobs, so those went to other companies, and suddenly, the potentially full day was empty, so, we had lunch, and I sent David home with some money for at least coming out today.
I ended up with one more job after that, and then I headed home, too, getting home right about 5 pm, if you can believe it. 😊
Sorry, I’m sure this is all pretty boring stuff.
So… Che (pronounced Shay) is once again a temporary border at our place. She’s not gonna get much love with me not able to take her on runs, for fear she’ll attack other dogs (she can be super aggressive to other dogs 🤪), and I’m gone pretty much all day every day, so… yeah. I’ll feed her and give her a few minutes of love in the morning, and then I’ll say hello at night, but… I feel bad. She needs more than I can give her, but my niece is out of town for at least three weeks or so, so Che will be here until she gets back.
I was home for a while but don’t feel like a got much of anything done. I took the trash up (drove from one hill to the next to dump it in the communal dumpster that three households share). I spent a little time cleaning up my GMC Terrain a bit. I’ll clean more of it and get it ready to sell in the next couple of days.
What else?
Today was 27 minutes, and I made the mistake (I knew I was making it but was impatient) of eating immediately prior to running. 🤪
Oops.
Man… digesting food saps energy and I think the food in the stomach was probably restricting my lungs a bit. I was sooooo much more tired runing on an almost full stomach. 😥
One of my nephews asked me if I’d made my “work boundaries” plan yet (I told him that I needed to make quantifiable boundaries for my business–things I’ll do and things I won’t, such as not working past X hour, etc.). I haven’t thought about it a lot, but it was a good reminder. I need to ponder that. I haven’t because I haven’t yet convinced my more temporary self that I’ll be more likely to get what I want most if I, for example, get a good night’s rest every night, get up early enough to meditate and ponder work and life, etc.
It used to be that I was in be by 9 or 9:30 and up at 5 or 5:30. Those were years when I thought I understood my life and where it was going. It’s not very conducive to a social life, but it was super good for my overall mental health, and emotional and spiritual well being, I think.
I procrastinate because I want the money that working more brings in because I want to reach my financial goals faster, so I can be fully self-sufficient in my non-profit efforts. That’s what I mean when I say I haven’t convinced myself yet. So I need to sit myself down and work through why it would be better to have balance in my life even if it means reaching the goal slower. It’s a hard thing for me to be willing to swallow in my present mindset, where, truthfully, I’m sure I’m near sided and not yet very well plugged into what I want most.
Well, folks. It’s 11:36. I’ve dozed off a couple times while writing this, but if I play my cards right, I might actually make it to lights out before midnight!
Progress!!!
#1. I’m grateful for flour tortillas. I love the things. Cheese quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly burritos (if you haven’t tried them, they’re good) 😊
#2. I’m grateful for a slower day today.
#3. I’m grateful to have friend at multiple of the AutoZone stores around here. It makes it nicer to walk in the stores.
#4. I’m grateful the ibuprofin appears to be taking the edge off the ulnar nerve issues i have.
#5. I’m grateful to have found a position that I think relieves the pressure against my ulnar nerves.
Wow… having a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open. I’m ready to collapse.
You know, that also might be why running was so hard today. I was behind with my other condition a lot more than I thought, and I was dragging. And I’m falling asleep every 15 seconds, or so, I think.
Good night, my lovelies. Add anther day to everything.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 
Stephen!
You did get me! 🙂 🙂
Here’s the convincing regarding work boundaries: 🙂 You want the happiest body you can have now and in 10 years and in 30 years and in 50 years? You want more peace, joy and humor while you achieve your goals? Then make work boundaries today! You deserve it! 😉 🙂 I know this is tough for anyone with our DNA. 🙂 If you trash yourself by working like an insaniac (new word!!) – and if consequently you are in a continual state of crisis brought on not only by tough challenges but because our physical bodies pay the price AND massively impact our perceptions, thought processes, and emotions) then what good is achieving your financial goals if your body’s more broken by the time you get there and you got there by going from one crisis and exigency to another? (Sorry for the redundant sentence! I tried to fix it and just couldn’t!) Ack?! We can trash ourselves and crisis ourselves all the way to the end of life and STILL feel like we haven’t achieved our goals yet… Or we’ve achieved our goals but we missed the whole journey because we were moving so fast and hard. OR we can slow down. Sloooooow down and BE while we achieve at a moderate rate. That’s what I’m working on.
Endurance riders’ horses have to be able to pace themselves. There are multiple vet checkpoints along the whole way. Any rider whose horse is over-taxed in its vital signs or exhibits any soreness gets cut from the race. Endurance riders work their tails off to make sure their horse is always working within its conditioning level and never to a destructive level. Consequently, American endurance horses tend to stay healthy, happy, and sound from year to year. Some international endurance riding is notorious for using and abusing the horses, and the same horses don’t compete from year to year because they’re consistently pushed passed their limits and are broken. So sad for those horses! 😦 😦 😦 One of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for life – treat yourself like you’re someone you care about! The other way is just self-sabotage that leaves not much once you reach your goal. Don’t get me wrong – I’m an expert at self-sabotage in some areas!!! I think it’s part of being human. 🙂 I will say that I am SOOOOO much happier and SOOOOO much more at peace and fulfilled now that I have some work boundaries!!!!! I don’t have rigid work boundaries because my psyche doesn’t do rigid anything! 🙂 🙂 But they’re boundaries by virtue of my analyzing what’s most needful for work, and then placing self-fulfilling items higher on the priority list once those needful work items are done. Or, even if they’re NOT done, if I’ve worked at them for a full work day, I have told myself to let go of the rest and go BE. ME. Ahhhhh….. Develop other areas of my life so I can be a somewhat balanced person…. It also has the effect of shrinking my challenges into more manageable sizes. Balanced = more able to experience happiness, more resilience to manage inevitable exigencies, and more joy in the moment! It is soooo worth it physically and emotionally. You will reach your goals. It’s okay if it takes 6 months longer if it means you’ve taken care of your physical well-being along the way and spent time in fulfilling things that bring you joy – like your playing and composing music, like your exploring outdoors, like your doing kindnesses for others, like pondering and writing and everything else that makes you YOU!!!
I love you, Brother!
In the mean time – I can grow by following your example of goal-setting! I’ve been meaning to keep a journal again… I’ve been meaning to stretch daily and regularly exercise at least 30 min most days of the week. 🙂 I’ve been meaning to give myself 9 hrs of sleep nightly. I’ve been meaning to do a lot of things and haven’t done them. So… Thanks for your great example of self-growing! 🙂 Rest well!