Making Space for Dreams

Posted on by Sputnik

The world used to have a lot of empty space. Physically and mentally. There were gaps. Places you could go where there was… space. Nothing. Just you and the world. And your thoughts.

Slowly but surely we’ve ‘progressed’. If you can call it that. I’m not honestly sure we should. But we’ve started filling the spaces with reckless abandon.

Sitting on the bus. Standing at the pedestrian crossing. Waiting at the traffic lights or in line at the supermarket. They all used to be empty spaces. Now they’re filled with… stuff. Probably your smart phone.

You’re talking. Reading. Looking. But much less often, thinking.

Actually, I shouldn’t speak for you, but that’s what I’m doing, and I see plenty of other people doing it as well.

It’s not inherently a bad thing, of course. Connection is a beautiful thing. But I know I’ve found myself struggling to find space at times. And as someone who thinks and creates things for a living, I often find myself feeling a little ‘suffocated’. Bombarded and assaulted by all sorts of temptations and noise, and without the space I need to simply sit and think. 

So it’s become increasingly important for me to find clear air. Without the distractions. And this isn’t just a business thing, coming up with ideas for work. But life as well. It’s space to think, and plan, and dream.

Because it’s easy to get caught up in what you’re doing. What already is. For me at least, I know there’s now a lot less time to plan what could be. Unless I make the effort to make time for it.

In the film Don Juan De Marco, Marlon Brando talked about getting caught up in the “momentum of mediocrity”. And as the great philosopher Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Today, it moves faster than ever.

Which is why a little while back, I jumped in a car and drove to the centre of Australia and back. Yes, I went for a quick work project, but I could have flown there and back to do that. In a plane. Filled with people. And… stuff. Maybe music. Or a film. A book. And not much space. I knew what I really wanted was some space. Actually, I didn’t just want it, I needed it.

“It’s a long drive and there’s not much out there” one of my friends warned me. My reply? “Perfect.” That was exactly what I was looking for: nothing. Miles and miles of glorious nothing. Just me and space to dream. To think about what could be instead of just being swamped by what already is.

I’m not saying you should jump in a car and drive 4,000kms to find your space. I’m sure it can be done with much less effort , and fuel, than that. Maybe that’s why people meditate? I couldn’t tell you, It’s not really my way to find space. Trail running has always been my meditation. Just me and Mother Nature. That definitely works for me.

And I’m not saying you should let your social media accounts sit idle for a few months like I did to get away from all that noise either. Although I also found that incredibly useful.

What I am saying is don’t forget to make space for yourself. And your dreams. To plan what could be, who you could be, instead of simply getting caught up in the momentum of mediocrity and what already is. Because life moves pretty fast. Don’t miss it.

NOTE: With special thanks to EuropCar for the SUV I drove for this adventure. It’s worth noting, many Australian hire car companies have restrictions on where you can take their vehicles. If you plan on traveling to remote areas, be sure to check this in advance. EuropCar were incredibly kind and helpful to come to my rescue at the last minute when I found this out the hard way at the very last minute.

We’re sending postcards!

Posted on by Sputnik

Yesterday, someone randomly left a note on my car. It was obviously someone who knows me at least a little, as they referenced things I’d shared on social media, but other than that, it was simply a ‘random act of kindness’. After I’d had a pretty rough time on the weekend. And it got me thinking. Actually, that’s not true, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. As good as technology is, how nice is it when something ‘old school’ arrives in the mail? Something other than junk mail or bills?

I’d been considering sending out some Swashbucklers Club postcards, with personal messages on them, to relatively random people out there. Thanks to yesterday’s random note to me, I’m now committing to doing it.

I have no idea if one of you will put your hand up, or 100s of you. If it’s 100s, I’ll have to randomly select some of you. But here’s what I propose: If you want a message of support, or even better, want to nominate someone else who needs one, email me and I’ll start randomly sending a few off. At the very least, I’ll need a first name and mailing address. If you want to be slightly more specific and want me to tailor a message, then give me a clue if someone needs a cheer up, is sick, dealing with some other sort of challenge, or just needs a general nice message, then feel free to let me know that as well.

That’s all there is to it. Let me know, and I’ll start writing and sending.

Stay awesome everyone! And be excellent to each other.

Is alcohol our guns?

Posted on by Sputnik

Right now in Australia there’s all kinds of fuss and uproar about our increasingly tough, and some would say draconian, rules surrounding alcohol. And more specifically, the hours you can and can’t buy and publicly consume it.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should admit I don’t drink alcohol. At all. It wasn’t always that way. I’ve definitely done my fair share of alcohol consumption. Some might even say more than my fair share. So I’m no goody two shoes who doesn’t understand drinking culture at all. The difference is, I turned my back on it the better part of ten years ago. So perhaps my opinions are always going to be a little skewed.

It’s time for a reality check.

But I think it’s time we admit we’ve got a drinking problem. And it’s time we got a reality check. Not being able to buy alcohol from a store after 10pm is not a crime against humanity. And neither is shutting licensed venues at 3am. Now, before you start throwing your empty beer bottles at me in protest, let me explain.

There’ll be those that say this is very backwards of us. That it’s embarrassing us globally. Well, I’m not sure I agree. We do a pretty good job of embarrassing ourselves. We already sit embarrassingly high up on the list of countries with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. But the really embarrassing thing is we’re not embarrassed by this at all, but rather proud of it.

A few years back, in my drinking days in fact, I was in an American town where I was quite surprised to find licensed venues shut at around 1am. How strange, I thought, having come form a place where I could drink until daylight – a very intelligent and productive thing to do. A time when all the best decisions are made. But oh yeah, that little town I was in? Los Angeles. You may even have heard of it? I don’t see anyone running around saying they’re a little backwater town because people can’t go out drinking til daylight. I actually struggled to find what time the current closing time there is, although this article suggests last drinks get called around 2am. Surely enough time to work up a fairly decent hangover, throw up, or punch a random stranger for little or no reason? According to good old Wikipedia, it seems 2am may still be the go. Although on the upside, you can take an Uzi with your Ouzo over there.

Which brings me to guns. Most Australians look at America’s gun laws and just don’t get it. They seem stupid to us. (The laws, I mean, not Americans in general.) Well, most of us. That whole gun toting culture, makes no sense at all. What are they thinking? Why don’t they just crack down on it and change for everyone’s good. Surely being able to buy and shoot guns isn’t that important? But maybe our alcohol laws aren’t so different.

Sink a few boats full of refugees and there’s barely murmur in middle Australia. But tell us we can’t drink til 6am and all hell breaks loose. What the fuck happened to us? When did drinking ourselves into oblivion get so damn important?

Sure, there’ll be those who have their businesses and jobs affected by these changes. And I’m not completely unsympathetic to that. Change can be tough at times. I’ve been through it myself and it’s not a lot of fun.

I’m also not 100% certain changing these laws will have the desired affect of reducing alcohol fueled violence. (Although some of the initial research coming through may suggest it is.) But is it worth a shot? (No, not of Tequila.) You know what, I think it probably is.

And from what I can see, as usual there’s at least a smattering of hypocrisy in the exemptions for Casinos. Because people don’t get drunk or get violent when they drink in those resorts of places, right? I’m not pitching the changes as perfect, but hey, maybe it’s better than nothing. (Oh and for those of you questioning exemptions, you only need to look at our speed limit laws to recognise that sometimes, there are different rules for different areas and there’s a pretty good reason the speed limit in school zones, for example, is 25 and not 100. Double, or even multiple standards? Sure. But certainly not unprecedented legally.)

There’s still plenty of time to buy alcohol if that’s your thing. And certainly enough time to drink it until you end up on someone’s embarrassing SnapChat post.

I’m all for a bit of outrage. A bit of protest and revolution. But I sure am embarrassed there seems to be more disgust and noise around this issue than things like refugees, same sex marriage, domestic violence and any number of other causes that are infinitely more worthy of our attention and outrage. Yes, I know you can’t compare causes, and some of us have enough outrage to go around, but come on people.

It’s easy to look at things as they’ve always been and think it’s outrageous that they should change, especially when those changes don’t suit us, or seem as though we’re going backwards. But what if it’s positive progress? What if we’re making changes that will make things better? Building with asbestos was once the norm. Oops. As was telling people smoking cigarettes was good for you. 

Doh!

Rest assured you can still buy as much alcohol as you want, (before 10pm), and drink as much as you like (not necessarily in a public place where your actions and superior dancing skills are more likely to affect others), so are these changes really worth so much negativity?

For those of you who may have forgotten, while ‘getting on it’ is not only culturally accepted, but actually encouraged, at the risk of being a loser of epic proportions, let’s not forget alcohol actually has a fairly impressive list of adverse affects. The cumulative effects list on this page is particularly impressive.

Personally, I think it’s time we pulled our heads out of the sand, and gutters, and had a good long hard look at ourselves. Those crazy Americans and their silly gun laws aren’t the only ones making fools of themselves right now.

Why awards shows are ‘Triple F’.

Posted on by Sputnik

(GRAMMYS SPOILER ALERT)

Today was The 58th Grammy Awards and Taylor Swift won Album of the Year for 1989. Kanye didn’t storm the stage this year to tell her someone else should have won, but thousands of Kendrick Lamar fans did virtually the same thing via Social Media.

When are we going to learn that Awards shows are, by definition, what I like to refer to as being ‘Triple F’: Fundamentally Fucking Flawed? There is quite simply no way you can determine comparative worth. And any attempt to do so will almost always end in tears for someone.

We shouldn’t be asking if Taylor’s record is better than Kendrick’s because that question makes literally absolutely no sense at all. Do you like one record more than the other? Now that’s a fair question. Did one record sell more copies than another? That’s fair also. Did more people vote for one record than another? Fair. But is one record better than another? Stupid, stupid question.

Popularity does not equal value.

All things have value. All people have value. All art has value. I suppose some of that value is in the thing itself. But really the value is with the person who values it.

A priceless piece of art has no value to me if I have no desire or appreciation for it. Does that make it worthless? No. But it has no value to me.

You can compare music or art or films or people as much as you like, but all it really comes down to is what we all like more than something else based on our own personal beliefs and preferences. And if I happen to be a judge in an awards show, then my beliefs and preferences are what you’ll see reflected in the winners. Will they be the same as yours? Maybe, maybe not. Who cares?

Popularity is not necessarily a sign of value. Just as lack of popularity does not automatically imply a lack of it.

I’ve been personally involved in many awards shows over the years. I’ve judged everything from advertising awards to the Miss Nude Australia Competition. (Yes, seriously.) All you can ever do is apply certain criteria, then do your best to judge against that. But there’s always personal opinion, personal judgement, involved. The important word here being ‘personal’.

Those criteria do not necessarily make one record, one ad or one nude person better than another. It simply gives us a framework to judge with. A winner gets announced. They get a nice shiny trophy. And you still personally like what you like regardless of what any judge says.

Love what you love. Leave what you don’t.

Judging is useful at awards shows. But in life, not so much. Love what you love. Leave what you don’t. But don’t compare. There’s no point. It only robs you, and sometimes others, of joy.

The world is wide and there’s plenty of room for us all to love many different things, without it reflecting on the value of the things, or the people, we don’t.

If you love Kendrick’s album, go love that and enjoy that. Don’t let what this year’s Grammy judges liked affect your joy. Me? I’ll be busting some moves to 1989.

Why are creative people so stupid?

Posted on by Sputnik

Why are creative people so stupid? (And uncreative?)

Paradigms are funny things. It’s not like they’re completely useless, but they’re one of the reasons plenty of things stay the same, when they could be much better being different.

The official definition of ‘paradigm’ is something like “a set of concepts or thought patterns” and we all have them. At times, they can be useful because they’re how we know how to deal with this or that. We reach into the memory banks and find a paradigm that lets us know how things work and what to do about them. 

But sometimes, we’re so set in our ways, we don’t think to change things up and make them better. To ask if there may just be a better, faster, easier, more fun, or more effective way of doing things.

So imagine my surprise when I watched this year’s Golden Globe Awards and thought to myself, “Self, fuck creative people can be stupid sometimes”.

I haven’t researched the origins of awards shows. Perhaps it goes back to caveman days when they all sat around the campfire and gave someone a dinosaur leg* for best rock throw of the day or something. Who knows. But for as long as I can remember, awards shows have been basically the same.

The paradigm is this: Get a bunch of people together. Pat each other on the back for doing a good job. Possibly cry a bit. And see who can make the most boring speech of all time thanking people 99% of us have never heard of.

The only real changes I’ve seen in the last however many years is the technology has gotten better and awards shows are now broadcast to even more people who can be bored shitless by those stupid speeches. Why is it even like that? Because it’s always been like that, that’s why.

And it’s gob-smacking really, isn’t it? With the Golden Globes in particular, there’s some of the most creative film and tv people on the planet, creating some of the most dead boring tv ever broadcast. Incomprehensible. And boring as bat shit.

OK, it wasn’t all boring. The host Rick Gervais was awesome as usual. So that’s a total of about 15 or 20 minutes out of a few hours. And the people who said ‘fuck’ kind of made it interesting. And love her or hate her, Amy Schumer really spiced things up by going one further and dropping the c-bomb while she was presenting.

Personally, I think it’s time for ‘The Thankyou Booth’.

Awards shows were created before the internet, right? Everyone thought if they were going to say something, they had to do it right there and then. There’s people um-ing and ah-ing their way through things. There’s people sobbing with gratitude. There’s people reading impossibly long lists of names off the back of postage stamps. There’s people using the opportunity to thank god, their parents, indigenous people, their cat and whoever else they can think of. The list goes on. And on. And on.

And then there’s the excruciating wind-up music. Surely it’s not just me that gets embarrassed for everyone involved when that happens? Here’s someone who’s worked their entire life to do something that gets recognized creatively, they finally get up on stage to give their speech, and before they’ve gathered their composure some asshole producer with a deadline to keep fades up the background music while they’re still speaking letting them know it’s time to finish off already. Great job, well done, now fuck off. Excruciating.

So come on people, this is the 21st century. We have a thing called the internet now. Let’s rethink things. Let’s create a new paradigm. Which is where ‘The Thankyou Booth’ comes in.

I’m sure there are many solutions, but this is mine:

I think it’s terrific to be grateful and to thank everyone from your goldfish to the person who gave you your lip implants or last colonic. But do you have to do it on live tv when 99.9% of people watching have no idea who the fuck you’re talking about?

How about this: how about you use your 30 or so seconds to just say something interesting or entertaining or profound or useful. Something for the broader audience. You know, the ones who make up 99.9% of your audience. Say “Thanks everyone and…<insert pompous/witty/insightful statement here>” then bugger off back stage to The Thankyou Booth, possibly one of many, where you can stand there all night, with no background music interrupting you, and give the speech of your life.
Thank everyone. Take your time. Sing a song if you like. And the people who are interested can watch it online. It could be live streamed, technology means we can do that these days. Go figure. Or we can watch it on demand later. Easy. No time limits. No embarrassing musical wind ups. No forgetting anyone. Cry as much as you like. Swear as much you like. And the people who are interested will watch it. Simple, right?

Dare to disrupt.

The truth is, I don’t really care about the Golden Globes. I imagine they’ll go on for many years without my amazing suggestions. But I just wanted to touch on the fact that almost nothing is a given. We need air, water and food. There’s gravity. (For now.) And we die. (For now.) Almost everything else is variable. Often governed by our own beliefs, our own paradigms, about how things should be and what is and isn’t possible.

Just because something’s always been a certain way, doesn’t mean it always should be. Or will be. The world needs more people who can help change things. Who invent electric cars. Who find ways to clean the oceans. Stop deforestation. Protect animals. Cure diseases. Eradicate poverty. Or just be nice to people.

We need more change. Question everything. Does it really have to be this way? The answer is almost always ‘no’. What will you dare to disrupt?

Stay awesome.

Sputnik
Chief Swashbuckler

 

 

 

* Yes, I know cave men and dinosaurs were apparently not around at the same time. But come on, us creative people never let the truth get in the way of a good story. So shut. Up.

 

 

“The map is not the territory”

Posted on by Sputnik

One of the hot topics right now out in Digital Land is the role of social media, and in particular, how it doesn’t represent real life. Well, of course it’s not real life, it’s social media. One happens out in the real world, in real time, with all its up and downs. And one is a place where people go to share certain things. Maybe the good stuff. Maybe the bad stuff. Maybe a combination of both.

On our Swashbucklers Club social media, for example, we tend to share fun, exciting, adventurous and inspirational things. Because that’s what we’re about. Do we live that life 100% of the time? Of course not? At times, a lot of effort, sacrifice and heartache goes into doing what we do. Planning, plotting, scheming, sleepless nights… all sorts of things. But we don’t share that stuff cause we just figure you guys are more interested in the cool and interesting stuff. Not the mundane goings on that make all the other stuff possible. We’re pretty sure no one wants to read stories about me putting my garbage cans out on Monday morning or what I had for dinner.

To be clear, we don’t do this to make it look like things are like that all the time for us, just because that’s the stuff we think you guys want to see. Our mission is to add a little more awesome to your day, so that’s what we try and do.

This whole issue also reminds me of the famous saying “the map is not the terrain”. It was something the scholar Korzybski said and really it’s mean to remind us that we all have stories about the things that happen. That we all have our perception of what happened and what it means, and no matter how accurate it may be, it’s still a ‘map’. Or as I prefer to call it, a ‘story’. The problem is, at times we tend to take our own stories as gospel. As 100% accurate when they almost always involved filling in some of the gaps with assumptions. Assumptions about people’s intentions and motivations. Assumptions about all kinds of things. So it really is worth remembering, your story is just that, a story. And your map is not the territory. And neither is anyone else’s – especially on social media.

So whether it’s something that’s happened in the real world, or on social media, just remember, it’s not the territory. Just a map. Maybe a comprehensive one with all sorts of details about the ups and downs. Maybe just one with the highlights.

Having said all that, and with these issues in mind, for anyone who is interested in what goes on in the gaps between reality and social media, I’ll be writing a few real life stories and the lessons I’ve learned from them. Some of the non-highlights that give you a different perspective of things. Maybe no one will be interested, and that’s fine as well, but I’ll personally be writing some more personal stories to keep things real. So if there’s anything you’d like to know, feel free to let me know.

Stay awesome.

Sputnik
Chief Swashbuckler

Sputnik MTBing in Moab. Social Media Vs Real Life/

Sputnik MTBing in Moab. Social Media Vs Real Life

 

 

 

It’s time to celebrate.

Posted on by Sputnik

So Christmas got me thinking. And yeah, I said it, Christmas. None of that generic, politically correct ‘Happy Holidays’ nonsense, but Christmas. The day celebrated predominantly by Christians and commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.

To be fair, anyone who knows me knows damn well I don’t personally celebrate Christmas. Not because of some conflicting religious or cultural belief, it’s just not my thing and that’s another story entirely. But watching various companies and brands and people tip toeing through the politically correct minefield got me thinking: What the fuck is the big deal about celebrating everything?

Let’s not censor celebrations.

When I lived in Cambodia, my Khmer friends celebrated all sorts of things. Water Festival. Pchum Ben (Ancestor’s Day). International Fish Day. You name it. (I’m pretty sure they have more public holidays than just about any other country on the planet!*) And none of my friends were particularly worried about offending me by celebrating them. And nor should they have been. In fact, I was happy enough to have the public holidays for whatever they wanted to celebrate thanks very much. At times, I even joined in to a greater or lesser degree.

They weren’t my beliefs, but that’s fine. It’s a wide world and I was more than happy for them to celebrate pretty much anything and everything they wanted. And I quite enjoyed using the opportunity to learn a little about their culture and beliefs. In return, to the best of my knowledge, they had absolutely no problem with me celebrating anything I chose to either.

So why on Earth are we worried about whether or not we’re allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas’ anymore? Why is everyone from Starbucks to the local school or Child Care Centre now too scared to say, let alone celebrate it? Our American friends don’t dumb down Halloween in case it upsets witches. Or druids. Or Michael Myers. Or whoever the hell may take offence. They don’t dumb down Thanksgiving or Independence Day or Labor Day or a whole heap of other days, so I’m genuinely not sure why any of us, anywhere, should be worried about what we do and don’t say. Or celebrate.

Celebrate more. Not less.

In a world that can sometimes be quite dim and grey, surely we should be celebrating more, not less? We shouldn’t be telling people not to celebrate things, we should be joining in and celebrating everything. We’re not going to develop cultural understanding and tolerance by doing less, by shying away from our own beliefs, by self censoring our celebrations. On the contrary. Let’s everyone celebrate everything.

If you don’t want to join in, that’s fine. Don’t. I don’t celebrate Christmas, or Halloween or probably 99% of the world’s other significant days, but I’m more than happy for anyone else to do so.

My celebration is not an insult.

I’m also reminded of the time I attended Indonesian Independence Day celebrations at the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh. I went along to share that particular celebration with my Indo friends. It wasn’t supposed to be disrespectful to the Dutch who used to rule that country. And this is also important. Sometimes days get a bad rap based on differing perspectives. Australia Day has fallen foul of this in recent times as well, being dubbed ‘invasion day’. The reality is, there aren’t many countries on earth who weren’t once called something else, ruled by someone else, or part of some other region or country or kingdom. We shouldn’t forget that. But does that mean we should pretend people never came to Australia and settled the country? Come. On. It happened. White settlers came here. It’s part of what makes the country what it is today. And celebrating that, need not be a kick in the teeth to the original indigenous inhabitants. Hey, let’s celebrate their awesome culture also. There’s enough celebrating to go around.

Perhaps think of it in sporting terms: the winning team celebrates. Not to be mean spirited to the losing team, but because of their particular achievement. Sure there’s a ying to the yang, and I don’t mean to trivialize the beliefs or hardships of others. I can celebrate civilization and progress, and celebrate nature. Just as I can celebrate all kinds of other things that may, at times, seem slightly, or even completely, contradictory. Because to me the secret to a better world isn’t to contract and start celebrating less, but rather to be tolerant and inclusive and celebrate more.

 

 

* This Business Insider article lists India as having the most public holidays with 21, but depending on how many of these are ‘official’, I’m pretty sure Cambodia has got their 21 well and truly covered.

 

 

Be strong. Be kind. Be true.

Posted on by Sputnik

All of us are likely to reach a fork in the road at various times during our lives. Those times when our choices can put us on a radically different trajectory. And for better or for worse we could, as a result, end up in a radically different place.

Sometimes these forks are easy to recognize and we have time to ponder and choose. Maybe even ask someone else for directions. Sometimes it’s not til quite a while later, possibly even years later, that we look back and see them retrospectively. That we inadvertently made a choice and that’s why we’re where we are now.

I reached one of those forks in the road quite recently, and it was one where really, I didn’t want to go in either direction. Yet going back wasn’t an option either. It rarely is.

Making difficult choices.

When faced with two equally difficult choices, it really pays to look as far forward as you can to see where each path may lead. Perhaps right now, neither choice is all that much fun. But if you look forward far enough, sometimes you can see the potential destination of each choice.

Which is easy enough to say, but what do you do in the meantime when the going is tough? For me, I tend to come up with a go-to ‘mantra’. Please know, I’m not talking about some weird, kooky, spiritual thing here. Just a very basic, easy to remember and repeat ‘thing’ that I can hang on to when the going gets tough.

For me, there’s no one size fits all mantra either. I write a new one for each shit situation I find myself in. And without being too specific about my situation right now, I’m going to share my latest one with you.

It’s this: Be strong. Be kind. Be true.

When the weight of my choices are getting on top of me, I try and remember this, and what it means to me.

The first part is pretty straight forward, and is probably quite relevant to most of us in most crappy situations. When things are rough, you’ve got to be at least relatively strong and resilient to make it through. Nothing lasts forever. Not the good times or the bad. So sometimes you just have to be as strong as you can for as long as you can and hope like hell you outlast the shit that’s hitting the fan.

Then there’s ‘Be kind’. You know, when things are rough, it’s easier than ever to forget to be kind to people. Or yourself. Especially if you’re feeling like someone else might be the cause of your pain. (Which usually, they’re not anyway, but let’s not go there. That’s a topic for another day.)

Sometimes being kind means saying and doing the difficult things that need to be said and done, even if they’re not easy. And sometimes, it involves exactly the opposite – and just letting things go without the need to say or do anything at all. No matter how much you might like to.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

How do you know the difference and when to do what? That’s where ‘Be true’ comes in. Being true to yourself and your own values and principles. Being true to the kind of person you say you are or most want to be. We are our actions. If you’re ever not clear about what to do, or not to do, just think about the person you most want to be, and think about what that person, that version of you, would do.

Because the funny thing is, if you make those choices and do those things often enough, low and behold, you’ll end up being that person.

 Next time you hit a fork in the road or are faced with difficult choices or journeys, maybe consider writing yourself a mantra. It doesn’t have to be poetic. It doesn’t have to sound cool. Hell, you don’t even have to say it out loud, so don’t feel the pressure to write something eloquent enough to withstand external scrutiny. This is simply something that has to work for you. That helps you keep your eyes on the prize. That stops your mind wandering in the wrong direction.

And if all else fails, you can always borrow mine: Be strong. Be kind. Be true.