Author: Kris Wilder

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Uncertainty

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Uncertainty is what is happening now. The world is on fire according to the news of the day. If it’s not one thing that the world is doing to destroy your life, your world, your family, your fitness, your health, it’s another thing.

The phrase that is being used today or the versions of it are, “In these uncertain times.” or “These challenging times,” or, “These difficult times.” Well, it always is those things.

You see the world has always been difficult and uncertain. It’s likely not news to you. But, there is a suggestion in today’s thinking that fairness is a right. That freedom from disease, pestilence, or destruction is a birthright, well it’s not.

Uncertainty is Natural

In 2004 a 9.3 earthquake created a tsunami killing about 280,000 people.

In 1870 the Bhola cyclone in Bangladesh killed half a million people.

The central China flood of 1931 killed an estimated 2 million people.

12 million Ukrainians starved to death by Stalin’s oppressive starvation of their country and subsequently, there are an estimated 6.1 million birth defects because of malnutrition.

Beginning in 165 AD the Galen Plague in Rome killed 2000 people a day.

No, it’s not special it’s not rare it’s a blip on the radar of history and here we are in these present times.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius the famous stoic said, “Reject your sense of injury and the injury disappears.” Now a broad statement and hard to deal with when you’re talking about some of the tragedies, I listed but many things can be dealt with in that fashion that Aurelius suggests.

Yes, terror, injury, pestilence, death, these things are brutal but if you deal with the idea of uncertainty, like Where am I going to get a haircut and what am I going to order out for dinner tonight or why can’t I go to the gym?

Now listen to the words of Marcus Aurelius, “Reject your sense of injury and the injury disappears.” History has a poker hand and it is ready for you and it is full of jokers. The only certainty you have is how you decide to hold the cards you’ve been dealt.

Here is another angle on the damage a negative view can create in your life: Fallen Stories

What would this be without a link to a TED talk?: Embracing Uncertainty | Joshua Bailey

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Cherokee Story

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Cherokee story is how it is attributed, who told it, but I suspect the story’s origin is lost to time. But the Cherokee story is about a grandson who was wrestling with a couple of ideas. The grandson went and talked with his grandfather to try to get the situation resolved and the grandfather said, “What you’ve got is a battle between two wolves and they’re trying to decide which one is going to win out.” The grandson asked well, “Which one will win?”

It’s the One You Feed

The grandfather replies with a simple phrase, “It’s the one you feed.” This is a great idea and it illustrates the concept that you get what you focus on. But there’s a sub-story to this, that lies underneath the main story.

The grandson skipped over a generation. The generation of his father who is involved in the day-to-day operations of making the world work and went to the oldest source he could find.

The Cherokee Grandfather

That is a nice little piece of wisdom and here’s another piece of wisdom that is well exchanged. The grandfather wasn’t specific, He wasn’t involved in the age of the wolves, the pack, or gender. He was about the imminent choice that his grandson was going to make. He was about the direction that things would take. It wasn’t specific. He said this is what’s going to happen.

The grandson went to the most experienced source of wisdom he could find. In turn, the grandfather offered advice but wasn’t specific. He didn’t say, you need to do this, or you need to do that.

Fate Follows Focus

The grandfather said whatever you choose to do is where your focus is going to go. And what is going to be the direction of your life. A little bit of wisdom from the grandson knowing to go to the oldest font of wisdom he could find. And a little bit of wisdom from the grandfather allowing the grandchild to shape his world the way he sees fit.

Here are a few other Native American stories if you want more: Native American Stories

Another post you might enjoy: Stories We Tell

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Fast Zombie

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Fast zombie. They are part of our world. It is no secret that mayhem and chaos sell, fear sells, it sells all the time. One of the classic methods of selling fear is the horror movie. It’s a genre all to itself with monsters that have changed over time. The monsters used to be the elite.


The mad doctor who creates his monster. The undead Egyptian Pharaoh that’s stalking his victims for being disrupted from his sleep. A Count who sucks your blood, an invisible man, made insane by his experiment as and an elite scientist.

Fast Zombies and Old Monsters

These old monsters came down from on high, from the elite of society. The creators often, through acts, of hubris flew too close to the Sun. Like Icarus from the myth. The results became these twisted and distorted monsters


Today the monsters are us. The Purge movies are about people running amok under the cover of law, or lawlessness actually. The walking dead are about, well zombies galore. We have stories and movies about mass murderers and psychopathic killers.


I’m not offering a solution here, just an observation that movies can lead or follow popular culture. But they do mimic and often reflect what is happening.

Where Did That Fast Zombie Come From?

As we look back over our shoulders and see the looming monster who is chasing us, what they look like? How fast they’re moving and can we get a good look at them? The question becomes, what’s their point of origin? Where did they come from? or they were they created from on high like the monsters of older. Were they created here with the rest of us? And as we look over our shoulder, as we are running away, the question remains, how did we come to this place?


Again, I make no conclusions here. This is simply an observation. It’s your responsibility to adjust the lights on the movie set for a different look.

Here is the origin of zombies from :The History Channel

Want Something a little more uplifting: Cultivating a Life

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Gift Eyes

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Gift eyes see the world differently. Unsatisfied with the place you are is not an uncommon thing to have happen. The dissatisfaction is a motivator. It’s a change, or it gets you off your mark, gets you going it’s not a bad thing to have. But sometimes we become overly oriented externally. Too much on the work, get, got, got to have.

Living Without Gift Eyes, It’s Not The Best Place

In the old movie Buckaroo Banzai, Buckaroo says the classic statement, “Wherever you go, there you are.” It is silly, but in that silliness is a piece of truth. You’re just where you are, right now, and it may not be perfect, it is unlikely perfect. But, you’ve constructed, in your mind, what perfection looks like but you’re not there but it is where you are. So, take a moment to survey your world, do a little accounting. But only look at it with gift eyes not sour eyes, gift eyes.

How Can I Live Well?

Gift eyes asked the questions, “How can I live well?” “How can I live into what I’m experiencing?” “What can I do that will make the world better for others?”

Sour eyes, “That’s not good enough.” Whatever it is, it isn’t good enough. The fault is always found. The accounting is always wrong, and it’s a heck of a way to go through life.

Gift eyes. it changes your perspective. How odd that we should be talking about eyes and shifting your perspective. But it does, it changes everything. It makes your life better, it makes those lives around you better, and ultimately it flows out into the community.

Take a moment don’t look at the world with sour eyes. Shift with the gift eyes, look at it. I bet you within five minutes you’re going to be smiling, laughing, and grinning at the experience that you’re having. Your world becomes greater brighter and more enjoyable.

Here are some, take action, tips from Good Morning Quote: 10 Simple Tips on How to Have a Positive Outlook

You may enjoy this other post on: Negative Self-Talk

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Self-mastery

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Self-mastery is often about viewpoint. “I haven’t had a haircut.” “My business is closed.” “I don’t have a job, or a business anymore.” “My movements are restricted.” All these things are taking place right now. They can be seen as an opportunity to relax into the oblivion or to, “Seize the Day,” to quote that fine Roman poet Horace, “Carpe Diem.”

Leave My Job

A friend of mine recently left his job. He works in a pot shop in Washington State, Marijuana is legal and it has been declared an essential service so they remain open. My friend handed in his resignation, his 2-week notice. He said, and I paraphrase our conversation, “I’m not like 90% of the people who come in here. The customers, some of them I see daily, I’ve got to get out. I just can’t hang with this, keep me sedated crowd.”

He left a well-paying job in the middle of a pandemic, a bold move. I’m not going to suggest that you make such a bold move but it was appropriate for him. What I am going to suggest is that if you find yourself in a similar situation our position then go ahead and take a moment in order yourself.

Go to the worldwide web. There are more resources on ordering one’s life and building for the future than ever before in the history of humanity. You could go to Pinterest and find something that will work for you about ordering your day or your life or a consultant who would be happy to guide you in your new endeavor.

It is a Bifurcated Choice

The reason you want to solve this is that you have a choice and in reality, it is a bifurcated choice. One path one to be taken in one not to be taken. The one change is to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do. To make that difference and the other one is just to slip into the sweet oblivion and hope that this thing is going to end soon.

When it does end things are going to be different, they are going to be significantly different. And there’s going to be an opportunity. The new times, with a can-do attitude, it looks like nothing but opportunity. Self-mastery will be important.

Or you can go ahead and hope that things are going to remain the same when we come out of this. If you’ve already ordered your life or structured it or made a bold move like my friend then stay the course. You’re on it stay strong, I’m with you, I get it and probably your loved ones get it too. It’s about doing your best for self-mastery because when you do that then, you are going to be in a position where you can serve others but that’s another topic…

Self Mastery TED talk with Master Shi Heng Yi: 5 hinderances

Consistency in life is the cornerstone in self-mastery: Consistency Podcast

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For The Win

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For the win is often swimming upstream. Swimming upstream is a metaphor for the difficult task. Something that is present and constantly pushing against us. The fact is that those things exist.

Philip K. Dick Had Something to Say

One of my favorite quotes is from the science fiction author Philip K. Dick and he said this. “Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn’t go away,” and that is what it’s like to swim upstream. All other aspects of the situation are thrown aside and you’re left with the current. That current often is the world and people, because the world and people do with their going to do. They have their agenda.

You could rail against ignorance, the unintelligence, the stupidity, or the bad choices. All the labels that you might use to disparage the world or people. To make them seem less than what your vision of the world or people should be. That is swimming upstream, it’s fighting. Fighting is sometimes called for but it’s the last resort. It’s the last extension of the will and fighting is expensive.

So how might we follow up on this and get a win? Well, without shirking responsibility we can keep a mindset that allows us to move forward. To swim up that stream without having to fight too much. All without having to declare everything and everybody around us stupid, or ignorant.

The Easy Win

Here’s the simple trick you can do, save an easy win in your day. If you’re outlining your day, and I hope that you are, you can find an easy win in there. Something that’s going to make you feel good when you pull that easy when the off. And when you do execute that easy win and take a moment and acknowledge that you had an easy win.

We all know that this win is contrived we set it up. Yet it still feels wonderful. It allows us to push forward with positive momentum into the next challenge. The swimming upstream, the reality that’s not going to go away.

It’s a simple trick satisfying when executed. When ignited you get to use that momentum for the win, stepping forward into the next challenge.

Here is a link from WikiLinks: 3 Ways To Win At Life

Or, maybe a 3 Minute Podcast on: Organized

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