Back in 2016, the year I didn't know the wheels of my life were gonna fall off, I did a year long series of basically a podcast of sorts. (In today's terms) Best Year Ever was quite an amazing thing if I do say so myself. I was rewatching/updating the SEO data and was struck with how much we accomplished and overcome that year. Do you remember that year?

Last Thursday evening My wife and I were at our church small group and we were talking with the group about the Book of Galations. I made a comment and the leader of the group said “you really said that well about how Paul would feel. You acted it out great! That was really good.” I asked what do you mean. He said: “when you talked in the first person as if you were Paul it really made sense and was really good in how you emphasized how he may have been feeling about all of this. “ I said “Oh, I do that sometimes!” I didn’t even realize I was doing it! This got me to thinking a little more about myself and how my brain processes things. I have done this particular move all of my life. In my research I found out this is called “Enactment or Free Direct speech” It went on to say that this is : “Why it happens: This is a common trait of high-empathy processors. Your brain isn’t just recalling facts; it is performing an Experience-taking simulation, where you temporarily assume the identity and emotions of the person you are discussing.” This got me to thinking about another thing I have done since I can remember as a very young child is verbalize to myself. (Ok ok yes- Talk to myself). :). I stopped caring a long time ago that people potentially thought I was crazy. I don’t typically do it in front of others but I have gotten caught doing it more times than I can count. :). Who cares! If they think I am nuts, well, it will keep them alert! :) And who knows maybe I am … but It has worked for me thus far so, whatever.. This is called external self-talk or "private speech"—is a normal behavior that most adults do, especially when facing complex tasks or high stress It can help with many things in many different ways like Sequencing tasks, Visual search, Cognitive clarity. Can also help with emotional regulation= burning emotions, self distancing, anxiety management and so on… Honestly because I do a lot of these things I found it fascinating and further “talking” to Google AI about it was also fascinating!

Sometimes I lose courage to continue on in things I do. Such as eBay and other sites. I take a couple days to think things through. Usually it's because something was hard to accomplish. I do push through eventually and succeed in my endeavors. How about all of you?

I gave a speech last night at my toastmasters club and I talked about when I decided to be happy. I write my speeches usually similar to what I will paste below. Sometimes I just do an outline. This was for a storytelling speech so most of it was from my memory. I know this will be a long post and I fully get it if you don't read it or just skim over it. For What it is worth I wanted to try and contribute more to our little community here! God Bless everyone! I decided to be happy. Introduction: As many of you may be familiar I was blessed with a long career in the Air Force and retired a little over three years ago. Many years back I was talking with my wife and I was telling her I was thinking about Applying for a supervisor position on the Flight line. The flight line was where I started my career and at this point I was working in the Quality Assurance Office. She looked at me and asked does that mean you would go back and work on the flight line. I answered well I would be a supervisor there I would not be doing what I did before but yes I would go back to where I had started. What she said next set me back on my heals. She, matter of factly said something to the effect of “That would be good then you could be happy again” PAUSE I sat there in silence pondering the words she had just spoken! Usually when I hear something that I don’t exactly understand I ask follow up questions… but here I sat quietly pondering those words. “What does she mean I would be happy again?” She said this as if everyone but me was aware of this! Was I projecting unhappiness where I was currently in my career? Was I unhappy where I am currently in my career? Some retrospection/introspection definitely occurred after this event. I examined myself deeply and pondered why would she say that? When I left the flight line and went “Upstairs” to quality assurance that was what could be called the next higher level of management and leadership. I used to joke around that I used to think that my job on the flight line had a lot of “Bologna”. Or BS as they say but when I went to QA I realized that it was not even in the same league. In examining my current life in my job at that time I realized I was internalizing things perhaps a little too much. I was taking it home with me and my wife recognized it clearly.

Had a chat conversation today with someone. Main focus was on power and money being power and people holding or taking power. I won't give details here, but the main point I had was Power is something we have already. If we feel powerless that means we've given our power away. Money is a tool, not power in and of itself. People may have some control in some areas, but if you live in a free country, you are free and hold your own power. If you don't like something, if need be, you move to another area. What are your thoughts on "power"?