A two-cookie ice cream sandwich – I can get a lot done if this is the reward!
I have writing to do. The house needs to be cleaned. Then I have to get groceries, run errands, go through some boxes full of things I no longer need, and start to get my tax stuff together.
And all I want to do is sit here and eat a cookie.
What do you do when you don’t want to do anything? I can procrastinate as good as anyone, but I found something that works. I treat myself like the child that I am being by using the oldest trick in the book – bribery.
The race is on, the bet is made. Horses, like people, are difficult to quantify with only numbers
Since becoming more involved in betting sports, and because of my extensive background in horse racing, I am well aware of the power of statistics. There is something almost magical about numbers, about using them to come to conclusions that seem to predict a future outcome.
But how useful are they really?
One useful thing about using stats is that it takes the emotional element out of the decision-making process. To me, that’s probably the most important part of them. When the numbers say that a team or a horse is a good play, and the odds are acceptable, then you make the play. You leave intuition and emotion out of it and calculate with only the cold facts.
It doesn’t matter where I go, I always find horses
What do you do when it feels like everything is going wrong? No matter which way you turn, the opposite of what you want ends up happening. You push, try to force, and still there is nothing but resistance.
It’s frustrating when you don’t get what you want.
Is a successful life about trying to find out what you like to do, what you are good at, and then trying to get someone to give you a job doing that? They say that you should figure out what you love to do and then find a way to get paid for it.
Being a fan provides a sense of community, a feeling of belonging to a group
We are unlike any other creatures on this planet. We are able to use our minds to become the fullest expansions of ourselves, and we can continually strive to have more and to do more. The mind is a wonderful tool, unless it turns against us.
The ability to remember the past and to imagine the future can be useful and productive or harmful and limiting. We can worry so much about things that haven’t happened, and likely will never happen, that we become paralyzed with fear. Or we can evoke memories that upset us, feeling the pain as though something that happened many years ago is happening right now.
The physiological reactions are real. When the mind becomes panicked, the body responds as though the threat is real. Anxiety is a lower level of panic attack, a chronic way of living that is neither comfortable nor healthy. But for those who deal with any of these mental conditions, the struggle is real.
Walk, run, swim, shoot hoops – it doesn’t matter what you do, just do something you enjoy
Did you make any resolutions this year? Time to check in and see how they are going.
We make promises to ourselves and sometimes, actually most of the time, don’t follow through. The best intentions are soon met with resistance, and then we return to old patterns and familiar habits.
Making changes is difficult. If it was easy, then we would always have what we want and be who we think we want to be.
Putting one foot in front of the other, that’s how I navigate the changes that always surround me
My life takes more twists and turns sometimes than a Quentin Tarantino movie. One minute I think that things have settled down, then suddenly something new happens and nothing is the same anymore.
It’s all my fault though. And it happens probably because I like dealing with a little chaos at all times. I wouldn’t have admitted this a few years ago but now it all seems so obvious to me.
I have left jobs and careers that I loved just because it felt like it was time for a change. I have written about the importance of having something you are running towards as the reason for change instead of running away, but I haven’t taken that advice. That’s why I give It though because I know how difficult it is to do things the other way around.
I have spent a lot of time with horses over the years, both young and old. Seeing foals learn how to stand and walk within a couple of hours of birth is such a miracle. Their long legs make the task of balance very difficult, but they wobble and fall and then get back up again, each attempt a little better than the one before. Soon they are able to stand, and then take a few hesitant steps, and it isn’t long after that they learn how to run.
It’s all quite miraculous. It’s all about survival.
Be better by making better choices. No one can do it for you
Want to lose weight and have tons of energy and feel amazing? Then you need to figure it out for yourself. No one else can tell you what to do.
I learned a long time ago that advice tends to fall flat. I can tell someone the exact steps to take to get into a healthier place, and they might try it for a while, but then they stop and go back to whatever they were doing in the first place. It’s just the way it is.
Until you are ready to make a change, it doesn’t matter what you read, who you listen to or what attempts you make to improve yourself. Real change won’t happen until you make a decision that there are no longer any other options for you.
The endless beauty of Costa Rica, a place to relax and find peace
I was watching a video the other day about managing time. Someone said that Elon Musk and Bill Gates block out their days in five-minute increments to organize themselves. Whether that is true or not I have no idea, but if it is and it works for them then that’s great.
It just isn’t how I want to live.
Some of my favourite memories are from times when I wasn’t doing anything.
When I lived in Mexico, there was a guy there who could play the flute. One night we were on the beach and the sound of the melodic notes still ring through my mind even now, so many years later. In Puerto Rico I met a professional trumpet player. I would hear him practicing when I was on the beach walking. It was something I looked forward to every day.
The best memories are the ones when something happened that wasn’t expected or planned.
Big-picture thinking seems like a good thing to do, but I’m not sure that it has been the most important factor in getting me from one place to the next. When I look back at how I thought my life would unfold, it never really did the way I thought it would.
Sandy Hawley and me at some event in 2014. He was always the best to sit beside because he tells the worst jokes!
I consider myself to be fortunate. Because of the various jobs I have had over the years, I have met a lot of interesting people.
One time I was at a sports media awards luncheon in Toronto. I was there as part of the Woodbine Racetrack group and Sandy Hawley, the well-known jockey, was there too. He is an interesting character in his own rights, always quick to tell a story and an entertaining person to be around.
At this particular luncheon the famous hockey player Johnny Bower was there with his wife. Sandy introduced me to them and they were so lovely. The benefits of hanging out with Sandy is that he knows everyone, and everyone loves him.
