The 9 Years

The 9 Years (part 1) <— this is a continuation of Thank God I’m Alive #1

From the beginning of 8th grade was when I first had a taste of the green daddy. The pakalolo as they called it in Hawaii. Marijuana to the rest of the world. Anyway, it began as something I just wanted to try. The reason… because I was moving out of Hawaii to somewhere where no one knows me or who I am. So I said, ‘Fuck it! I’ll live like my life didn’t matter.’ And it sure felt like it didn’t. Fast forward time and pass the goodbyes and tears to freshman year in a new city. Tujunga, CA. Honestly, I was too scared to do anything there. I was a hermit. The feeling of being new and unknown scared the hell out of me. Lonely and wanting to just end it. That’s how it felt. I met a few people later in the semester, and it was good. A crowd of sober kids, I loved it. I was beginning to form a new name for myself, and it was Jay. Jay… the cool kid from Hawaii. LOL. I changed my whole identity to form this new Jay. I wanted to be a cool kid, I wanted to have a good group of friends. I wanted to be accepted.

Learning to be new was a great thing. It was something so scary and so daunting for me that after actually trying out the new me, I began to like it. It was a challenge to form myself. But something was still missing. I still didn’t feel true to myself. So guess what happened?

Well you’re gonna have to wait on that. I have work tomorrow. And I need some sleep! Night ya’ll!

Test of Character…

I had an interesting conversation today. A simplistic way to know whether or not you’re doing the ‘right’ thing. Now, there are a million different ways to perceive this so-called ‘right’ thing. Actually, you and I have totally different perspectives of right and wrong at this moment. And so is the other person reading this. This concept is based in NLP, and if you need more information on NLP I’ll post a few links below. But the basic formula is (1 ╘ 1). One does not equal one. My perspective does not equal your perspective.

So knowing that… right and wrong can be generally skewed in terms of what perspective it’s being looked at. But as far as that goes, there’s a way to test for yourself if you are having conflicting experiences in life. You’re character defines your attitude. What character traits do you work for and towards determines what is right and what is wrong. And we all are being tested constantly, whether we know it or not, to put these character traits to use. The way we respond to certain situations defines the character of who we are.

To boil it down to a few words: Your decisions and commitment to living a fulfilling life are a test of  your character.

right and wrong = test of character
test of character = results
results = diminish or praise (make your choice)

references:
Frogs Into Princes by Richard Bandler and John Grinder

Coaching with NLP: How to Be a Master Coach by Joseph O’Connor

These are a few that you can start reading. Enjoy…