Tag: experiences

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Mind the Gap

Pete Huryk

mindthegapIn the English subway system, there are both visual and auditory reminders to “Mind the Gap”.  This is a call for attention to the space between the platform and the train.  It is a helpful reminder but probably almost unnoticed by most local people.  However for the American tourist this is an out of the ordinary bit of speech.  “Mind” is rarely used as a verb in American English and “the gap” is a store or possibly brings thoughts of Michael Strahan.  Due to its unique wording and situational use, it tends to have sticking power with tourists.  It is helpful to “Mind the Gap”.  While it is a everyday practicality in the UK, it seems as though there is a gap issue in the USA.

The gap that I am referring to has nothing to do with the subway but rather the “gap” between you and your goals.  It is a space that many people do not want to acknowledge.  The gap represents all of the undesirable aspects of the goal: the work, the discipline, the sacrifice and persistence.  These are the bricks that form the path to the object of our desires.  Unfortunately the easy road is so seductive that you forego logic and buy the false lottery promises.  So you ignore the gap and sit on the couch to dream the impossible dream.  The only reason that the dream is impossible is that you never take enough action to get there.  All of that action happens in the gap.

Since the gap is a necessary part of eventual success, why not mind the gap or even better learn to love the gap!  It’s the place where you will be spending most of your time.  So why waste it by avoiding or hating it?  Take it as the place where you find out who you really are.  Anyone can sit on the thrown of triumph without effort.  It takes a totally different mentality to wear a medal that was buried under a mountain of muck.  So can you mind the gap?  It is a difficult task but your up to it.  Don’t get discouraged by the other people (even those who care about you) who are afraid of the gap and try to protect you from the gap.   They are invested in their own comfort, not your goal.  If you succeed, then they might have to mind the gap.  So take the step!  Start now because the gap isn’t going anywhere and right now, neither are you.  Your goal is not magnetic, you need to go to it.  Get in the gap!

Pete

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Living in the Echo or the Tidal Wave

Pete Huryk

tidal-waveThis morning on my run I had a glitch with my headphones.  Only part of the sound was coming through.  The guitars, bass and backing vocals all came through crystal clear while the drums and lead vocals were inaudible.  Occasionally the vocals could be heard but only as a kind of echo.  Each song that played was a muted version of what it normally is and those echoes were the only reminders of the lyrics of the normal song.  The only song that came through relatively clearly was “Jane Says” by Jane’s Addiction because it was from live recording rather than a chopped studio version.

As I ran, I thought about how we are always living in the present but we experience the past as a form of an echo.  The moment that we remember is long gone, much like the source voice to an echo.  However these echos shape much of what we think about ourselves.  Some of these memories are more than echos because they push us in particular directions, more like waves of water rather than sound.  If you’re anything like me, there are probably memories that act more like tidal waves that can crush you at a moment’s notice.  The question becomes why?  Why give something that much power?  The answer should be simple, only give that much power to constructive rather than destructive forces.

Since the past is gone and only represented in these echos, they should be used to serve and not to destroy.  It is possible to turn up the volume on those echos that can carry you forward and mute the ones that do not serve.  It comes down to a decision about focus.  Take the memories that will help you and make them a daily part of your.  Make them a tidal wave if it’s warranted.  If you don’t have any that will do that, make future memories, if your mind is inundated it cannot tell the difference.  The waves of your past can put you on the rocks!  Unless you use your rudder and your sails to get caught in the positive current.  The future should be a destination to behold not a rerun of the old.

Pete

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Completely Focused On Being Scattered

Pete Huryk

In 1925 President Calvin Coolidge famously said that “The business of America is business.”  Almost a full century later, those words are still quoted often enough for it to be recognized.  Since the proliferation of the internet to most households, the pace of information exchange and communication has continued to increase almost exponentially.  The problem is that with so much information flying around, very few people are taking the time to communicate or do anything to the best of their ability.  It seems that with technology as our guide “The business of America is BUSYness.”   There is no soap box under my feet.  I am not chastising, judging or pointing a ridiculing finger.  This post is as much for me as it is for anyone who reads it.

focusDistraction is a way of life in the country at the moment.  Not only is completing tasks without getting distracted difficult but the fear of missing out (FOMO) seems to be an almost pervasive issue.  People have divided their focus between too many activities and are simultaneously getting distracted from them.  It’s a recipe for disaster no matter how you slice it.  No one can be everywhere for everyone every time.  Distraction always comes with a price tag and it is not you who is profiting.  The losses are felt by you, your family, your friends, your colleagues and classmates.  The people who are actually in your life are the ones who are missing out on a key component of their experience and that is you.  All of you, not the partial you that has a technological device in hand “JUST IN CASE!”  The cyborg version of you that cannot let go of the phone, tablet or computer has a distinct weakness, it is never fully present.

So many of our systems are built largely upon attendance but that model is at best flawed and at worst catastrophically broken. Absence, attendance, presence, engagement and immersion are very different levels of an inverted pyramid of human involvement.  While attendance is a nice start, it is just barely above absence and meets only minimum requirements.  Showing up is just not enough.  To really take full advantage of this life that you have been gifted, you must strategically move up the pyramid with the things that you have decided really matter.  And there lies the problem we must DECIDE.  Decide comes from the Latin meaning to cut off.   We must cut off the things that don’t matter in order to preserve the things that do.    Our focus needs to be cut down to that which we value most.

The only person who can win this focus battle for you is you.  Anyone can suggest, plead or punish you to do it but you do not have to comply until you choose.  In the end there are so many companies and individuals who want your focus.  It is your job to divvy it out as you see fit or scatter it without a care.  Where you put your focus determines your life.  If you decide to immerse yourself in Facebook, that is your choice and far be it from me to judge.  As long as it is a decision and not a resignation to the world of distraction.  Choose what you want for yourself before others choose for you.

Pete

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.  -Theodore Roosevelt

Blogpost

Might Never Get to Poland

Pete Huryk

polandFor the past six months or so, I’ve been learning Polish using a program called Duolingo.  It is a completely free online language learning tool.  I started using it to prove the point to my students that you can learn a foreign language by using such a tool.  When summer hit, I took a Polish hiatus but now I’m back on the train.  The funny thing is that I’m not sure that I’ll ever get to Poland.  It is the homeland of my ancestors and I love to travel but it is not a huge priority.  So then why bother to learn the language?  There is no foreseeable return on my daily investment of time and energy into this language.

Return on investment is an almost pervasive calculation in the modern world.  Kids and adults alike seem to be in a never-ending calculation of whether or not things are “worth their time or effort”.  This is not particularly the troubling thing.  Time is a nonrenewable resource.  So being conscious of how you are spending it just makes sense.  Energy is renewable but often feels like it is linked to the time.  As if the addition of energy to invested time multiplies it and can magnify any possible waste.  “I’m only applying if I know I’ll get the job.”  “I’m not going out for the team unless I’m on varsity.”  “I’m not going to ask her out, she might say ‘no’.”

The problem with this almost ruthless avoidance of wasted energy/time is that very few limits get pushed.  Possibility is viewed as a negative rather than a positive.  Life tends to shrink into a smaller and safer box that confines and disillusions us.  Investing in only sure things expends nothing extra.  It is a transaction of time and effort for a result.  In this type of mindset, there is no room to give true gifts.  People become hoarders because giving of themselves is too risky and scary.  In the end giving of one’s self is the best way to come to know yourself better.

The sure thing may be comforting but it is not progressive.  Putting ourselves outside of our comfort zone or spending ourselves in an uncertain endeavor are the places where we become a new version of ourselves.  Much like a software update, we have the possibility of becoming more but it requires some risk to the old version.  Perhaps I’m throwing away ten minutes per day by learning Polish.  Or maybe risking that small amount of time each day will take me somewhere that I never would have imagined.  In my eyes, I win either way because of who I’ve become; a person willing to move forward.  Where you are is most likely not where you want to be forever.  The opportunity is there for you to move forward but you have to risk the time and energy of the step.  It’s time to step up!

A funny little reminder

Pete

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Life at 65 MPH

Pete Huryk

GapThis afternoon I was driving back from Pennsylvania through the Delaware Water Gap.  As I was driving, I listened to the audio version of a biography on Teddy Roosevelt (I’m really cool).  As I listened to the stories of events that happened a century ago, it started me thinking about my surroundings.  The Delaware Water Gap is a marvel of nature that makes the one hundred year space between Teddy and I seem like a millisecond.  I wondered, where are we going in such a hurry?

The pace of almost everything seems to be skyrocketing upward.  For example travel: in little over one hundred years, we’ve gone from walking, riding horses and trains to cars to planes to supersonic jets to hyper-loops (Elon Musk).  The pace is not limited to travel.  It affects technology, communication, commerce and change.

As we move at this speed, it seems that in many ways the world is getting smaller.  We can get to a place in three hours that used to take several days.  We can communicate with someone on the other side of the world instantaneously.  While this speed is a great advantage in many respects, it does rob us of the details that life has to offer.  At 65 MPH the river and the mountains are a moving backdrop to a functional carnival ride.  Having hiked the trails in the Gap, I know there’s a large stream that empties into the river.   My kids have played on the moss covered stones and tickled their toes with the crisp clear water.  You can’t get there traveling at 65 MPH.  You need to slow down, stop the car and get out to walk.  Speed is efficient but is it effective?

The underlying thought that keeps coming back to me is, where are we going in such a hurry?  If our destination is new frontiers that we’ve never seen then I’m fully in favor.  If we are trying to get to McDonald’s before they stop serving breakfast, then I wonder if we’ve missed something.  If we are on the web or our phones to extract new ideas from thought leaders that we’d never get the chance to meet in real life, then the price of our data package is worth it.  If we are re-watching the same youtube video of the kitten playing the piano 100 times, then the price is too high.  Inventions are intended to enhance our experiences and not rob them from us.

sunriseAs we move faster and the world gets smaller, I hope that we take time to truly experience life.  Use the technology that you have as a key to open doors rather than a chain to lock you down.  If you have a device in your pocket that can contact almost anyone you choose, use it to tell someone something of substance.  Don’t text them a message that says nothing.  Our lives should be filled with experiences that make it worth the while.  Blurring those experiences with speed and efficiency may get us more experience but it will be more blurriness.

“Quality or Quantity.  Don’t tell me they’re the same!”  – Greg Graffin

Go out and experience!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

Beezy World

Pete Huryk

BeezyMy daughter is an amazing person especially for a six year old.  She is always coming up with entrepreneurial ventures and brilliantly off the wall ideas.  Her imagination is amazing and she has created her own world in many ways.  Most recently she has asked to have her room repainted to look like “Beezy World” (Beezy is my wife’s nickname for her).  The clouds are lower in Beezy World and the blue sky is on top.  She has also developed not just one but several languages for Beezy World including Beezy Spanish and Beezy Chinese.  It is pretty obvious that she carries this world with her on a daily basis.

Although the creation of a personal world may seem like a childish thing to do, we all do it on some level.  We all live in our own version of the world.  There are some constants and overlapping but in many ways, we carry our own world along with us.  In a very Obi-Wan sense, our world is dependent upon our point of view.  For some of us we are semi-passive and the world happens to us.  While for others of us, we are active.  The world is not what happens to us but rather our influence on our surroundings.  So the world is not as concrete as it may seem but is more the result of the ingredients that we add to it.

So the question becomes do you like the world that you carry around with you?  Is your Beezy World the one that you want painted in your room?  Or is it time to make a change?  Since you are the creator of this world, make it what you want it to be!

Carry on!

Pete