You hear the term a lot: reaching rock bottom.
When do you know you’ve hit rock bottom? There always seems further that you can fall. So when is it the actual rock bottom?
“I hit rock bottom and turned my life around“. Maybe it’s the point at which you can’t take any more or mentally make the decision to stop falling and to do something about it? Maybe everyone’s rock bottom is different. It’s when you decide to stop falling and to move in the opposite direction.
I need to stop falling.
Time-restricted loyalty
I’m not a fan of these time-restricted loyalty cards or apps. You know the ones I mean. Popular with beverage sellers or entertainment venues. Your Nth whatever is free, but only if you use it by X date. Time-restricted.
The idea of a loyalty card was to encourage customers to frequent your business more than the competition. We reward loyalty by giving you something free in return. On your Nth visit or purchase, have a free X on us.
Only now this loyalty is time-restricted until we change the card design, or update the app, or next month, whichever comes first. We appreciate your loyalty but the clock is ticking.
The definition of a professional
What is the definition of a professional? Originally it was someone that gets paid for the work they do. Is that still the case? Amateurs get paid. Even bad ones, although we tend to call them cowboys. Another definition is someone with a profession. A blogger is a profession. Doesn’t mean they get paid. Not much anyway.
To me a professional is someone with a skillset that is needed and paid for, and where they take pride in their work and the quality of the skills they offer. It’s someone that works at their profession, improving their skills and range. Someone that is seen as somewhat of an expert at what they do. A pro.
A pro at their profession.
A professional.
Sitting next to a billionaire
I was sitting next to a billionaire and didn’t realise it. Someone with more money than Richard Branson. They seemed normal. I perceived them as such. Later when I was told who they were, and that they were a billionaire, I started thinking. They didn’t radiate any billionaire vibes. There was no air of achievement, aura of wealth. Nothing. They just seemed.. normal. Like every other person.
What did I expect? Something like the memes where there will be signs that you are suddenly wealthy. Designer clothes, accessories, a fancy car, etc etc. No nothing. Just a normal person enjoying the same event as me. Only much much more wealthy.
You never know. You could be sitting next to a billionaire right now and not know it.
Feeling your age
Feeling your age. An expression often used when you feel old. Unable to do something that you used to do with ease. Or used as an insult to infer a loss of physical ability. Feeling your age.
Yet in my head I’m forever twenty four. I’m constantly surprised when I look in the mirror. I have to do a quick check that it’s me. I look older. When I dream or imagine myself doing something I’m always younger. Reality kicks in when I actually attempt something, or my body tells me to pack it in and act your age. These days I’m definitely feeling my age. How old do you feel?
Reflections
I’m walking on a beach reflecting. It reminds me of another beach, long ago at the start of my career. I was sent to the South coast to work with a client. I was lodged at a lovely hotel with pristine beaches. It’s the end of a productive day and I’m walking along the beach on a call discussing the future with a friend. The road ahead looks bright.
Cut to the present. I’m on another beach, memories of the first triggered. How did life pan out? Did my career go how I wanted it to go? Am I where I wanted to be at this age?
Reflections.
Death notification by text
I received a notification that a relative had died. I was told by text.
I hadn’t seen or heard from them in a long while. They’d moved away, lived their life, then apparently moved back into the area we all group in at some point without telling anyone. Not a million miles away, living their life. Then diagnosed with cancer a few months back. Terminal. Still no reaching out to anyone. Until it was too late. Now their son is going through their phone book notifying people, anyone, they once knew.
I wasn’t in the phone book, so I was notified second-hand, by text. By the way X has died. A follow-on text after an initial one asking a mundane question about something unrelated. With the death notification an afterthought, or received as one.
The departed was a part of my childhood up to my teens. A long time ago. The pain isn’t as raw as it would be with someone closer or who has spent a lot of time with you recently. Yet there is still pain, of loss, of sadness.
All those years, laughs, sadness, memories, brought to an end with a simple text message.
Men in trees
I was at a low point. Unemployed, or on a break, depending on how you want to spin it. Not much to do but binge watch TV and while away the days.
I discovered one show that resonated. A person trying to find themselves, in a remote location. Plus it was entertaining. Men in trees.
It starred Anne Heche as a self help guru type whose relationship had broken down and was at a loss in life. She was on a book tour and in a remote village in Alaska when her life fell apart. She decides to stay and figure things out. I was figuring things out. I enjoyed the show. Watched every episode.
It’s one of those things that triggers memories. When I hear or read it mentioned, or Anne Heche, it reminds me of that period of my life. Good memories. So I was sad to hear when she passed. Whatever her life was, she entertained me during a low point. She cheered me up and I thank her for that. It’s sad when anyone passes, whether you know them, or they affect your own life in some distant way. But I wanted to say thanks for Men in trees.
Keep looking forward
I keep looking forward. At the latest games, movies, books. Avoiding retro games, old movies, old books. Only the latest.
What I’ve played, watched, and read, serves as a reference, a reminder, a history of consumption. Keep looking forward to what is coming out next and when. Adding each of interest to my to get list.
Just consuming like a digital animal, always hungry for something new, the next juicy piece of entertainment. Never repeating, re-playing, re-watching, re-reading. Time is precious so only the new.
Keep looking forward.
Fast Tech
We are an impatient lot. We love our fast food and our fast tech. The latter, a term used to define cheap electronic gadgets and devices. You can go online and have one delivered to you tomorrow for less than the cost of a meal.
Portable battery chargers, adapters, fans, night lights, wireless doorbells, motion sensors, bag trackers, and just about anything else that you or someone can dream up and develop cheaply and have shipped by slow boat from Asia to your country for you purchase next day delivery.
These gadgets use a lot of rare earth minerals and other materials that are both costly to collect, manufacture, and recycle. The result is that all this fast tech is ending up in landfills and amateur processing plants around the world. Just look on YouTube at the videos of people collecting circuit boards to melt off the precious metals, or others burning the plastics to clear the mountains of e-waste. It is both damaging to the environment and human health. Yet we keep buying more and more of this fast tech because it’s cheap and serves a current need, just like fast food.