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Abstract

make a decision. If you want to go to the formal living room and or the kitchen (where my baby and I spend a great deal of our time), it’s a seven-step flight of stairs — up.If, on the other hand, you wish to go into the den where the fireplace is (usually in action during the winter months) and hang out watching movies or listening to music on a surround sound system, it’s a seven-step flight of stairs — down.<blockquote id="48c5">A side note on the surround sound system. Years ago, I needed an HDMI cable to run from our old seventeen-inch flat screen to a dinky little receiver. Well, I got the HDMI cable and brought home with it a brand new seventy-two-inch flat-screen television, a receiver powerful enough to handle a concert at AT&T Stadium, and six, yes six speakers to go with the two we already had.</blockquote>To this day, I’m not allowed to go to Best Buy without adult supervision.Oh, and I forgot to tell you. The laundry room, is in the downstairs section which makes doing laundry a complete butt kicker.We do laundry once a week, and each set usually is three loads. This means we have twenty-eight steps up and down per load (we haven’t taught our clothing and towels to jump from the washer to the dryer by themselves just yet) or a total of eighty-four steps each time we do laundry.I suffer from slight OCD and believe me, I count those suckers every time.Sitting here this morning and looking back on the decision to buy a house like that tells me I should have thought about both of our physical conditions and the fact they wouldn’t just magically disappear when we got older.In fact just the opposite.<h1 id="e4a1">Leaning In On My Writing Too Late</h1>Another brilliant decision on my part. Most of you who know me, and for you writers whom I’ve just met, know that I’m usually late to the party on my writing.I published my first book back in 2006 and then did nothing until practically ten years later.I let ten years slip by where I simply forged ahead, not a single time pausing to reflect on the success or failure of the first book. Not a single time in the entire ten years did I ever stop and look back, wondering what I could have done, or needed to do to get better.I was too busy blazing a trail forward to stop and look back.Had I been better at examining where I’d been, I could have made subtle and maybe not so subtle course changes, which might have brought about a much better success rate.But I didn’t.Now, wi

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th ageism a real thing, and me falling into the discriminatory bracket of being one of those old farts no one wants to hire, I find myself in a bit of pickle.Had I stepped into the way back machine, way back before I needed the way back machine, I would have realized ultimately there was going to come a day when I needed to shift careers.And the shift would be to my writing.Ah, but you see, I didn’t look back and reflect on this way back then when I needed to.Unfortunately for thick-headed me, my way back machine only started working this year, so here I am, struggling to get my writing career going, and hoping I can make it right in time.These are but two of the significant and more pivotal moments in my life I should have spent all the New Years past reflecting upon.I can hear my dad’s voice telling me, “there’s no sense crying over spilled milk Buster. Move on. You won’t be able to see where you want to go if you spend your whole life looking back.”But sometimes you have to look back. Not just sometimes, but at least once a year at the end of one and the beginning of another.You need to quit hacking through the jungle of life with a machete in your hand, turn around and look at the trail you’ve been blazing.What kind of life have you just lived? What things along the trail ended up being disasters? What beautiful scenery and or amazing experiences did you get up close and personal with? Did those experiences let you pet them, or did they try to chew your arm off?How can you make progress and improve upon things you’ve been doing? What has your past taught you about your future?Anything?If your past has taught you something, then it’s a safe bet you’re the kind of person who frequently stops and looks back at all the life lessons you’ve experienced and learns from it.Nothing?There’s an old saying out there which in my case defines my moments of temporary insanity.One cannot bang one’s head against a brick wall over and over expecting different results each time.If you’re like me and for so many years have refused to look behind you, don’t be surprised when you suddenly find yourself repeating the same mistakes and life handing you the same crappy outcome.Look behind you just long enough to learn how to move forward.<h1 id="b9eb">Thanks for reading.</h1>Let’s keep in touch: [email protected]© P.G. Barnett, 2020. All Rights Reserved.</article></body>

To Get Where You Really Need To Go You Have To Learn To Stop and Examine Where You’ve Been

It’s Okay To Look Behind You Every Now And Then

I’ve never been a huge proponent for looking back on things.

Whether it is choices I’ve made in life, love, business, and a drove of other things intertwined in this thing we call living.

In my formulative years (I believe even at my ancient age, I’m still formulating), my family drilled into me you can’t ever get where you’re going if you continue to look backward.

But now I know that just isn’t true.

Failing to reflect on your actions and decisions from previous years often guarantees you will continue to make the same mistakes, in the same manner as you always have.

Uh, I think it’s called not learning.

This morning I realized over the years, my life has been a string of poor decisions, tempered with just enough magical happenstances to take the sting away.

But I realize now to grow, to evolve as a Human, I have to stop hurtling through life always charging forward without ever stopping to inspect the massive swath of destruction I’ve often left behind.

For me, stopping and turning around to look back on how I’ve lived my life is complicated. And it’s only today I’m really sliding all those decisions beneath the microscope of introspection and taking a hard look at them.

Buying a new home at fifty-four years of age.

Not necessarily a wrong decision, right? Uh wait, you haven’t heard the rest of the story, the Paul Harvey moment.

Buying a split level home fixer-upper with me having two bad knees and a screwed up neck and my lovely wife having a bad back which eventually required surgery, and then me having to have neck surgery the year after?

This particular decision is not one of my shining moments and here’s why.

If any of you know anything about a split level home, you probably know what I’m talking about. For the rest of you folks, picture this.

When you walk in the front door of our house, you are immediately presented with the need to make a decision. If you want to go to the formal living room and or the kitchen (where my baby and I spend a great deal of our time), it’s a seven-step flight of stairs — up.

If, on the other hand, you wish to go into the den where the fireplace is (usually in action during the winter months) and hang out watching movies or listening to music on a surround sound system, it’s a seven-step flight of stairs — down.

A side note on the surround sound system. Years ago, I needed an HDMI cable to run from our old seventeen-inch flat screen to a dinky little receiver. Well, I got the HDMI cable and brought home with it a brand new seventy-two-inch flat-screen television, a receiver powerful enough to handle a concert at AT&T Stadium, and six, yes six speakers to go with the two we already had.

To this day, I’m not allowed to go to Best Buy without adult supervision.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you. The laundry room, is in the downstairs section which makes doing laundry a complete butt kicker.

We do laundry once a week, and each set usually is three loads. This means we have twenty-eight steps up and down per load (we haven’t taught our clothing and towels to jump from the washer to the dryer by themselves just yet) or a total of eighty-four steps each time we do laundry.

I suffer from slight OCD and believe me, I count those suckers every time.

Sitting here this morning and looking back on the decision to buy a house like that tells me I should have thought about both of our physical conditions and the fact they wouldn’t just magically disappear when we got older.

In fact just the opposite.

Leaning In On My Writing Too Late

Another brilliant decision on my part. Most of you who know me, and for you writers whom I’ve just met, know that I’m usually late to the party on my writing.

I published my first book back in 2006 and then did nothing until practically ten years later.

I let ten years slip by where I simply forged ahead, not a single time pausing to reflect on the success or failure of the first book. Not a single time in the entire ten years did I ever stop and look back, wondering what I could have done, or needed to do to get better.

I was too busy blazing a trail forward to stop and look back.

Had I been better at examining where I’d been, I could have made subtle and maybe not so subtle course changes, which might have brought about a much better success rate.

But I didn’t.

Now, with ageism a real thing, and me falling into the discriminatory bracket of being one of those old farts no one wants to hire, I find myself in a bit of pickle.

Had I stepped into the way back machine, way back before I needed the way back machine, I would have realized ultimately there was going to come a day when I needed to shift careers.

And the shift would be to my writing.

Ah, but you see, I didn’t look back and reflect on this way back then when I needed to.

Unfortunately for thick-headed me, my way back machine only started working this year, so here I am, struggling to get my writing career going, and hoping I can make it right in time.

These are but two of the significant and more pivotal moments in my life I should have spent all the New Years past reflecting upon.

I can hear my dad’s voice telling me, “there’s no sense crying over spilled milk Buster. Move on. You won’t be able to see where you want to go if you spend your whole life looking back.”

But sometimes you have to look back. Not just sometimes, but at least once a year at the end of one and the beginning of another.

You need to quit hacking through the jungle of life with a machete in your hand, turn around and look at the trail you’ve been blazing.

What kind of life have you just lived? What things along the trail ended up being disasters? What beautiful scenery and or amazing experiences did you get up close and personal with? Did those experiences let you pet them, or did they try to chew your arm off?

How can you make progress and improve upon things you’ve been doing? What has your past taught you about your future?

Anything?

If your past has taught you something, then it’s a safe bet you’re the kind of person who frequently stops and looks back at all the life lessons you’ve experienced and learns from it.

Nothing?

There’s an old saying out there which in my case defines my moments of temporary insanity.

One cannot bang one’s head against a brick wall over and over expecting different results each time.

If you’re like me and for so many years have refused to look behind you, don’t be surprised when you suddenly find yourself repeating the same mistakes and life handing you the same crappy outcome.

Look behind you just long enough to learn how to move forward.

Thanks for reading.

Let’s keep in touch: [email protected]