There Still Are Nice People In The World

Money definitely doesn’t grow on trees. At least not how we all would like to believe.

This morning, I had a visit with the RN.

She said that I was doing very well and improving at a spectacular rate. Something that they always like to report and that we like to hear.

Then she asked me if I had remembered the conversation that she and I had about my goals to get to sledge hockey tournament in Boston in 2014.

The Austin Blades program isn’t going to help if any of us players want to go to this tournament. So we have to do this on our own and raise enough money to go.

This RN apparently discussed it at some capacity with another patient of hers earlier in the week. And when she came by for a visit this morning, she reminded me that I was needing all the help I could get.

This patient, or whomever she told about my story…. proved to me that there are still nice people out there in this world.

This person (unknown to me because of laws) gave a cash donation of $10.

I was so excited and surprised that I couldn’t even think straight!!! 

A total stranger. I do not know exactly what was said. And I do not know who this person is. And I will never know, but they felt interested enough in helping me reach the goal.

A teammate of mine (the other assistant captain) vowed this season that when we heard where the next year’s tournament was going to be, that he and I would work together in trying to get the money together to go. We both would go, even if nobody else from the Austin Blades went.

So the fundraising is a little different, since everything is going to be split between the two of us. The goal is definitely not as high as my personal fundraising site that I put together on my own last year… which is still available to receive donations. That one is up to help me upgrade my equipment and be able to return what was loaned to me back to the team so we have that equipment for new players in the future.  IF you are interested in that one, please let me know.

This campaign though is for two people. Two players strongly passionate about the game of sledge hockey that its all we ever talk about when we get together. Eventually at some point in the conversation between he and I, the topic of sledge hockey or the team will dominate our conversation.

We’ve both gone as far as to say that sledge hockey is in our veins.

My partner in this adventure has already stated that he doesn’t want any presents given to him for any holiday, whether it be Father’s Day, a birthday, or even Christmas. Instead he wants people to donate to help him get to Boston.

I have jumped on that as well. I would request that anyone thinking about a Christmas gift or birthday to go ahead and just make a donation to help me out as well.  

Let’s face it though: fund raising is very difficult. Especially for things like this. I hate to sound like I am begging as well. But nobody can get anywhere if they do not ask.

And even though it is really early before the start of the tournament…. I believe an early start is a great head start!!!!

I already have received a donation from the kindness of a complete and total stranger. And I am very thankful for that person. So whoever you are– THANK YOU!!!

And if you are reading this and feel that you are interested in helping, or inspired by the story of the anonymous donation, the link to the site is in the Blogroll. Or you can click on the link provided below.

Even if you are not willing or ready to make a donation, by sharing the story of the stranger and the link would be very, very, very helpful.

We are not looking for or anticipating donations of large amounts. Anything obviously will help. And the more of those kinds of contributions that are put together then the goal can be met and our dream of once again going out, doing something that we love to do and are very passionate about, and having that personal independence to actually have the ability to play the sport, would make every cent and dollar that much more special.

So please help if you can. And spread the word. Think of the kind stranger who doesn’t even know me but still had enough in their heart to believe in me.

Thank you.

http://www.gofundme.com/2t2pvs

 

 

Get Out Of My Way

“Don’t be mad because I don’t care anymore. Be mad because I once did, and you were too blind to see.”

Perhaps you feel that it is too difficult. Maybe you feel that it is too much money or expensive. Maybe you think that its a waste of time and resources.

Maybe it is because you don’t like the idea and you personally don’t want me to do it. And that probably is coming from the fact that you are either jealous because it seems like to you that I have a better life than you or you want me to be as miserable as you are because it seems like to you that you have no life.

Or you think that I am not going to be successful in life and will just fail and want me to stop.

If any of you fit the above descriptions. I have a few things to say to you.

First off- GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is NOT up to you to dictate what I do or don’t do in my life. I did not come out of your birth canal. And the fact that I am a grown adult. Your argument is invalid!

My successes and failures come from one person and one person only: ME!

Should I fail miserably, it is because of me. And if I succeed, it is because I had the will to try hard enough.

Keep your hands off of me and stop trying to drag me down to the ground so that I will fail. Your name is not “God” and my destiny is not in the balance because of your own opinions or actions. Again, get out of my way and let me try!

You tell me that I shouldn’t disturb people or step on their toes. YOU are the one who who has been stepping on my toes this entire time. Keeping me from accomplishing what I have been wanting to all along in the first place. Maybe it is time to step on toes and knock on doors. Because with as many times as I will be told NO (and I will be- I understand that) there will be someone who will tell me YES. Let me find those people!

If you are not going to support me, believe in me, or even let me try? Then all you will find is the back of my head as the dust begins to rise.

 

 

The Measurement Of Success

“It is not a question of whether or not I will stick my foot in my mouth at some point today, it is whether or not I will be able to make room to shove the other one in there.”~ W. Fry

This morning I was engaged in a conversation with one of my beautiful friends. She had complimented me on my success here on this blog. She was impressed at the number of views that I have received thus far in 11 months and 1 week of writing in this blog.

My response was more of : Open mouth. Insert foot. Keep going til you reach the hip.

I answered that success was relative to each individual’s idea of what it is. I said that, instead of “thank you” right away.

Collateral Damage in 3… 2… 1 ………..

I also further sank my own butt by mentioning that throughout the fall of last year, I had an increased number of views like never before. But then in mid-December, that seemed to have faded. So I haven’t been getting the higher volume of views recently as I have been. I can only imagine what I sounded like to her! I was being such a whiner!!

Geez. Why didn’t I just take the compliment? I’m always telling people: Take the compliment and run. Perhaps a taste of my own medicine would’ve been a better solution. Man down, we got a man down!!!

However, she is right. My blog IS successful!!! I am still writing in it. I didn’t give up when nothing was happening. I continued to use it for when I felt I needed to. I gave more and more blog posts on certain situations that we all deal with. And even though I’ve not really received anything in the form of tangible feedback, that doesn’t mean that it has not been successful.

So then how does one measure success?

Well, I do believe that it varies. What one person thinks is successful might not be the shared opinion of another person. It all depends on YOU!

For example: If you make $50,000 a year- are you successful? Or are you successful if you make $250,000 a year??

Are you successful if you have 10,000 collectibles of your favorite thing? Or are you successful if you have 75,000 collectibles??

When you’ve reached a point and then you look back, and you feel that you have accomplished something, that would probably be your significant detail that you are successful. Your happiness to be where you are at that new point also determines whether or not you feel that you have been successful.

One the best tools a person can have in order to achieve success, is to have goals. If you’ve reached those goals at the end, then yes.. you’ve been successful.

Your goals vary from other people’s goals. But focus on yourself and not others. Those who grant you feedback will help you along in making your goals. That way, you know whether or not you need to do any tweaking along the way.

So all in all, I actually do believe in my friend. Even though I had a lapse of couth. I’m very happy with how this blog has turned out in less than a year.

I am grateful for her feedback. And I’m sorry for being a dork.

 

New Year’s Goals

“But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year old habits.”~ Andre Gide

2011 is almost over. I’ve said it once before, I’ll say it again: I am so glad! I am ready to get to the year of 2012 and start over.

A fresh start and a fresh outlook that is more positive than ever is what I want to be aiming for!

Now comes the time where people are starting to think about their New Year’s Resolutions. What it is that they want to change about themselves in the coming new year.

I was reading the blog of author Leigh K. Hunt, and she had actually opened my eyes when it came to the whole idea of having to make “resolutions”.

“Make GOALS, not resolutions.” she says.

http://parchmentplace.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/hopes-and-dreams/

Suddenly it became clear to me. I think that making goals works far better than a resolution. With a goal, you have a set end date, your own personal deadline to achieve whatever it is that you want to do (or stop doing what you do not want to do.)

You always hear the same resolutions over and over again. I think the top New Years Resolutions are to lose weight, stop smoking, and excercise more often. Some of us make it, most of us fail horribly no matter what the resolution.

It comes down to whether or not you have the true deep down desire to do what it is you want to do in the following new year. Sticking with it also helps you become successful. So many of us (including myself) often don’t stick to our plans and then by mid-January, our lists of resolutions are thrown into the garbage.

Setting goals in the proper manner will actually allow us to be successful. Setting a goal and then not following up with it doesn’t work at all.

Example: If you want to stop smoking– then set a date. Say to yourself “I want to be stop smoking completely by ________ .” Then you have something to really work hard for. And all of that hard work will be worth it when you are rewarded with accomplishing that goal.

Sensible goals also come into play. I’ve written about that in a previous blog post.

Who knows what friends and family will make as their resolutions come the final day of 2011. But if you are not serious about it, you’re just wasting your breath and time as the clock begins to get closer and closer to midnight on the 31st.

For myself, I will no longer mention about resolutions. But instead I will talk about goals.

In the past few years, whenever I noticed someone who had broken their resolution, and I asked them about it, their response was always the same:

“Resolutions are meant to be broken.”

If that is true then why bother making them at all? Unless you are dealing with someone with a wonky sense of humor who claims that their New Years Resolution is to never make any more New Years Resolutions.

So as we get closer and closer to the new days of 2012, I hope that all will be safe as they celebrate the ringing in of the new year. Have fun, but be safe.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Having That New Year's Kiss

Goals

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”~ Hannah Moore

When I was a young child, I remember crying because my parents were leaving the house for the night and my siblings and I were in the house alone with a babysitter. My parents were going out to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

And then I remember finding out that my father had married my mother at the age of 26. From that point, I knew that I wanted to be married at that age too. But it didn’t happen. The goal that I had set for myself was a goal that was unrealistic because it was bound to change as I grew older. People still today make goals in their life that are unrealistic. And those are the ones that are bound for failure from the start.

The goals that we set often are unrealistic. For one reason or another. They are too high or too low, or not right at all. We all have dreams of what we want to do. We fantasize about what we’d want to be doing by a certain point. Not just a few of us- we ALL do it!! Some of us succeed while most of us fail. And its all in the process of deciding what we want and how we plan to make sure that we are able to reach that point.

Often goals are set too high. You don’t hear a lot about setting them too low, but it happens. But usually they are too high. And when we do set them too high, it no longer becomes something that is plausible, but rather we’ve aimed too far and we’ll never hit the bullseye and then it seems in the end that it has been an impossibility.

If our goals are set too high, the inevitable disaster will strike. And unfortunately, it becomes more than something that we bargained for in the first place. When are our goals are too high, and we’ve seem to come closer and closer to the end timing of that goal and we are nowhere near reaching it… we often find ourselves throwing away common sense as well as common courtesy. We begin to step on those around us and damage our personal relationships because in our minds, we find them to be obstacles in the way of us reaching those goals. The very sad part about it, is that we don’t realize that is what we are doing to our personal relationships with others- until it is too late.

The goals are unrealistic and we say “Damn the Torpedoes!”, in an all-out effort to prove to the world (and ourselves) that we are right and they are wrong. This begins the whole process of the damage that I just mentioned.

Depending on what we were doing and what we have done, there is a chance that those damaged relationships can become salvaged and mended together. The problem is that nobody is thinking about it as it bursts into flames while we sprinkle fuel all around us because our focus is on one thing and one thing only- REACH THE GOAL.

So then we don’t reach our goals. They never happen. Now what?? Well, usually a few things go on when we’ve realized that we have failed. Usually we go through a lot of different emotions. Mainly depression, stress, and anxiety. We are crushed because we didn’t make it and we become very sad. The stress levels begin to rise because we begin to internally beat ourselves up for what we have done (or in this case, have not done). And then we go and allow our flawed human nature to take over and we assign the blame on others when we should be looking in the mirror. Our anxiety levels as well as our stress goes through the roof when our goals are just so far out of reach and we’re running out of time.

By the time I was twenty years old, I still wasn’t married. Not that I thought I’d be married while in high school, but still there weren’t any even any prospects of marriage at that point. I had only six years left to make that goal that I made as a child. And I placed all of the blame on all of the women that I thought at the time, were the ideal person to make for me a wife. And when nothing happened with them, I blamed them. I blamed all of the women in the world for a lot of things. I destroyed relationships with females during high school because that’s all that I thought about. And when things were not going as planned, I made them worse and ultimately killing any chance of any kind of relationship- friend or more- with any of them. Which is partly why I no longer have any communication with them today.

I should have been looking at myself in the mirror and thought things over and realized that my goal was not going to be something that would be attained. Mainly because the goal was never really defined or planned. It just was “a goal”.

When we make our goals, we have to actually stop and think about whether or not these things are attainable. Most of us will have to admit defeat a lot of the times because the things that we want, probably just won’t ever happen. If we can work on separating what is attainable and what is just ‘a fantasy’, and acknowledge the two then I think we have a better chance of setting better goals for our lives.

If we don’t, then we are going to end up living a life that is miserable and full of depression. Our relationships will begin to fail, and our overall physical as well as our mental health will soon fade into those dark and creepy places that we never want to be in the first place.

I would love to travel to Utah, and all states westward. But I would also like to travel to Denmark, Germany, France, and Romania. There would be nothing wrong with making these a goal in life. Except for the fact that they would be unrealistic goals. Why?? Because I do not have the money, or the means to make them happen. I might be able to visit a few of the states but going to Europe is something that really isn’t something that is plausible at this time.

I needed to realize this, and because I had then I was able to breathe a little better. Sure it was sad, but life is not always going to give you what you want.

Instead, we all should strive for goals that are within our means. Goals that we are certain we can achieve. There is nothing wrong with setting goals, in fact it is a wonderful idea. Setting the wrong goals however, will always be a burden.