“My goal is to be better than I was yesterday.  To improve myself.  To enrich my life.  I am running my own race.  I compete with no one but myself.  This is my journey.”  – Unknown?

First snow for winter 2018 – about 8 inches at our location.

Well it has been another good week.  Winter has made an appearance in Colorado.  With the cold came the added bonus of moisture and that is something we needed on the Front Range.  Fort Collins is considered High Plains Desert and we were about 5 inches behind in total moisture content.  So, any that fell this past week was a really good thing.  When you only get about 14 inches total per year, five inches is a lot to be missing.  The only down side for me was not being able to work on outdoor projects around the house but this turned out to be nothing too serious.  I will take the snow and rain that fell last week and this weekend.

I was reading a book from the author Seth Godin.  I had not heard of him and found a quote by him just by accident.

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

I thought this was kind of interesting.  If you are like me you are always looking for the next vacation.  Where to go and what to do.  So, this quote got me to thinking.  We are always trying to do something different.  Never being truly where we are at the moment.  Thinking ahead to what is next and around the corner.  Now this can be a good thing but doing it all the time is not the road I believe that leads to happiness.  Maybe we have it all wrong.  This quote got me to reevaluate my life to see what I needed to keep and what I needed to cut.  You might find it surprising that something on the surface you will think that you need to cut but it may not be that way down deep.  It might be the best thing to keep.

You can find the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Icarus-Deception-How-High-Will/dp/1591846072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539652230&sr=8-1&keywords=icarus+deception

The book is good enough to be placed in the “It warrants a second read category”.  A part of the book that really resonated with me was Seth talking about “Being your own boss.”  Whether you are self-employed or not.  I think that we see this quote a lot.  And only think of it in terms of having our own business.  But do we really know what it means to be our own boss?  That was the question I found most intriguing.  I will say it a second time, “Do we really know what it means to be our own boss?” What I found was that my understanding of the phrase was very limited.

What a difference a day makes!!  View from the Powerline Trail in Fort Collins.

Now I am in the fifth decade of my life and I can look back at all the bosses I have had – some good, some that were excellent and some that…, well they were not that great.  Think about that for a moment.  If you are like me you have had a multitude of bosses.  What were they really like?  How did you perform with each boss?  Did you enjoy going to work?  Did the type of boss influence how you felt about work?  Did it affect your job performance?  NOW see yourself as “your own boss.”  And ask yourself “What Kind of Boss Do You Want to Be?”  You don’t have to be self-employed to ask this question.  That idea of asking the question even if you are not self-employed changed the perspective dramatically for me.

One of the Prospect Ponds.

Think about this, if you were given the responsibility of managing one employee.  To control everything in their life.  And your sole job was to make the business and that one employee as successful as possible.  What would you do?  How would you act towards that one employee?  Would you be the best boss that you could be?  Or would you be the boss that everyone wants to get away from? No one wants to work for?  Good questions and worth pondering.

Poudre River Trail.

NOW see yourself as that one employee.  That’s right, you are the employee and you are your own boss.  They are one and the same.  If you are like me, this changes the whole perspective.  I want to be the best possible boss that I can be.  And in turn I want to be the model employee, the best employee, for that boss!  If you can put yourself in the duel role of boss and employee, at the same time, it will change how you see and perceive your life.  What a daunting and awesome responsibility.  How would it change your behavior toward yourself and others?  It is one of those things that I wish I could have understood much sooner in life.  As the old saying goes “We are our own worst enemies.”  All of us.  Understanding of “You are your own boss” is one way to get past this worst enemy conundrum.  I believe that this is a step in the right direction on the path to happiness.

September 20th

October 5th

October 15th, 2018

Well that is about it for me.  The latest heart picture is getting closer to completion.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Maybe I will see you out there on the trails!!  Adios amigos!!