Scott MacWherter
Learning to See
How fast can you spot the two otters in this picture
People tell me I have an uncanny ability to spot wildlife.
This is a skill I actually learned in the Marines. We where always playing war games in which we were looking for each other and setting up mock ambushes. You learned to scan the terrain for anything inconsistent. Anything out of the ordinary. Many times ‘the enemy’ was hiding in plain sight.
So I took this skill and used it to spot critters. They usually do the same thing: try to hide in plain sight. The main thing is that I bother to look when most people are lost in their internal dialogue.
One day I was driving around with some Real Estate investor friends of mine. We were talking about net operating income or something along those lines when I shouted out “There is a red shouldered hawk!” I think they thought I was weird as many people do.
I like to hang out with investors of all types. Why you may ask? Because they have have learned to SEE OPPORTUNITY!! Most of them say “opportunity likes to hide in plain sight.” Sometimes it likes to disguise itself as hard work.
The important thing is if you look for something you can probably find it. All you have to do is train yourself to see.
Beware the Vampire
Vampires are everywhere! They could be at your work; they could be in your home, at the grocery store even on the Television.
No I am not talking about the kind with fangs that turn into bats. I am talking about energy vampires. They are everywhere and they will suck you dry if you let them.
Energy, spirit, chi, ki, or prana exist in some form in every culture. It is the life force that binds all living things. People that live in the now tend to have more energy. These are the adventurers, the entrepreneurs, the imagineers that create wonderful things. The ones those are not afraid to do things differently.
The problem is energy travels in a downward gradient. In other words energy travels from highest concentration to lowest concentration. The people with low self esteem, with poor mental attitudes, and the belief that they can never do it have a very low level of energy.
People with low amounts of energy often gravitate to those with more energy. They seek to drain out some of that energy so that everyone is on the same page. It is not even always on purpose. They will use their evil draining power on you if you let them. ‘You are not good enough. The grass isn’t always greener you will never get that idea off the ground’ and other such nonsense will spill out of their mouths.
Don’t let the Vampires get you! Keep your dreams alive by feeding them every day.
Back in the Day
It got me thinking though of all the people that are just living their lives ‘Back in the Day’ you know all the Al Bundy’s of the world. Captain of the high school football team or head cheerleader. Then life for them just stopped. All they do is reminisce about the past. I have met other people who are in their sixties or seventies and life seems to have just really started for them.
Remember to live in the present moment and you can begin to build a nostalgia for the future. Life just keeps getting better if you let it.
Way back in the day
Making a Life or Death Decision in 30 seconds or less
Getting ready for my first jump
It was a beautiful day. Everything was fine when I jumped out of the airplane. I was not brand new to skydiving but I certainly was no seasoned pro. It was my 20th jump. I had about a minute of the free fall. If you have never experienced free fall it is one of those amazing intense experiences that no description can fully explain!
I deployed my parachute and noticed it had not opened fully. The slider was up and the line was twisted. I followed the procedure to try to clear it by bicycle kicking then pulling on the risers. It did not clear and I was losing altitude fast! I kept trying to clear. I had to make a decision. I could cut away from my main chute go back into free fall and hopefully my reserve would deploy correctly. If not I could try to land the halfway opened chute- maybe I would live. I probably would crush a lot of bones but I might live. The problem was I wasn’t sure if I knew how to open the reserve. I had practiced it over and over again but I had never done it for real. The procedure had actually been ingrained in my muscle memory. I was no longer even consciously aware I knew how to do it. And what if the reserve malfunctioned then I would certainly be dead.
As I approached the 2000ft mark I knew I had to make a decision. A calm quiet voice spoke in my mind ”It’s now or never.” Time slowed down, the world took, on a strange glow, I was now in a flow state. I pulled the quick release, arched my back. I re-entered freefall! I pulled the reserve cord without a problem. The next 4 seconds were clearer in my mind than entire months of my life. Time moved painfully slow as the reserve opened fully. With less than 900ft to spare I steered down and into the wind for a hard but safe landing.
The whole incident took less than 30 seconds yet it seemed like a lifetime and very well could have been.
Sometimes you have the luxury to hem and haw all you want. Sometimes you have to just make a decision and have faith in the execution!
Motivating Yourself doesn't have to be Torture
Me waterboarding Creative Loafing reporter Alex Picket. Courtesy St Pete Times
Once again our nation is talking about the harsh interrogation tactic of Waterboarding.
What baffles me is if we are so mindful about how enemy combatants are treated why are so many people willing to torture themselves? Especially when they are trying to get motivated!
Think about it? People have a tendency to forcefully try to motivate themselves to do something. When they resist they’ re own badgering they beat themselves up and make themselves feel guilty for not doing what they told themselves they had to do.
Have you ever been guilty of this? I know I have.
As intelligent, creative individuals of free will many of us have a tendency to rebel against authority figures. Even if that figure is ourselves. So what is the solution?
Well I would like to suggest a couple of ideas;
1) state your goals in a toward fashion instead of an away from. In other words say what you do want not what you don’t want.
2) When you are telling yourself what to do avoid the use of necessity words ( must, have to, ought, shall, should,won’t, will not, shall not,can not) after all there is nothing you really have to do ,except take another breath. Make it a nice deep one while you are at it. Use words of positive possibility(may, might, could, can). That way you at least know you have a choice and having a choice is always better than no choice.
3) Talk nicely to yourself. We all use internal dialogue to give ourselves instructions. Make sure you are not speaking in the voice of your parents or worse an Ex. Use a nice soothing tonality when you talk to yourself. You are a person too. You deserve to be treated well.
If you don’t do something you intended its o.k.; its not the end of the world.
P.S. Special thanks to Wendy Godmere for very publicly reminding me not to torture myself. The book is beginning to crystallize!
The Tower & the Treasure
Once upon a time, in a place far far away…
there was a sheer mountain…
…and on top of the mountain was a magical singing tower…
…inside the tower were piles of magificant treasure!
O.k. it was not so long ago. It is not so far away especially if you live in Florida.
The mountain wasn’t so sheer. Yes we do have a mountain in Florida (well sort of)
And the singing tower is the treasure itself! Even the surrounding garden is inspiring.
It is one of those hidden treasures that for those of us in Florida is in our own back yard. I have met so many people that will save up for five years to go see some monument in Europe but have have not seen this magnificent piece of architecture right here. It reminds me of that story Acres of Diamonds. The man searched the world over for treasure when it was on his own farm the whole time.
If you like reading biographies of the ultra-suuccessful Edward Bok is certainly worth studying. Bok tower is worth seeing. It is one of the magical places that bring you back to when you were a kid and you still believed in magic, princesses and all those wonderful things. It is right outside of Lake Whales FL. The picture of the tower is a link to the website if you want to look into it more.
P.S. Remember the hidden treasures in your back yard.
Biting off more than you can chew
It was suggested to me by a well meaning friend that with a new project I had started I might have bitten off more than I could chew.
That’s good! When we talk about expanding your comfort zone this what we mean. You take on things that are currently outside your skill set. Then you learn by doing which is the most effective way build your learning into muscle memory.
If you think you might have bitten off more than you can chew just ask yourself…
Am I Hungry?
I believe I can fly!
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.">
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video. I was at a workshop a couple of weeks ago and we were discussing the difference between an abundance or success consciousness and a poverty consciousness. The jist of what was being said is that if you train your brain to have a success consciousness you can do anything you want. As we were talking, this guy with this really whinny, nasally voice stood up and said “You can’t do anything! You can’t fly, not without an airplane!” So this week’s video clip is yes, me flying. And yes I am flying around a room without an airplane, wires or any mechanical device attached to my body, which was his stated criteria for not being able to fly.
The point is if you develop a success consciousness your brain will automatically look ways you can do things instead of reasons why you can’t.
This video is from Skyventure in Orlando. It is a big wind tunnel that actually blows you up in the air. It’s designed to train skydivers but it is great fun even if you have never been skydiving.
Diving with Great Whites
Gansbaai South Africa.
It was late in the afternoon. I was sick I was tired and beginning to get that feeling I had failed. When I was a young kid my cousin had taken me to the movie JAWS. While most people having seen that movie decided they would never get in water deeper than the bathtub I decided I wanted to see a great white in person, up close. When I found out I would be in South Africa anyway I jumped on the chance.
I had gone through a logistical nightmare to try to arrange the shark dive. We would only be in Capetown two days so it was now or never. So while it was still dark out we set out on a grand adventure.
Six hours after setting anchor I had long since grown used to the smell of blood. We had been out on the water since early morning dumping blood overboard about every five minutes. The only problem was the worlds largest predatory fish was apparently shy. Finally about a half hour hour before we had to return to shore we spied a fin. Then abruptly in front of us a 16ft+ Great White materialized out of the shadows. Before I knew it I was in the water face to face with the Apex Predator! He passed by the cage several times. Amazingly for such a big animal they move so fluidly. A creature very comfortable in its own skin and at one with its environment. So confident, so powerful. It would disappear from one side then materialize from a completely different direction. After passing under the cage it turned toward me. We looked into each others eyes and then he charged the cage. I grabbed the handles so if he rammed the cage my arms would flail outside into a waiting maw. At the last second possible the shark turned and swam back into the shadows from where it came. This was the most exhilarating experience ever. It had all the marks of a good success story. I had beaten the odds just to get the chance to do this and just when it seamed all was lost it happened. To me the reward was very much worth the risk.
One of the reasons why we take risk is when you are in an extreme situation your Adrenalin kicks in and you go into what some people call a “flow state” and other people call “The zone” When you’re in this zone you are concentrating on what you are doing. You are not second guessing yourself. There is just the experience and then a sense of euphoria when its done.
I have interviewed dozens of successful Entrepreneurs. The one thing that they consistently say contributed to their success above all else is their ability to take risk. That is one of the reasons why so many people who do crazy things like skydive, mountain climb, and get in the water with sharks. The operative metaphor of: If I can do this I can do anything! There are entire personal development courses based around this. If you can walk across a bed of burning hot coals of course you can start your own business.
If you like me want have a more rich and rewarding life you are going to have to take risk. Now you don’t have get in the water with sharks, that’s my trip. Do things to get outside your comfort zone. Especially things that propel you toward your goals. Today is a great day to make an adventure!
Do you choose Adventure?
Prepping to cage dive
Life is meant to be an adventure. I meet so many people out there that are not living the adventure their lives deserve to be. They don’t even know that they deserve a life of adventure so to make up for an otherwise mundane existence they instead choose to create drama in their lives. Most of the time this isn’t even a conscious choice. I want you to live a life of adventure not a life of drama. We can all get caught up in boring routine day to day activities. If we don’t pay attention to this we can get caught in a rut. This blog is as much for me as everyone else, so I remember to make each day an adventure. Realize you can choose either direction. I choose fun and adventure. What do you choose?
Next post: What I learned from diving with Great White Sharks!
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