1-Given enough time everyone will let you down. Yes. everyone. It's up to you whether or not you forgive them or if what they did was forgivable. The choice is yours, don't let a moment define a life.
2-I'll take a genuine asshole/enemy over a fake friend every time. Nothing is worse than phony people, or those who are two faced and love to gossip.
3- I wouldn't want to live in a world without music. (And if you don't listen to Gaslight Anthem you're doing music wrong. Bad music-ing)
4-While it's painstakingly obvious that the arrow of time only moves/points in one direction we all need to slow down and appreciate the moment more. Get lost in a child's laugh. Enjoy a cold beer and good times w a friend. Find someone whose smile can warm, if not melt, your heart then make them smile all the damn day. Time moves forward. The moment is gone , literally in the blink of an eye. Enjoy the fuck out of it.
5-Soul search frequently (maybe less frequently than I do lest you also become crazy like me) but don't ever do something or be with someone bc it's comfortable. Seriously.
6-Love is the most powerful, beautiful, intoxicating, crippling, painful, thing in this world. In many ways it is the ultimate irony of evolution.
7-you can't teach an idiot. That's why they're an idiot....or as Jim Jeffries said "not your child, you're child isn't stupid, your child has a learning difficulty.... That's the definition of stupid. If you have difficulty , learning, that's what stupid is! if you find it hard to put information in your head and recall it when you need it.... That's textbook stupid"
8-women deserve better (the real ones, not the trashy ones). To that end, it would be pretty amazing if they were a tad more rational (I hear you all cursing!!)
9-loyalty and trust mean everything. It's like a bridge, it may last a thousand years but, once broken, it will never be the same.
10-people don't read enough and need to look at a map every now and then. It's frightening. The 7 continents and 5 oceans is the Mendoza line, and I have "friends" who are former CPAs (not to name names) who couldn't name those and once told me Anartica was
a country not a continent. Really?!? Pre tell wtf is the capital of Antartica? And why are we allowed to be disappointed w our country's struggles in math but I'll be fucked if anyone could point out Iraq on a map!!!
11-You can't out work a bad diet. You can't, but I can haha. No seriously eat better if aesthetics are your goal. Lift heavy if strength is your goal. Less than 1% of people on earth can be incredibly ripped and incredibly strong at the same time, most of which you see earning millions of dollars every Sunday September through January. If I had to choose bw one of the other, we all know where I stand, strength is king.
12-Identify your passion. Then attack it like a rabid dog. We need more passionate people. I've been called many things in my life (some good, many bad haha) but apathetic is not that one of them. There is perhaps nothing more dangerous , to your soul and to mankind, than apathy.
13-the bravest of faces are the ones where we fake it.
14-fuck convention and "social protocol" trust your gut more often. If it says "xyz" is a dodgy fuck chances are it's true. To that end if it says you see something in someone that others don't, something good and powerful and beautiful... trust it. The heart sees what the mind cannot.
15-it is often said the eyes are the gateway to the soul. I believe the smile is the gateway to the heart. You can tell an awful lot about someone from their smile.
16-Women will never understand guys night. No matter what they say or nonsense they try to sell you. They don't understand it. Men just seem to form tighter relationships. Every guy at some point has had to break plans w his friends bc his girlfriend or wife's plans w her friends fell through, whereas the opposite rarely, if ever, happens. It's weird but true. (Every guy reading this knows it's true, every woman thinks I'm full of it. Checkmate). Moreover, women can go away for a girls beach weekend without judgment ( for the record your bf/husband LOVES this bc it gives him a legit guys weekend) but if three guys leave town together the assumption is we are doing lines of blow off a hookers body. Stop judging,...she's paying her way through law school!
17 - the only other thing I know about women is "I'm fine " or "nothing's wrong" translates loosely into English as :
"I've decided to take a passive aggressive stance for some perceived wrong doing and i am extra angry that you don't even know what it is. Rather than tell you , I am going to pout for hours effectively ruining whatever fun you planned on having for the rest of the day/night" (truest thing I've ever written)
18-I am an acquired taste.
19- we need to starting treating addiction like an illness , not a weakness. The same holds true w mental health. We can, and must, do a better job.
20- exercise is the most powerful
mood enhancer / anti depressant around. There are almost no wounds the iron can't heal.
21- healthcare needs to be blown up. Started over. A world class country shouldn't have a second rate system. I don't have all the answers but we must start with this premise :
Patient outcome is more important than anything else.
22- identify the people in life who are worth your time. The ones reaching a hand to help you up, or waking up at 5AM to come help you when you lock yourself out of your own house and it's ten below outside. Thanks Zumba. One of my fav/best people in the world (21a : Zumba will change the world. Believe it. The force is strong in this one.). The most value commodity on earth isn't gold or oil ....it's true friendship.
23- haters gonna hate
24- we need to do for more veterans. Anyone who has served our country at the very least deserves free world class health care for life.
25- education is the great equalizer. Everyone should be afforded the opportunity to it ; colleges need to become monuments to learning, wonder, and amazement...not to profit. If a university has a $19 billion endowment does it really need to cost 60k / year??
26 - I promise I'm not as angry as I look....I'm angrier.
(As the exchange goes in Avengers: How do you control it Dr Banner?
That's my secret Captain, i am always angry)
27 - time doesn't heal all wounds. That's bullshit. In time we may get better, but the scars remain and that's ok. That's part of who we are; they tell our story.
28 - if you're one of those people who rely on external motivation you will fail. If you need others to push you to train, you'll fail; if you need people to motivate you at work, you won't be successful; if you can't motivate yourself, you've already failed.
29 - I really love kids and hope I am lucky enough to have my own someday. The love I have for my little people is immeasurable. They save me from me. Id like to think I'd be a good dad, idk, but I'd try really hard and love the fuck out of them. Even when they're being little shits! I mean if they have my genes.... I, and they, are totally hosed anyway so might as well have fun with it. They've also taught me that the only thing people who truly care about you want from you is your time. Nothing is more valuable to those you love than your time. There is no substitute for a hug.
30 - I would've made a good Viking
31 - if you have to ask yourself if you love someone, you don't.
32 - 99 out of 100 people who say they will always stay in touch, or that they will never lose touch, are lying, be the one who isn't.
33 - the most powerful adversary I will ever face is me. (Heavy & high rep back squats are second).
34 - in the waning years of his life my grandfather and I spent countless hours together. He taught me so much. Above all else he told me to always keep my word. "If you tell someone you're going to do something, no matter how big or small, anything, you fucking do it". I've always tried to keep my word, especially to friends. At least once a day I can still hear him saying that. I think it was the only time I ever heard him say fuck. I think about him all the time. I can only hope he would be proud of me at least to the extent that I hold my word and value loyalty. (33a - he also always said being late is unforgivable, and arrogant. It tells people your time is more valuable than theirs. To this day I've never once been late to work, to a meeting, etc....god do I miss him).
35 - both my grandmothers taught me the value of kindness. It was fitting and ironic bc of who they married.... the two "hardest" guys I ever knew. Until writing this I never realized that , subconsciously , i may mirror my grandfather(s)outwardly and channel my grandmother(s) inwardly.
36 - despite the overwhelming odds tomorrow came......but.....
37) - life is undefeated. It wins. You die. Enjoy the ride bc you get one ticket. Better to be a bit hedonistic than years from now dying in your bed wishing you had done more.
