What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?
Yes, it’s Introvert time again. I am more comfortable alone than I am among a lot of people. While it’s possible to be alone in a crowd (introvert strategy here), it still comes with stress.
I also hate deadlines and the stress that comes with making it. I try to get stuff done well in advance so I don’t have to deal with it at crunch time.
Oh, and avoid family reunions as much and as often as possible.
I’m sure others have much better strategies to increase their comfort, but here’s my .02.
I’ve been on vacations as a kid, with that family growing up. I was kind of a tag along and did what my parents decided mostly. We went to the beach a lot growing up in Florida. That meant I grew up next to Disney World. Heck, we didn’t even have Disney until 8th grade for me. My memories there are of playing alone next to the ocean in my own world.
Then came vacations with a different family, my wife and kids. We traveled around the world. They were good times that I’ll remember while taking one kid fishing everywhere and the other doing anything to keep her from being bored. There was no time to recover or recharge my social battery.
Later in life I did stuff like sailfishing in Costa Rica or going to F1 in Italy and again they were good, but stressful trying to catch planes and waiting in huge crowds. I still had to rush to catch planes and was a mule hauling luggage around the world.
As always though, my introvert self comes out. Vacations where you are always on the run and trying to make everyone happy wore my social battery out to the point that I’d need a vacation to recover from vacation.
Now, I just go to the mountains where there aren’t many people and I can relax without having people acting like tourists or waiting in line. I have my stuff in my place and I can do gardening and tree trimming out in field with no one telling me what to do.
Not having the next deadline or trying to catch the next plane is my favorite.
To Answer This, let’s not confuse being religious with being spiritual. A lot of religious people are doing time and hell when they thought they were doing good on earth.
Spirituality should be the center of your life. If you accept the postulate that your soul is eternal, then spirituality becomes the focus of your life by default.
Therefore, it is a very important aspect that is a part of all of the other decisions and directions in my life. It is important to know that I’m still able to take the wrong fork in the road despite this.
While I get a lot of stuff done both physically and mentally, if there’s Formula One on TV, or Tour de France, or something interesting on the Internet it’s over for me.
It’s just how you define if it’s wasting time or something meaningful to you.
I knew in my 30s that I wanted to retire early. I enjoyed my work, but it was getting in the way of my life. I had stuff to do I still do.
So I had to prepare and live my life accordingly by these principles. Now I’m the king of retirement. I love waking up, knowing I don’t have meetings, email, texts, presentations or travel for business. Everything is paid off, and I can enjoy life more.
My mom told me she taught each of her kids financial independence, saving and spending. The rest of them are broke or died broke.
I respect people who love to work. I had a lot of other things to do in life also. I’m taking care of that now.
I will say this, when I’m passionate about something I go in Well more than 100%. It’s probably why I’ve burnt out on a lot of stuff.
Let’s see, there was the tennis phase followed by fishing and hunting, karate, competitive bike, racing and let’s not forget a bunch of mini stuff that happened between.
I did learn the lesson about passion when I was working. If you could find someone that was passionate about a subject, you didn’t need to motivate them. It was there all along.
Look, I grew up in Central Florida without air conditioning. It was summer 51 of the 52 weeks of the year.
One of the best things in life for me was getting out of that state. It may have a great political climate, growth, no state taxes and other positives, but dreading to go outside because it’s so hot isn’t worth it.
I’m almost always happy being by myself. I like others and I’m even married. Still, if I have the chance to be alone, I make that choice almost every time.
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
Since I’m in the real world, I’m happy with who I am.
But since the question was asked when I could be the guy that saves the world or the universe, there you go. If you can be a superhero at it, that’s just icing on the cake.
I don’t mean the Batman and Robin type of a friend and loyalty. I just want somebody that I know I can trust, and not betray me. It’s like your girlfriend or wife not sleeping around behind your back.
What I ask is not too much and I don’t think it’s that hard to do. I know I give that to those that are really my friends. Being an introvert, I only let a very few people to the innermost part of my life. That’s a lot for a person like me to do so respecting that isn’t too much to ask in return.
Yes, memories lots of them. I write down as much as I can remember about my life and then if something pops up, I’ll insert where appropriate.
Sure, I have stuff on the wall, pictures on the phone and even photo albums that remind me of times that I’ve spent. It’s the words that I write down though which create the more vivid image in my mind, and experience the emotion of when it happened.
I knew this was the answer 25 years before it happened. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the work that I did, but it was only a couple of stairs in Life and there were more stairs before and after.
At the end work was getting in the way of my life. I had so much going on at the time and still have so much to do.
When I was living in South Florida, I had started a family. There parts of Florida that are better than others. I was in a place that wasn’t family friendly.
I wanted to move back to the south having grown up there (south Florida is the north), So I got a job and moved to the Carolina’s.
New job, new state, new life, all in a couple of weeks, just like that.
It turned out to be one of the best moves for my family and me economically.
Now, parts of the Carolina’s have become the north. It’s like déjà vu, all over again.
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
It’s more than one time, but it’s the same thing. I got asked to do something, go somewhere or be with some people that I shouldn’t have.
It was about setting boundaries. I remember the feeling or not wanting to be there, we’re doing whatever we were doing, saying the things I said or being with the people I was with.
If I had learned to say no, instead of going with the crowd, a lot of things would’ve turned out differently. I would have gotten in a lot less trouble, not done as many stupid things and would have not been in situations I didn’t want to be in.
I learned the hard way to protect myself from these instances and people, and as a result of gotten in to a lot less trouble.
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?
San Francisco. It’s a shit hole. If I want to see homeless,destruction, crime, shoplifting, human feces on the road, moral debauchery and the woke capital of the world, I just go to Portland.
The real question is why are there places like this? To keep all of the above there, instead of coming to my state and destroying it also.
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
This is counterintuitive, but a sibling leaving was the most positive thing for me. Growing up, I had a sister that fought with my parents and caused all kinds of consternation in the house.
Fortunately, she got married early and when she left the house got quieter and all of our lives got better.
The leaving it would be my favorite thing. I instinctively knew that my best days were ahead and that those who were stellar in high school had reached their peak. They were the Al Bundy’s who would re-live high school the rest of their lives.
I’d been stuck with these losers since kindergarten and getting away from them and the town was my introvert dream.
One of my favorite things in life is closing a chapter and never going back. It started with high school.
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
When starting out in the business world I learned to see opportunities and I decided to walk through the right door.
I also ended a bad relationship from college freeing me up to get ahead. After finding out that she was cheating afterwards it confirmed that I was making the right decisions
I mixed it up. I switch between lifting weights, swimming, golf, biking, long distance, and do them all by myself. I never needed a class or a group of people to be motivated exercise.
A Mother never has an ugly baby, so everybody will have their own favorite. But for me, it’s my dog I’ve bonded with him for years.he’s my pal all day long And loyal to a fault
How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
I won Covid. I had a great time enjoying myself and not having to do stuff that I didn’t want to do. I even got to eliminate some people out of my life that needed it. I didn’t have to do social activities that were annoying.Most of all, I didn’t have to leave the house when I didn’t want to. It was a big introvert win.
When I first started working, the PC hadn’t been invented yet. I saw it as an opportunity knocking, and I ran through that door. Being in that industry allowed me to retire early and be on the cutting edge of most of technology.
The irony is, the head of the data processing department at the company I work for said there wasn’t any future in personal computers. I disagreed.
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
I’ve only learned later in life to prioritize myself for my mental sanity. A lot of my life growing up was not saying no enough it was a price I paid while growing up.
The goal I think of here is trying to set boundaries. If I’d have done it earlier in life, a lot of crap I deal with now wouldn’t be still bothering me.
What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?
I have spatial awareness and can see how things fit together. Also, as an introvert, I can read people through their body language I’ve had these all my life, but became cutely aware of them as I grew older.
What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?
It’s too permanent for me. I need a change of scenery. My thoughts and likes change too much for one. I’m not a fan of helter skelter tats either. If you’re going to do it, think it out in advance.
Let’s see, over the years it’s been fishing, hunting, karate, racing, tennis, Biking, and then there was kids and Life, and other stuff, and the next thing I knew I’ve lived in seven decades. I mostly do introvert stuff now so I get lost in my mind a lot.
What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?
Animal House, Caddyshack, Richard Pryor – Live in Concert, The entire Star Trek TOS, Captain America – The Winter Soldier, Star Trek – The Wrath of Khan, Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back, Le Mans, Avengers, Captain America – The First Avenger, Star Trek, Best of Both Worlds
Delusions of Adequacy 