I Better Get On It Then … Well Maybe
10 AprJust when I thought I was doing a good job of checking off items from our Sandbox Adventure List, Happiness Project, and Bucket List …
Just when I thought my latest adventure at the Fight For Air Climb was great …
Just when I thought I was getting closer to teaching my kids life lessons worth remembering …
Just when I thought I could relax a little bit because I was getting my life groove back …
Just when I thought I was building …
Someone sends me something like this.
Dude.
I can’t afford to have pauses like this, especially when I think I’m on a roll. I don’t have anything this spectacular built. I don’t even have blueprints for something like this. I mean hey if you’ve got them, good for you. Me? I’m still trying to make lemonade here and sometimes it’s pretty tasty. Other times not so much.
Legacy, huh? I haven’t really thought about that. Don’t know when I’m supposed to be thinking about it, or how often. I’m in my late thirties … I guess I better get on it then because apparently the years are short. But sometimes during these short years I wish people would remember to just relax and stop sending me reminders to carpe diem. I do a lot of carpe, but sometimes you just don’t want to carpe every second, of every minute, of every day. You need a break to relax, to reflect. You need a break to ice your knees from all the carpe you were doing the day before.
Carpe diem? Yes.
Better get on it? Yes.
Build Grand Canyons in your life? Yes.
But not today. Sometimes you just need to relax, decompress, and watch AMC.
Flipping The Switch
7 Jan“Live every week, like it’s Shark Week.” — Tracy Jordan 30 Rock.
I had never heard this before, but as I was browsing the Internet, I found this quote. And it blew me away. I gave it a double-take. You know like when a really good-looking dude or chick passes by you and you just have to look twice. It’s not even intentional or in a perverted pedophile way, you just do it because they are just so beautiful. You’re in awe of their beauty. So you do the double-take.
Well that was me … I was like wow. What a good mantra. I’m gonna have to steal it and add it to my list.

Discovery Channel‘s Shark Week
And it was even more awesome that I saw it today.
Yeah. Today.
It flipped my switch. Shark Week.
Every year you start off with great intentions, you’re on a roll, you’re ready to jump off cliffs, climb mountains, conquer the world, or go out on urban adventures. And then someone comes and just sucks the air out of your balloon. They just come with their sour comments and aura of negativity and suck it right out. And there you are … feeling crappy. I mean you love these people, you do. But sometimes, you just don’t like them. It happens.
And in most cases it’s family. And yes if you’re married or in love, it’s your dude or chick. And if you’re married with children? Dude this definitely happens at least twice a month. However, sometimes it’s work that sucks it out of you. It happens. And you go to your chocolate drawer and bust out the KitKats or Hawaiian chocolates and try to escape the moment. Sometimes it works, other times … you just need a bigger supply in the drawer.
Yeah I had one of those crappy days. Twice … back-to-back. And I was feeling the funk. Not all day, every minute of the day, just the minutes I spent with the balloon-popper.
So as I was trying to “escape” I logged onto the computer and found this quote. It was a nice surprise — an unexpected push in the right direction.
I thought … yeah. I need to snap out of this funk. One day of crappiness was bad enough, but two? Dude. I can only afford one crappy day during the week. Swim in it, absorb it, soak in it for 24 hours, but that’s it. If it’s not a death related issue, I need to squash it.
I need to live like it’s Shark Week … the highlight of the year for the Discovery Channel, where they devote an entire week to the shark, featuring everything and anything with sharks including interesting scientific facts and awesome footage of survival stories. It’s the neat stuff. It’s their best week of the year. I need to have that. I need to have a highlight-of-the-year week, or at least aim for that. I need a get psyched-for-the-week moment. I need it to be Shark Week in the Guat household, or at least on my part of the couch.
I wasted a day, no two already. I need to snap out of it. I need to be awakened with a jolt of excitement and anticipation for a new 24 hour period, for a new week. A Shark Week. I can’t be held back by the memory of a deflated balloon. I need a new memory in the morning. A positive trigger. So as I went searching for a reminder, and I found it in my son’s toy chest. It was an old mechanical shark toy we had bought at the aquarium last year. I had thought about throwing it away a while back, because they don’t play with it as much as they used to, but I’m so glad I kept it.
I put it on the nightstand, next to the alarm clock and books. I’m hoping it’ll activate my “Live like Shark Week,” mantra. I’m hoping it’ll help flip my switch in the morning.