I got two new tattoos this week. One on my chest. One on my ribs. You can see the pictures. I had originally planned to title this week’s post “Is Benj Secretly a Gangsta” and get into a tattoo discussion, but I found something way more interesting than that this week that I want to touch on. Over the past couple of days, I have had no less than five ridiculously in-depth conversations about life with people. All ages. Male and female. Different races. All over the shop. If you know me well, you know I love this type of conversation. I’m not a shoot the breeze kind of guy. Let’s talk real life and see what comes of it. In my experience, usually some terrific takeaways.
It baffles me how many people in this world live life on defense, not offense. For some reason, that is what we have been programmed to do. Avoiding mistakes. Avoiding discomfort. Fearing the worst. So on. Get a grip folks, and go live. Make mistakes. Get out of your comfort zone. Make a list of things that you want to do or get out of life, and then devise a path to go get them. You are in charge. Not your parents. Not your boss. Not your spouse. You! I’ll give you an example. I was sitting around about 10 days ago thinking, and I was starting to get ancy. I needed a new adventure. A new challenge. A new trip. Something. Before the Carolina Panthers came into existence in 1996 I believe, I was a massive Cleveland Browns fan. They used to be awesome, and I loved the uniforms. For the past 30 years, I have wanted to go to a Browns game in Cleveland during the winter and sit in the Dawg Pound (their uber-fan section). Bippity Boppity Boo. I’ll send ya’ll some pictures from freezing cold Cleveland next Sunday as I enjoy Browns-Packers with my friend Ras. Sure, the Browns suck. Cleveland isn’t sexy. But this is something I wanted to do, and I made it happen.
Folks, it is about changing your mindset. Making decisions out of fear or places of weakness is brutal. And most people do it. As many of you know, I was/am a soccer player. A forward. Loved to score goals. Literally one of the best feelings in the world, even to this day. I play offense. That’s my mindset. I would rather win a game 5-4 than 1-0. Many will disagree with me, and that’s fine, but that simple example speaks to how I view life. I would rather get out there every day and screw up a zillion times than sit on my tail and let life come to me. If there was a penalty kick to be taken, I wanted to take it. I made 99% of them, but if I missed, who cares? It’s better than not being in the game and letting somebody else control my fate. As the late Lucille Ball once said, “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.”
I’ve heard that golf caddies are supposed to be ridiculously affirmative and positive for their player. For example, if there is water on the left and it is wide open on the right, the caddie should say “go right” instead of “don’t go left”. They mean the exact same thing, but the mindset is wildly different.
Everybody has unique things that they want to do and get out of life. Proof above. Why would anybody want to go to a Cleveland Browns (they suck) game and sit in the cold? Because I freaking want to, and I’m going to do it this week. And it is going to be awesome! Why did I want new tattoos this week? Because that is who I am and what I wanted. I freaking love them! Might someone judge me? Absolutely. But that’s on them, not me. And that’s the moral of this week’s story. Do you. Live your life. With confidence. And you’ll feel exhilarated and free.
Have a great week.-Benj
anything but khakis 