Timber's Morning Coffee

WHAT?!?! I must be nuts, right? How could anyone walk away from that much money? I must have had it quite good. My life, surely , was amazing. Except, it wasn’t. Often, blogs go into depth about how toxic the work environment was. They complain about how bad the boss/manager was, or how unethical the company is. And while those things are true, this post is not about them. It’s about me. This post is about the person I became, and how I was changing, to continue working at that job. Let's dive into our responsibilities as humans. Let's talk about our ethical choices. This is a harsh light on the things that I would, otherwise, rather keep hidden. I entered the career path I was on quite by accident. I was wrapping up with some seasonal work and had no idea what I would be doing for the winter. I had my résumé up on a job site, hanging out there, not searching. And I received a phone call. The person reaching out said they had a job available and asked if I would interview for t...

 Yup. You read that right. I've been rejected for over 80 jobs. Ouch, right? I've sent my resume to over 100 different employers, like Nike, Clubhouse, Zendesk, Starbucks, Springboard, etc. I've received a stack of rejection e-mails from about 80 of them. The others didn't even bother to send a response. Before you ask, each one was individually tailored, with a different cover letter. They included all of the keywords, highlights, blah blah blah... all the things. I've had exactly one interview. Yes. Only one. I thought I did really well. Had a great conversation with the interviewer. We were both excited, and she said that she was going to recommend me for the next step. As I waited for the instructions, and waited, and waited... I finally received the rejection e-mail. The next step never came. So, what does this feel like? Unequivocally, this sucks. It bites the big one. It's a kick in the unmentionables. It feels personal. It makes me feel worthless. It lea...

All my life, I’ve had crooked teeth. Well, since my adult teeth came in, anyway. Several years ago, my mother told me that during my Senior year in high school, I was given the choice of braces, or an oboe. Guess what I chose? Yup. And I thought I was going to go on and study music. Fast forward 25 years down the road... I’ve had a few issues with my mouth. One of which was a couple of tooth abscesses due to another chronic health condition. I’ve had to undergo regular root planing/descaling a few times. Now, it’s just kind of old hat to me. This latest time, though, because of bone loss and aforementioned abscesses, I am looking at extraction of two of my upper molars. Fortunately, it’s bilateral, so I’m losing a tooth on each side. Have to look at the positive - balance, you know. I never really realized how vain I was about this. One of the things that came out of the latest appointment is that I am never going to have straight teeth. That is, if I want to keep all of my ...

It’s true. I have started a Yoga Journey (TM). Over the course of the years, I have participated in many modalities of fitness/mind/body training. I’ve done tumbling. I’ve participated in track & field. I was a cheerleader. I achieved a black belt in Tae Kwon Do/Tang Soo Do. I tried weightlifting - not a joke. (Seriously, I did, but it was absolutely hilarious.) I danced. I bought exercise bands in different levels of resistance. I did bodyweight exercises. (Not bad, but BORING!!!) I briefly thought about CrossFit, but then decided that I didn’t want to be called Bret, or wear Axe Body Spray (R). Throughout the years, I kept coming back to one thing - Yoga. I don’t know why, but it kept calling me. Perhaps, as an adolescent, it was the thought of being able to bend over far enough to self-gratify. (Don’t laugh, it’s a thing with some guys.) Maybe it was the thought of having enough flexibility to prevent injury. It might have been because I thought that I had incredible balance...

First of all, what is happiness? Let's take a look: Happiness  is a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Happy mental states may also reflect judgements by a person about their overall well-being. So, that's a step in the right direction. We now have an idea of what happiness may contain. Let's specifically look at three key-words, which boil down to two ideas. The words are: mental state  and contentment . First, contentment. Let's look at a further definition of this. One source defines it as a mental or emotional state that is satisfied with things as they are. WHOA. That's huge! So, to be content, it mean that we are satisfied with things as they are. That means, the body, the environment, the job, the spouse and any other number of things. Contentment implies a certain level of acceptance. Truly, I believe that it is a daily occurrence. We accept that where we ...

For a long time, I have wanted to start paring down the things in my life. I've been an ultra-consumer before. I've wanted to have the latest and greatest everything. At one point in my life, I counted my shoes and I think I came up with 90 pair! What the hell am I going to do with that many shoes? How many of them did I really even wear? Well, to answer that question, not many. Over the course of the last few years, I've been able to pare down my shoe collection to maybe 12 pair. That, in itself, was a huge challenge for me. I have a tendency to be somewhat of a hoarder and it's been very difficult for me to let go of anything. Yes, my environment is clean and everything is "organized" and put away. No, there are no piles and pathways. My floor space is open and my home is neat. However, there have been certain things over the course of my life that I haven't been able to give up. Things of sentimental value are the hardest. But slowly, I have been gi...