Friday, July 31, 2009

No way...not again and again and again...

Everywhere we go, be it up, down, to the side or around…somewhere along the trail there’s always going to be a single tone from a passerby who shouts, “It’s time to create new habits.”



Habit…it almost sounds like hamper.

Maybe that’s why we stand ten to fifteen feet away from the clothes collector and shoot a wad of whatever’s in our hand high into the air and hit or miss, we move about our day.



Is there such a thing as making a lasting change? What must it be like to master one?



Billions are spent to feed our need especially when it comes to weight... even Oprah admits to having a difficult time playing that game of fate.



It seems so simple, just thirty days are required, keep doing something healthy and poof it becomes a great habit. Sadly, the thirty day rule is nothing more than a marketing scheme to hoist more bucks from your pocket.



In Tae Kwon Do we perform the front kick, side kick and round house over and over—so much so this modern day A.D.D. society we’ve created ends up walking away from the sport because Hollywood has trained the mind body and soul that flips, chops and spins are not only cool but lately the actors in martial arts films can fly.



You can’t leap into the sky and knock your enemy off his horse unless you grasp the basics. Learning to lift the knee while pivoting allows your hip to reach out and strike the attacker like a whip. What? Exactly… Radio is no different, to an outsider it seems so easy to walk into a room, pop open the microphone and talk and talk. Now do it six days a week using a tone that inspires listeners to want to stay. What? Exactly…



Banking, grocery store veggie man, mom and dad, school bus driver…none of it is as easy as it looks.



Creating new habits is painful! In the end they must reach a particular point of making a lifelong lasting improvement. Rule number one: Find someone you trust in the way of inspiring and not ripping you apart—make your team player a voice of care by recognizing the purpose of your change never turning it into a personal competition.



Habits are horribly difficult to conquer because we tend to over produce. When we discover something that’s working we want to add to the plan. One habit at a time please! Your goal should never be 100% failure. You can safely attain the 80% mark if you heave your bottom up one mountain at a time.



Is it stupid to choose a simple goal? I mean come on, I just had a heart attack, the first thing totally taken out of the picture was movie theater popcorn. Dude! That’s unforgettably unfair! Who writes these rule books? I am now meatless, no sodas or power drinks and more importantly no more middle of the afternoon Snickers bars.



My body should be screaming like a two year old. Not at all…



When creating new habits make your single goal simple to reach. The idea is to convince that child inside that you can win the battle for change. For now, do something that makes you a champion. I’ve replaced my popcorn and power drinks with a better way to eat…grazing. Small portions of the good stuff spread throughout the day. Once tucked away in the darkness of a theater not a single urge to splurge consumes my vivid imagination.



Goals should be measurable. I have a 3rd degree black belt test scheduled for October 18th. To guarantee my place in the lineup is going to require a measurable set of tiny steps starting first with walking one mile a night, then two then three. No running! Walking…



In a world fed by rivers of change the idea of staying consistent flat out stinks. Very few like doing the same thing twice and it gets worse when you suddenly find yourself having to bring it to life weeks at a time. Boredom steps up, shakes your hand and gives your heart and determination every reason known to man to back out of the plan. Being consistent creates a path through a forest that would drop a tree on your head in heart beat but if you take the time to study your daily environment your surroundings become part of the end result. Make everything count. Watch everything.



As stupid as it sounds keep a written journal…on July 18, 19, 20 and 21st are the pen scratches I poked into a once living tree that simply states something isn’t right. I’m having horrible pain in my throat and believe its X Y and Z. I overdosed on over the counter meds to help heal my assumption. When the 22nd rolled into play…it was in the hospital I did lay. Keeping a journal documents your travels so that you can go back and study your daily efforts and not make the same mistake twice.



If you’re overwhelmed at work stop checking your e-mails every five minutes and when writing never, never, never write more than five sentences. Get out of your chair every fifteen minutes and walk around the office. It replenishes your body with fresh oxygenated blood. Take the clutter off your desk. It’s hard to shop at a cluttered store at the mall why should you expect your imagination to work in something similar. Don’t spend six hours cleaning your house on the weekend…fifteen minutes a day is an amazingly positive way to stay incredibly happy.



Change, challenges, goals, new ideas, fresh start, motivating, inspiring, affect versus effect, something you’ve read up against the things you read. There are three guarantees you get on this path, life, death and a daily sunrise. Outside of that…it’s a matter of choice.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, July 30, 2009

If you were a movie...

Where in your life do most of your favorite songs suddenly become the soundtrack? Be it love, heartache, victory or challenge, the marks left by musical poets make their way through your system quicker than Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol or a fresh order of hot French fries smothered in chili and cheese.



A program director once explained to me that the average radio listener’s most memorable collection of tunes is connected to their final year in high school—a life event that requires no cash to get back to, no friends to quickly gather or gigantic hardcover books with wacky quotes from people you no longer know.



The thin scratches of a musical poets pencil or pen meeting a sheet of paper envelopes your imagination into seeing pictures a camera could never capture.



Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Grease and Saturday Night Fever revolutionized what we feel within the walls of being inside by means of taking subjects fed by negativity and turning it into a reason to dance. Seriously, peel away the tunes from each of these films and your nicely designed mask to which you hide behind will be delivered the 5 o’clock news.



Picture Walter Cronkite delivering these stories:



A Midwestern city was shattered today when school officials and religious leaders vigorously reinforced their plan to ban young adults from dancing. Students have chosen to protest what elected officials believe is the best way to keep their city free of unruly behavior. As one official said, “Dancing leads to bad things.” Which has been proven true three states south at Lake Lure where a young woman who became pregnant participated in an illegal abortion. In California today teenage drag racing is responsible for a bad crash on the cities concrete river bed. Reports from the Los Angeles Police Department say the Grease Lighting race reveals a growing problem within the ranks of rival high school gangs. And finally, was it suicide or accidental? Drug abuse and alcoholism could be the reason behind last night’s bridge death. A small group of young partygoers admitted to leaving their vehicles to play on the bridge when without notice one of them slipped falling several feet to the river below. Witnesses say he wasn’t dealing with life in a way of proper acceptance and elected to take a leap of faith.



Ouch!



Bruce Springsteen penned out:



One step up and two steps back.
It's the same thing night on night
Who's wrong, baby
Who's right?
Another fight and I slam the door on
Another battle in our dirty little war.
When I look at myself I
don't see the man I wanted to be
Somewhere along the line I
slipped off track
I'm caught movin' one step up
and two steps back.



Where does your soundtrack begin and does it have an ending? Within the avenues of music being readily available has your selection of sound evolved with you?



My senior year in high school can’t be documented because it was blanketed with the extremely early stages of a radio career. While the world was jamming to April Wine’s Say Hello and Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, I was spinning Eddie Arnold, Charlie Pride and Faron Young on a local daytime station KOYN.



Instantly radio people are shot into a different zone which zaps our personal soundtracks completely off the map. Our life events are nothing more than radio stations. Ask me about Madonna and I’ll give you a 59 hour story about my journey south from Montana to Carolina to do radio. Throw on Culture Club and I instantly latch onto everything that was KOOK radio. Bob Seger got me in big trouble one night because I played two of his songs back to back and the program director was still up to hear it. Baby Got Back puts me at a radio station club appearance and I remember thinking, “Wow this would be a great tune for our station.”



If Springsteen once complained about having over 500 television channels but nothing to watch…I must admit the juke box in my heart barely has enough room to skip…sadly each tune played only invites radio memories. Boston’s More than a Feeling into Foreplay and Long Time bought me nearly 15 minutes to run outside the radio station to play Frisbee. Anything from Def Leppard shoots me back to the night I was on the air talking to listeners about Joe Elliot’s car accident. I can’t play Time from the Alan Parsons Project without crying because that was the night a caller with suicidal thoughts was linked to the police department and I kept playing the song on the air to calm them down.



Music isn’t just music; it’s the fuel that sends our engine down the highway. What makes it special rarely has anything to do with anyone but ourselves. After thirty years in radio I still reach for the knob to crank it up like a teenager. I sing so loud buzzards circle the car begging for me to drop. Discovering Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Beyounce, Pitbull and T-Pain makes everyday a summer day.



As for a soundtrack? Call me Mr. Conceited but my favorite tunes are still those that somehow slipped from my writing hand onto a clean sheet of notebook paper then somehow ended up being recorded but never shared. Which is why I try to convince so many to write; there’s something about the way we speak from the inside out that makes everything that surrounds us worth holding onto another day.



Your life will change the moment someone reads a piece of poetry back to you. Don’t judge their delivery…just breathe. Music begins with the right notes…those you take when life events become part of your legacy.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Movies that match reality...

Caught the new Adam Sandler flick Funny People…old comedian meets new generation, opening with a doctor shattering the punch line by telling one of the nations best known comics he’s got an incurable disease to which he doesn’t want released to the public so he hires Seth Rogen to keep his stage appearance on track by writing jokes that make people laugh.



Interesting concept…during an age of faceless Facebooks and not enough characters available to map out true Arroe styled emotional adventures on Twitter, are we earmarked to slide into an uncontrollable relationship with purchased friendships?



Wow! This could be a new inventive way to put America back to work!



“Hello I’m Willie Bosfingerstattle and your mama hired me to get you through this flubby dumpy hippity hop hop shim bop til you drop moment…”



Rogen sacrifices his personal life at $15 hundred a week to make sure Sandler has someone to talk to and create with day and night, eventually landing him in a heartless situation of destroying an innocent family to guarantee his boss a hand to hold within the limits of true love.



If you were hired to be someone’s friend and or creative partner…would you set limits? For six G’s a month, how far are you willing to push your individual beliefs aside to guarantee your employer total success?



Sandler’s adoption ends up crashing forcing theater goers to rethink the realms of their reality…although most of us can’t fork out fifteen smacks of cash a week for proper support without feedback we do use crazy issues to haul in a load of give me some love. Suddenly you’re left with what author Julia Cameron calls the Wet Blanket syndrome…what seems far out, cool and incredible for both parties leads each unguarded trail toward an addiction called co-dependency—the fear of being alone.



Easily injured and often times when you innocently don’t expect it, the idea of sharing true support suddenly becomes dead weight causing more damage to the situation than the original condition.



Although the film doesn’t spell it out, Sandler’s bachelor life tackles the subject of love, was his relationship with Leslie Mann just like that of Seth Rogen…had he purchased the girl in his life and once over challenged he escaped the game plan but doing what most bosses are inbred to perform…keep accepting resumes.



Are you surrounded by true love from family and friends or are you the big buyer?



The clubs and circles you belong to…are the relationships you spend hours embracing the end result of a Bank of America check that’s never bounced? Until my most recent sickness, I absolutely felt this way about the school of martial arts I attend. It took a strange twist of fate to open my eyes and heart which will serve as an incredibly strong foundation to continue building an object called real versus fake.



Seth Rogen assumed he was hired by Sandler because he wrote incredible jokes. A few pages into the script he learned of the incurable sickness and what it would personally cost to keep his job. To continue gaining access to the top dollar amount he was forced to break free of those who stood with him during the struggles while taking on a life and style fed by rivers of well exposed Hollywood fame. Until the day the elements that make up fantasy took on a new face.



Feel like this is your mess? Put yourself through the test. Don’t give expecting to receive and don’t receive expecting to give. Mel Gibson proved his passion for the people in Brave Heart by strongly leading them into areas that required something money can’t buy.



America is currently resting within the shadows of vulnerability…it’s completely natural to feel wanted while doing everything to prove your worth by delivering value. Those friendships that whick wack-ity whack whacked out for no apparent reason might not have sustained the pressure of everyday because somewhere along the way like all things we purchase at Wal-Mart…it breaks.



If you have receipts in your pocket in whose name do they belong? If you can no longer read the numbers on the paper...call up that past friend and softly say, "Can we do it again? Except this time, lets be true friends."



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mr. Blackwell doesn't live here...

I get in more trouble for almost never noticing the little things. Rarely do I spot a spot on someone’s shirt or pants, can never tell if it’s an art statement or your shoes are truly untied and can’t tell the difference between an engagement and wedding ring.



I blame it on my stepfather Joe who constantly knocked me upside the head if my vision traveled anywhere beyond looking into someone’s eyes.

I make a great booger buddy. I’ll whip that natural disaster into clean up mode inside two point six seconds. Can’t be my peripheral vision, I’m like an owl with a head that twists ten times around but that doesn’t mean I’m quick to note when you’re wearing two different styles of socks or earrings.



Maybe the hidden agenda is based on not introducing embarrassment. Lord knows that’s happened to me a few thousand times in Tae Kwon Do. Nearly a third degree black belt and I still wear my uniform inside out. There are no tags that say, “Place butt here.” Students have no problem racing up to me and blurting out, “Ha ha ha! Messed up again radio man.”



So I ask, what is the best method of exposing a dysfunction in the junction?



Fashion manners expert Anne Marie Sabbath must have gone to Arroe’s step-daddy school, “Stay focused on the conversation. Never put someone in an embarrassing moment. In time, those who’ve been infected will look in the mirror and spot the spot and feel less evil toward them self because you made no mention of it.”



But what if you attend a summertime business gathering and right off the bat you notice another person sporting the same outfit?



This you can handle, “Wow I love your taste in clothing!”



Yep…by making one single light moment out of the situation it puts you, the other person and those attending the party at ease.



One of the biggest fashion crashers in more recent times is the introduction of pierced tongues. Personally I’ve never had one but a few broadcasting students have marched through my studio seeking an internship. Was I wrong to say, “Leave the metal for 99.7 The Fox?”



I can barely talk a straight line with my tongue, how could someone with a slender tube expect to share an undisturbed conversation with radio listeners if their speech pattern is being interrupted by foreign objects?



Guess what? Anne Marie says, “Arroe is wrong! Keep personal tastes and decisions completely out of the scene. In time the pierced up-and- comer will realize nobody else in the company is sporting such jewelry and will automatically learn to take it out.”



If I had just listened to my stepfather Joe, “You can never get in trouble if your eyes are locked onto their eyes. Look nowhere else.”



Steal his art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, July 27, 2009

Batman is out of business...

How often do you fly from the streets of everyday onto a horribly overcrowded highway totally ignoring the bright yellow signs that softly whisper, “Merge?”

It doesn’t say honk, holler or sharply twist the steering wheel into a wall of well presented traffic…it says, “merge.” No morning passes that our radios are blanketed with traffic reports about someone who forgot to follow an easily spotted single and extremely simple rule…merge.

But where does ignoring the “merge” sign begin? The mirror…

Michael Jackson constantly saw a man in the mirror and penned out years worth of lyrics that creatively offered fans and listeners every chance to do one thing… change.

On a highway, merging means carefully changing lanes. Most of us use our mirrors to make the escape from the back roads to openness of four lanes and no traffic lights. Making the correct lane changes gets you places and it’s at that point we come face to face with our search and rescue as to why we have stopped merging.

The ego asks, “How can I make the current situation fulfill my current needs?”

Author Eckhart Tolle follows with a rather deep perception that 99.9% of us will not merge slowly into. We’d rather yank the wheel of the bright red beat up Ford pickup across ten lanes of traffic to get away from it.

Presence is a state of inner spaciousness. While there, we ask how to respond to the needs of this situation. When reacting most don’t merge with the ideas connected to new dimensions, the quick fisted decision is to shoot up then out in ways that allow others to remember us for it.

Being alert as well as aware of mirrored images puts you inside the right action; once achieved there’s a sense of stillness. Take the most recent unemployment numbers in Chester County, South Carolina it’s nearly 22% which is almost at depression levels. The average consumer, coworker, company and church leader is fully aware of the current situation but because of unheard of national bailouts, stimulus checks, government medical and food programs the idea of merging into this unspoken crisis on our free soil feels more like a fishtail whipping effect a car makes when diving between the presence of others on the very highway we’re speeding 101 mph down.

Suicide numbers are up 45%. Robbery and murder are taking place in once assumed safe zones and its happening to everyone not just a select few but every walk of life.

The right action isn’t to spin the car around and solidly rely on non-profit organizations; a slipped out of place economy is quickly forcing them to become nearly obsolete. The fulfillment Tolle speaks of, the instant warmth of an open palm pulling your life and challenges back in line is disappearing, funds are down and so are the volunteers whose valuable time and energy is now spent surviving their personal journeys.

Like a vein meant to give blood, the presence of our current situation has begun to fade. The idea of trying to become part of it no longer exists. Like it or not we’re being introduced to inner spaciousness. Rather than listen to it in ways of creating stronger paths to higher grounds, look around you…the visual is earth shattering in the way of developing the proper attitude to survive but at a cost of party til you drop.

A recent newspaper article printed a story about the younger business men and women renting $400,000 dollar homes in groups of five and six people at a rate of one thousand dollars per. They're living the high life without realizing why the home is available.

Even if lawmakers could fine tune a plan that doesn’t hike up federal and state taxes while harnessing a medical plan meant for all…the end result is still a large number of very capable people torching the trails leading to the highway without having compassion for the drivers already there.

The idea of merging into a new America doesn’t fit well with those who’d rather hit control alt delete on a computer. Why should we stop at a four way when they’ve made life easier with roundabouts?

The right action isn’t to pull out 100% then make way for the new and improved. Your parents and their parents crafted a country designed to rehabilitate its presentation. Where there is presence, a need to become part of it will forever remain. Basically meaning we want but very few are willing to give.

So we’ve entered the realm of inner spaciousness. Without it silence will become the calm before the storm, the giant billowing fluffy clouds that rip through the atmosphere and straight to the moon, the circular motion of gathered raindrops that bring 200 mph winds to the gulf coast, a headache that woke you last evening and now its taken over your entire being.

A small group of Pilgrim’s sat around a large wooden table…tired of high taxes and their freedom of religion constantly being attacked; they fought and fought and fought. Until one day when they no longer had the energy to sink an idea of survival within, a place of silence created a new wave to chase, “I know…lets go to this new land called America.”

A few hundred chapters past the front page families connected to the Pilgrim’s try daily to make their way through the upheaval of overspending, an addiction to shopping and the idea all things are brilliant if the price is right. Now that we’ve been tested and change hasn’t taken place…hundreds if not millions are locked in the knees wondering whose dreams are we really chasing?

What if we stopped darting through traffic and took up merging? If you’re taking credit for the good times felt in the 1980’s and 90’s that’s ego. The goal is to make sure each level of spaciousness presented no longer sits obscured. Put more power in a willingness to merge.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, July 17, 2009

Shockingly I sit silenced by a movies vision...

Caught the world premiere of 500 Days of Summer last night. It’s the midseason heart throbber opening nationwide in August that wastes no time informing fans of actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zoey Deschanel that this is no love story.



Summer movies have an incredible way of pushing lyrics beyond the two hours required to watch them. Darth Vader reached to hold the hand of a totally beaten Luke Skywalker and compassionately said, “I am your father.”



In the Urban Cowboy, Debra Winger tipped her Texas cowboy hat back and passionately asked John Travolta, “Are you a real cowboy?” That single line set the country music world on fire creating the biggest movement in music since Disco and the Beatles.



Summer Lovers 1982 starring Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannan

and Valerie Quennessen, “Jealousy doesn’t show how much you love someone, it shows how insecure you are."



500 Days could very easily change the face of time with a single line, “When I woke up this morning my eyes suddenly realized…”



Don’t just say it…let it sink in, swish it around your floppy ears then let it zip zap past your nose hairs then straight down your dry throat toward what the Koreans in Tae Kwon Do call your dan jung…in Western culture it’s the soul.



When I woke up this morning my eyes suddenly realized _________________ (fill in the blank)



Scene conclusion: Writer takes a moment to share long pause for readers to develop a personal thought.























Very rarely does a flick stick to the roof of your mouth like this one…don’t be shocked when you wrap things up this summer with a newer way to express romance.



I love us…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Happiness isn't located in a pill...

The most difficult part of this current national financial crisis isn’t the constant crashing of banks and businesses. We haven’t seen the worst of times until the day we decide to move forward. I don’t mean in the way of borrowing more money from China then giving it away to car companies, bio fuel developers and sun robbers who act as if they have the answer for everything but a cloudy day.



No family walks the streets we speak who hasn’t been affected by the disappearance of the good times. The ache we feel and or felt will be carried to the next three generations infecting their lives with the negative energies we’ve given birth to.



I’ve argued for years with brokers and financial managers about slamming barely above minimum wage income into thoughts and ideas they project as profitable. Rather than hunting down the truths of an industry gone awry, we gambled away our life and style just as my father did as a child. He did it with cards and alcohol while stock market dreamers and assumed leaders hoisted their personal revenue on the idea of convincing the common person in America to invest in their educated guess because Social Security wouldn’t be there when sitting face to face with old age.



Call it what it is…financial terrorism. Fear was generated by masters of a craft used to gain access to levels of play that's left millions homeless and starving. What you feel today will be with your family well beyond the chapters your writing hand will create.



How can you change it?



Focus on the present. Get your heart out of the past and your future locked on the next thirty seconds. To recuperate requires a sense of calm, productivity and effectiveness combined with sanity. Attaining that as part of your daily performance isn’t going to be found in a book, on a billboard, Craig’s List or someone’s twittered message.



Focusing on the present needs your undivided attention. It needs to be practiced everyday. Your goal is to reach beyond meta-thinking: Thinking about what you’re thinking about. Without notice, you’re no longer in the present.



I bumped into several different mental exercises to keep your feet on the ground while reaching for the stars:



When you eat…just eat. Do one thing at a time. Don’t read or watch television while shoveling beans and rice in the trap door. If you splatter food on your shirt or pants, keep eating. Teach yourself to enjoy the flavor, the texture and whoa…who left the bone in the fish? If you were multitasking during dinner your teeth would’ve gnawed right through it.

Be aware. Know what you are thinking and how you react while thinking it. Awareness invites positive change. This is why I write every morning before sunrise, the mission is to create space for my already filled closet. Get it out or face the stinky socks and lost pair of undies alone.

Be gentle. Its 100% natural to live in the past. Accept it when you’re stopping by for a visit but gently get away. Julia Cameron says it best when describing that inner voice…it’s a two year old child with a king sized fit about to take off.
Exercise. It’s a pain to feel the pain. It’s complicated to reach beyond that urge to give up. It’s well documented that my journey through martial arts has nothing to do with kicks and punches but rather keeping the body and mind I own outside the school moving forward. My 3rd degree black belt test in October is a day of celebration in the way of saying thanks for getting out of the past and into the present.

Daily routines. Locate them and remain forever loyal. Writing on this computer screen is part of my daily routine. Keeping in constant communication with the worlds greatest sales staff is part of the plan. Designing commercials that penetrate a listeners thought process didn’t happen overnight…the journey begins with learning to listen and that’s priority one on my daily routines. Figure out your strengths and lift them to the top of the Pop Charts like Casey or Ryan Seacrest.

Send reminders. Put up a sticky note or send yourself an email. Focus on the present. Even if you instantly toss it into the trash…doesn’t matter the effects of your cause have already entered your process of growing.

There is no failure. From every mess up something new is unveiled. Ted Williams is the greatest hitter of all time in baseball. He’s a hero who fought in two different wars. Although he’s gone, his family’s current confrontation no longer rests on sports collectible robbers who fake his signature on baseballs and jerseys but rather the misconstrued concept that Ted is the frozen man. Yes his body has been preserved but how it got there and remains has nearly erased everything great about what this man once stood for. Members of his family believe it was a horrible mistake but through it a once shattered family is bonding in the way of redesigning how their father, uncle and grandfather should forever be remembered. Maybe Ted got his wish…for everyone to get along and love each other beyond this generation.

Put your focus on the present…songs have an incredible way to take you back to that special place but in the end you’re going to end up singing Elvis, “Are you lonesome tonight.”



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Generating human sounds...

Hiccups…what on earth are they and why does such an energy buster come with two “C’s” and not just one. Because a hiccup's real name is hic cough: A contraction in the diaphragm that repeats several times a minute. It takes place when an abrupt rush of air rushes into your lungs causing the epiglottis to close.



This could be the reason mom always told us to breathe with our mouth shut. Forget about swiping flies from mid-flight, she didn’t want to lie in bed all night listening to her kids hiccup every three point six seconds.



Inside the ranks of medicine hiccups are called synchronous diaphragmatic flutter.



Wow! This explains why doctors carry big egos and force their customers to fork out twenty dollar co-pays…the giant words they use when describing something so simple require thick dictionaries and bifocals rounded on the edges like Harry Potter. They pay by the letter!



So what’s the best cure for those irritating jolts? The big wigs with white coats and stethoscopes claim we need not waste their time; in most cases the hicky goops conclude simply by forgetting about them. No way! First you have to feel embarrassed and then you laugh like kids before holding your breath until you become blue...and all we had to do was act like an adult and ignore them?



However, there are a number of unreliable treatments for casual cases of hiccups. Home remedies include fright or shock, a paper bag or drinking water…I’ve even heard upside down. Yeah right, try telling that to the humungous honker above my upper lip, “Dude, you’re gonna get wet…try not to breathe or hiccup while the water is being dumped into the body. David Hasseloff wasn’t a real lifeguard and Pamela Lee Anderson doesn’t have time in her day to save lives."



What about hiccups that hurt? Does that signal something worth looking into? When you suddenly jerk the body is put on alert. The first one though comes with no warning. Muscle injuries are extremely common while hiccupping. Here I thought I was just a big drama queen.



Three minute body quakes don’t equate inside the books they call records. Some of the most notable include American man Charles Osborne who went nonstop for 68 years.



In 2007, a teenager from Florida hiccuped 50 times a minute for more than five weeks. It was later learned her situation may have been caused by Tourette syndrome.


If an abrupt rush of air rushes into your lungs why aren’t we burping? Or are they one in the same? Trust me when I say I can’t say the entire alphabet while hiccupping.

Those described as burping experts claim the irritating sounds come from two completely different areas of the body. The actions began when animals were created, but didn’t evolve into the realms of importance until kids started doing it in public.


This could be the reason why dogs aren't quick to declare victory on the things they do. Doctor's would be forced to invent brand new eighteen letter long words and theories.


A burp is nothing but air escaping from the stomach. When you eat or drink, you don't just swallow food or liquids. You also swallow air.



The medical term for a burp or belch is "Eructation."


Dictionaries describe eructation as the voiding or getting rid of gas or of a small quantity of acid fluid from the stomach through the mouth.

Wait! Mother Nature does this all the time! We see giant curved tubes leaping from the ground along side roads and highways. Guess this means burping is cool again!


You think it’s a brilliantly fun way to make it through a boring day until giant green pet bird tries to get in on the action. Ernie loves to dance, sing and burp. The second you open a bottle of soda his lower tones squelch out a king sized sound barrier breaker. Took him to the bird doctor and the man in white calmly said, “Birds mimic their humans. Now give me one twenty nine ninety nine.”


Too much air! If it’s headed to the stomach you’re going to burp. If the lungs get too much too quickly expect gobs and gobs of instantly shaped body created shock treatments.


Outside of midsummer laughter and fun inside the car or somewhere in the backyard hiccups and burps serve no purpose. It’s pretty much air escaping the inner boundaries. It is said there are poetry circles in some parts of the country that feature burp-kus…a style of reading in front of many while delivering huge amounts of soda generated rumbles that obviously came from the tummy.


Now about that other sound humans tend to make. Stop! We’ll save that one for a cold rainy day when we have time to quickly move away!


arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Become successful by using only two words....

How important is the space located between thoughts? Some like to fill it with noise such as, “Um or Aaa.” Others stare through you giving nothing to a situation. There could be anger, a dip in energy, a bead of sweat caused by nervousness and or reason to fear failure. Caused by a single space located between thoughts.



Do you know the cause of that pause?



A continued distraction…not being aware because you’re taken away by other shapes and objects—thought form is an act of thinking without being aware of yourself.



When space is created, we naturally gravitate to it. We seek it because all too often its worth being sought. Our daily walks are filled with discontent, worry, anxiety, depression and despair and then suddenly there is an act of inner peace…space between thoughts.



Because I put so much faith and trust in synchronicity experiencing a pause adds cause to the effect. I’m far from being alone; music or the simplicity of drums or the sound of rain casually falling through the trees puts a break in the way we speak. Rather than ignore it or give it a dirty name…give it a different rhyme or reason: it’s a sense of well being.



Well being? Is it the missing sixth sense? We’re trained since birth to chase the paths that lead us to everything that offers sight, smell, feel, sound and taste. Outside of Yoga who has trained your method of living to locate what Eckhart Tolle calls, “Alive peace?”



A break in conversation is subtle. But is it heavy enough to make a difference inside an already consumed way of living? In India they call it ananda…which means the bliss of being.



Whatever age you agree to be on this day, that is the amount of years you’ve been taught to quickly correct an um or aa. You’ve been conditioned to pay attention to form, “This is how you are to speak properly, clearly, without being made to feel like a fool.”



Spend a day with me inside a recording studio and somewhere along the way I’ll explain my addiction to listening beyond sound. The studio monitors are cranked so loud each word is felt twelve city blocks away. I’m far from being deaf…by getting close to creative flow I’ve learned something incredible exists beyond what we call sound.



Eckhart invites people to study the background of each experience. Warning: If you elect to chase it like a summer mirage on a long drawn out highway you’ll never touch it…all enough time to fall witness to stillness, the sweetness of being allows your lungs to breathe.



Runners get there by tossing their balance forward then spend the next two to eight miles trying to catch up. Gymnasts feel it while in flight while a airline pilot lives within the rush of lifting tons of metal beyond the earths shape giving it life inside a separate realm of escape. When you’re able to sense it directly within yourself, it deepens. Without warning it becomes your path to respect sound, sight, touch, feel and smell.



Beauty isn’t always located in the gentle curves of a freshly blossomed deep colored rose.



I make marks in my daily writing when the sixth sense is being experienced. I quickly sketch five straight lines then shove a “G” clef onto its surface. That the writer’s way of notifying the rest of me that music is being heard someplace different. You’re not expected to catch it. So don’t question it. Layout a large number of daily entries and the path becomes visible to the once blinded eye.



Stevie Wonder recently explained on national television that it shocks him when music calls him back to the page. Especially when it was assumed finished. Pieces that were signed off in the late sixties are extremely important to movie producers inside this new millennium, not because antiques are golden but the message is unstoppable and far reaching.



Don’t look at a project as being lost or gone, compared to a skyscraping Redwood in California your six week to six year break from something you once loved is nothing more than a sliver of time shoved aside like a gasp of air or a sudden pause inside a well delivered conversation.



Allow silence to shape your being.



Tolle believes the best happiness isn’t caused by a person, place thing or event; it’s created by a moment of inner space. Little things create little space…unconditioned consciousness comes to life where you’ve taken a break. Learn to listen to it while respecting the joy of being.



Feel like giving it a test? Say only this: I am.



Each time you say it, shout it, whisper or think it…there is going to be silence. Sense your presence. It is untouched by young, old, rich or poor, good or bad or any other attributes. It is you.



I am……………………………………………………….



Learn to listen beyond sound.



Steal my art



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, July 13, 2009

Warning: Monday's kill

What? Say it isn’t true! Has another Monday arrived so soon? What is a person supposed to do? Mondays! They’re incredibly dangerous to our life and style!



Numerous studies reveal more people die from heart attacks and strokes on Monday than on any other day of the week.


The British Medical Journal made it their priority to locate a reason and or purpose. What could be so terribly wrong with a single twenty four hour period that would carry the weight of so much blame, making it extremely dangerous for those under the age of fifty?



1. Heavy binge drinking. You can’t hide it or deny it, it’s everywhere you look…in front of the television, on a backyard deck, near a pool, night club or riding in the back of a truck. There’s always a reason to party and even fewer today love doing it half way.



2. Dreading Monday’s is another silent killer. Bitterness toward your job generates enough stress to light up three city blocks. No matter where you walk, talk or catch the financial news, as lucky as most of us are to have employment, nearly eighty percent of those currently holding down the fort can’t stand the idea of having to go to work. It pushes your heart over the edge.


So, what’s a person supposed to do? How can you fall back in love with your job?



According to the top dog experts who sit high atop perches watching waves of American’s soberly walk by…rule number one is to locate the job you love. Which isn’t an easy task, look at the astonishing number of college graduates presently running cash registers at the grocery store or spending eight hours a day answering the telephone for a company that has nothing to do with their financial gain…yep, that’s exactly what their parents forked out forty thousand a year for.



Clair Colvin believes you can love the job you’ve got by realizing what you’ve got doesn’t define who you are as a person. Attitude is everything. You’ll have profound influence over people by keeping it up beat and positive.



Stop landing so much energy on what you’re shoving into a bank.

Money will never be enough. Whatever you earn on the 15th and 30th something’s always going to happen that’s going to yank the net from beneath your feet. By turning your work into something more than a paycheck, the payoff starts to evolve into something worth carrying.



Find significance in what you do. I call this the Oprah Winfrey Secret.

Every job affects somebody. If you sell car parts to giant factories and things have slowed due to the economy, cars still need parts to keep our heaping junks from landing in the city dump. You get people to work by being there for the mechanics who require each piece to make the highway hum.



Clair Colvin believes we should question ourselves daily:


Why did you take the job?
Is what you do daily worth it?
Is there someone at work who makes you feel this way?
Is it time to ask for a new position?
What if you start saying no?
Clair is strict in her way of trying to gain access to who, what, when and where you play. Do all you can to keep work at work and play away from work. Social networking to comparing swings on a golf range should never be part of your game. Stay completely away from coworkers.



Which is an odd thing to say because I once worked with a GM who put everything into turning his company into a brilliant Zen machine. There are no walls! We will work as a single unit by utilizing the energy from each level of performance to raise our company’s presentation inside a world of constant competition.



Zen is like martial arts…never count how many white belts are soaring through the lesson plan…count the number of black belts that are still with him. Then speak to each member as to how they are living in the way of their master’s vision. Six seconds on the path and you’ll walk away realizing we all live separate journeys.



How is your Monday going to be? Look at your life and try to describe it. Are you rushed, excited or stressful? Do you look forward to exceeding the limits or will you continue to hold back? How much will you forget? How often will you blurt out to the cubical next to you, “I quit.”



Is asking yourself questions completely out of your league?



A simple thought…standing at the edge of my 3rd degree black belt test I still wear a white uniform. While some schools rush to put their students in brilliant colors, it is the way of our master’s master’s Great Grandmaster that we stay in white…it serves only one purpose, no matter how much you’ve been taught, lost or will gain today or tonight, every journey has a new beginning. Wearing white says to your heart, body, mind and instructor that you are always willing to learn and the uniform shall be a clean sheet of paper to take incredible notes so that you shall forever grow.



The greatest tool you can hold is a blank landscape begging to be filled.

Put in front of you a clean sheet of paper and let it serve as a place to put your thoughts when your Monday has turned into another nightmare. And when someone invades your space of creative flow, teach them to doodle on the canvas proving to the world that one can easily become two and in the end there will always be incredible art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, July 10, 2009

One thought per break...

I came across a positive tone last night in Tae Kwon Do…something new to hold, an incredible power to call your own without having to secretly scamper about in a tightly fit Harry Potter costume.



If you think I’m too upbeat and positive, you’ve never met Mr. George…a father of two, his wife a cancer survivor. A determined man whose hands are larger than a grizzly’s paws with a heart the size of Mount Mitchell the tallest peak on the coast known as the east.



We’ve all had these moments, a person walks into a room and suddenly it lights up. That’s Mr. George. It’s too easy to claim it’s because he’s lost nearly ninety pounds since learning to live a better life through the weighs and means of a martial art. It can’t even be blamed on his incredible talent to swiftly turn a chunk of ugly dried wood into a masterpiece to be displayed.



The game he plays is what you say.



“Mr. George, how are you doing today?”



“Better than I should be.”



Stop! Look around, lend your ear to the ground…pick up the rhythm of the next person inching toward your tiny circle and wonder what it is they’re bringing with them. Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hahn is completely aware of our life and style and how we lead enormous amounts of people daily. Through mindfulness as well as awareness what if you met them at the door with something positive?



Single sentences that offer total impact aren’t common…once lined up each letter creates the picture of a past you can’t change yet it inspires a need to make a difference today.



“Ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country.”



“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin.”



“"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people”



“The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”



“Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.”



“Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”



Rick the GM once said to me, “It’s not what you say…it’s how you say that makes the difference.”



I often wonder what people are saying while Twittering. I can’t see your face or hear a voice…doesn’t that make us the assumption generation? Words of play can be taken a different way. Thoughts of hype versus glory are a completely different story. Would anything written on Facebook and Twitter make sense to a sidelined group of wanderers searching for a single sentence that could easily lift the required spirit to feel the ease of less stress?



What it we're trying to write inside one hundred twenty five characters? Does it have the sustaining power to hold the attention of an ever changing American culture that continuously takes its eyes off the road?



I once ended every radio show with, “Keep smiling and keep loving those pets.” I was told to stop…it signals the ending of something which gives listeners a reason to run. So I not only stopped saying so long but very rarely will you hear me softly whisper, “Hello.” If there’s no beginning and end everything seems to fit in.



I laughed out loud the day someone said, “I need a single sentence that best describes everything you are.”



Because of my faith and strength in synchronicity the wind brought me, “May the sun rise above your tears.” Which tells absolutely nothing about writer, poet, producer and radio junky…except to say it’s my way of silently saying the circles we keep are made up of family and friends; let it represent the sun allowing it to forever rise above your tears.



In radio we’re trained to believe we only have the attention of a listener for seven seconds. How deep into a Twitted message do you get before you reach up and shut it off? What’s next, a sliver of memory implanted on our temples collecting thoughts before they reach your lips therefore creating a newer way to communicate…Grandma did say silence is golden. How close are we to that reality?



“What about now Mr. George, how are you doing?”



“Better than I should be.”



Each time I hear him, I envision strength meeting courage while slow dancing with opportunity without being chased by a selfless act of judgment. The door is open…come on in!



Steal his art



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Who? What? Where?

Worked the advanced world television premiere of TNT’s hot new summer drama Dark Blue starring Dylan McDermott last evening—shook hands, kissed babies and built what became a major platform to sell the show to an always on the go American culture.

Gaining access to that life and style requires loyalty to a simple somewhat stupid single rule: You get answers to the questions you ask.

Parallel lines mean nothing. Running side by side generates enough space for me to believe one of the two parties involved has ego issues. Top business leaders and those closest to their daily efforts physically understand that asking questions not only showcases confidence but it defines the current situation in an uplifting, energizing positive manner that leaves those involved in a state of totally understanding the situation.

The managers of the upper level establishment at last nights premiere drew from their day hours of worry which robbed natural energy from their every opportunity. Once on the scene, my team quickly reshaped their confidence by finding faith in the hours of show prep required to maintain the issue at hand. From the moment we were inked to lead the premiere to the final reports shot through the World Wide Web by midnight, we never stopped asking questions.

John C Maxwell speaks highly of an ancient Chinese proverb, “He who asks is a fool for five minutes but he who does not ask is a fool forever.”

Challenged by everyday life, Maxwell learned fresh out of college how important it is to keep your ego far away from each effort presented. He was forced to pretend to know what he was doing because he lazily refused to ask questions leading him straight into a desperate way of living.

Learning to ask the right question is no easy feat. What separates successful people from those wanting to climb the ladder has nothing to do with whose shoes you’ll fill but rather what questions you ask during the moments of stepping up and forward. Millions of people saw the apple fall but it was Newton who asked, “Why?”

Meeting with people you admire serves as a trigger to ignite newer ideas. Motivational leader Anthony Robbins once said, “Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions and as a result, they get better answers.”

No day passes that I don’t run these aging fingers and thoughts through what I call the unperfected path: The Interviewer versus the legs that think they can. The first person you should always question is yourself. What you think and how you react are nothing more than two brothers forced to live in the same house and by the power of strict parents and a thick leather belt you are going to get along.

1. Am I investing in myself? John C Maxwell coaches you to keep learning so you can keep leading. Good leaders invest in themselves and do so in the way of making others better.
We don’t have a financial crisis in this country…we’ve become lost in a pool of bad leadership. Seriously, when was the last time you learned more about your position at work? Have you been afraid to teach others your methods of getting the job done? Legendary radio man Henry Bogan and I used to laugh about our places of position believing the current role was nothing more than a practicing ground for the next career.

Better yourself today so you can become valuable tomorrow.

2. Am I genuinely interested in others? If you want to be the man or woman in the big office at the end of the hallway, ask yourself, “Why?” We’ve all met the one who went from being a serving leader to a self serving one. By asking questions you’re able to assess situations and quickly come up with solutions.
3. Am I doing what I love and love what I am doing? You will never fulfill your dreams doing something you dislike. I hear it everyday, “Arroe…I can’t find happiness. Arroe…I fear losing my job. I hate weekends! I can’t stand the scent of coffee on Monday’s.” Locating the passion for what you do is the core to locating success and more importantly fulfillment. I’m often accused of being too positive…absolutely not true. I have no problem exposing my passion for radio.
4. Am I investing my time with the right people? Your family tree of career history is mandated by the people you’ve met along the way. If you’re not putting in 125% on the job front, someone on the trail of tears convinced you that getting by was the only way to fly. Think not of them but those you’ve inspired to become the same poison. Ouch!
5. Am I taking others to a higher position? Start putting value in coworkers and family members. Let them know when they're doing something right. But in a way that doesn't come across as the big suck up.
6. Am I taking care of today? If you give only 10% today and 60% tomorrow, you’re headed into a new weekend with every reason to be fired Monday. Taking care of today corrects tomorrow…by not fixing it adds weight to everyday that follows.
7. Am I taking the time to think? Where do you go to let go? No morning begins unless my fingers are holding a pen. Over ten years of daily blah blah blah that I every so often return to only to touch the page. With my eyes shut and fingertips lightly rubbing across each thought…I can tell you exactly how I felt that day. Get it out of your heart and mind and put it on a stage. Engage your future by becoming a better thinker.
Stop waiting for the next generation to lead this nation…until your final breath you have the power to make a difference. Then it rests in the hands of your legacy. I dedicate this piece today to my first degree black belt mentor Nathan Richie who constantly asks the right questions. On October 18th I'll put forth the energy required to be recognized as a third degree. Couldn't have done it without all his questions.

Steal his art…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Talking dirty...

Mud…



noun

1.
wet, soft earth or earthy matter, as on the ground after rain, at the bottom of a pond, or along the banks of a river; mire.




2.
Informal. scandalous or malicious assertions or information: The opposition threw a lot of mud at our candidate.




3.
Slang. brewed coffee, esp. when strong or bitter.




4.
a mixture of chemicals and other substances pumped into a drilling rig chiefly as a lubricant for the bit and shaft.




Four separate paths. Each are connected to a purpose and yet its reason of being seems surface level during a time when so many have pulled their emotions underground.



Mud…



In Montana it cakes to you like sugar cookies and a six pack of Krispy Kreme donuts. Your feet instantly become weighted by a substance that requires half a tree to free the worn out knees forced to carry it.



In the Carolina’s mud is different…almost dangerous. The well tailored orange mess known to many as Georgia Clay stains everything! One wrong slip or flip from a bad pair of tennis shoes and your clothes are destroyed. Mom’s cringe at the idea of kids inviting mud to their kitchen and living room floor and that nice clean finish you have for a paint job on the car…give it one or two good storms and you’ll scream foul!



Mud…



My roses need it in order to survive. As do the trees that protect the owls and deer inside a forest I’ve been protecting nearly seventeen years. Earth worms require mud to keep their front door of their natural porch wide open and free. Robins locate tiny bugs to chew on like popcorn. Snakes snuggle up to it because it’s moist for their ever changing thin skin providing just the right temperature. Giant skyscraping leather-like cattails preparing for the soon to be arriving fall bath in mud every second of every day.



How could something so creepy ugly invite so much beauty?

It seems humans are the only mammal, animal, breathing creation that wants nothing to do with the combination of dirt meeting water…unless you’re three to six years old and discover mud resembles dough which makes incredible imaginative layered cakes of many.



Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hahn believes it’s because humans can’t stand to live in their own mud. The ingredients of what we shove into our present and past generates generously proportioned storms forcing the self created land field assumed hidden to rise. One oopsy teeny weenie step into your closet and like Georgia Clay paint covering your ears, eyes, nose and face no longer looks the same.



Taking the time to stand back and view how Mother Nature reacts to mud is an eye opening experience. A troubled rose replanted in the midst of a hot summer can’t locate the love to push aside the mud weighing down its roots. So it learns to borrow from it the nutrients that will keep it alive and moving forward.



My beautifully white Maltese love to wallow in mud. Harold wastes no time to nose dive into a fresh puddle doing everything within his power to wipe that irritating dirty substance all over his body. Look at how elephants react to mud! They shoot that junk high into the air hoping it’ll cover everything including their tail.



A human spots mud on the carpet of their car and it’s a date with instant anger. How dare we allow something so natural to enter our world! Makes you wonder how well they keep the walls of their inside shell? Too clean means nothing. Learning to accept the chapters we were forced to write helps feed the pages waiting to hear from the fingers that’ll soon bring thought to a new life.



I still feel the pain of my brother running away from home the first time. Abandonment rips from the sky baseball size hail and combines it with loose soil on a mountain side. Within an hour the perfect substance created suffers tremendous damage from a landslide. Poets and songwriters locate avenues of peace by sifting through every piece. A painter’s brush stroke is never an empty expression. Most bankers got into finances because the deeper pool reveals a need to help others make their personal lives better because it was something they didn't have as a child.



No human walks through life without mud on their feet.



Queens Lace was once considered a weed—a single bouquet of white dots meeting an unforgettable shade of light green as seen on long slender stems in the way of shouting, “Look at me! Look at me!” Tossed out of a society of more beautifully decorated flowers and wanna-be’s…Queens Lace reached deep into its collection of fallen dreams combined with tears of fear and located a place in history and it couldn’t have become a reality without sprouting from mud first.



Mom asked last night, “Do you miss not being on the radio everyday? I know it was your dream. You spent so many hours in your bedroom practicing.”



Waste deep in mud and broken promises my reply without thought was to the point and taken very seriously, “The more radio says no, the easier it becomes for me to finish my books. I will always be a writer first. If my current three works aren’t published I’ll write a fourth.”



More quickly than I…she wasted no time, “What about your art in galleries and the music you love to sing?”



“Aren’t you glad you gave birth to a son with multiple personalities?”



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Play to win by going shopping...

I waste no time to openly express when confronted by a lack of performance…call it my Montana upbringing, thirty years of radio delivery or fear of failure, the common ground to which we stand cannot be equal if what’s being presented doesn’t include something near or above yesterdays self proclaimed best.



During these economic twists, three hundred sixty degree spins and frantic fumbles small business owners in hot pursuit of survival recognize the indifferences shared between destiny and fate, long term versus here because it’s a job, any job. Company managers and owners lean far away from the idea of forking out more than minimum wage because there’s no loyalty. Therefore, there’s no true essence of dedication and determination.



Sick days have become extended vacations. Holidays are stretched across weekends making it extremely simple to pull off a five and six day break. The idea of having to lie in a bed and spoon with Saturday or Sunday remains an insult which deflates the company’s mantra of penetrating a level of success that reaches farther than their nearest competitor.



And if it becomes expected the protest isn’t heard but rather seen. Casual Friday’s are now everyday which has opened the door for less than professional during weekend time spent at work. I’m extremely guilty in the way of hoofing around the building at 5:30 AM in workout clothes and no shoes.



I know it’s wrong, but what do the experts think? Have we become too phat in the places we’ve sat? Straight to my business expert I ran…Anne Marie Sabbath quickly calls out the proper game plan, “Khakis and a collared shirt.”



The master behind One Minute Managers claims your weekend work attire should be one notch below upper level management. If Khakis and a collared shirt are worn Monday through Friday…do it again on the days that make up the weekend.



The Pro Bowlers Tour on ESPN and NASCAR are great examples of this life and style. Outside of a few unrehearsed methods of on the track cheating or accusations of illegal drug use, the makers of these two sports promptly put their stars inside the ranks of proper attire. Fans of both sports recognize each team’s efforts of being a single unit by proudly wearing their colors therefore resulting in faithful fellowships of followers.



I can’t imagine channel surfing into Tiger Woods and catching him in a pair of workout shorts with no shoes. How do you think he feels about having to work on Sunday’s? I don’t think it affected him during this past weekend’s victory.



I once created with a Country Music program director who felt tremendous stress from his air staff when he’d stand before them and say, “Live the part. How you dress is how you feel and what you feel is what listeners will pick up without ever seeing a picture of you.” Along came the World Wide Web with pictures and it has yet to convince those behind the microphone to change because suddenly we look just like everyone else.



So what happens when you’re invited to an unexpected meeting with your manager and a possible future client and without a doubt you are seriously underdressed?



Anne Marie shouts, “Learn from it!”



The gold rule of great business is: You’ll never get in trouble for looking great. It’s always better to slightly overdress and be able to remove a jacket or tie than it is to be underdressed and find yourself in an embarrassing situation. Even if you’ve been invited to an interview and they mentioned a casual dress code, the professional decision to make is go Khakis and open collared shirt not jeans and matching shirt. If the future boss claims Khakis are fine…reach for the dress and suit.



Face it…thanks to the NBA, NFL, Becker and Wayne Gretzky loyalty means nothing outside the sound of cha-ching. This has filtered through the ranks of professional play straight into the hallway of everyday. The only difference is pro players dress for success. If you live like this is your final breath that's how you’ll dress. Pro players are nothing more than glorified employees of tremendous value and if the price tag is right, tonight you’re sleeping in a new bunk bed this side of Japan. Looking great is just as important as playing great,



A fellow student of study in martial arts recently picked up his roots and replanted them in France—a hard working man who traveled the country and around the world because his nuclear education carried with it unforgettable value. No matter where I saw this man be it before class or within the realms of the real world…he never took his keen eye off his performance in dress.



Maybe that’s the secret. If locked away in a world of at home unemployment, while sending out resumes and cover letters, maybe it’s best to watch the way you dress without limiting yourself to doing it everyday except weekends. It’s only natural to consistently want something bigger, better, best but to get there you’ve got to watch the way you dress.



Outside of his LA Laker’s jersey on the floor of the Stable Center…I’ve never seen Kobe Bryant decked out in anything but a well tailored suit. Michael Jordon was no different. Look at the Carolina Panthers when they step off their bus after a trip away…they’re still wearing a GQ game face.



Call me insane but this needs to come back to the workplace. In a business world of constant cutbacks and red tape workday worth will could exceed the limits of everyday value when the dust settles and companies begin to take their eyes off the present and put it into the future where it belongs. Once that process begins to take shape, CEO’s GM’s and receptionists will become a commodity when presented in a way that brightens company pride and respect.



Until then…passion in the workplace is what coworkers point and laugh at and you’re left standing there wondering why no one wants to work weekends? Winning is a choice…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, July 6, 2009

The unprocessed steps of a well processed life...

If life is a movie and for nearly one hundred years the cinema has masterminded consistently newer ways to better entertain, stir the pot or maintain a proper attitude leading toward fight followed by victory…what happens when the message from the maker creates an un-introduced landscape?


Without warning, barely a whisper to hold, much louder than a Ted Nugent late 70’s festival concert somewhere in New York State, you’re crazily tossed into a vat of steamy aroma so vibrant your six senses stand up and scream out the lyrics of the CNC Music Factory tune, “Things that make you go hmm.”


Former Saturday Night Live funny girl Maya Rudolph artistically delivers a role in the summer romance Away We Go—she’s pregnant and has decided to raise her undelivered creation outside the realms of mainstream culture. To do that, Maya and her love interest set out on a journey across North America vowing to locate what 93.8% of us never unearth…a place of peace.


Along the way she crosses paths with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal whose spiritual ways of living nearly shatter the sound barrier when explaining why baby carriages aren’t allowed in or around her home, “You’re pushing your child away from you. A child doesn’t see your loving eyes and smile in the way of welcoming their innocence…they take note of each extended arm, shoving their place of protection and comfort away or to the side.”


Ouch!


If we were to stop…look around and start living within the limits of the rules just presented…life on this side of the white picket fence would dramatically change. If pushing a baby stroller showcases the act of thrusting someone or something away…look at what else we toss to the side.


1. Your paycheck. While in the cool comforts of the car we grab a hard plastic tube at the bank and shove the thin sheet of paper with our signature scratched onto its backside into it, slam it shut then send it through a long vacuum pipe to someone we don’t know. Here! I worked for you! Don’t spend it in one place!

2. Shopping for groceries. What are we really telling the world pushing that giant metal basket around a glorified warehouse?

3. Driving your car. Sitting behind the wheel doesn’t put you in control. The engine is the Alpha Dog. You are the follower.

4. Shaking hands with clients and or co-workers. Hello my name is…oh, while you’re at it steal my fingerprints. So, you’re into the fist punch…at least you can see I’m not as hard as a rock, you can now break me. It’s American to thrust that hand out there…Asian’s bow while other nations embrace.

5. Sending emails and text messages. This is who I am right now…tag you’re it, you now feel worse or better than me.


The number of things we naturally push away affects everything. Even as a writer, I can’t wait to get these thoughts, paragraphs and chapters out of me. Words are like Doritos, the mind, body and soul will make more. We feel that way about art, building the perfect backyard deck, floral garden or scraping chalk into the sidewalk so the little people around us can play hopscotch.


Everything received has been pushed our way. Lowes and Home Depot aren’t in the gardening business. You are. So they creatively slide it toward you. Once in the basket that evil inner voice shouts, “No! You don’t need it! Push it away! Push it away!” Like most children, you learn to ignore the fits and take it home.


Took a six mile stroll through Mother Nature yesterday morning…a boardwalk that wrapped itself through incredibly tall trees, over extremely black yet incredibly clear waters that enveloped a fragrance ten bottles of strong cologne or sweet scented perfume couldn’t hide, vines that raced to touch the sky while others never stopped reaching outward toward a horizon that would soon disappear at sunset—the birds sang, the dark brown fully packed with seeds for fall cattails with their razor sharp blades cut through the remnants of a rising fog while white pines with their brilliantly long needles painted between the lines in a way of connecting invisible dots.


I did nothing to push it away. In fact I took my shoes off so I could feel the earth in the way of the snake. I sat next to the trees to hear their stories. Wouldn’t it be great to withstand the winds of constant change without fearing a need to break? When crows and Canadian geese fall from the sky and walk on the paths humans sculpted…do they walk around complaining about the pointed scalding hot stones that make up our streets? Do their tongues drag until liquid is located? But it better be this brand or else.


During the 4th of July celebration I lost touch with the act of being free when noticing the number of birds and bats who had no clue what was happening—they flew rapidly in ways their bodies were forced to invent. They shot to nearby trees, toward instantly created clouds of wasted gunpowder and a few even made it to small families who swooshed them away like pesky mosquitoes or flies.


Maybe we’ve become the push away generation. CNN shoves the news out like it grows on trees. Truckers play hot potato with their daily loads, “Here! You take it!” Giant bulldozers dig deep into the clay then push what’s not needed away. Would realtors truly live in the homes they’re trying to sell? Movie theater ticket takers help push you through to the other side while waiters and waitresses beg you to take tonight’s special because the chefs not having a good night.


Progress requires a little push and shove. Economies become victims, almost like a dried mountainside riverbed when what’s being pushed is no longer welcomed. Without truckers America would stop. Without grocery stores we’d be forced to grow gardens and raise cattle. Maybe baby strollers are meant for something other than signaling the emotion of shoving something away…is it possible Mom and Dad are saying, “You can do anything and be everything…learn to be you. To get there is going to require effort. When confronted with doubt, turn around and we’ll always be there.”


Just something to think about...
arroecollins@clearchannel.com