Thursday, October 29, 2009

Be in charge of your own success...

I sat loosely on the long dark brown wooden bench with another martial arts black belt carefully studying the methods of movement created by other students at different lower ranks. It’s not a hidden tale, if there’s going to be an injury, it’s going to come from those barely beyond green belt status…so I stop to view their habits by way of learning what to expect if we should meet in the ring—if wild kicks and punches tend to be their way of pushing away…its ultimately up to me to decide if there’s going to be an inside game.



That’s the way I think, live and breathe…I waste a tremendous amount of time preparing for a future that may never arrive.



The other black belt felt a need to vocally discuss his awareness of our class not be led by the only person who has the full right to wrap or unwrap that chunk of cloth around our waist, “If Sa bum nim isn’t here I’m going home. There’s no one else that can teach me.”



Taking my eyes off the lower belts and placing them on his level of lessons learned, the next step forward no longer had to do with my reasons for arriving early—I instantly tuned into his conversation, it seemed incredibly important to him that there would be no success in his life if the one who teaches isn’t available to share.



“There are six black belts and five Poom’s (black belts under the age of 13) in this room…” I casually replied to his openness. “The greatest thing any student can hold is the opportunity to locate texture. With the Master out, this says tonight is going to be a true testament of faith based on lessons already taught. You might physically learn a different more useful way to better protect your rib cage. Each student in this room is a master of one thing and for you to decide not to listen might actually be the one key in the invisible puzzle you need to master.”



“Yeah but I want to learn new things…I’m tired of doing the same old thing.”



How could I be shocked by his response? Being a Broadcast Instructor since 1989 has put me in front of hundreds of dreamers who want it now. That’s like walking up to local singer/songwriter full time musician Eddie Zimmerman and telling him, “I’ve never played the guitar before but give me ten minutes and I’ll be bigger than Metallica and Bon Jovi combined. Eddie wouldn't waste a second with a reaction...he'd get back to the music leaving you with enough space to reinvent your dreams.


Nothing inspires me more than watching the blue flames of a fire inspired by a rocking desire to break out and do something on your own. I love connecting with an energy level based on dreams becoming reality while making room for followers to feast on the making of the paths you keep creating. I love watching others grow into success! There’s tremendous pleasure in the eyes they share until the day arrives when someone becomes disgruntled and claims, “I can’t do it today because I’m not in the mood or Sa Bum Nim is my only teacher.”



Look at the chapters you’ve created and tell me the greatest moments were generated by the one chosen to lead. I’ve had nearly 28 different program directors during my thirty years in this constantly changing biz…three of them made a difference while the others pushed pens and numbers bettering the odds of a sales team scoring their required victories.



Greatness doesn’t just happen…it’s generated by texture.



I’m physically looking forwarding to studying the NBA career of Steph Curry—a master on the college front now playing ball in a world of giant egos fronted by millions of dollars stuffed into never ending pockets. If he’s anything like his father Del…Steph has no problem sitting on those cold metal benches at court level watching the inside cuts to the right, left then down the baseline stuffed into every shred of that painted wooden floor by the names, faces and desires of those before him for no reason other than making a single shot that could win a valuable moment.



There are no ooo’s or aww’s in being a martial arts black belt. After every class, 99.3 percent of what was shared will be forgotten the moment you touch the door leading your dreams back out to the real world. It must be the same in radio because for 30 years I’ve been asked to do the same thing over and over again, “Slow down, quit talking over listener’s heads and sell a thought to your listener not at them.”



A Presbyterian minister stopped by the recording studio yesterday—together we agreed that a single string of positive has arrived from this current recession/depression…while elected officials and highly paid business leaders have fought to keep the company above water, over ¾’s of American families and single people have learned more about themselves in the past nine months than they did when money grew on trees—through outside efforts and other means of leadership (texture) survival has been achieved.



Stop walking out of what you assume is a cluttered mess of mumbo jumbo ideas and wacky speculations—if leaving our country was the best a company could do in order to survive…its no different than cleaning out your closet in the bedroom…finally American ingenuity and pride has more room to grow!



Maybe its time you sit on the long dark brown wooden benches of everyday life and start watching the makings of the students who will one day lead. The best way to stay ahead is to know your competition. It’s always more fun when you can teach what you know because it clears out the closet enforcing enough space for your product to grow. And if someone gets a little vocal about your business stepping on their toes…write it off. They’re the punk kid at the park who didn’t like the way the game was moving so they grabbed their ball and bat and went back home. The rest of you located a rusted metal can and turned it into a ball whacking out of the park by a tree branch.



Your job in life is to win and winning is always a choice.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wanna fight?

The creation of art is for everyone not a select few…



If you’ve located the time, space and need to call yourself an artist, somewhere along the trail I’m going to write, say or perform something that’s going to turn your vision of release into a wadded up pasted mess of a painting. Art is communication and at times it takes an act of humbled moments to reinvent the print assumed original.



What keeps people from creating is the art world itself.



Julia Cameron’s Artist Way shelters the quiet thinker, gifting each who reads with an opportunity to put faith back into a writing instrument, paint brush, a camera’s lens or woodwind music maker. It wasn’t until I studied her book The Vein of Gold that I realized how important the sale of your craft is to a continued rebirth. Sadly, the almighty dollar and the addictions connected to its presentation turns peace loving John Lennon types into fire breathing chapters ready to star in Saw 12 and 13.



Your voice and what it creates is art. I see it every week when Presbyterian ministers gain access to my recording studio to share 45 second messages. Their words can sometimes be more powerful than the official change of colors set free to roam on a Carolina hillside. It’s how you say it that makes what you do unique and in most cases a one of a kind.



The way you play with numbers or inspire coworkers and bosses is sought art. The banking masterminds who penetrated American trust will never be looked upon as being brilliant makers of art unless locked in closed rooms where a simple giggle from an up and comer simply says, “Wow that move was incredible.”



Art is the act of expression not a title handed to you by an educational system you forked billions to attend or quickly duct taped over your heart the moment your photograph brought a tear to an aging person’s eye.



Festivals are completely over flooded with brush stroker’s demanding top dollar for a piece of the colorized pie. Framing is astronomically priced and the cost of a good canvas is going to run you a few extra overtime hours at the job. I get it…been there done it but as an artist, what are you doing to preserve the beauty you feel at the height of an expression coming full light? You know, that moment where something you can’t explain reaches out and softly touches the corner of your world with a vibration made of invisible somethingness.



Elton John doesn’t write music…he is a lyricist. He is an artist. His poetic chapters blend incredibly well with masters of a separate shape of art. He doesn’t bash other writers walking beside his efforts of offering songs to sing to a world he may never meet—his efforts have always been fed by a willingness to collaborate with other means of creative flow such as Eminem, a rap artist who's constantly getting beat up by the media for stepping over the line on keeping his sound politically correct.



In the new Michael Jackson film This is it…the “man” most would’ve loved to have known steps from the shadows generated by the scent of paparazzi and or talk shows aimed at shocking their readers, listeners and viewers into believing what is printed or put onto millions of tiny frames is a spoken truth. It is their art.



As is the tiny garden carefully positioned with just enough sunshine on your neighbors lawn, your child’s determination to one day learn how to play the flute or a cousin aiming his entire all at one day participating in the X-games as a high flying bicyclist who flips, dips and takes a curve swifter and smoother than the ice cream scooper at Ben and Jerry’s.



Art doesn’t get the credit it deserves because those who secretly hide their pouring out of the inner being do so by way of shying away from proper display—and why does this occur because the world of art believes it’s already got enough players. They make sure nobody feels welcome therefore silencing what could have become another generations inspiration.



Mrs. Foster at Riverside Jr. High painstakingly put up with my disliking of the color wheel calling me irrational and irritating to teach—once shaken off, blending bleach white with cream seemed more appropriate to me because an element of pearl scraped its presentation across the bold face lion sketched hours earlier. Tell me again how Andy Warhol got away with playing his game?



Often accused of being Andy is Peter Max who best handled the process by tossing aside his creative education to make what has become some of the most prolific cultured pieces of our time but what makes him last longer than the candy coated outside of a root beer flavored sucker is a personalized awareness of the chaser—the next in line to take what he uncovered to a level he can’t reach without them.



There’s too much closed mindedness in the world of art. Noses are twisted and turned so tight it’s a wonder we don’t read more about flu and cold drownings. As a writer I’m constantly driven to a white line then dropped off—readers either take in what’s been given away or they find reason to argue without ever putting a pen to their own paper. A great example is the most recent success of Paranormal Activity, which cost $15,000 to make. Steven Spielberg loved what he saw, purchased the rights and before deciding to reinvent the idea elected to participate with the element of raw meets realty. Very easily he could've stained this success story with a hot shot producer director approach believing what he has already accomplished was the medicine fed into the veins of a newer place in American movie making.



As brilliant as you are there’s no human on this planet that’ll ever be gifted with enough vision in their eye as a photographer, stank in their voice as a musician or thunder in their butt to win Dancing with the Stars that’ll match the natural beauty of The Grand Teton’s in Wyoming or the seriously larger than life Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls or the unforgettable blue glow of a unperfected edge connected to an Alaskan glacier.



People have gone clinically insane or totally weirded out in public during a self driven pursuit to be looked upon as being a great creative. The cold hard facts remain, fame can’t be realized without fans…your biggest will forever be those you teach.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Get back to living...

Take a single sentence: Hope is the element…



Place it on the well lit box in the center of Google, Yahoo or Bing and watch what hope is fully capable of inspiring: 15,800,000 websites that bounce your journey from left to right, upside down, inside out then perfectly balanced on the tip of your nose hair before falling on your left ear because it was weighted by a portable device connected to a cell phone.



During these current times, hope is like faith, it’s used and used like skin cream, not once a month or twice a week but instead everyday, every minute into each passing second and then poof…like a midsummer highway mirage it tends to disappear stealing from your ambition any reason to continue chasing it.



The Boston Globe Newspaper writes, “Hope is the missing element.”



The University of California hopes their new scholarship program inspires disadvantaged students to reach outward by way of gaining access to a furthered education.



Author Christopher Cokinos titled his book: Hope is a thing with Feathers: A personal chronicle of vanished birds.



My good friend Al from Costa Rica once said, “The American language is too confusing—to an outsider every conversation you share almost never means what I hear. The word hope has so many different definitions that by the time I figure out what you’re trying to say…the conversation has completed.”



He might be onto something…Dictionary.com had a field day hopefully describing such a hope filled word:



1.
the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: to give up hope.




2.
a particular instance of this feeling: the hope of winning.




3.
grounds for this feeling in a particular instance: There is little or no hope of his recovery.




4.
a person or thing in which expectations are centered: The medicine was her last hope.




5.
something that is hoped for: Her forgiveness is my constant hope.


–verb (used with object)

6.
to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.




7.
to believe, desire, or trust: I hope that my work will be satisfactory.


–verb (used without object)

8.
to feel that something desired may happen: We hope for an early spring.




9.
Archaic. to place trust; rely (usually fol. by in).


—Idiom

10.
hope against hope, to continue to hope, although the outlook does not warrant it: We are hoping against hope for a change in her condition.




Is it too easy to hope? Is it something we should purchase at the store? How long would it take Bank of America to attach a 22.9% interest fee on a hope card then without notice crank it up to 87% because their company leader needs plenty of hope during his final days of decision making?



My eyes first bumped into the hope is the element sentence at 6:05 this morning—Jane Brody’s new book Guide to the Great Beyond, on this particular page she seems to be standing on a twelve by twelve soap box speaking directly into the unaligned chapters medically trained officials write when trying to gather enough positive energy to speak when sharing with their patients any and or all possibilities.



“Dr’s not assistants or nurses should make themselves fully available to bring to each and every patient the element of hope.”



She feels those controlling even tooth decay tend to sway by way of doing what’s right for them and not necessarily the one suffering—they’ll hand the case over to a different doctor or shrug their shoulders in the eyes of defeat which instantly shot me back to the mind, body and soul of a Native American Medicine Man who laid his hand on my right shoulder one frigidly cold winters day and calmly said, “Always remind yourself…doctors waste no time in telling the truth—they practice medicine. You can throw a baseball into a catcher’s mitt six times a day but without practice you’ll never make it to the major leagues and even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll be good enough to stay.”



A middle aged man from the Middle East slowly walks into a Korean temple some two thousand years ago—quickly taking note of the monks praying inside, his view of their shape of spirituality came with shadows, they were horribly large, bulky and out of breath. How could men so close to the one that offered them such blessed leadership be so physically uninspiring? Reaching into his pocket of hope, the middle aged man from the Middle East pulled from his purpose a reason for being there this particular day—while the monks might have been perfectly buff within…the shells that carried them were ready to cave in. Without a doubt, not a second wasted, he spoke to the men with high hopes of changing the way they lived. The middle aged man from the Middle East worked one on one with each who believed in spiritual beings that offered better trails to those on the outside—a skillful workout was generated creating what we call today Tae Kwon Do—the foot, fist and way.



Hope is the element…



October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month…everyday women and men are diagnosed with a life changing experience that challenges their personal supply of hope. There's not enough glasses of water on earth capable of refilling what the heart has lost. The eyes of a child speak loudly when their parents tearfully explain to a sound collector at the Levine’s Children’s Hospital that their baby has Leukemia or a rare disease that’s left them staring out a tenth floor window at a world of trees instead of being out there climbing them.



Ask any fighter or survivor what pushed them through the message a doctor sent that said, “You have until this day…” and what you’ll touch is the soul of a brave traveler who didn’t become addicted to hope but rather believed in it.



18,500,000 websites that offer hope and somewhere near you rests a person who sits empty. What are you going to do to help change the next seven generations?



Winning is a choice…so is offering hope to someone you don't know.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, October 26, 2009

The fear of taking time off...

In this day, one affected and infected by the internet, all that is, might not be and if it really was, self diagnosis reins during every storm brought on by change. Problem is, I’ve always been this way and learning how to deal with the unexplained complicates the paintings put on display.



Agoraphobia…the fear of leaving home—which can be taken two different ways, the fear of leaving your parents home…which didn’t exist in the chapters I’ve written, I counted down the hours, minutes and seconds to haul tail! Not because of evil ways and means but bigger things—in 1981 it was feasibly impossible to play major market radio in Billings, Montana.



Agoraphobia featured no face half way through the decade or getting to the Carolina’s would’ve been nothing but disc jockey talk—the stuff announcers spout back and forth by way of one upping their talking buddies, “Oh yeah! Well I got an offer from Hangover, Mississippi…whoa…”



The fear of leaving home latched onto the nap of my neck in the short days that followed the loss of my Alaskan Malamute Lobo—it’s perfectly human to accuse yourself of not doing enough when it comes to saving a loved one from pain and suffering and I was convinced that if I had been home, the fluffy clump of cuddly hair wouldn't have lapped up the antifreeze the neighbor poured into his backyard.



200,000 people a day discover their path has become clouded by Agoraphobia—so what gives? When does it stop? How does it begin? Agoraphobia often accompanies another anxiety disorder, such as panic disorders or a specific phobia. If it occurs with panic disorder, it usually starts in a person's 20s, and women are affected more often than men.



Agoraphobia is like a chameleon…its colors change quicker than the weather. It’s also the fear of being in places where help might not be available.

Anxiety or panic attack (acute severe anxiety)
Becoming housebound for prolonged periods of time
Dependence on others
Fear of being alone
Fear of being in places where escape might be difficult
Fear of losing control in a public place
Feelings of detachment or estrangement from others
Feelings of helplessness
Feeling that the body is unreal
Feeling that the environment is unreal
Unusual temper or agitation with trembling or twitching
Additional symptoms that may occur:

Abdominal distress that occurs when upset
Breathing difficulty
Chest pain
Confused or disordered thoughts
Intense fear of dying
Intense fear of going crazy
Dizziness
Excessive sweating
Heartbeat sensations
Lightheadedness, near fainting
Nausea and vomiting
Numbness and tingling
Skin flushing
Signs you may be affected include

High blood pressure
Rapid pulse (heart rate)
Sweating
There’s nothing worse than someone telling you, “Yo Dude, you need to take a vacation!” Chronic sufferers of Agoraphobia pull down every window shade, lock every door and pull toward them anything that symbolizes what I call the ingredients that make up your self created circle. And now you know the rest of my true story—this is how I spent my late summer vacation, wrapped up in a world reading daily writings from 1994, listening to music written ten years before while horribly fearing the idea that my daughter’s children were excited by visiting the beautiful mountains changing colors by weeks end. I was a total wreck.



Agoraphobian’s turn into negotiators, “I agree to go while promising to pretend to have an incredibly cool time if we can take all four of dogs.”



And that’s exactly what I did in the mountains—while Carlos and Mia played in the orange and yellow leaves floating to the shores of a mountains softest kiss, I sat alone in an extremely tiny wood cabin sketching, writing and hugging the four legged unconditional lovers of the human spirit.



Wait! Wait! How does being an admitted work-a-holic play out in this? Being constantly creative puts me in a place of total warmth—if asked to step away in the name of resting the mind, body and soul, like an addict searching for his or her next hit…you nibble on each fingertip attempting to plan out the makings of a peaceful trip. Creativity to me last week was totally ripping my house apart with extreme high hopes of dumping 30 years of radio and art in the trash can—Ha!



My master in Tae Kwon Do asked if I’d have lunch with him…no way man…I’m shifting my Native American spiritual tools around and it requires my entire all. I’m such a freak! To the point of believing the leaves and branches that fall during the summer months in the forest that surrounds my house don’t truly want to leave their home, so I’ve declared myself a forest farmer and spent hours at the wood chipper being green by way of creating mulch for roses and other living things.



According to the world of medicine the most difficult part about suffering from Agoraphobia has nothing to do with what condition my condition is in but out of all the people in the world—I’m the only one who suffers daily, hourly and second by second from it.



Wrong! Agoraphobia terrorizes millions, hypnosis and some medication are the music maker or release. Find out more at Mayoclinic.com



Agoraphobia is very real. Ask my four dogs, they’re at home today thinking, “Thank God the human is out of here! I can finally get some sleep! The only reason why we keep him around is for the free puppy treats…”



Getting back to living…steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, October 16, 2009

It's a your weekend...now live it!

My wife handed me a quote this morning, “Success doesn’t last forever and failure won’t kill you. Never be afraid to take chances.”



Chances…seriously, I love rubbing noses with the odds of touching the golden ring. I won’t plunk down the bucks for Power Ball but if you tell me one in five thousand become third degree black belts…no matter how bad my ancient legs ache and how easily this face and arms bruise…I’m going to be part of that crew.



What are goals other than invisible objects bosses rub in your face? Projections are educated guesses. When not met you might as well end the full staff meeting with, “You’re grounded for a week with no cell phone. Don’t even think about slamming the door to your office, I’ve got a screwdriver and I’ll remove that wall!”



Being a nonstop daily writer for nearly 15 years, the sights and sounds of an approaching year challenged a poet’s ambition to paint what would evolve into a landscape of un-tethered journeys, “In the next fifty two weeks I’ll do this! This and this!” It looks great on paper; the realms of a reality tend to peel the acrylic rainbows off the horizons we chase making the goal seeker look like an idiot to the cast of other characters he or she carries around with them hourly.



Someone had to create The Empire State Building in New York City, shape the incredibly hard rocks in South Dakota that now bare the faces of four Presidents and push our fathers, uncles and aunts through weapons of mass destruction during WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam.



A single vision that required self marketing so others could believe in the very spirit that hit them the moment it arrived through methods of thought.



Today we put our captivating presentation in places of worldly view—Twitter, Facebook, blogging websites and by way of graffiti—being a poet, I’m used to the quick comeback, “Dude, I have no clue what you’re trying to say…ease up a bit on the art and speak the language of this generation.”



Being out front takes courage, a chance, a goal, a need to leap toward a destination requiring a beginning, middle and end or does it ever stop? Success doesn’t last forever and failure won’t kill you. This weekend was to be my 3rd degree black belt test. At no other time during my martial arts journey was I better prepared physically, mentally and spiritually…then without warning my heart stopped.



Although it nearly killed me it hasn’t stopped my passion to write daily and locating newer places to display what we as a people think sing and create. The new success isn’t a black cloth wrapped around my shrinking waist but in the power of thinking, planning and taking note of what is and isn’t available not just for this survivor but others who have been struck down with cancer, liver disease, kidney, lung and thyroid complications and our current worst nightmare…a nation that can’t figure out how a banking industry nearly destroyed the entire planet and its leaders are getting away with it.



You’ve gotta love the confidence of the American people who have vowed that this won’t last long—we shall shine brighter than any other time in history. In groups, that sounds incredibly beautiful but when you’re alone in the car those eyes staring back in the rearview mirror are scared, completely haunted by the idea of what if and nearly beat down to the point of finally saying, “I quit.”



Success doesn’t last forever and failure won’t kill you. Never be afraid to take chances.



You are a survivor. The thick skin of a tree sitting with billions of others in a forest tell the tale of the worst and best winters and what makes it’s limbs last forever are the rings of certainty that scream, “Winning is a choice.”



Bad customer relations at malls, dentist offices and veterinarians teamed up with poor movie theater and restaurant services runs rampant on every street corner. Businesses don’t call back, products that broke can’t be fixed but they still charge you for it, cars don’t run on gasoline anymore…it’s called luck.



Wow! All this seems just as depressing as the new movie Where the Wild Things Are! It’s a child’s story about angst, abandonment and untrusting relationships—why would parents and school teachers read this thing to so many itty bitty minds? Because it showcases hope and with a little help from your imagination every single small, tall, somewhere in the middle, humungously large, mountain sized to universally way the heck out there bad itch that drives you crazy, insane and completely out of control…goes away.



I wasn’t doing 100 push ups a day until my heart went away. I had no clue that local grocery stores and their managers didn’t cater to people thrown onto special diets because of unexpected changes. I had no clue what surviving meant and what someone with breast cancer, chronic bronchitis or swine flu deals with not by way of awareness but living with it everyday, every second, every dream, every wish that may or may not come true…..and I still don’t…but if I study the written pages of other survivors and together we begin to make noise, maybe just maybe…something will start spinning.



Success doesn’t last forever and failure won’t kill you. Never be afraid to take chances.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Learning to trust silence...

It doesn’t matter if you’re Keith Hawthorne or Scott Clark, Jake from the Panthers or your love filled mama yelling out the kitchen window that dinner is being served—before anything unwraps its wings to take the shape of reality it travels through a gap of silence first.

Even while you speak, before each word shoots out the talk maker, your system allows there to be the slightest presentation of something extremely unique…silence.

Taking note of those gaps could be the answers you seek.

Author and spiritualist Eckhart Tolle shines his walk of life onto the shades of silence humans unknowingly create. Before your mind can see, hear or feel, perception feeds the veins of what brings life to silence. Before your brain interprets the action which leads to a reaction, your system feels tremendous energy from invisible places you keep.

Wait! Before you call me insane or a totally whacked out nut case there’s a reason why some people have no clue as to what I’m up to. In a radio station production room I study the path your voice makes, I can visually see how you breathe as well as think. The reason why some don’t take note of the tiny silences that float between all things before they become real is because each break lasts barely a thin hair of a already split second. Now team that up with an extremely short attention span.

According to Tolle, when a new sight or sound arrives, during the first moments of perception there’s a brief cessation in the habitual stream of thinking. Because we’ve been trained to put no trust in perception so consciousness diverts our energy source to the conclusion of what’s being delivered.

How often have you been caught off guard and you’re literally speechless? Welcome to an extremely long version of the silences you create second by second during the presentation of anything now part of everything real.

It’s the only time in your life that ego plays no important role. Such mental behavior only takes place before a person, place or thing is identified. Allow yourself the opportunity to study the silences you create. Being aware of them makes them longer and easily identifiable. With practice you’re able to use each bout of silence as an energy source for new ideas or secret places to call your own…mentally running away from reality to feel something only your body creates.

The more you perceive life through a mental screen of abstractions and conceptualizations, the flatter your world becomes. Think of these newly recognized silences as being your personal Christopher Columbus setting sail across an open sea.

I’ve learned to control mine by utilizing the way I breathe, slowing down my pattern by way of entering a state of meditation opens the field of presentation. While in the hospital in July I located tremendous amounts of joy in challenging the medical machine measuring how I breathe. By turning off my body, a relaxed state of mind gifted the day with every reason to believe in what it is we bring. It totally freaked out the nurses...they'd always catch me in bed just smiling.

Tapping into its existence has turned my rock headed way of living hard into ocean waves filling every corner assumed dark and lost forever into islands of rebirth and discovery.

These are the words of my Master Todd Harris from Martial Arts University:

"The core or the soul of what’s being held inside is water. This is great news! You are finally becoming like water. Water takes the shape of its container; it is one of the most powerful things on earth. Water created the Grand Canyon! We are learning in baby steps how to train you more specifically and accurately. If you are down then take the shape of the ground. When you flow up to the rock, split and go around it to meet on the other side.”

If you could see a recording session…a 60 second commercial for USC Lancaster…no music or sound effects just words. You'd quickly take note of the number of times in a single sixty second commercial the body naturally creates silence.

How often do you run from silence? Isn't that why we go shopping or take in clubbing or movie watching? The more sound we surround ourselves with the more we assume we aren't alone.

Time to create a new love for the lack thereof...

Steal my art...

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Get ahead before you say, "I quit!"

I find tremendous fascination in talking with career builders in full rotation during this economic financial condition—for the first time since the Great Depression all levels of workday performances have been infected with the W-2 Flu…meaninfg no matter how high your company has built its pyramid of success, nobody's job is safe.


Community colleges are caked with middle aged adults risking their security foundation by stepping into an area of newness that garners no guarantee. When you’re finally selected to harness the reins of a new beginning the first six months of paychecks is overshadowed by a well trained self sufficient nagging that turns any twenty four hour day into every reason why you should quit and start all over again and again.


The number one cause of the new job blues can easily be spotted by taking a quick glance at your political antenna and see where it needs to fit rather than where it sat during your last chapters at a place where you assumed you ruled.


Landing a new job is not getting another gig. If your only purpose of getting employment is to cheapen your presentation, Oprah would love to have more viewers. Every position in a place of business must exceed the limits of nicknames and curses. The custodian who sneaks in late at night is a champion designer. I can’t imagine what my attitude would be if the trash was never taken out and this radio station control board resembled the base of Mount St Helens with twelve inches of dust and ash. The receptionist commands the public service department, it’s his or her voice a client hears first and whatever impression they leave will determine if your company will have success.


The most difficult part about getting back to work is breaking free of the old perks and germs that once owned your entire being—take the rose colored glasses off and start accepting a new culture. With every new environment there is a new way of living and it’s your attitude that must be shifted into a gear of thinking honestly by way of accepting those who are paying close attention to every effort you’re bringing to their place of play.


If people aren’t welcoming your suggestions reach into your mind, body and soul and click on the political antenna—I call this the people watcher, an internal device that takes the time to notice how people get along with each other.


As my mother always said, “Radio isn’t a strange place with weird freaks manning the places that make music for people to listen to…its nothing more than a reflection of reality. Everything that happens inside those speakers is tripled in the real world of business.”


Every office in America and around the world is a shape shifting complex of social groups. From cliques to friendships and the loyalties they guarantee, every product being created is controlled by a set of ground rules and or cultures.


Your arrival at a new place is every reason to study the patterns you deliver. You’ve invaded someone’s culture. What do you have they don’t? Are you there to suddenly make them unemployed? If you don’t fit in, those new coworkers will figure out a way to incorporate changes in your behavior—failing to make the move sends your player piece back to Start…welcome to the world of isolation. I’d say…take this new journey quite seriously.


Being dismissive sends out a clear signal, “I don’t want to fit in.”


Step one of your new found success ladder is to figure out how people interact with each other. Even if it doesn’t sit well in the boat you float, step back and watch the waves that take shape. Can you imagine working daily with me? A Native American spiritually driven writer, producer, painter and martial artist who consumes too much water, while wasting no time on alcohol, drugs and the sweet taste of Southern BBQ. All he ever talks about is work, work, work and how you can fit more work into what he hopes to call the worlds first 29 hour workday. Dude needs a new habit! Seriously who wants to be friends with someone like this?


Speaking the street is a valuable tool to carry with you—the art of studying the conversations people share and how it is delivered. Learn about what brings light to the social process of your business. Just because I don’t pop the top of a tall cool one doesn’t mean we still can’t breakout in a game of darts in the hallway or take the time to sit down and listen to a coworker’s best weekend ever with their kids because they couldn’t stop playing The Beatles Rock Band Video game.


Putting value in the new culture lifts your presentation allowing you to feed off the power of the political antenna and the messages it sends back to you. Build trust while gaining support. Yes, your approach to success is different but underneath that mountain of who you once were at the other place of business no longer counts. I’m not saying go out and drink with your new found buddies or break away for lunch every morning at 11:30.


Accept the idea that fitting into a social level is very important to the continued success of your career. Study the patterns of those who are new while developing a natural way to do things with them without putting too much light on how incredibly different you really are. Be conscious of your decisions and how you adapt your approach. You can still be you…just become more aware of how you fit in with others.


There are cures to political dilemmas at work—a great way to get up and around them is to do a little research—the words written by Dr. Gary Ranker is a great new start. Leaders aren’t always found in the corner office with the bright beautiful windows and giant shelves with nicely dusted books and pictures. We got into this financial mess in America because too many people said, “It’s not my job,” then turned and walked away only to complain and complain when the Panthers couldn’t figure out how to win a game.


Winning is a choice…rebuilding this country is a yes or a no...how you decide to answer the question is where you sit on the company ladder of success. You can either accept we're 7th best or pull out the monster that drove you to the dance and make this machine the finest creation on the planet.

How long did it take you to read my garbled up words? That's too long! Back to work! Santa will be here to check on the toys!

Steal my art.


arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Yawwwwwwnnnnnnn

Welcome back to Jeopardy! For the bonus round and an extra banana to have at lunch every Monday for the rest of your life...can you name the non-sick, non-cancerous cause behind why 500 million American’s step away from their workday either to seek treatment from a doctor or locate a sofa to plop down on?


Hint number one: The subject we are talking of heightens the fear of something more serious taking place.


Hint number two: It’s persistent, can last longer than six months accompanied by sleepless nights, joint pain, severe headaches, an inability to concentrate and or memory loss.


Final hint: A peaceful cure can easily be found in any corner of the world but the leading expert on the cause and effect lives in Charlotte, NC.


Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Constantly feeling fatigued without any natural energy or hidden away commands to man the ship spearheaded by the mind, body and soul.

Only 10% of those seeking medical help have actually been struck down by the silent attacker.


If that’s not a good enough answer to the fifty three cups of hot Joe you shove down the piping system and your doc in the box still keeps shaking his head from side to side exclaiming, “It’s not CFIDS!” Look into what’s being called Garden Variety fatigue caused by odd ball shaped living conditions; little or no sleep and a poor diet.


“You could be suffering from a fist full of complications,” shouts Dr. Ronald Hoffman who fronted the book Tired All the Time: How to Regain Your Lost Energy. “An overactive thyroid is like dealing with a daily implosion filled with fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations and bulging eyes.”


If this doesn’t fit inside the shoes you walk a mile in…step into a pile of conditions created by an under active thyroid whose signs are usually chills, weight gain, strong PMS, muscle aches, dry skin, hair loss, constant cold and flu and a voice that sounds like you live off six bottles of alcohol and twelve packs of cigarettes a day.


Either condition…contact your doctor ASAP.


Other Garden Fatigue starters include Adrenal insufficiency—low levels of DHEA which is caused by autoimmune disease or adrenal gland disease.


I was shocked to learn how many medically trained human minds often overlook diabetes as being a creator of fatigue. A fasting blood glucose test will expose the journey which can easily be maintained—putting you back on a path of victory.


Food allergies, environmental toxins such as indoor pollutants will wipeout your onboard computer inside an hour. Linoleum creates benzene, new carpets and drapes generate formaldehyde. There’s lead in tap water and paint. Mercury is still being found in dental fillings and there’s always nitrogen dioxide in the house created by kerosene heaters, gas stoves and furnaces. And stop! The biggie trichloroethylene can fatigue you instantly…it’s found in all dry cleaning.


So what about the old wives tale that sugar is a good kicker and ender? Let it be known if the yummy stuff was brand new on the market; it would be instantly declared a drug and labeled extremely dangerous to your physical wellbeing. Sugar invites damage to your pancreas whose only mission is to produce insulin. Too much insulin leads to hypoglycemia a major league player in the world of what the heck is bringing me down.


Any medical official will pretty much embarrass you when asked, “So dude in a white coat, um cut me slack Jack and lay it on the line…how can I get over this sugar high?”



Guess what you’ll be in search of? Ergogenic dietary supplements fortified with B-15, L-carnitine, octacosanol, wheat germ extract and ginseng.


Which basically means if you ain’t reading those labels firmly pressed onto the side of every bottle, can and bar…grab the reading glasses and let’s take some classes. You’re not being forced to eat rice cakes and unseasoned oatmeal. Your best step taken forward might be taking on the simple task of relieving your system of its addiction to caffeine and power drinks, a mid afternoon chocolate chip cookie or an incredibly delicious stick of gum exploding with flavor and everything else that will land your hard work and dedication in the trash can next to your desk.


I totally get it! When it comes to energy and the pursuit to being the best….you are flat out broke and spent. It kills me to say this…it’s probably not your boss creating the mess. If only 10% of patients seen by doctors and institutions are diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that leaves 90% of circle wide open for other rhymes, reasons and oblong purposes.


Stop feeding the emptiness with false highs and round robin conclusions. Get to the center of this circle and start living life again.


Steal my art…


arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, October 12, 2009

Forget about getting gray and old...when going out...go all out green!

When you elect to bury your nose in chapters penned out by Jane Brody based on reaching the Great Beyond, as much as it’s your biggest wishes to keep such connections of private lessons taught away from the circles of friends you keep, you’re suddenly bonked on the think maker and given reason to believe…there is an alternative.



Being this close to Halloween I can talk about this without falling witness to rolling eyes, hearing clicks of the tongue like a Valley Girl set free in the Carolina’s or being shoved toward a talk to the hand expression meant to keep all things assumed evil from the thin pages masterminding your plan called The Journey.



Twenty years from today plenty from this generation will look back and lip lock the gossip and American Culture that fed the veins of what encouraged so many of us to take the way we elected to make the influences of our game. The Hannah Montanan’s will still be singing Party in the USA, Taylor Swifter’s will have reinvented the World Wide Web giving better access to fame and personal discovery to poets with pens and guitarists with melodic adventures pressing to be set free.



Iphone’s and Ipod’s will be invisible fake mole implants lightly sketched into the corner of your upper lip with tiny wires running through your lower jaw bone leading straight to your inner ear—the best part of the expense will be the built in GPS. Men will never have to stop and ask for directions again!



There’s so much to look forward to! Slower than a turtle napping on a hot Sunday afternoon is still the idea of going green…you know, a seemingly simple as well as approachable plan to keep the environment clean. Polar bears and seal movies won’t be about icebergs breaking—they’ll showcase cubs and pups writing letters to lawmakers thanking them everyday for the peaceful end of the Greenhouse Holocaust.



In 2029, although the price of turning your life and style green costs more than saving the world banking industry, modern day hippies and wanna-be’s cheering loudly at an ageless Avett Brothers live performance in New York’s Central Park will push for more green power because getting to 2050 was President Gore’s biggest fantasy. Yep he finally made it during a race against George W’s great grandchild’s run for the Oval Office...now described as being nearly round because the politically correct police believed being oval disrupted the American child born with a fairly large scull—pumpkin head and Jay Leno look alike were disruptive where as nearly round made everything beautiful.



Hot on the American scene will be the reason for today’s writing: Reef burials.



During an age of untrusting lawyers and people who dig six foot deep holes, the latest dance with a pale moon light invites those who’ve lived the blessed opportunity to seriously become part of the planet again…via coral reef. From the unforgettable jagged shores off the coast of Highway 1 in California to the rippling waters feeding the Hudson River in New York, the Green thing to do once you’re gone is to allow your ashes to become part of the environment by way of becoming part of the sea.



What a perfect opportunity for entrepreneurs! Underwater golf courses for electric eels vacationing next to a reef that includes everybody from your family And because reefs offer so much incredible beauty, you might even end up being set free in a fish aquarium at a dentists office in Havre, Montana! Forget what happened to Sponge Bob and Patrick! This is totally a life after death experience!



Here’s what one ad promises their future clients:



Eternal Reefs, Inc. creates permanent living legacies that memorialize the passing of a loved one. For families and individuals that choose cremation, Eternal Reefs offers a new memorial choice that replaces cremation urns and ash scattering with a permanent environmental living legacy.

Families and friends are invited and encouraged to participate in the creation of their loved one's memorial reef. From placing your handprint in the damp concrete during the casting, making a rubbing of the bronze plaque during the viewing ceremony, or placing a flag on your loved one's memorial reef during our military honors ceremony, all Eternal Reefs' activities provide peace of mind for everyone involved.



Wait wait! Time now for the tiny print: See dealer for details.



Why is this the best way to go? No matter which way the bucket tips, after you’re gone those left behind have some seriously high costs. You can’t physically prepare for this! The United States Government refuses to write laws protecting families from funeral homes and burial sites that go out of business. If you plunked down some hard to find cash for a box and a hole, once the owner is gone, the chances of you still having that plot in your name is next to nothing.



Another cheap way of leaving your mark in a positive way—according to Jane Brody, people should donate their body to science. Stop right there! Let’s push the clock back up to 2029, what will they be doing with those who already did? With the incredible surge of energy building every year for Halloween…one of these day’s the real dead thing is going to be available for your front yard. This week at Exxon, for every gallon of gas sold we’ll give you tiny pink toes. Gross! Yuck!



Another reef burial ad says, “It seems more of a beginning than an ending…create a permanent living legacy with eternal reefs.”



Guess what? There’s even ministers who’ll head the scuba diving party to the location of your resting place.




$1,000 - Individual cremation urn burial or incorporation of cremated remains in a 300-400 pound private undersea reef.

Price includes: casting of the reef memorial (with either direct incorporation of the remains or casting of a sealed urn within the reef), undersea placement and dedication, bronze identification marker, and a Certificate of Living Coral Reef Burial.






37' Vessel
(Up to 6 Guests)
42' Vessel
(7-12 Guests)
48' Vessel
(13-22 Guests)

Private Luxury Yacht Service
Includes four-hour luxury yacht, fuel, captain, insurance, Great Burial Reef crew, flowers, and all gratuities. You may provide your own vessel.
$825
$1,125
$1,725

Food & Beverage
Gourmet hors d'oeuvres, desserts, bottled water, and fruit juices.
$195
$350


$600



Beer and Wine
Assorted domestic beers/white wines.
$75
$150
$300

Champagne Toast
We proudly serve Perrier-Jouet champagne for all toasts.
$60
$120
$240

Keepsake Photograph DVD
Professional yacht-board photography incorporated into a DVD slide show with music. Includes 5 DVDs. Addt'l $30 each.









Look…if you’re going to go green…you might as well become part of the colors that create the green…the blue waters of an endless ocean mixed lightly with the golden yellow of an unforgettable shade of sunshine.

Reality sucks sometimes...but whatcha doing after the show?


Getting back to living...steal my art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, October 9, 2009

Why are you being such a pain?

It’s Friday! Which means nearly half your office will spend the day moping and moaning about having a migraine, “Ohhh I can’t help you out…the big one has hit like a hurricane shredding the shores of a tiny island somewhere in the Atlantic.”

Friday migraines must be real! Look at how many aspirin makers have started marketing their product for those destined to find relief. I still want to know how a little white pill has been trained to tell the difference between stressful backaches to a bump on the noggin caused by bosses who flat out refuse to stop.

My mentor in life Dr. Ronald Mack, who once fronted our nations poison control center spent years trying to common man some sense into my system and every time, at the mere mention of a seven to fifteen letter word…it was instant tune out. It was easier to just pop the pill and get the headache over with.

Truth is migraines are extremely real, delivering an out of control throbbing through your mind, body and soul in the way of nearly making you disabled. New studies show women have more migraines than men typically showing up on the side of the head while rocking the Richter scale at moderate to severe.

The worst part about a migraine is the nausea that follows like a tsunami chasing an earthquake.

Shockingly most who suffer from migraines know 24 hours earlier that something of major proportion is about to hit. It’s called a Prodrome. According to Dr. Fred Sheftell the President of the Council for Headache Education, 15% of migraine sufferers see flashing lights or strange shapes before the headache looks into your eyes and screams, “Give me a name like a hurricane!”

There is no easy way to tame a migraine. Which makes you wonder what the heck triggers these monsters? Outside of abnormal electrical activity, your journey is coming to an abrupt halt thanks to alcohol, erratic meals or sleeping patters, artificial sweeteners, processed meats, aged cheese, perfume, cigarettes, caffeine withdrawal and psychological stress. Hold on a second…that’s everything that takes place in the first 32.3 seconds after you arrive at work on a Friday!

Holy cow…how are we supposed to enjoy living if everything we touch leads to a king sized cobra headache? You’ve got to take the necessary steps to prevent it by maintaining a regular sleeping schedule—stop sleeping in on the weekends. If your body clock has you ready to rock at 6 am Monday-Friday you have to pull off the same stunt on Saturday and Sunday.

Take your vitamin supplements. They stabilize your levels of estrogen and serotonin.

Take the time to love yourself by creating space for nurturing—a walk with the dog, reading a book, listening to incredible music without having to be bogged down by take it home work from a job that will quit you years before you decide to take the journey. Deep breathing is a must on this new avenue of trust. Adding sips of meditation to your daily requirement opens your eyes rather than shoves your head beneath a pillow begging for the pounding to stop.

If you travel a lot…take your time packing and do everything in your power to leave all types of alcohol completely out of your air flight plans. Once back on the ground allowing your shell to pull off a few up and downs is a positive move. Exercise boosts your endorphin out put which is a sweet sensation when it comes to relaxing bad chemical reactions. Hitting the basketball court or competing in other activities is nothing more than a free ticket to the front row of migraine headache 101. I’ve seen these guys in concert, take the group KISS, mix it with Ted Nugent and the Sex Pistols now place your neighbor learning how to play the violin with six of their friends on an out of tune guitar, flute and kazoo.

If you’re like me…the idea of flushing another pill down the pipe is irritating and annoying to the tummy below—go acupressure. You can’t and won’t find relief from the headache freak if you don’t take the time to get to know why he or she is stealing your time.

I’ll never forget my family doctor looking at me and calmly saying, “Hmmm I can give you a pill.” To which I replied, “Why so you can win a free trip to Disney from the maker of the medicine?”

It’s Friday! Be sensitive to the co-worker trapped in hut made of pound, pound, pound. Also be thankful that you, at this present moment don’t suffer from migraines because how you act and react to anyone under attack will be the exact way they’ll show love when rough times take you by the noodle and turns your world upside down, in and out and through a ringer that leaves you feeling lifeless.

Headaches are serious business—never ignore them, always make way for a doctor to check out your inner sound system. All that wrenching pain could be a signal from a distant star softly saying, “Human dude, yo ego maniac monkey man…you have high blood pressure and it could cause a much bigger shape of silence.”

Getting back to living…steal my art.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, October 8, 2009

How many bad moods are you expected to carry every hour?

A driver cuts you off while trying to throw your car onto the freeway. The convenience store employee failed to stock the coffee department with the bonus treats you pour into your hot cup of Joe before you officially hit the road. A quick glance at your emails and you notice those leading your team weren’t too happy with yesterday’s performance.



It requires little or no effort from another party to knock your day off a path of victory.



How are you expected to exceed the limits of everyday expectations if everyone around you has become a four hundred pound anchor tossed into the open blue waters off the warm white sandy beaches of Miami?



According to Neil Fiore the human mood changes every five seconds.



Finally! I’ve met someone who physically understands the entire cast of idiots living in, around and beneath this thing called me. If only I had held auditions it would be a different story. They would’ve been encouraged to take web tests based on the amount of time it takes to write, produce and complete a winning project. Nope! None of us get to employ the amazingly weird, calm, nervous, over confident, shy, mean little voices with invisible faces. They just suddenly show up and it becomes our daily mission to baby sit the brats.



Neil authored the book Awaken Your Strongest Self: Break Free of Stress, Inner Conflict and Self Sabotage. Wow! The name alone should be etched into a metal plate and shoved under our picture, it pretty much says, “I’ll start liking you more when I finally shake hands with every personality I can be inside a sixty minute period.”



This means a truly hateful God awful horribly bad day at work really only lasts five seconds…anything longer than that is up to you. What? But! But! Stand up and shake that booty until that uninvited spooky vibe falls to the floor where you can step on his fat little stinking head in the way a spider screams when being squished. Was that mean? According to the rule book, it should be over in five seconds.



I’m not going to let this ruin my day!



Say it! Live it! Breathe it! I’m not going to let this ruin my day! Oh baby it works! July 21, 2009 the gigantic doctor wasted no time walking up to my incredible uncomfortable emergency room bed to calmly say, “Dude we’ve got a problem and its going to require more than NASA and NASCAR.”

Instantly, without thought I shouted, “Merry Christmas!” Nurses and interns looked at me and honestly couldn’t believe the man in room 4-A had somehow shattered the normal pattern of extremely bad news and turned it into a holiday. Every person I met that night and to this very second hears me wish them these two words because it’s become my way of saying, “I’m not going to let this ruin my day!”



Dr. Steffanie Wilk, a professor of management at Fisher College of Business believes if a person starts their day in a bad mood…its going to hang with you the entire eight hours. That ugly, dirty, stinks like rotten food mood is generally a product delivered to your common sense not that morning but the days before it reared its shameless shape.



Whoa! Stop the morning train! My boogie has lost its shoes. Someone call the heart, we’re headed back into a bad mood. See how well educated people are! One delivers a positive message of how I’m not going to let this ruin my day while another firmly steps forward and paints the trail of this not having to do with today…the booger in your left nostril is to blame cuz it happened yesterday.



Actually that’s not true. The Order of Booger builders called their union managers and I need to apologize for putting the blame on their efforts to take your mind off a bad day. Blowing your brains into a nice soft tissue could truly bend the rules of bad moods and blow off a little steam.



Wait! That doesn’t mean you should suddenly buy stock in the hanky market!



Therapist Anna Maravelas who penned out the book How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress believes you’ve got other issues than tissues that lead to a really bad day at the job. Everybody in the congregation please shout Amen when I hit something you know is happening to you:



Lack of sleep…

Hunger…

Body aches and pain…

Noise…

Hormones…

Adrenaline…

Time urgency…

Stress…



Your bad mood, bad day, bad feelings, bad everything is connected to these evil creations. Changing how you think is the most powerful influence and easiest to control. Not only that…the medication for the cure is free!



I’m not going to let this ruin my day!



Merry Christmas!



Getting back to living…steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Who are you talking to now?

The introduction of Blue Tooth ear pieces has made this nation look like figures featured in Jack Nicholson’s movie One Flew Over the Coo Coo’s Nest—talk, talk, talk while you walk, walk, walk and those near your space have no clue if you talking to them or a ghost that got away from Dan Akroid and Bill Murray.



How can we learn to respect other people’s space if our circle of life has been invaded by wandering lip syncing? It’s time for AT&T and Verizon to create a device that allows us to click double click beep, beep right into the passing conversation?



Until that day Anne Marie Sabath blares into her giant megaphone, “Turn your back to the public when trying to talk on a cell phone!”



At work, home or at the mall, the true invader of space isn’t the person walking by the conversation but the often loud communicator out to prove their power because being in public on a cell phone is like having two hundred billion dollars. Morally and ethically speaking—to keep peace on the streets, one should refrain from being on the tally-whacker or walk toward a corner of a store or library and hold discussions completely away from those not connected.



If such places aren’t available for your private concert, Anne Marie reverts to what she calls the safe zone—four feet away from a passerby or two adult arm lengths at a level of conversation that doesn’t require volume or animated inflection.



What about talking while you’re driving?



Research shows an increasing amount of car accidents occur when keepers of the conversation are intermingled with deep thoughts brought on by the blah blah blah on the other side. The reason why is because the human brain was truly created to do only one thing at a time. Multitasking is a Corporate American term that relieves bosses from having to be jerks at work—you’re mind, body and soul can’t give driving a 100% go if you’re thinking about or arguing with a second party usually connected via a cell phone.



While growing up in Montana I used to laugh at drivers who sang with their favorite song on the radio, waving their arms, holding a pencil or a bobby pin up to their lips while Elton John blurted out Crocodile Rock or the traveler who was deeply involved in heavy thought with the passenger in the front or back—as safe as that might sound, it too was extremely dangerous by keeping the mind off what it truly should be doing.



I’d ask you to disconnect but that would make me a hypocrite. Talking on the tiny box while driving is an addiction—just like drinking and driving…except it’s several hundred dollars cheaper to put a bottle up to your lips. Local governments talk the talk about making us hang up but cell phone makers keep coming up with new connections that instantly turn your radio into giant loud speakers—better hope to God the person calling in doesn’t start off with something crude, rude and totally off color...or a little me sits next to you in traffic impersonating your every move while talking. When did we learn to talk so much with our hands? Wouldn’t it be better to keep them on the steering wheel?



Respecting other people’s space is the key here!



In public on the little talk maker or while sitting high in that hot little car pouring out the verbiage like the water treatment plant on the outskirts of town—the end result of whatever tone you have ringing is a mental state of mind you’ve lost control of…and I’ve not even touched texting yet!



By the time we physically see what the tiny print is truly saying our eyes have been taken off the road long enough to take out a possum, two dogs and an eighteen year old cat named Freddy the heart breaker. No wonder squirrels and deer love to jump out at us—America’s Funniest Human’s in Shock has been a hit on animal television years before Homer and Bart Simpson plowed into our world of entertainment.



From outer space aliens naturally assume we are a people who love to communicate—ohhh it must look so cute to see so much talk, talk, talking. What they don’t see are the living rooms and kitchen tables that remain empty. Dinner has been served but nobody looks into the eyes of the person sitting next to them and softly says, “Zup?” It requires too much energy to be one on one.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Body aches no more without racing to Wal Mart

Any drug store, big, small, super family sized to nearly driven by has them. Any grocery store, organic, overrated or convenient stacks them tall on the wall, heck Hank’s got em too at Wild Willie’s flea flickin flea market along the highway—over the counter pills that claim to take the wick-it-tee whack whack out of your legs, hands and back.



Nothing destroyed my uneducated completely erratic teenage attitude more than hearing Dr. Balltrush try to explain to Mom that her extremely active son had arthritis in both his knees. Not even fifteen and the medical world was set to silence my efforts of becoming the world’s first professional bowler from Billings, Montana.



While Earl Anthony continued to dominate the round rock into slender pins act, each effort presented on my behalf was listening to the doctor, “Take these tablets four at a time, four times a day.”



Even as a child it was extremely too easy not to grasp onto the rules. 4x4=16…to which I took the very second the sun peered over that crisp Montana horizon. Who has time to watch time? The doc in the box said 4 arthritis pills every four hours…what’s wrong with doing all 16 in one sitting? The one word I didn’t learn how to spell in the first grade was S.T.U.P.I.D.



According to Dr. Jason Theodosakis sixteen million American’s suffering from osteoarthritis shove aspirin and ibuprofen into their personal computer system six or more times a day and night. Added to the game plan are nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs or NSAID’s, which do nothing to treat the underlying condition. Even worse, new studies show NSAID’s tend to trigger a host of troublesome side effects including digestive problems and high blood pressure.



You’d think the bad news would end there…no wonder Dr. Ronald Mack of Wake Forest University screamed at me like a chicken who’d just seen a snake. One look at the cute little pills being shoved into the mind, body and soul and he became livid pushing me into a chair and warning me that NSAID’s, purchased over the counter aggravates arthritis by blocking key molecules that help draw much needed water into dry damaged joints.



Wait! Wait! Double click the mouse a few pages back and instantly you’ll discover written pieces that unveil the trail to which I keep—my family doctor was furious when he learned of me drinking 140 to 160 ounces of water a day. There were no signs of diabetes but he noticed the blood pressure was sharply climbing. Not even three weeks later I was waking up in a hospital room with two stints in my heart.



Is this what caused the heart to jump from Donna Summer, to Hootie and the Blowfish, then Green Day then back to Taylor Swift all within three seconds?



While the highly overpaid medical officials that obviously know more than me aren’t shy to blame this twist of fate on family history…I did mention in these computer papers that I would connect all the dots and take you with you. What family history? Nobody in the chapters before this current generation suffered from any type of heart condition! Welcome to this weeks edition of CSI Arroe. (song playing in the background John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High. I wanted The Who but CSI Miami grabbed it years before me. Dang it! Always a day late and a penny short!”



Dr. Theodosakis is a professor of medicine from the University of Arizona and through his efforts we’ve learned that glucosamine and chondroitin controls pain while boosting joint mobility plus helping to undo cartilage damage which is the hallmark of osteoarthritis.



World wide those who suffer with daily if not minute by minute pain in parts of their body that once gave them a happy life are learning how to live again. Sadly, these peace makers seem to be in an area of the store that come with absolutely no medical attention. Here we go again. The weight of your body is the key secret to these over the counter pain relievers working—106% of the time the printed rules and regulations that come inside every box are so tiny it does nothing more than take up room in the garbage can. Talk to a doctor first or you could be forking out a bunch of worthless money on a product that really doesn’t have an end result.



Other incredible natural tools to help take the stress out of your joints include antioxidants like Vitamin A, C and E plus Selenium which is rich in bioflavonoids., it makes collagen, a tough protein that your cartilage digs because it becomes stronger and less prone to inflammation. Bioflavonoid sources include green tea, berries, onions, citrus fruit and pitted fruit like cherries and plums.



As tough as it can be, regular exercise is another incredible step toward a peaceful today, tomorrow and next week. The goal is to locate an exercise that doesn’t trigger the pain. Don’t suddenly take up running because it lifts the level of your heart rate…ouch!



Another good idea is to befriend a chiropractor. Proper body mechanics makes incredible harmony. Allow yourself to have a biomechanical check up, it’s nothing more than lifting the hood of your car and making sure those pistons are delivering. The video tape documents how your body moves and whoa if you think its being done right, what until you see this puppy in motion.



Face the facts the Jonas Brothers aren’t the only one’s getting old—so are the Osmonds, Boyz II Men, The New Kids on the Block are now parents and one day Hannah Montana will be an extremely late night 30 minute sitcom on Nick at Night.



I got arthritis pain at an early age because I played hard and wild as a kid, jumping off houses and mountain cliffs in Montana…I was a walking talking Mountain Dew commercial before it became cool. Today, we painstakingly make our way into the fix it up store and pop a pill believing some relief is better than nothing—totally forgetting what its doing to the rest the body.



I am no doctor but I do know the end result of over the counter abuse.



Getting back to living…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, October 5, 2009

Stress is nothing more than a rope around your neck...

I met with a small assembly of people this past Friday night who were visually nervous about the current shapes of a modern future—one look at the never ending changes in the world financial market, the crime rate public officials vote to release to the media and the combined efforts of Iran and North Korea having nuclear weapons of choice generates a feeling of abnormal unrest.



What becomes of a people when the idea of setting your imagination free within a world of fantasy no longer seems to be the ultimate escape? Keeping up with the Jones’ used to be fun! The closest thing to it these days is a credit card with a 30% interest rate. Which I believe is higher than scoring some cash from the Mafia—as long as it’s paid back by the first of the week.



So I ask, “Where are those rose colored glasses my mother constantly spoke of?”



When confronted with nervous laughter, eyes that dart across the room like fireflies in August and fingers nibbled back to near bleeding—when there is fear, humans cut off their oxygen supply relying solely on the upper levels of those lungs to feed the entire presentation of the frame and all things connected.



Breathing properly gifts your system with space.



By learning how to properly breathe all that shatters your day becomes something you can easily set aside and or deal with one step at a time—beginning first with cleaning up the floor of your inner closet and allowing yourself to breathe. Create space so the entire self can take in the necessary decisions to make your day right.



Author and spiritualist Eckhart Tolle believes the awareness of how we breathe generates aliveness—an electric shock of feeling like we are alive rather than numb. Breathing properly diffuses the body.



But before I can suddenly leap into the 2,000 year old sketches of pushing out the tummy then releasing it…the key thought here is awareness. Learning to identify what brings giant dark clouds to your parade helps you to better handle its appearance on the horizon rather than two inches from your wet allergy infested nose.



Tell me someone who isn’t distracted by their hidden personal thoughts—those voices in the head speak way too loud. They scream because they can’t feel aliveness. In essence, by breathing wrong, you’re depriving the thinker of proper oxygen to keep those thought busters in their proper place.



Its no hidden fact, the art of bringing peace to the inner being is usually connected to addictions, drugs, caffeine, smoking, giant roller coasters that send chills up and down your spine so fast the endorphins created would instantly be named illegal on most streets in America. Over stimulation, loud music and obsession make up the design of voices gone wild.



Eckhart Tolle believes the biggest cover up the human race has concocted is relationship, “I will make you happy for the rest of your life.” He calls it the worlds largest let me down. Now you know why the national divorce rate is 52%. The other side of the loving relationship didn’t come with a guarantee.



Conscious breathing is key to a winning today, tomorrow and next week. Two or three conscious breaths invite aliveness to your perch—recognizing the fresh alive feeling from the inside out rather than just the outside brings sunshine to your arms, feet and dreams allowing you to take on a more positive shape.



Let your entire body become whole by filling your stomach with air—all that delicious invisible stuff races into your blood stream like teenagers who’ve learned their parents are headed out of town for the weekend. In Tae Kwon Do I’ll measure the air by resting my fingers lightly on my black belt. Knowing air is moving through the entire system grants the rest of me to kick, block and punch at a much higher level of performance.



Here in the radio station production studio where things have to be 200% more peaceful…measurements are made through the day with a self driven goal of doing 100 or more pushups. Nothing rocks your body more than using good ole fashioned body versus mass approaches your PE teacher assumed you’d perform the rest of your life.



Can’t find the privacy to pull off a set of 10 to 15 pushups? Locate a workplace closet, kitchen area or wash your hands really good and hit the bathroom floor. I got caught busting out 25 last week, horribly embarrassed by a personal effort to stay in tune and up beat I quickly recovered by offering them the opportunity to do it with me. Make it fun and others will soon join in. I can’t wait until our private gym is 100% complete here at Clear Channel. The walls are up waiting for our staff to step inside and pour some sugar on feeling great.



Maybe that bad day at work really isn’t because your boss is a bonehead. Regain control of your future by feeling alive in the center of your world. This journey doesn’t star Nicolas Cage and won’t be shown to the rest of us in 3-D. It’s time to breathe! Properly!



Getting back to living….steal my art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, October 2, 2009

What a pain!

Anyone who knows me isn’t far from the truth when describing the steps I take as being connected to a total hypochondriac. He bumps his leg its must be broken. He chips a tooth forget calling the dentist; we need the entire Grey’s Anatomy staff.



I grew up in the bitter sweet extremely cold shivers that blanket the Big Sky Country of Montana—your entire life all anyone talks about is how they can feel it in their bones. Everything, including a mouse squeaking six blocks from the closest thing to privacy.



Chronic pain was once thought to be a disease and according to Dr. Norman Marcus the only way a person could make it through a day was to learn how to manage the pain rather than search for its cause.



Isn’t that what most of us do today? The right knee is killing you, the first effort of relief isn’t to buzz someone who’s been trained to recognize as well as help heal such uncomfortable situations but to fight our way through traffic to the nearest Wal-Mart because the giant box store has every pill imaginable fully capable of offering a good nights sleep.



Dr. Marcus believes muscles are the cause of chronic pain, stress being the leading cause or root to all evil. While under the big axe your body reacts…it become tense which totally takes out your surface level protection system leaving your steps forward in a state of, “Oh my God!”



Chronic pain isn’t a disease it’s a barometer of tension. What causes this collision of the senses? Stress, weakness, stiffness, spasms and trigger points—which at Wal-Mart is about hundred bucks of over the counter, unmeasured self serving pills gifting your life and style with about 32.4 ½ seconds of relief.



Dr. Marcus offers these drug free suggestions: Persistent pain always requires medical attention—don’t diagnose yourself. The first rule of thumb is to stop thinking of the pain as being a disease. Stop being afraid of movement, being inactive worsens the pain. The goal is to carry yourself through a normal day of work, love and laughter.



Begin a moderate exercise program. Don’t whip out the martial arts equipment and start banging your legs on a bag or shoving your hard headedness into a thick brick. Begin walking or swimming, take your time while taking in fall time in the Carolinas. Proper shapes of exercise always begin and end with relaxation. Don’t just limber up your legs and arms; get that ego involved as well…meditation is an incredible tool to keep in your exercise plan. The cool thing about it…it doesn’t weigh anything to carry it.



Warning: Dr. Marcus wants you to know your pain by documenting its behavior. If it’s associated with fever, chills, night sweats or headaches that’s a signal of there being something serious. Don’t hit the cheap earth friendly drugs at Wal-Mart call the doctor.



Not so ideal forms of exercise include those highly overpriced straight from a horror flick walking or exercise machines at the gym that shove your body into awkward positions. How about that new abdominal machine seen on late night television that allows your body to be swung to the left, then right, then left—I can’t wait to read the number of backs that are about to be tossed out of place. If you truly want to see what machines physically help the human body…spend a Saturday morning buzzing around the hood sneaking peaks of what’s being sold at garage sales. 90% of the time…if it’s in the driveway, it didn’t do a thing.



Dr. Marcus doesn’t want you to overdo muscle strengthening exercises. Sure the man and woman look great on that powdered drink you just purchased at GNC but nowhere on the label does it explain how they’re sleeping. Beautiful beefed up bodies require nourishment and water…lots of water—what’s the first thing we stop doing when trying to slim down…stop eating and mmmm I love me some power drinks fortified with 27 cups of sugar.



Stair step exercises at the gym in aerobics class or on the machine…they’re mean to your body, mind and spirit. The only mission they serve is to fulfill your love for chronic pain. No pain no gain right? When you have pain you have no reason to continue staying healthy. There are two major areas where people quit martial arts…white belt because it’s a different workout and green belt because at that level its beginning to affect your deeper muscles and tissues and boy howdy it messes with your mind and drive because working out is supposed to be fun not shaping the thought process of a having a winning attitude and spirit.



I know…lets get a treadmill! No way says Dr. Marcus! Its carpal tunnel of the legs—repetitive motion at the same pace beats the ba-jee-bees out of your day.



Walk outdoors; allow your mind to pass gas. Get natural and get yourself free by letting your body take its time rather than rushing. If your system of training flat out needs a bike and its snowing in October do the next best thing…a stationary bike is brilliant for your system. Cross country machines are another incredible step in the right direction. If done at a slow pace in the beginning with the idea of working your way to a longer period of time.



I have no problem talking to the pain in my knees, “Dude I’m not in the mood for you today.” Sometimes it listens and other days it’s ready to fight. Is it the shoes you wear? Be careful when you go there, mall stores live off spiffs and can’t wait to get your stinky toes in a nice pair of really expensive canvas. They've got money for Christmas and you ache horribly. Which is why I love martial arts…no shoes, no fancy space alien machines or weights I can barely lift…just 2,000 years of history that works no matter how bad the economy is.



I better stop writing…I’m becoming a chronic pain in your ***



Getting back to living…steal my art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Start! Stop! Start! Stop! You quit...

Intern Curtis returned to the pages of study early yesterday—he travels to our studio from Asheville to do nothing more than learn the fine art of conversation. That sort of dedication, loyalty and determination seems to inspire the thirty plus year veteran within the sips of the cups of water I devour every hour.



Thumb through old notes and blogs and you’ll quickly take note of the number of times Mr. Curtis has been brought to your attention. He’s the intern I played tough love with during a bout of not physically understanding what it is radio people do on and off stage and behind the scenes. What seems digestible to most proved to be horridly mind boggling to the continued dreams of the mountain man whose vow is to become a performer on this place music and politics get so much attention.



Remaining focused on the situation at hand then not holding true to the lessons shared is what made me think he wasn’t hungry enough to build his fortress on the land that for the moment carries my team—after an unrehearsed speech of what’s required to play this game, we agreed that it was time for him to leave. Please come back when you’re hungry…extremely hungry for something other than a place to hangout like a teen.



Curtis wasted no time to locate that hidden vibe—studying the art of what it is we do, he set sail on an ocean where getting a job is chased down by 3,000 others trying to make the same accomplishment. Ignoring the odds by putting focus on completion he’s made his way back to the stage by way of proving just how hungry his soul can be.



Focus on completion…



Within the limits to which we place ourselves on a daily if not hourly basis, the idea of just getting done with a current project energizes the warmth of a good days work. After which you’re left with a pain in your gut wondering why you no longer feel the origin of your dreams. Cold, empty, lack of spirit and drive, no need to climb anymore because starting over at your age means you’ll probably quit before being recognized by the masses that’ve already climbed a ladder thought to be made of success.



It’s human to lose focus on what’s important. We get caught up in the organization of a project, the task list and timeline teamed up with those required to put air under our wings only to learn the attention required to maintain a visual is ripped from the core of our built in systems leaving what could’ve been in a pile of everything else we’ve done along the way.



Focus on completion…



Each day Author Leo Babauta aligns his life and style in the way of moving all objects involved in a project forward by way of completion. Setting aside distractions is horribly difficult. That’s why you never catch Arroe leaving the building for lunch—it takes too long to catch back up. I don’t expect people to understand the process, they aren’t me, so the main focus is constantly set on completing rather than competing.



The act of completion requires three main objectives: Have an outcome—anyone who writes, designs, paints or prints has learned through the school of hard knocks to recognize the sketches delivered when a project is complete. How do teachers, grocery store managers, city bus drivers and airline pilots fit within the realms of completion? Gaining access to what writers call the beginning middle and end opens the door to completion.



My most recent book was delivered much differently than most novels of get better writings presented in pages past. This time around I’d write to write—just get it out, drain the brain and spell out the purpose of there being a bunch of words sitting in front of me. Do not edit…period. You can’t be everything to all things begging to be heard unless you’re physically willing to convince yourself to do it one personality and or project at a time.



Move from projects to tasks—an idea is a project; there is no reality unless you create a task. Figure out the plans required to take what you see and turn into something others can touch. Tasks are not goals…tasks are tools that build unforgettable skyscrapers.



Each day, move a single task into the bracket called completion. No new sun shall rise without your efforts of taking three tasks and giving them life. One of them should be completed by days end. The human mind is creatively and constantly inspired by the movement of water…become what I call the Kooshatay Ookooshstah: the creative flow.



Never forget to reassess your progress. Managers are brilliant at telling employees when they’re not doing well because those on the upper level take the time to reassess. Have you ever sat back and watched a worker bee take over a freshly grown flower? They don’t hang around long enough to gather all the pollen. The momma bee would kick their tail up one side and down the other if she knew how her employees work. Getting sidetracked is human nature but it requires focus…which is what Curtis lacked during the opening efforts of his budding radio career.



To keep on track requires one simple task—ask those eyes constantly looking back in the mirror what its been up to lately and look to see if what you expect from that person is being delivered. Review your layout of ideas while locating strength in the roots that make your trees extremely green during summer droughts.



Curtis hates Liver mush…to quickly grasp his vision of why he wanted to play in radio I invited him to return to Asheville to eat Liver mush for an entire week. On week number two he was to buy three cans and place them in areas where he could constantly see them, the bathroom, kitchen and in the car…because he hated the taste of Liver mush so bad, it would serve as a reminder…if you’re going to get into this business called radio, hunger for success is an everyday occurrence…without that hunger you’ll be living off Liver mush.



Completion is like making a choice…you either win or you walk away saying, “I used to be or I wanted to be. I HATE being me!” Too much time is wasted on projects that look like a quick and easy way to make money—no matter how rich and famous you become, in the end it’s nothing more than an object others will fight over and there’s nothing you can do about it.



Get back to living…steal my art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com