Thursday, March 31, 2011

One minute to live...what's your next step?

From the Nez Perce Nation Chief Joseph spoke, “I am not a child, I can think for myself. No man can think for me.”

Stand back fifteen feet and silently identify the leaders in your life that speak like a child because those above them create what they think.

A Raleigh, NC man is being investigated by local law makers because of a decision to further his beliefs in locating reasons to put up traffic lights in his neighborhood. He’s being accused of practicing engineering work without a license.

Virginia Tech has been fined $55,000 for their decision not to warn students of possible danger two hours after one of this nation’s worst on campus shootings began. They plan to appeal.

25 million people watched as President Obama explained why he sent U.S. forces into Libya…comedians around the world have joked not about the message but how the President wanted his words to be over before Dancing with the Stars began.

February 8, 1887 the Dawes Act was put into motion causing Native American nations to lose a collected 90 million acres of reservation land.

Words, actions, reactions and decisions that lead to rebuilding yet there are vacant buildings in every small town and city in America surrounded by giant parking lots that resemble craters from the moon.
Our leaders vowed to make us greener by investing unheard of amounts of money in offshore drilling and nuclear energy; instantly we were introduced to the nightmares dubbed The Gulf of Mexico and a 9.0 earthquake in Japan.

What is the plan? In the soon to be released film Source Code, Jake Gyllenhaal asks Michelle Monaghan, “If you only had a minute left to live what would you do?”

In July of 2009 while rushing down highway 51 in south Charlotte toward an emergency room, the thought of currently having a heart attack invited no fear but rather made me extremely concerned about the makeup of my job…I called a coworker and calmly said, “There’s a distinct possibility I won’t be coming in tomorrow.”

On the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Marshall’s father’s final words weren’t physical but rather somewhat spiritual in the way of what we’ve dubbed in this new millennium as being a butt call.

I still laugh to this day about a phone call nationally recognized comedian Pam Stone received from her father; it was cartoonish, brilliantly funny expressively exciting sounds that embraced his passion to be a personality in memory. It became a fixture on our radio show.

The call that touched me the most was from Lisa’s father on an answering machine sitting in the house. The GM’s secretary brought it to me to clean it up, take out the static, ease back on the hissing and what I did as a producer was a crime against realities worst bite…I listened very closely to every word, vowel, consonant and popped P, T and K and located enough vibrations in the way he spoke to physically create the sentence, “I love you Lisa…”

“I am not a child, I can think for myself. No man can think for me.”

What are you thinking these days? How well is it fitting within the elements that make up the paths you walk? Stealing from the movie; what if you had only one minute to live…what would you do?

Did I mention the second call I placed on that long a** highway 51?

Got thinking about that summer night when things didn’t feel right.
And I was forced to make that call to hear your voice before the walls came tumbling down onto the streets made of gold inside God’s heaven.
Thank you for believing
Thank you for always seeing
Thank you for all the hugs at night
Thank you for so much insight
I can’t walk with God until I know you’ll be alright
I can’t walk with God until your heart is felt in the kisses you placed so many times on my forehead…
Simple memories are hard to catch
But you made it worth every step
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, everyday a reason to hold the memories
Childhood pictures have started to fade but the love I have for you will never be that way
Because you are……Mom

She is the seed that made me believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Look Mom! A Booger!

Ernest Hemmingway wrote, “It’s better to write drunk and edit sober.”

I’m sober! Should I knock down a few chocolate milks before leaping onto this Social Networking thing?

Bring up the subject of writing drunk to any full or part time author and a shy grin blossoms on those lips that softly dance like ballerinas during a performance on the Blumenthal stage in center city Charlotte.

Google the quote and 908,000 links are waiting to make love with your vividly dry fingertips; How to write drunk without drinking; The Happiness Project Writing Drunk and Editing Sober; The Top 10 Drunk American Writers!

In 2001 no gun, knife, rope or razor was used when killing off one of the main characters in my now published book The Blizzard White Canvas: Halloween 78. Your Honor I used several glasses of very sweet wine!

By mornings edge; the decision to revert back to the origin was diverted due to a battle brewing between the prints uncovered by a CSI unit that exclaimed, “If you’re such a great writer, take on the challenge of this drunken behavior and write a new beginning, middle and end.”

Oh it was hell! As much as I wanted to rip from my heart the greatest love story between innocence and greed I didn’t want to lose the essence of loud rock music being scolded from the souls of silent lyricists and painters from separate invisible dreams. What? Now you know the way I went…I wanted an opera! I dreamed of writing in my own language like Shakespeare and Samuel Clemmons. (Mark Twain) Only to hear from every critic given birth this side of 1950, “You aren’t them! You won’t be them! Stop writing so far over people’s heads!”

Just once I want to write in a language that speaks to the one whose favorite reading place is ten minutes of peace on a toilet. I want nothing more than to give you a page not a chapter. A Kendle-ized bright light that grants your imagination permission to sink into a pool of I have no fricken clue what this man is saying but I can’t put down this damn electronic contraption.

I don’t write to be loved, liked or looked upon as being an author; I write because its oxygen for a living, breathing monster inside of me whose passion is do nothing more than sit behind these eyes growling at a passerby.

Julia Cameron elegantly writes, “We were all born to write…”

Bob said to partner, “Leave Arroe alone he’s an Artist…”

Talk about the perfect storm of someone getting peanut butter in my chocolate! Without even knowing it all ten of my fingers were free from a life of imprisonment that didn’t require a NATO or Obama invasion. A night in 2001 blessed with the berries found in fields of green leaves and purple things dangling from strings whispered, “Write it and they will come.”

Teachers order you to write one way…their way. Instructors encourage you to be you. Visionaries listen to the wind while cuddling close to the ground like a Copperhead snake while Stock Market employees forget that real people with valuable dreams still grow in America.

For the first time ever…ever….ever! There aren’t any lines on the paper. Through Social Networking you have a place to write drunk and edit sober.

Change the title of your book 100 times! Create stupid character names and place them next to pictures of Hollywood actors you’d love to see on the screen shouting your words. Unmask the monster with stinky a** breath behind those eyes and give life to your self and every itty bitty person that you mimic while racing toward a fast approaching horizon.

Brad the trucker says to me, “We’re all gonna die…just make mine fast because I can’t see how my dad is staying true to what he loves while battling dementia.”

The person who created the fart developed the most brilliant underrated shape of entertainment and emotion; some laugh, cry, run, make faces, feel relieved and keep reaching for yet another.” Being a writer or taking fifteen minutes a day to jot down a stupid thought gives back to the creator in ways nobody not even a poet can explain.

Get drunk on life and edit sober. You know what? Screw the editing…your personality shines like a dime dropped on fresh black top forcing anyone, everyone including myself to reach out and pick it up.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What do you think put the money in your account?

I surfed into Dancing with the Stars last night; the shake and roll not being the attraction but rather an extremely loud rattle created by comedian George Lopez’s raw unfair comparison of a farm animal to Kirstie Alley.

Why do comedians go there? While doing a nationally syndicated radio show with extremely funny girl Pam Stone, she never advised us to hit below the belt. Maybe it’s just me; the first sign of getting old might be having a lack of desire to watch Donald Trump get roasted by ten people who’ve got nothing in common but a smart writer.

My younger sister Susan can’t get enough of Chelsea Handler and Russell Brand, “They’re me! We’re the same family from different mothers. Chelsea and Russell have given me permission to say what I want when I want.”

Not too good…there’s a reason why we nicknamed her Mouth.

An old Chinese proverb keeps my fears under control: The gem cannot be polished without friction. Basically meaning character is more important than victory.

Eleanor Roosevelt adds a little spice to the sweet tea, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right for you’ll be criticized anyway. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet,” are the words from Helen Keller, “Through trial and suffering the soul is strengthened, ambition is inspired and success is achieved.”

Which goes perfect with Artist Way author Julia Cameron’s deepest belief, “Display your art so you can learn how to ignore criticism.”

Character arrives from separate sides of the pendulum and through everyday occurrences at home, at work or while standing in line at a very busy grocery store we should never be elated in victory or discouraged in defeat. Both sides are equal parts of the same process.

Instantly I’m taken back to 1987 when the Charlotte Observer reporter asked me why I kept my excitement about being a finalist to replace Casey Kasum on American Top 40 completely reserved. It’s not that I feared the unknown but chose instead to prepare for it. Thank god I did! Shadoe Stevens got the performance of a lifetime and I was thrown onto overnight radio.

Kirstie Alley displayed unforgettable character after Lopez’s accusation was tossed out like a tiger blood fed Charlie Sheen winner-ism. Whether it hurt or not; Kirstie took the high road by accepting without furthering the damaging the comedians apology, which I’m sure upset the staff at TMZ cuz its ratings time and this cat fight would’ve made a hell of a story.

Author Richard King writes, “People gain victory by buying it, bribing it or stealing it.”

Does it create an empty illusion or is life truly nothing more than a circle and everything taking place today has already happened when Kings, Queens and Court Jesters were found at on the streets and not in a deck of cards?

Richard goes on to explain, “It is critical that we understand the unfortunate reality and not be negatively affected by it.”

The true code is simple: Character is more important than victory

Does this mean we quickly empty our bank accounts and put the hot fresh cash into the dried cold palms of every homeless person spotted along the road? Does anyone know where Ted Williams is today? His story lit up this nation like a mountain side fire; big brilliant Godlike golden pipes that were swiped from the back roads of this nation and put on display like a goldfish in a tiny bubble. Forget winning the lottery! I want to be homeless! Not a good message at all...

I continue to be deeply inspired by another voice; one that led millions before falling into a bowl of prison inmates, a failed marriage and a completely unheard of disconnection from a group of people who’ve been fed their entire life to forgive but didn’t. Today he’s quietly returned to the building and healing process because it’s his character to believe in the very pages that put him on a journey that now reaches into a world he’s lived and can help keep others from entering.

Do I dare put his name out there for you to ridicule? The universe will let him know of my positive thoughts.

I spent my entire teen years trying to achieve three goals; get into radio, bowl a 300 game at Sunset Bowl and turn my ugly a** unfinished bedroom into a place where imaginations are given permission to grow. Have never accomplished my radio goals, will never bowl a 300 but damn if I haven’t dedicated my soul to stepping onto a silent walker’s path to say nothing more than, “I will always believe in you first.”

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, March 28, 2011

Fitting a square peg into a round hole...

Ever find yourself cuddling a soft pillow on a giant living room sofa tuning out the vibrant colors of the flat screen only to take note of the enormous amount of energy being poured into open wounds created by a never ending question, “Why don’t I fit in?”

Being liked requires two clicks on Face Book being accepted is a separate beast.

I’ve never listened long enough to radio super jock Howard Stern to develop an opinion but his most recent interview in Rollingstone Magazine resembles more of a mirrored reflection of society rather the assumed ego driven single man’s journey toward the unseen horizon.

Inside his mental caverns and endless wandering paths lives a voice fixed on connecting more with a passerby than following personal endeavors. It’s never been about how he felt about his performance but more importantly did you like it? Such concentration has made him admittedly neurotic.

Stand back ten feet from your office chair or highway fix it crew and expose the truths about the circles you keep. To whom do you allow inside? And when the fit is no longer snug what measures are used to eliminate the excess fat?

While Stern might make millions quaking unexpected thoughts through firmly attached speakers the recently unveiled printed portrait uncovers a man behind a microphone that wants nothing more than to fit in.

Tribes author Seth Godin takes the ball and runs with it by explaining most people work so hard to fit in others don’t notice them. How often do you eat at the same restaurant? Did you really need that Ipad or was it the hot new fad? Do you truly care about Charlie Sheen’s antics or does talking about it at work or at Starbucks opens the door to fitting in?

What gives? From a distant planet it must look like earthlings are co-dependent.

That’s not happening! Research shows Google wasn’t an overnight success because most people are horrified of being curious. Once in front of a blank computer screen we evolve into the cute robot in the movie Short Circuit demanding more input. The more information we get the more we want to share it. The more we talk the faster we turn people off. Now we no longer fit in. Crap! What are the chances you made it this far?

Godin encourages you to think about this, “You won’t be able to grow your career or feed your tribe by going after more people.”

Basically meaning who gives a rat’s butt how many unknowns have become your friend on FB. Again, he points out that fitting in isn’t important to most people because we’re really good at ignoring new trends or big ideas. Mainly because nobody has the energy required to worry about people all day.

Godin rocks my world by confessing; those you’re worried about honestly aren’t wasting a second of their time thinking about you. They can’t hear you no matter how loud you yell.

Which could be why Howard Stern feels the way he does; 35 years in radio with over 20 million listeners and Rollingstone reports the man with the vivid view of a world in constant motion still can’t find the right thing to say that’ll invite peace to the core of his soul.

How well do you fit in? Is it important?

My first wife often accused me of not liking people, “You’re no fun! Why can’t you be like all the other guys that wanna dance, drink and misbehave all night?” She wanted to fit in. I get it! But I didn’t have it…a need to be liked so I chose to hide.

Here’s what drives 98% of this nation back into their tortoise shells….an experience that plays out everyday in workplace USA; a team of sellers walks up instantly demanding, “The client needs unique, not typical but funny and filled with enough drive to move people to their location. What’s going through your mind?”

My only reply gets me kicked out of every fit in group, “Would you ever walk up to a nationally recognized comedian and tell them to make you laugh right now?”

The question shot so far above their heads inside two seconds NASA began to report a UFO flying somewhere over Charlotte.

I’m a firm believer that even a Wal-Mart greeter has to show prep. You can’t just stand there and offer a smile unless you’ve prepared yourself for the bulky old guy attempting to bring back a patio set purchased five years ago. The Wal-Mart greeter feels no passion to fit into your life and style…their job is to help you fit into their life and style.

Two seconds inside my commercial producing rock concert of a studio here at Clear Channel and you’ll instantly feel the noise, “He’s not about fitting in your world. But damn if he won’t welcome you into his.” I have fricken Muppets hanging from the ceiling! People go to far away hospitals for this disease!

The disconnection isn’t that you don’t fit in…the crack in the pavement becomes a canyon when fitting in becomes a struggle of whose circle influences you the most to want to fit in?

I produce radio commercials, if you can’t sell me a thought inside 5, 15 or 30 seconds you don’t fit in. Ouch! Some days I don’t even like myself. But that’s a different blog!

Stop trying to fit in! No matter how many cans of beans you consumed over the weekend there's always gonna be someone around that thinks they like you.
I will always believe I you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, March 24, 2011

I've got nothing...

Richard Andrew King writes, “To become everything we must first become nothing…”

Surf the flat screen and every show wastes no time feeding your imagination with thoughts, plans, dreams and reasons to believe that you could be The Next American something. We’ve been poisoned with the idea that success can’t and won’t happen until we become something first.

I’m so guilty of this daily diet! At 2:35 AM on March 11, 1985 a giant beat up ugly old U-Haul truck pulled into the Ramada Inn on Kings Drive in Charlotte, NC filled with more radio ego than furniture. The man sitting behind the wheel was completely fixed to a single vision, “I’m cruising from market #286 to market #37 to learn adult radio then bolting after two years so that when I enter the lines that make up California I won’t be just another anybody.

Twenty six years into the book and I’m still here. I love Charlotte but the biggest mistake in my career was agreeing to come to the Queen City. The ego heard #37 and without hesitation shot out, “Yes!” You do the math…a lot was missed on the radio journey that could’ve helped me in the art to become a better talent in the business of talk, talk, play a song, talk again, play a commercial.

Learning to surrender your ego invites tremendous power. This isn’t just a radio thing. Every business including the fast food joint sticking its tongue out at you on the corner of Sharon Amity and Randolph road comes with a box of way too much attitude which becomes easily damaged when destinations aren’t met.

Richard explains, “Accomplishments are not our life; our life is accomplishment. Its far better to live life filled with life than a trophy filled life.”

Becoming everything by becoming nothing gives you permission to become a single raindrop falling from the sky onto a mountain top. Once your parachute is rolled up and the pup tent is sitting next to an open fire the first mission becomes your vision, “I want to find the ocean.”

Sounds like a great idea until you realize the mountain you fell onto are the Snowies located in the center of Montana. Prairie mile after prairie mile then poof…a giant rock. What? Now find your way to the ocean knowing at any given moment a drought in the Dakota’s is waiting for your tail feathers to come walking by the Black Hills.

I can’t stand it when someone says, “We have limited powers.”

We are students of the 21st Century and we are brilliantly strong, unstoppable and fully capable of achieving the highest goals…and then a 9.0 earthquake rocks Japan followed by a tsunami and everything alive is tossed around like toys in the attic.

When you allow your career, love for shoes, BBQ pits and fancy cars become your ocean…we lose our identity. My way out of it…the name on the black belt wall at Martial Arts University has nothing to do with the radio career. A new drop of water was sent down the mountain wearing a pair of those tennis shoes with toes; its mission…find Nemo.

How many times during the average day do the little things tork your attitude to the point of expressing a little bit too much energy? Now people see you as an a**. Like Chutes and Ladders toss your little piece back to the position called start and with great hesitation we get things rolling again, again and again until one day you wake up and say, “I’m done.”

And that to me is the very reason why the unemployment rate in America stands where it does because silently millions of innocent hard working, deeply dedicated and fully experienced professionals are saying, “I have found my raindrop and this time it’s going to locate the ocean.”

To become everything we must first become nothing…

Looks great on paper but reality has taught us that Duke Power and Time Warner aren’t free and have you seen the price of gas? One of the greatest lessons Julia Cameron teaches is to write down ten things that bring true happiness to your life. Even if it’s a weekend wine buzz or flea market chasing…look deeper into the picture. If what you feel is incredible happiness…reach out there and get it. There are wineries in every state. Flea markets always need fresh ideas and people. The only reason why people don’t allow themselves to build there lives until the big crash called "the change" is the fear of not having anything.

Welcome to the first step of your brand new beginning… This summer allow that image in the mirror to see something other than your tired, depressed self with a frozen frown the size of clowns shoes. Be you by discovering you. Fear of change is a horrible place to be until you realize how incredibly positive life becomes when you’re finally doing something that your tiny rain drop put into play before leaping from the plane.

I’ll always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Your boss isn't holding you back...

Admit it! Each morning we wake the constant battle of recharging the batteries is no longer connected to the balancing act between who gets fed first the dogs, cats or kids. Once those eyes pop open the head and heart are instantly shot back to the continuing drama of Used to be Happy at Work.

Every walk of life plays out like a Bradley Cooper meets Robert De Niro scenario where it seems the bigger guy always wins. But when it comes to reality who’s winning the brownie points race?

According to Careerbuilders.com 58% of the current American working force likes their boss. 14% admitted to having a friendship with their decision maker outside the four walls of biweekly paychecks and too many taxes taken out.

Why do bosses get a bad rap? Weren’t they one of us at one time? Is the boss the true trouble maker?

HRmorning.com reveals the top seven reasons why employees walk away: Downsizing and restructuring, new challenges and opportunities, ineffective leadership, poor relationship with manager, to improve work and life balances, contributions to the company were not valued and to get better compensation and benefits.

Bad bosses came in at numbers three and four; which shocked a lot of business watchdog groups who’re used to seeing poor managing skills being at the top of list of complaints.

Instantly I can hear my good friend Alan’s voice ringing out, “The employees lied on the survey to save their job!”

Tribes author Seth Godin has a clearer picture to grab; two elementary classes in the same school…who gets better grades, the smaller class with sixteen students or the larger gathering of 32 students? Its completely natural to think the smaller class because being in such a situation gives the teacher more time to develop a better working relationship with the students.

That’s not true…

Productivity succeeds through quality leadership: motivate, connect, leverage. Great leaders aren’t in the market to please everyone. Their messages aren’t watered down because they’ve learned that through motivation and connection movement is far more powerful than waiting for fate to take a bite out of your reality.

Native American’s find no faith in fate. When I hear someone say, “My career is in the hands of fate.” My first response is always, “Did you bring a chair?”

Fate is when you sit down and let life happen. You spend decades waiting for the right opportunity to arrive while complaining to family and friends about much your boss and job suck.

No…the economy does. Too many believe if we sit around long enough the situation will correct itself. Try using that line in Japan where the world’s best nuclear engineers have quickly gathered to try and cool off not one but four reactors that could blow life stopping radiation into our unwritten chapters at anytime.

If Careerbuilders.com is correct in reporting that 58% of us believe in our boss, in an age of high unemployment and hourly fear of losing your job…what’s keeping our level of faith on the approval charts?

Simplyhired.com hosts an endless list of reactions that include humanistic, doesn’t micro manage, knowledge of the business and is giving…

The only thing different between bosses and parents…one of them isn’t picked by you. Even if there’s spoiled milk in the halls of work, work, work, it’s still your choice to come or go.

An incredible book to study (not read) is Julia Cameron’s Artist way at Work where she teaches you to take the time to identify the several levels of personalities surrounding your everyday. Using her methods of painting a room invited my workspace to become a place of peace due to a theory I call The Beatles: Four completely different guys that obviously had separate visions and desires and yet as a unit their harmonies have lasted over fifty years.

I fully grasp the picture of Johnny the taxi cab driver hopping into his car without ever having eye to eye contact with the one signing his paycheck only to viciously complain about him or her in every circle he walks. If Johnny isn’t motivated to connect there can’t be any leverage to gain access to success.

This might be crossing the line but I’ll say it…growing up with an extremely strict religious mother who taught many lessons through sharing pictures…never once did I see the “J” man standing at a podium talking to his followers. He sat with them; which I believe is well written about in Billy Graham’s autobiography…Billy’s fame didn’t originate from sermons that rocked you like a hurricane but Mr. Graham sat with the people.

Maybe 58% of the well liked bosses heading our current state of existence have learned the fine art of sitting with their employees. If that’s not the case where you pump the dollar signs into your bank account…be a leader by setting the example. Board rooms and conference tables weren’t designed for people to stand up…plant your butt in the chair and toss out an old fashioned fish bowl conversation.

Motivate, connect…leverage.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Bosses aren't paid to make your day better...

In the Black Belt Book of Life; Secrets of a Martial Artist, the author writes, “Anyone can teeter totter but not everyone can balance.”

Pope John Paul II believed the best and safest thing to keep is balance in your life, if you can do that and live that way…you are a really wise person.

No page is turned in our everyday chapters that don’t somehow connect itself to a requirement of being balanced. When there’s balance we have harmony, productivity and for some it proves to be extremely meaningful. Balance has a way of confusing angst, unhappiness and destruction.

In an age of corporate manipulation caused by leadership through intimidation; the cost of being in balance isn’t worth the effort unless the average person has prepared their future to be without a career.

How can the typical employee who is carelessly overworked and underpaid find peace within the four walls of business? You’ll discover the answer while standing on one leg for a long period of time.

Balance requires exercise. Your mind needs to be taught what balance is. Like a student stuck in school so are your arms, back, shoulders, head and ten toes and each of your body parts must learn to recognize the positive energy required to be in balance.

Do you have balance? Test yourself by standing on one leg then closing your eyes. A clouded core leaves no room for new challenges to be met.

I test my balance ten to twenty times a day; in public you’ll catch me on one leg while wrapping the other foot around my calf. It’s a high level red belt move taught in a form called Goom-gong where your balance is taken on like a mountain attacked by unexpected storms. Physically going through the motions of recognizing balances teaches the rest of me to perform at their height without leaning too far to the left or right.

I love doing pushups! Not because it builds stronger arms and incredible chest muscles but if performed properly there should be incredible balance between your toes holding up the booty to the arms hoisting the ego maker into its rightful position. Locating balance has to be a physical effort.

I can’t balance a check book. Online banking to me was much bigger than the introduction of the Ipod and Wii video game that moves with your body. Balancing anything is a difficult state to maintain. It’s mental, emotional and in some cases spiritual. Balance is a continual struggle not a passive activity therefore energy is required in order to be equal on all sides.

Concentration is the key that unlocks a world fed by balance. There are three levels of concentration; from your stomach or dan jun, above your head and in the center of your eye brows.

For concentration and focus to do their job all three levels of focus must work in harmony. Your stomach is where stress lives and breathes…when there’s too much we tend to fill up with bad food, alcohol and other means of getting legally high. Properly breathing from your stomach allows you to open the entire process of your lungs. Watch people around you breathing…their shoulders move. That flat out sucks because that means their entire body is living off ten percent of what they’ve taught their lungs to perform.

Balance above you is clearing the way for the future to arrive. Some use meditation while others sit back in their chair at work and give permission to their imagination to take a ride into the happy zone.

Your eye brows are where your history lives. As long as you are carrying it there’s never any reason to keep reaching forward. Be thankful for what you have done then let it go to grow.

Having focus aligns your body parts, Your knees, ankles, wrists, neck and little toe are no different than being the parent of six kids all wanting to go some place different. You either have chaos or balance—there’s never an in between.

Writing everyday doesn’t give me balance it makes me aware of where I’m not in tune.

For 47 years people constantly asked me about what I wanted to do with my life and every time I replied, “To be in the right place at the right time.” I became incredibly fixed on that thought never realizing that on July 21, 2009 at 6:15 pm I’d be walking into an emergency room for a soar throat only to come out with a heart attack. I arrived at the hospital at the opening stages of what claims millions of lives every year. I was in the right place at the right time.

Balance… Do I lead a well balanced life? Far from it. Yin/Yang because being out of control feeds my passion to write wedding vows, music, paint portraits, piece together books and blogs. I used to be the tight rope walker turned runner that hit that single thin line never realizing how quickly it can come to a halt until you get three quarters of the way across then you find balance.

What makes me different today is awareness. I know what takes me off a day of balance and I warn people strongly when such actions are about to unfold.

Inside a business world of little to no guarantees every breath you take resembles the Mile High Swinging Bridge on Grandfather Mountain where at any unsuspected moment a gust of wind can reach up and steal you from existence. Balance prepares you to study the environment while gifting you with the knowledge to lock down if the bricks that make up your foundation begin to crumble.

Mystics call our world the plane of struggle…

Let that thought sink in for a bit… a little longer… a little longer.

The one common connection we have is a need for balance which leads to focus and it’s within those invisible abilities something incredible is given hope…you.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, March 21, 2011

Preaching to the choir could cost you...

“Preaching to the choir…”

We’ve all said it, we’ve been face to face with friends and coworkers that over use it and because it’s become part of our everyday language by way of negotiating there’s a 98.7% chance one of us is preparing to drop it right now, “I know! I’m preaching to the choir!”

The term preaching to the choir simply means: to commend an opinion to those who’ve already accepted it.

Originating in the United States in January of 1973 in the Lima News from Ohio, the reporter stated, “He felt like the minister was preaching to the choir. That is to the people who always come to church but not the ones who need it most.”

John Stuart Mill should get a few royalty points; in 1867 he penned out, “Preaching to the converted,” in his book An Examination of Sir W Hamilton’s Philosophy.

If you think songs on the radio sound the same as do the lyrics we speak during our normal everyday. Preaching to the choir is also connected to the loosely used term that George Edward Bateman Saintsbury coined in 1916 where he felt no fear when criticizing modern novelists calling it an act of kicking at open doors.

Goenglish.com attempts to bust our daily habit with an easy to digest suggestion, “Don’t just stand there preaching to the choir get out there and find new members!” The website believes too much energy is being wasted on readers, writers, searchers and wanderers that already know, understand and walk the path you’re preaching about.

While preaching, never take your eyes off those looking back; the choir being preached to could be pretending. Personally, I’ve always called this brave act nothing more than Coup sticking. Playing Coup is a game created by Native American’s who challenged each other to race up to another nations best warrior or chief and touch them, share conversation and or reach out to them during a least expected moment. Although it was looked upon as being nothing more than a game…in a modern world of corporate growth such actions and reactions are taken extremely serious and instantly bring unseen information to decision makers addicted to getting ahead of the competition.

Which is an avenue millions of American’s crisscross everyday due 100% to our need to survive; very few of us are getting by holding down one job. We are being hired into several positions based on what we know and what we’ve experienced; step back fifteen feet and the comparison of your jobs might not haunt you but it might send out an alert to your boss because how you’re spending your free time could be laying out the ground work of you shattering a non-complete clause.

In an age of economic crisis where jobs are less and keeping one is more difficult than preventing a heart attack, playing a game of Coup stick happens without anyone realizing its taking place. Preaching to the choir is exactly what George Edward Bateman described; kicking at an open door. As much as we understand what each of us are going through to make ends meet the disconnection occurs when your steps angle the path into a place of business that feeds a competitors hands.

Which came first the chameleon or the human? Now I’m preaching to the choir.

I dream of one day being a Wal-Mart greeter. It’s my addiction to a single page located in the book that describes Hollywood’s best actors aren’t those being paid $20 million a picture but the ticket takers gifted with a friendly smile and the knowledge of every picture being shown; they should be able to reach out and share conversation with every person walking through the door. I love it when Home Depot employees not only know where the double headed screws are but physically take me to them. I keep going back because the person at the door makes me feel more loved than my Momma.

Being a Wal-Mart greeter and the front man at a hardware store isn’t a comfortable place because they’re indirectly competing. So are hard working chefs frying burgers at separate shacks. Although I’ve never worked at a grocery store common sense tells me that bagging and stocking at competing locations is a red flag. How do managers and department heads find out? Preaching to the choir!

An incredible example is based on my broadcasting experience; I cannot ever work for two competing radio companies. I can’t own stock in another broadcasting company nor can I donate my time as a broadcaster to a public radio or television station to help them raise funds to stay on the air. I get it!

My radio mentor Andrew Ashwood constantly pushed his talent to dig deeper into the history and future of the business by constantly wrapping ourselves around radio’s existence. To stand in the hallway of a station talking about how we’d like to become the top dog in town is preaching to the choir. It was Andrew’s deepest ambition to reach into schools of broadcasting to help kick open the door for future leaders only to learn such schools are in the business to compete. Therefore you rarely see me in a classroom yet in the real world of radio there are no walls inside the boundary that describes an internship.

“Don’t just stand there preaching to the choir get out there and find new members!”

In Martial Arts we are trained to never stop training…are you less of a Martial Artist if the only studies you do are within the school and never outside the four walls of one way the Master’s way?

For accountants tax season is their Christmas. The pay might be good to great but the hours are long and sometimes too much to handle. Preaching to the choir is hosting an after work party featuring only accountants. Finding new members is taking the time to shake hands and kiss babies in May, June and July; coming up with fresh methods of delivering security to every soul in this country that fears the IRS and or big business tax companies more interested in getting your money than helping you locate loopholes geared toward saving.

Are you preaching to the choir? When you know the whereabouts of the history behind the words we share the end result might physically be a new expression based on influencing you to move toward a better day.

I’ll always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Stop wiping boogers on your hardest worker...

The Hopi nation believes if you lose your temper you lose a friend; lie and lose yourself.

Spinning back the hands of time to the early spring of 79 Mrs. Eschler’s Creative Writing Class; take that quote and apply it to the current conditions of a modernized world.

No matter where I travel, movie premieres, wedding ceremonies, camping, grand openings or hanging out with Trucker Brad at his newly designed love shack for giant semi’s and monster trailers; very rarely does anyone escape a conversation without being asked or preached to about the expectations placed upon this completely saturated nearly never dried multitasked generation.

Like a caring lawmaker, minister with a soft smile or a forever best friend, my weakness is to always make room for listening; or as Dr. David calls it, “Jumping into the hole with no ropes while everyone leaves me behind.”

If you lose your temper you lose a friend… This game almost seems too easy; this blog is going to be a heart heavy Arroe typical that deals with saving relationships with your neighbor. Think again!

Lose your temper lose a friend; lie and lose yourself.

That single moment in the mirror when the reflection asks, “Is there anything I can do to help you out?”

To motivate is to wanna be influenced. To move beyond is to have been touched. To relate is to experience. Now teach it.

Nothing curves the squared corners of my world faster than hearing someone lay claim to being an employee; when in fact we all know there’s no such thing as just an employee. You’re a builder, a highway maker, a creator of visions not yet reached, a destination before it becomes a reality, a genuine task taker with your heart set on delivering an end result based on the best success your mind body and soul can offer. The only failure you know are the words your department head tosses out like Halloween candy.

Leadership roles begin with self. To properly educate the flow of a stream; someone has to give you permission to believe. Whoever cleared the way for corporate decision makers to adopt the daily plan to sink or swim chose to take a sentence and not apply it to a current modernized world. They grab lack of experience and feed it no hope. it doesn't matter...there's more fish in the pond, eventually something will work.

Lose your temper lose a friend; lie and lose yourself.

In the business of you…your hardest worker (you) doesn’t need to hear a loud unhappy voice nor is it your right to call the one you walk with fat, uneducated, a slob, a waste of time, the worst nightmare ever or completely out of touch with the origin of your dreams and or forecasts laid out while attempting to sleep after a boring episode of American Idol.

Instantly you know when one of the performers on the TV show is out of tune, the reaction is a quick cringe, if the show is DVR’ed instantly we leap onto fast forward or we find no loyalty in watching and switch our desire to be entertained to a new channel.

And that’s exactly how you handle your personal life. When there’s a lack of harmony in the chapters we write there’s no leadership or belief to reignite the presence of why this solid stone covered in moss is still worth with weight in value. So we elect to make change after change after change turning each of us into perfectionists.

A perfectionist is never happy. They learn to settle… Another Julia Cameron-ism, “Anger is never the solution…it is only a symptom.”

The Hopi quote was delivered in the 1800’s…no fast cars drunk on high gas prices, turbo charged computers, cell phones, instant answers on Google or songs to sing on Glee; only words that’ll last much longer than you and me.

When you stop judging a book by its cover and learn to study the pages that have moved through a writers fingertips onto the surface of your eyes; the color reflected back is your personality…what is it about you that you don’t accept and can you handle having a conversation with that self without yelling or spewing the slightest of white lie?

Lose your temper lose a friend; lie and lose yourself.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Being a leader beyond texting...

Successful multitasking in a chopped up downsized world of business should reach beyond participation!

Being Zen was a 90’s thing when lifting our level of play included strict structure from bosses that strongly encouraged team leaders to include stragglers and the not so motivated. Interestingly enough it was those Nerds that created Social Networking.

New research shows a clear change on resumes; participation has been showing up in paragraphs that read, “I’m on Face Book or I attend Meet up Social Networking sessions at pubs, bowling alleys and art galleries.”

Badly painted portraits of potential employees fail to show leadership.

Tribes author Seth Godin says we’re getting the wrong message; as incredible as technology is, having communication with eight hundred friends on Face Book or Twitter has zero to do with measuring success.

Participating isn’t leading…

If social networking is your current place to advertise, you’ll do more for your future when you stop blogging single sentences about having lunch away from work, checking out a 3D Justin Bieber movie with the kids or getting stuck in rush hour traffic.

Not making an appearance on your pages is just as damaging.

A local Firestone mechanic couldn’t stop bragging about his busy team, “We have too much work! I don’t have time to wash the floors…”

As a consumer I'm thinking, “I came in for an inspection and walked out with an engine replacement.”

Anyone thinking the Great Recession is over has sold their soul to propaganda.

A smart business manager would take the mechanic’s confident lip service and put it to use on the web in the way of educating single mothers, unemployed fathers and not so wealthy teens and wanna be rulers of the kingdom. Be a leader by sharing tips on how to replace and dispose oil. Make a mark in the customer service department by hosting Saturday classes that expose what travelers should do beyond changing a flat tire. Expose some of the secrets behind the magic and the store is gifted with a relationship that reaches a new generation of followers.

Being a leader creates connection.

Godin talks about a fitness center that utilizes its strength on the web by allowing customers and or those participating with a bust your tail feathers workout regiment to check in hourly, daily or when they’ve lost hope and require answers to difficult to digest questions.

I’d still be part of Martial Arts University if my Master had provided a simple answer, “What if one of your students isn’t the greatest kicker, puncher or best blocker but instead has developed a hard to dismiss wisdom shown to the original Monks before the teacher walked in?”

There’s an invisible step martial artists take while moving through the trees blocking the path; a step I chose not to ignore but rather study and in that process breaking bricks and pounding bruises into other peoples arms and legs was no longer important…becoming more spiritual was my destination. I’ve yet to locate the martial arts school that understands where I currently wade.

I blog everyday because this is my black belt journey.

There’ll never be another stripe on my belt because what I do isn’t important to the owners of schools yet on the path they helped develop is 2nd degree that uses social networking to educate mind and soul.

Participating isn’t leading…

Something to think about the next time your boss screams out, “We need to locate where our clients are! We cannot succeed without advertising! How can we make our money work for us better?”

I say keep buying radio and put your people to work in the relationship department. Add to the benefit of being heard. It's time to put a little faith in something more than a handshake.

Educate…

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

When checking out isn't at 12 noon...

In an age of constant unexpected change with even less importance put on the value of an incredible memory; if deeply challenged beyond physical control is there something in your possession blessed with the strength to reignite your imagination?

A song, the artist that drew the individual strings together, a wedding ring, an unforgettable scent of perfume or cologne your back or front yard or the eyes of a Teddy Bear whose stare had the power to melt away the evils that surrounded tough teenage decisions?

The soon to be released independent film Never Stopped the Music has set sail on an open sea of becoming the answer a search engine connects with in the department of remaking memories.

Stolen from the realms of normal by a large brain tumor Gabriel Sawyer has no past, present or future; only parents whose denial opens a never ending door of locating rhymes that match reasons. Without destroying the emotion of the movie, music is the possession in Gabriel’s life that’s blessed with the strength to reignite an imagination.

Although it would be extremely difficult for doctors to predict what would invite peace back into your mind body and soul; what elements have you given permission to that’ll allow them to continue circling even in times of out of control stress?

In 2004 Carolina native Nicolas Sparks shook our senses into place by putting the importance of journaling on the front burner of constantly keeping in touch with the stories we live by turning them into tales we might one day share when age and disease get the best of us.

For me it might be the scent of acrylic paint placed on blizzard white pages then rushed into hiding only to be rediscovered many months later while searching for a quote in tablets overwritten by thoughts assumed understandable.

The moment I open the protective boxes that keep the wind and sun from the art the middle aged man hairs in my nose race to take a glance at the bitter dry aroma that always says to me, “Welcome back Mr. Poet with a paint brush filled with many colors!”

Last week I wrapped these ten finger prints known for tapping words on computer screens around my second degree black belt for the first time in nearly a year; like Gabriel I could see places I’ve been, hear feet breaking bricks and toes being crushed by heals that didn’t pivot while delivering a solid round house kick into a leather bag designed to reconstruct the walls every human relies on to keep them to reaching their dreams come true.

But would it be enough to pull from me a memory to make the day and or night normal like it did for Gabriel in Never Stopped the Music?

If there was to be an emergency kit your family and friends were to grab during a crisis not yet invented; what single string would you place in between everything materialistic that would gift you with peace the moment your eyes met like love blossoms during its first kiss during a slow paced southern summer’s night?

Maybe its time to begin the journey to communicate… Husbands and wives share so much but where do we stand in reality when the divorce rate is above 52%?

Dave Matthews might be onto something when he causally blurts out, “Hike up your skirt and show your world to me.” Maybe the true message has nothing to do with what you assume and poetically it's saying, “Forever comes with a long thin string and two tin cans…share with me what creates a memory required to catch you on a day when you are falling.”

If deeply challenged beyond physical control is there something in your possession blessed with the strength to reignite your imagination?

32 years of nonstop radio and only five songs rock my Richter scale: Love Hurts from Nazareth, Chicago’s If You Leave Me Now, Got to Get You Into My Life from the Beatles, Everybody Hurts from REM and Mad World from Adam Lambert.

I feel for my wife and dogs…If caught between two shapes and this was the only thing played over and over again the art of love better be strong or someone please call that special place at the hospital and let them know Lee will be checking into their Hotel California.

Don’t just make a list…make it visible. Don’t just write it down…share your story so that it can be carried.

I’ll always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Monday, March 14, 2011

Stop moving the clock forward!

The distance between here and there is an hour…

Everybody but Arizona, Indiana, Hawaii and Puerto Rico has lost a valuable hour of sleep while gaining an extra sixty minutes of sunrays. Seven months later it’ll be like returning home from a sixty thousand mile summer vacation with cranky brothers and sisters sitting next to you.

Research shows having more sun is a farming issue but to city slickers like me, Daylight Savings Time is nothing more than a well fed seed ready to blossom into a darker side. Lisa Farino from MSN Fitness reports that it’s normal to experience extreme mental breakdowns due to what your heart body and soul recognize as being a continuation of winter.

Who doesn’t love the sun? And how much of that sun did you have when waking up this morning? You’re system is convinced that winter isn’t over. Winter depressions hit their peak when the big hand whips around the clock’s face like it doesn’t have a care in the world.

Dark morning’s not lighter days trigger Seasonal Affective Disorder.

When people are depressed the crime rate increases; with it personal addictions rise such as alcohol consumption and drug use, an overdose of caffeine in whatever cup it’ll fit into…sorry Jimmy Buffett the thought of Margaritaville being a reason to suck down flavored ice has nothing to do with your beach loving sounds and everything to do with hanging a classic buzz on trying to score more morning sunshine.

The best way around this giant stick in the mud isn’t to hash it out with coworkers and the boss but to readjust your life and light. Reset the alarm clock to tick and tock all it wants but don’t go off until there’s a break of light on the horizon’s we chase. If that doesn’t work, I once worked with a morning radio show host that invested in a daylight lamp that filled his area with rays that resembled the morning sun.

Dr. Michael Terman believes it only takes thirty minutes a day in front of a light box to kick start your heart. Instead of sitting in a gray cubical hoisting chocolate and oversaturated fruits like apples and carrots to your lips…rock the joint with a light show designed to turn your workday into a success story.

Depression is a serious disease and shouldn’t be ignored. Don’t ever ignore or write off depression as something you can easily get over because just like every disease it has constant permission to interfere with everything that makes up your life. If someone tells you to perk up your mood take it as a sign that something could be wrong. Depression is nothing more than a clown’s face designed to fool even the carrier.

Working out or joining a Martial Arts school does help but an addition to an endorphin rush is no different than feeding meth into your veins. The very moment the endorphins fade back into their natural place you know who is knocking on your door. I write every morning before sunrise to measure the distance between the peaks and valleys. By rubbing my fingers over the pages I’m able to determine how much of my inner core is under pressure. Subject matter means nothing; we’re all actors. We lie to ourselves everyday when we look in the mirror.

Moving clocks up then back does more damage to the working force of America than a hard freeze in Florida and California but the farmers were here first. Know you are not alone. Find out more about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and get back to feeling incredible.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Are you the hardest working or the laziest?

The most bizarre thought hit me at the most inappropriate time and has refused to be shaken resembling that of a sticky cocklebur pinching your clothes like a professional seamstress who’s mastered the fine art of fashion and design.

Two completely different pictures of a nation walking toward the same horizon; are we the hardest working generation of all time or the laziest?

Tell me someone that isn’t working two to five different part time jobs. Now tell me someone that wouldn’t budge an inch off the sofa for three hours labor a day even if it came with fringe benefits like free lunch, company clothes and a roof over their head.

Where does the line begin and end? Are we 60% overworked or 80% I don’t care?

Author Doug Lee writes, “Generation X is the hardest working in American history claiming no other group has been forced to multitask harder and faster.”

Interestingly enough research shows Gen Xer’s are the first set of go-getters that find no interest in holding down a job for long periods of time. While our Grandparents are looked upon as being the Greatest generation and Mom and Dad get baby boomer credit for being the richest; in the canals of everyday passage the current portrait put on display clearly outlines a separated place of stay.

Comedian/Actor and Author Dennis Leary’s first book Why We Suck; A Feel Good Guide To Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid feels no need to rationalize because baked into the pages of this abrupt walk through life are unforced sticks of humor based on everyday occurrences that critics believe the faint at heart can’t digest.

Lazy2work.com knows of our lazy side laying claim to the idea that we keep doing the same routine over and over; we wake up, walk into the bathroom, feed the dogs, take them out, get ready for work, listen to the boss scream and drive home wondering who’s getting kicked off American Idol tonight.

Through their glasses they see we don’t like what we’re doing and we aren’t doing what we like. More importantly we are lazy because we aren’t having fun doing what we are doing.

Then Google took me to the book Are We Too Lazy to Get Better at Golf…

Oh! And how about the band Burnout 3 Takedown who sings, “We are the lazy generation. Stand up and shout, we’ll be there for you. Hey hey hey…we are the lazy generation, we are the lazy generation…” Almost four minutes of just that.

Enough said…my luck the man hired to throw dirt on my coffin will call in sick only to be spotted at an Ironman 15 movie premiere.

Are we the hardest working generation in history or the laziest? Can someone be the hardest working lazy person? I’ll give it a shot cuz that’s all I’ve got…I blogged a full page…I’m too fricken lazy to do the normal two.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Who owns the voice in your head? Is it Morgan Freeman?

Do books talk? Can they? If a book had a mouth to speak…where would the lips be? Would they be puffy, pouty, thin or just there? If a book could would you find interest in talking back? With so many thoughts locked inside there’s got to be a way for a book to speak its mind!

Books do have personality, warmth, leadership and companionship.

The cover can be bright, business like; bold and determined with a twist of romance…or a book can take the route of The Beatles White Album and basically say nothing. What is it you hear, see, feel touch or smell when walking through a bookstore, surf through Amazon or other dot com’s that invites you to say, “I want this one…”

Do you still find joy in holding the torn pages of chapters that have swiped the wind from your breath or have you gone the digital age way? With Kendal, Nook, IPad and other’s who’ve followed everything seems to be E-viting, tree friendly and instantly available to late-nighter’s that jumped into radio and television talk shows featuring unheard of authors that you’d otherwise forget about the moment the DJ slid into a commercial.

For writers, poets and word designers Oprah and Ellen are perfectly ripened engines to ignite the need for readers to reach. Why someone hasn’t called this current generation the most addicted readers in history completely baffles the invisible artists in my head that paints the landscapes authors have taken the time to display.

Texting, blogging, diary making mixed with the occasional dream of penning out lyrics to the melodic ear bending tune the Bose sound system in your skull keeps playing over and over have made most word junkies into chance takers, “I can do this!”

This almost sounds like a scene from a Freddie Kruger movie but I’m a thought collector. Twitter gets all the credit for keeping people opinions and verses to a strict schedule of 144 characters; earth rattling heart provoking views that have always been part of our race toward the horizon.

President Ronald Regan banked on single thoughts forcing news hounds to officially dub the new shape to communicate, “Sound bites.”

Now every politician, doctor, boss, lawyer, husband and wife stand up and blurt out what could’ve been a burp but inside the presence of pitch volume and tone there were physical words that said, “I’ve just made a statement…”

Is it healthy to have so many words around us? From the Duwamish-Suquamish nation Chief Seattle said, “There is no quiet place in cities, no place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings…the clatter.”

My stepfather Joe constantly interrupted my teenage years with, “Do you even know what you’re saying?” Making his sound bites powerful are the tiny re-adventures into the boxes that promise to preserve the 35 year old handwriting of a kid gone crazy with storytelling. Staring at it once, twice and two hundred times more…just like Face Book, I have no clue what I meant to do.

Today my wife believes through self reminder only I write, talk and scribble down what appears to be letters connected to a very long run on sentence that eventually becomes a paragraph. If it wasn’t for thought collecting I’d instantly forget where I put my last step.

What’s this have to do with talking books? They do have lips right? If not…whose voice do we hear with each page turned? Is it yours? Is your father or mother’s? Wouldn’t it be cool if it was James Earl Jones or Casey Kasum?

Books do talk when you put your thoughts out there to be caught. What would it take to get you to stop waiting for other people's efforts to move your world forward? It's more fun when you do it yourself...

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Eavesdropping at the doctor's office...

A note to the men and women, husbands and wives, brother’s, sister’s, cousins and neighbors that invisibly step forward to touch what doesn’t necessarily belong to them but through unconditional measurements of love the gift is given life. Thank you…

Its no where near enough but please understand if more of us say it, the energy from it might turn one moment of impossibility into a reason to try a little harder during that unexected change when you stop to ask, “Why me?”

I’ve always been amazed, inspired and influenced by the person that sets aside their private ambition and self discovery to be placed fifth or sixth on a daily list of demands because helping other living breathing creations from humans to pets to plants holds more importance than hoisting cash into a savings account or winning champion employee trophies at the end of each quarter.

When you sit in a doctor’s office, you learn a lot about the outside territories of the boundaries that block reality from affecting our society. From the extremely young that love in ways that’ll be challenged to the wedding vow guarantee that grips the hand of a grandfather, father, spouse or non-relation during a time of sharp questions, exploration and unmet answers that require a response, no artist or Hollywood movie can come close to telling the true tale of love during it's most innocent state.

Thank you!

Thank you to every volunteer for the Special Olympics, Susan G Koman Race for the Cure, those who volunteer to walk dogs and cats after tragic turns in the events that seemed so peaceful until morning broke. Thank you to every daughter and son that refuses to leave home because the moment they do their eighty year old father or mother might suffer another stroke, fall or seizure.

Thank you to the businesses that invite their employees out on Saturday’s to help clean up waterways and trees that lean too far toward a chapter destined to end the next time there’s wind.

Thank you to the one that nobody recognizes at work that unselfishly helps the homeless at church or takes the time to reach down and pick up a piece of paper the rest of the world has chosen to walk over for the past three hours.

Yesterday I heard grown men with history lessons one hundred billion miles long crack when their bodies didn’t work the way used to and inside the moments that make up a split second the one caring for them chose to invite a positive affirmation that invited a strong sense of courage to a single path that grew forward.

Yet rarely…maybe in a made for TV movie hidden away on Lifetime you might come across a message that simply says, “Thank you…”

Marriage is a thankless job. It’s a career that’s challenged to the brink of bankruptcy. A business agreement that’s disagreed upon more times than night unveils its place of rest. I fall deeper in love when hidden near a tree and a couple in their seventies walks by holding onto their childhood dreams.

The woman cuddled up to a near whisper at the doctor’s office, “Today is the day my best friend. This test is going to prove how big your heart really is.”

Extremely slow to respond, the frail man with his eyes fixed to a floor that’s held the path of thousands before him, “Having this big heart has hurt a lot of people…”

“Your daughter isn’t hurt that you’re here. She wants her Daddy back the way I want my best friend to sing to me again.”

“But she isn’t here with me right now…”

“You selfish old fool,” she replied, “Open that big ole heart and tell me she isn’t in there helping you mend the broken flowers in your garden. For goodness sakes…your baby is always with you.”

“But I shake like an ice cream maker…”

“Shake? No way…that’s the wind carrying your flower pedals to new gardens so that a million more blossoms can inspire anyone that walks by.”

“This is not the way it was supposed to be,” he tried to negotiate.

“And if you knew how it was supposed to be do you honestly think it would change the way your baby and I love you?”

I love watching people in love. The Beatles couldn’t have written such a perfect harmony. Love isn’t just about couples and families tossed together like leaves stuck on trees from a winter that wouldn’t let go. Take the time to look around you and notice the enormous amount of invisible volunteers that never stop being who they truly are; angels dressed up like actors at the Blumenthal Performing Art Center set inside an extremely cold world filled with zillions of dreams about one day being perfect…

Be in love with the idea that you’re in love…make that love about anything you want and exercise your right to let it blossom like leaves on a tree creating allergies of the heart; no itching, sneezing or wheezing…just a need to volunteer your shell to a worthy passerby that requires only one item…to be accepted during a time when self acceptance is the last thing on their mind.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Friday, March 4, 2011

Who's got the gas?

I don’t see it as micromanagement but rather business leaders stepping in the same puddle of mud; department heads pushing themselves away from the face of a computer to spend more time on the road with coworkers attempting to seize incredible opportunities with past, present and new clients.

With gas prices the way they are…who's driving? Someone’s pocket is about to be hit, should it be the lower man on the totem pole?

I went straight to business ethics expert Anne Marie Sabbath who says, “The little guy should always offer to drive; let the boss take it from there. If the mastermind behind the plan to help you achieve higher success wants to command the ship…he or she will let you know. Otherwise assume the role of navigator.

More importantly; if the decision keeper does the driving…you should never become the map designer or backseat driver. Leave the GPS in your holster. According to Anne no helping hand should be offered unless they approach your efforts of booking through rough traffic or discovering quick and easy back road shortcuts.

Now let’s send your business dealings on a national tour and you’re stuck in a bright yellow taxi; name the person getting stuck with paying for the drive? Anne Marie suggests that you let the boss make the move, if it’s a total no show…it’s coming out of your pocket. Rule number one: Make sure you keep an expense report to be reimbursed.

Where does the ship turn when travel doesn’t include a boss but a coworker of equal value?

Distribution of expenses needs to be discussed ahead of departure. We’ve entered an age in Corporate American business where battles will begin if Johnny the Moocher thinks he’s using your money to finance road trips. Outsiders and your money is a bad combination; it’s lethal and fully capable of exploding into a situation that’ll rock HR departments that never see anything coming.

Keep a pen in your pocket and a journal at your side to document everything. Creating a snowstorm of information turns assumption into fact. If you think banks are ripping you off nobody does it quicker than someone you work with. Now if we can only get your kids to help out with the gas money.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Who's got the gas?

I don’t see it as micromanagement but rather business leaders stepping in the same puddle of mud; department heads pushing themselves away from the face of a computer to spend more time on the road with coworkers attempting to seize incredible opportunities with past, present and new clients.

With gas prices the way they are…who's driving? Someone’s pocket is about to be hit, should it be the lower man on the totem pole?

I went straight to business ethics expert Anne Marie Sabbath who says, “The little guy should always offer to drive; let the boss take it from there. If the mastermind behind the plan to help you achieve higher success wants to command the ship…he or she will let you know. Otherwise assume the role of navigator.

More importantly; if the decision keeper does the driving…you should never become the map designer or backseat driver. Leave the GPS in your holster. According to Anne no helping hand should be offered unless they approach your efforts of booking through rough traffic or discovering quick and easy back road shortcuts.

Now let’s send your business dealings on a national tour and you’re stuck in a bright yellow taxi; name the person getting stuck with paying for the drive? Anne Marie suggests that you let the boss make the move, if it’s a total no show…it’s coming out of your pocket. Rule number one: Make sure you keep an expense report to be reimbursed.

Where does the ship turn when travel doesn’t include a boss but a coworker of equal value?

Distribution of expenses needs to be discussed ahead of departure. We’ve entered an age in Corporate American business where battles will begin if Johnny the Moocher thinks he’s using your money to finance road trips. Outsiders and your money is a bad combination; it’s lethal and fully capable of exploding into a situation that’ll rock HR departments that never see anything coming.

Keep a pen in your pocket and a journal at your side to document everything. Creating a snowstorm of information turns assumption into fact. If you think banks are ripping you off nobody does it quicker than someone you work with. Now if we can only get your kids to help out with the gas money.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Are you the thrower or reciever of the red rubber ball?

It doesn’t matter where you walk, run, dream or spin in circles…in every square, rectangle or octagon there’s always someone willing to toss a red rubber ball completely blessed with their problems, bad luck or reasons to stop believing; and like a good neighbor you’re always there.

Without a doubt your day instantly becomes overcrowded with their situation and like it or not you’re stuck dealing with the issues of having to help clean up the mess. Work hours are lost because you chose to listen, to hold open a caring and compassionate hand. Things get so bad something as simple as checking out your favorite song on the radio refuses to pick up your drive home.

Do you know why Oprah is a billionaire? It’s because we can’t live a single day without comparing our daily routines with someone having a worse day. People Magazine, US Weekly, Entertainment Tonight, E Entertainment News, American Idol…the more people suck the better we feel about ourselves.

Charlie Sheen’s bad behavior is the perfect medicine for coworkers and family members that spend every morning contemplating on whether it’s a great idea to show up at work on time. Seeing Charlie get fired hoisted the spirit of a lot of people because he’s painting the picture of evil department heads and by God he’s gonna fight the system to prove them wrong. He’s become the voice and face of those that believe, “As long as I’m in the building what does it matter what I’m doing before and after?”

Charlie Sheen hasn’t tossed his red rubber ball at fans of Two in a half Men—he’s attached a grenade to it. His actions in the past three weeks are no different than the person that sits next to you at work moping around how their career and personal life stink so bad the scent of death refuses to participate. Vultures have petitioned the makers of their purpose claiming, “Why waste my time?”

Here’s the thing…you don’t have to catch the red rubber ball.

Dr. Richard Carlson is the first to say, “There’s no better way to rid your life of excess stress than to keep your hands off that red rubber ball.”

Openly I admit, being an artist…I wear a lot of moods and swings on my shirt sleeve and creative people need places to hang their boogers. What I don’t support is making you the receiver in a football game that doesn’t require a passing game.

Dr. Richard explains that there are going to be days when someone being down requires a clown but you need to make it a choice to put on the face paint. Developing a more tranquil outlook on life requires that you know your own limits and you have the responsibility to keep that red rubber ball out of your system of play.

I love my sister to pieces but oh my God that girl has some stories. If I don’t answer her text message within a certain amount of time you might as well set Heaven on fire. Calmly I try to explain, “Give me air to breathe. When you write…write. Don’t write to air your bad situations so others can pick it up. Write to help clean out the closet. Write to give yourself permission to see the other side of the fence. Write to communicate with the billion personalities we all are. But never expect me to finish what you've written and or reply... There are only 24 hours in a day and all I want out of life is to be happy for 60 seconds.”

Dr. Richard reminds us that catching one red rubber ball means having to catch another then another. Without notice you’re being victimized without the person realizing their true behavior. You become resentful and overwhelmed which does what? It means its your turn to grab the red rubber ball and give it a hurl through the wind.

The moment you answer your phone the game is on. You’ve given permission to the caller to unload their red rubber balls. Hitting reply on emails and text messages is completely asking for a loss of control. Face Book is a disease that feeds a disease and with every entry there should be a warning like a pack of cigarettes: using this product may lead to an addiction. At times you might feel like Oprah or Billy Graham…and then there’ll be those days when it feels like nobody fricken cares. Get over it...find a new friend.

Even when someone throws an idea your way during a heated business meeting or conversation…the fact that you reached out to catch the red rubber ball puts you in the center of a CSI investigation that’s going to turn you into an accomplice.

Master Harris constantly reminds us that one of the seven needs for a human to survive is companionship…to which I ask, “Haven’t we taken it a little too far?” How do dogs and cats put up with us? I want what they’re on!

Teach yourself to stop catching the red rubber ball every time it begins to bounce your way. Charlie Sheen is a weapon of mass distraction.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Dear God what am I feeling? The story of Zondra continues....week number five with breast cancer

Wedesday March 2, 2011
Week number five…to the average person time moves too quickly. Months feel like seconds, years can be lived out inside an hour. For someone with breast cancer the view of the world is flipped; time isn’t something you’ve lost but rather you can’t get enough of.

I caught up with Zondra in her car. She’s been given permission to step back into a more normal life and style only to realize it’s still not enough compared to the freedoms she once had. She laughs about driving being more of a gift rather than something we do automatically. So is the way her body moves as its being taught how to relocate motion in an area once taken for granted.

Her voice remains chipper but being in tune with vocals and how we use them to push our way through conversations I can hear restlessness. She wants to get back to living. She’s ready to take the reins of the shell called Zondra and guide it back onto the path of everyday occurrences and begin the journey of making new memories to stuff inside invisible pages of later chapters and horizons.

Her efforts remind me deeply of the poetry that fell from my fingertips during my most recent challenges:

All the darkness I assumed would be
Has painted pictures I can’t see
I always wanted to know what it would be like
Only to learn its me against me

Im not chasing rainbows
Im not walking in circles
I wanna get back…to living

I wanna get back…oh so back…to living…

I’ve walked 10,000 chapters in self created books
Beat the odds by breaking the rules
I’ve worked a lot of games to make love with the wind
Only to learn Im not my best friend

Im not chasing rainbows
Im not walking in circles
I wanna get back…to living

I wanna get back…oh so back…to living…

A thousand hearts to hold
A million smiles to feed
You came along for the ride

I’m not chasing rainbows
Not walking in circles…
I’m here because I’m alive…

Written by Arroe Collins
October 2009

Picture postcards sent from your everyday...

A mouse ran in front of me today… A tiny brown mouse with fast shifty eyes or it would have bumped into me. And a nose that sniffed and sniffed for whatever it needed to make its day one hundred percent great.

Did I see the mouse today because it’s Dr. Seuss’s birthday? Wouldn’t that be cool if one of the greatest writers to date had pulled off a Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore scene by reaching through reality and touching the word pictures I paint?

“Hey Mr. Poet from the forest,” He’d shout out to me in a funky funny mouse way. “I’ve got a radio commercial that needs your attention yesterday!”

Such is the luck! Maybe John Lennon will pass leaving behind a lyric or two that’ll comfortably fit into a worn out shoe walking toward a horizon filled with the continuation of peace.

To many, the thought of field mice, black crows or tiny toads being something of importance are the last thing to digest on a plate of too much to accomplish yet who’s the first to hit the web for daily horoscopes, affirmations or stock market prices that teeter totter between the beads that make up an abacus?

Ronald and Nancy Reagan weren’t too shy to admit they located peace while looking up to study the stars. How planets and other shiny things meet, greet and slide beside is something they believed was part of their separate journeys. Although it’s rumored worldly decisions were powered by the heavens, bad press pressed its evil sword into their efforts quickly turning the subject into don’t ask, don’t tell.

A mouse ran in front of me today… I didn’t race to stomp on its morning jog nor did I send for the dogs. I study Native American theory; what is done to one is done back to you just so you know what they went through.

I researched the mouse! Who? What? Where? Why? Shapes, sizes, everything! I learned about how some religions believe the itty bitty tiny eyed giant monster with big ugly teeth to billions was designed by the dark side to enforce bad behavior on Noah’s ark. Why then does the snake eat the mouse? Aren’t they batting for the same team? Oh I’m gonna get emails for that one.

Native American’s believe the mouse symbolizes a single message; let it go. What? The way a mouse quickly sneaks under a door, slips through cracks in an assumed perfect wall and lives inside massive amounts of darkness proves it has no problem letting things go to get what’s required to reach a destination.

The fox is known for being shy but very sly; the owl teaches inner powers due to its sight to see late, late at night, the humming bird opens the heart while a fuzzy big nosed scampering species that makes people leap on chairs with screams so loud Richter Scales are set off in other countries carries the message to let it go.

The Chinese Zodiac says 2011 is the year of the golden rabbit. Does that mean these twelve months that make up our unwritten chapters will zoom past us much faster than the Roadrunner being chased by the Coyote? Not so! Rabbits are associated with good luck. Therefore the Chinese believe this is the year your life will be blessed with incredible amounts of friends you can trust. Basically meaning its ok to grab your breath and calm your nerves.

Like horoscopes and other good words; every moment we’re awake goes in one ear and right out the other. I often wonder if computers do the same, “Lord have mercy here comes that freak poet wanna be who claims he saw a mouse. Oh my God I would bolt but this fricken tower is too heavy to haul into a different radio station production room and what if the dang wall outlet is full? Please All Mighty Apple Maker grant me peace!”

Today’s challenge is to be you and accept you being who you are. If you love the stars be happy. If animals tickle your toes creating smiles to share with bored grocery store shelf stockers then let it fly. Find no reason to put energy in the art of judgment gone wild. Let Charlie Sheen be Charlie no matter where Charlie is or will be. Let those in Wisconsin raise their voices louder than someone screaming about a mouse. May the change makers of the Middle East be who they set out to be today and those who chose to go to work to do nothing more than get the job done so they can rush home.

Let it go…

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

You aren't getting paid overtime...

If but for a day I could be elected President of the United States I would quickly change the rules of time and add two more hours to the spin cycle.

Growing up in a punk kid costume, I always thought Mom was foolish, insane and a tad bit lazy when she’d shout at the top of her Montana shaped lungs, “There aren’t enough hours to dream!”

And then I became an adult…gulp!

I’ve dubbed this journey the Modern Day Lewis and Clark to whom we’ve heard of and read about for a single tag along century but outside of their chicken pecks on the continuation of a living tree (paper) the only proof anyone has of them taking a short one hour walk across America is Pompey’s Pillar near Billings…

If it wasn’t for this addiction to daily write there’d be no physical proof of my being. There aren’t enough hours in the day to hoist in fishing nets filled with memories. I think my sister Jamie was upset yesterday when I scratched into her computer screen, “I don’t remember you being here.”

Time is far from being a best friend. While walking through a crowded overstuffed mall, wild inner city forest or on a chuck hole filled street you might see someone arguing with something thats completely invisible only to realize it’s time making faces at the image I carry.

I measure time by the number of cats and dogs that have made lasting dents on this thing called whoa where did everything go?

In the book The Powers Within the physical act of gaining time is easily accessed by intensifying concentration. Rather than jumping into the bath tub or shower and letting your mind plan out the day or put life’s everyday challenges back together…the most simple task in gaining control of time is concentrating on why you are in there. You need to stop rushing or thinking about other things. When you put your mind elsewhere body parts aren’t properly washed. Through concentration time isn’t being wasted by going back to rewash.

There’s a tremendous amount of tension in the beginning because nobody likes change unless it falls from a pocket in the washing machine and suddenly you’ve got gas money. Time is gained in the morning if you concentrate on why you’re taking a shower or bath. You aren’t in there to rest and relax.

Stop allowing yourself to be swallowed up by everything spinning in a working world you’ll spend a lifetime trying to control only to learn you didn’t move an inch. Through concentration the end result is more time.

Today’s business world is designed to move progress quickly yet it seems to take coworkers the same old fashioned hour’s to get projects done. Concentration eliminates the need to stop and think about how much working is going into the expectation. But no, we have to stop and check emails and text messages, share conversations with other sticks in gray cubicals and talk about Charlie Sheen’s assumed addiction to drugs and the poor actors on the show that are no longer employed.

Corporate American cutbacks have absolutely made this generation the most overworked since the creation of the earth but it ain’t going to change. A man told me last week, “I know the secret to getting control of multitasking; do a bad job. If you break enough dishes they’ll stop asking you to wash them.”

Concentration is looked upon as being the disease when in fact it’s the cure.

The Powers Within suggests that you spend time outside the body and watch how you bounce about the day like a bunny discovering sunshine. Nothing destroys concentration faster than a mind jamming to the rhythm of thinking about everything but what needs to be done. I take a lot of heat from coworkers when they question my lack of participation with their personal lives…I don’t party with the people I work with because I come to work to concentrate on the success of making a listeners day better. Instantly I’m labeled and just as fast I’m the man in the television commercial that was left out of the Taco Bar gathering. That’s the downside of concentration. Locating time in a world that doesn’t care about time makes you someone people want nothing to do with. Until something goes wrong with their day and poof you’re the instant doc in a box to fix the broken heart.

Concentration is mental energy. Staying true to the fix allows your life and style to gain time. An elm tree was near its final moments, sickness from the wind had done serious damage to my friend in the backyard. Through concentration I was able to separate my spiritual tree loving ways that would’ve spent hours searching hardware stores to mend the giant hole in the surface from the realist that walked up to the 50 foot tree and said, “You have no idea how much I appreciate the shade you provided during the days when all these baby seedlings needed to soak their toes in dirt that wasn’t familiar to them. Thank you for everything especially the wild words that soared above my head and your leaves tossed them down to the poet in the forest so he wouldnt be left with a blank page.”

When you go into a gym to work out…do it. When you enter a grocery store to get food for dinner tonight make that you’re only reason for being there. If the boss says hello to you…don’t write a book. Concentration gets you out by 5:00. Concentration moves you through clutter. But remember it takes a lot of energy to remain focused and instantly you’ll feel incredibly exhausted which often times forces too many to quit.

If you want rest and relaxation create time for it by concentrating on the areas of your day that waste time. The only way I can blog daily is by guaranteeing the writer in me that no time will be wasted at coffee pots and water fountains and if someone walks in every conversation is based on locating a quick solution.

Sorta makes me come across as being a jerk doesn’t it? Maybe I should write: forget what I just said. Image is everything. Tell that to the person in the mirror and see how easy that goes over when you don’t have enough time for their wants and needs.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com