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
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)