lifeinlimonata-blog

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

Stuck in the Twilight Zone? Read this…

In the last post, I shared a quote from Mr. Ben Franklin and if you did not get a chance to read the quote well I would suggest you pause reading this and go read that quote before we proceed. Don’t worry I will wait for you. Did you read it yet? Okay great let’s move this along, shall we? Have you ever found yourself in a dead-end job, dead-end relationship, dead-end situation or anything seemingly going nowhere? You know that feeling when everything inside says I can’t do this another second let alone another minute. And yet you go back to the same dead-end thing only to be caught in an endless loop. Don’t worry if you are at the crossroads of dead-end alley because all of us have been there at some point.

Now, do you remember the Twilight Zone? If you’re a millennial then you most likely have heard of this old school show. Actually, just between me and you, I liked it a lot better than the Outer Limits but many will disagree. I felt fascinated with the Twilight Zone because the characters were constantly in an unforgiving loop while never being able to break free. In the end, there would always be a moral lesson that the Twilight Zone would teach the audience no matter the episode. And what was the lesson of the Twilight Zone you ask? Well, it was exactly in many ways what Ben Franklin proclaims, “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” The Twilight Zone oftentimes showcased characters satisfied and unsatisfied with the mundane, the ordinary, the rut, the dead-end alley. Some characters in the Twilight Zone moved, others did not move until something moved them or worse some never moved at all while all were confronted with their choices good, bad or indifferent.

If you want to achieve success in your life you must first have a willingness to move and do something that you have never done before. Maybe that is changing careers, finding new friends, opening up your worldview to experience the perspective of others or embracing new passions that not only align with your passions but challenge you. And that is exactly what I did. I have always had a passion to write, speak and make money but never positioning myself to do anything about it. Sadly, I bought into the false reality of working for three companies that viewed me as just another number and then the light came on. Why are you settling? Why are you happy with complacent? What are you satisfied with ordinary when you can have extraordinary?  These are important questions we must truthfully ask ourselves.

You have a choice, yes you reading this right now, you have always had a choice. I don’t care if you are over your head in bills, living paycheck to paycheck, riding the bus to and from work⏤it does not matter you have a choice. Sure you may not be where you want to be in life but it’s time to move from the Twilight Zone. It is time to stop settling for Good as Jim Collins states when you can be Great. Now I know that it seems that this blog to date seems really sappily motivational and yes it is because in order to turn the sour into something sweet we need a path to getting there. And more than just sharing with you my journey I want you to succeed even though I don’t know you. Alright, I am getting off my soapbox but you know that this blog wouldn’t be cool unless I shared with you a video from the Twilight Zone so make sure to watch below.

And oh, I almost forgot to tell you that each blog will build on the last one so if you’re searching for context on any of my thoughts please remember to read the previous post. I can’t wait to continue the conversation tomorrow here at Life in Limonata! Now sit back and relax as you prepare to meet the Obsolete Man…

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

The embedded video below from MindMattersMost: https://youtu.be/U3quruHpcuo

Life in Limonata © 2018. All rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

Benjamin Franklin

And no this is not Benjamin Franklin:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ariel5982/5961527214

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

Life in Limonata © 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

THE 70 YEAR OLD THAT LAPPED ME

It was January 26, 2014, and I will never forget the cold crisp air filling my lungs as I hiked with a friend of mine at the time. He wanted to show me some amazing views and all I could focus on was my immediate situation, my heart was pounding out of my chest and I felt winded. Then this guy in his 70′s came out of nowhere marching straight past me as I stood off to the side trying to catch my breath. Thinking back on it I can’t help but laugh at myself that I got lapped by a 70 senior citizen. (In order to provide you some context I was 29 years old when the photos were taken). The first photo seems like nothing and the path looks easy but make no mistake I was on an unforgivable incline that kept going and going and going. Each step I took seemed to take my breath away and ever so often I would drift off to the side to catch my breath. And you know what ran through my mind, “I’m young, this should be cake for me and here I am getting lapped by an incredibly fit grandpa,” this wasn’t just demoralizing it was just downright shameful and embarrassing.

Now I know what you are saying, “Wow man you must have been out of shape,” and I would tell you no I was not. I went to the gym every day and did cardio every day; however, the difference was not that I had not exercised, it was that I had not prepared for the intensity of the climb. In essence, I was fit but not fit enough to do what the hike was asking me to do in order for the journey to become smoother. We can often be semi-prepared for a situation, life event, circumstance or opportunity but if we are not fully prepared to take advantage of the moment then the journey becomes harder and unnecessarily difficult. And this is what happens when we assume that life will always go as expected and that we are exempt from “life lemons” as I like to call them, making us entitled to drink the lemonade pressed by others. In order to make the journey one must refuse to assume that just because something appears to be easy means that it will be, things are not always as they appear.

Since then I’ve hiked that place many times and the incline never seems to phase me because I know what to anticipate. Two things that come to mind are that a) Do not focus on the sprint, focus on finishing the race, and b) Do not focus on or compare yourself to others in your ability to accomplish anything. Often times we quit before we get started and never get to the finish line. I came from a family of what I call start-stoppers: people who start something but never finish it. One of the big reasons I created this blog, Life in Limonata, which I did not include in my original Welcome post is I want this to keep myself accountable for accomplishing my dreams and pursuits, and I want the same for you. The question I want you to ask yourself is this: What life lemons have led you to start-stop your dreams of being a bestselling author, platinum recording artist, sought after speak or successful entrepreneur? Now if I didn’t mention something you’re aspirating to be just fill in the blank ____.

Finally, it was not until I pushed through to the top that I was rewarded with the view in those photos and what a view it was as I got to see the valley and mountains in a way that my iPhone could not capture. The breathtaking views alone were worth all the pain and shortness of breath I had to go through. Let this year (whatever year you may be reading this in) be the year that you press through no matter how tough and unforgiving the terrain may seem. Push through it. Don’t start-stop and know that the race is not for people who seem to have it all together it is for the person that endures to the end. What is calling you to go higher in the year to come and see your goals achieved?

Life in Limonata © 2018. All rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

Earlier I shared a quote from Jim Collins bestselling book Good to Great. Going forward I’m going to recommend a must-read book each month. In addition, I will recommend other great books for the month of December. If you want to turn your life lemons into Limonata then this is a must-read before 2020. You have goals, dreams, aspirations and want a year like none other, right? If so, I encourage you to purchase the book, e-book or audiobook. 

Take the leap and get this book. If you are late to this blog post I still encourage you to get this book (and no I don’t make a single penny on you getting this book). For more from Jim Collins visit: https://www.jimcollins.com

Below I have also included a must-watch talk between Jim Collins and his life-long 20.5 billionaire friend Jorge Paulo Lemann who didn’t get his dream off the ground until he was 31! Listen to how Jorge Paulo Lemann turned his life lemons into Limonanta!

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

The embedded video below from Business and Future: https://youtu.be/DSRm6p81EtQ

Life in Limonata © 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.

Jim Collins, Good to Great

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

Life in Limonata © 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

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Welcome + Life in Limonata

Welcome to my first official blog post it has been a long time coming. I attempted this once before but it was not the right time to do it. Now I am back and ready to share the sweet, sour and everything in-between. Limonata is the Italian word for lemonade and because the term lemonade seems to have lost its uniqueness I decided that Limonata would fit the niche. This blog will not be another gossip column like other blogs and vlogs out there instead, I want it to be an outlet that will challenge to take the limits off your dreams and live boldly in your personal life, business pursuits, and other creative passions.

This is all about taking life lemons and making them into something amazingly sweet not just for yourself but for others as well. I know you’re asking yourself: What will this blog be about? It will be about exploring creative resources to get you thinking (e.g. books, music and other cool stuff). It will be about pursuing creative entrepreneurship, thinking big and manifesting your dreams. It will be about our successes, failures and the in-between as we turn our life lemons into something sweet. My hope is that you will join me for the journey and share how you turned your life lemons into something sweet.  Finally, this blog will showcase my thoughts on love, truth, life, and everything imaginable. Ultimately, it will be about Life in Limonata!

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

The embedded video below from Maggie Simpson: https://youtu.be/oP7cW0qRIHc

Life in Limonata © 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

Pioneers! O Piooneers! with a very special guest

BP: Welcome back to Life in Limonata. I have very special guest I would like to introduce to you. The man is perhaps one of the most famous American poets that has ever lived, yes I mean ever, perhaps even in the world. He was friends with Thomas Edison and his impact on life, liberty and justice still remains constant. Oh and don’t forget to watch two epic videos at the end of his poetry reading and you might just be inspired to get a new pair of jeans.

BP: Without further ado I give you author and poet Walt Whitman.

—applause

[Walt Whitman enters on the Limonata stage]

Whitman: Thank you for the chance to give one of Branden’s favorite poems I wrote back in the 1800’s. If you know anything about me I’m the author of Leaves of Grass. I’ll never forget when President Lincoln died, volunteering with the hospital full of Union soldiers and finally teaming up with the Union as a government clerk. Enough about me though, you are here to hear Piooneers! O Pionneers! Let’s begin shall we…

[Walt Whitman clears his voice after sipping some water]

COME, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers! For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers! O you youths, western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers! Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers! All the past we leave behind; We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers! We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers! We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within; We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers! O pioneers! Colorado men are we, From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus, From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers! From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein’d; All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers! O resistless, restless race! O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all! O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers! Raise the mighty mother mistress, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,) Raise the fang’d and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon’d mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers! See, my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter, Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging, Pioneers! O pioneers! On and on, the compact ranks, With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill’d, Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers! O to die advancing on! Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come? Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill’d, Pioneers! O pioneers! All the pulses of the world, Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement beat; Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us, Pioneers! O pioneers! Life’s involv’d and varied pageants, All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work, All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, Pioneers! O pioneers! All the hapless silent lovers, All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked, All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, Pioneers! O pioneers! I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Pioneers! O pioneers! Lo! the darting bowling orb! Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets, All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers! O pioneers! These are of us, they are with us, All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind, We to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers! O you daughters of the west! O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, Pioneers! O pioneers! Minstrels latent on the prairies! (Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you have done your work;) Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers! Not for delectations sweet; Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious; Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers! Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock’d and bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers! Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers! Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind; Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers.”

(by Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1891-92)

—standing ovation

[Walt Whitman bows his head graciously and points to the screens as the next segment will showcase his poetry in a way the 1800’s could not capture]

[The lights dim and the reel begins to roll—look at the videos below featuring Walt Whitman’s poetry]

Tune in Thursday to see what’s next from Life in Limonata

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

Embedded Video below from homotography: https://youtu.be/HG8tqEUTlvs

Embedded Video below from jdmdreamzz: https://youtu.be/7hWeTaL4ovI

Life in Limonata © 2018. All rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reporduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).

[lifeinlimonata-blog]

Perhaps one of the greatest commercial ever made (Levi killed this one) and it serves as a prequel for tomorrows post. I can’t wait to introduce you to my very special guest...make sure to tune in to Life in Limonata you won’t want to miss this...see you tomorrow!

Subscribe to follow my journey here and @bppatterson - BP

Embedded Video above from homotography: https://youtu.be/FdW1CjbCNxw

Life in Limonata © 2018. All rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be used or reporduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Any and all media not produced by the owner of this blog is the intellectual property of its respective owners and subsidiaries (the owner has taken great care to provide credit to respective owners and subsidiaries).