Your Life is Yours to Run (or Not)

February 24, 2014 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Note: We recently launched of a seminar series, “Five Things You Must Know To Make Your Life Better.” As part of that series, one of the things we went over were the “10 Commandments of Changing Habits.” This is one of those “commandments.”

Thy Life is Thine Own Creation

You set up your life to get what you are; it is not a fluke of nature.

It took work and planning, possibly unintentionally, but you built it. If it no longer serves you, you have to undo it.

However, since you built it – you can unbuild it.

However, you built it slowly, day by day, step by step.

Be patient while you rearrange it. It will take time.

[Read more…]

You Are Complete As You Are

February 17, 2014 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Thou Art Complete From the Beginning

You are fine just the way you are. You are entitled to be happy even if you have bad habits.

If you are changing your habits to be a “better person,” there’s no need.

If you are changing your habits to be a happier or healthier person, go for it.

[Read more…]

The “cat’scade” effect

August 14, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

It’s difficult to describe a room’s layout without showing an image — so if you’re really, really into following this column (which describes how the furniture in our living room is placed), you might want to draw a big “L” on a piece of paper. Then again, you probably aren’t that compulsive.

Anyway, a chocolate brown three-person couch comprises the vertical leg of the “L”. Perpendicular to it, forming the horizontal leg of the “L” is a recliner, with both facing the entertainment center, which would be by the top of the “L.”

Stick with me. It’ll all come together soon.

On either end of the couch is an end table, usually covered with the common odds and ends that collect over the day. You know, wallets, reading glasses, books, maybe a coffee cup or two.

The room has a picture window, which would be “below “the bottom of the “L” and behind the recliner. In front of said window, and behind the recliner, is a coffee table. That might seem a poor placement — unless cats reside in your house as they do at ours. Therefore, utilization of the table has been ceded to our two ginger felines who sit there, staring out at the street.

Okay, the stage is set. Here we go.

My wife and I sit on the couch to watch television.

I’m sure most couples — for that matter, most families — always sit in the same place. In our case, I without fail place myself at the “top of the L” while she sits on the other end of the couch. Motor, our younger cat, perches on the coffee table. Mini-Schnauzer Jack rests between the two of us on the couch.

Then there’s Tiger; our older cat, Alpha of the four-legged members of the family.

[Read more…]

Why Do We Keep Doing That?

April 3, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

When I attended UCLA —

during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene epochs — a story circulated among the undergrads about the ultimate final exam, which supposedly had taken place in a Philosophy class.

As urban legend had it, the students, bleary eyed from sleepless nights of contemplating The Theory of Forms and defending or arguing whether one can indeed step twice in the same river waited while the professor sauntered into the mini amphitheater, faced them square on, dramatically waiting for silence. Then theatrically, he pronounced, “For your final exam, answer only this one question.”

With staged flourish, he turned to the chalkboard and scrawled:

“Why?”

Most in attendance did not expect this, and ascribing to a more crass philosophy — “If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with B.S.” — utilized the full allotted period to elaborate on this ultimate of all queries. After all, a question with such far-reaching bounds must be worthy of many pages and much ink.

Yet, as the story unfolds, the student who received the highest grade took no more than ten seconds to pen his rejoinder, strolling from the room almost immediately, while histrionically dropping his blue book on the instructor’s desk.

Simply, he had written,

“Why not?”

Now it’s my turn: “Why?”

“Why do we do what we do when we know that what we do will move us further from health, happiness or success?”

Before the knee-jerk reply, “I don’t,” escapes your lips, consider these examples. [Read more…]

Picking Favorites

March 6, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

I own a fake leather red jacket.

Well, I guess that’s not an accurate description; the jacket is not fake. It’s real – and it is indeed bright red. What’s bogus is the “leather.” It appears to me to be leather but it’s really not. It’s way too thin.

Anyway, I’m distracted; let me start again.

I have a red faux-leather jacket. It has a simulated pocket (notice I cleverly avoided the use of the word “fake”) on the left breast area with a label specifying the brand. I didn’t know that was the emblem of a certain designer brand as I’m oblivious to those sorts of details, and would most likely remain so if not for my friends pointing it out (and being duly impressed). So, I guess I could say I possess a designer jacket.

That didn’t matter to me as I purchased it because:

I was cold
The jacket made me look “hip” (as much as a 58-year old guy can look “hip”)
It was marked down at an outlet store to fit my budget

Now you know how I make buying decisions. Oops, I’m getting off-track again…

Take three… I possess a jacket.

It’s become my favorite jacket. I use any excuse to wear it (which makes for some not very positive fashion statements). It doesn’t keep me very warm, and where I live, that is problematic. Yet, it also doesn’t stop me — like the post office, neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night will stop me from putting on my thin, faux-leather, ruby-colored, favorite jacket. (Besides, on cold days, the red shade goes well with my blue skin.)

Okay Scott, focus!

Back to the matter at hand, it’s my “favorite.” That’s what I keep trying to point out. I have a great deal of outerwear (reference previous comment about our local climate), but this particular covering is top of the list (although I have a gray wool overcoat that vies for the title – but I don’t want to get sidetracked again).

I find it fascinating that that we choose “favorites.”

[Read more…]

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Your Life is Yours to Run (or Not)

Thy Life is Thine Own Creation

However, since you built it – you can unbuild it.

Be patient while you rearrange it. It will take time.

You Are Complete As You Are

Thou Art Complete From the Beginning

If you are changing your habits to be a happier or healthier person, go for it.

The “cat’scade” effect

Stick with me. It’ll all come together soon.

My wife and I sit on the couch to watch television.

Why Do We Keep Doing That?

When I attended UCLA —

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Why do we do what we do when we know that what we do will move us further from health, happiness or success?”

Picking Favorites

I own a fake leather red jacket.

Take three… I possess a jacket.

I find it fascinating that that we choose “favorites.”

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