Category: Thoughts

What do you want?

That is always a good question… to ask yourself.

But it needs to be at the deepest level, at the core of your desires. If you can really answer that question, and be confident and sure of your answer, then I think it might solve a lot of your problems.

Problems come when our actions are not aligned with our core desires.

Of course, difficult things happen that we are not in control of, that may alter our course. But if we’re true to our desires, we’ll find ways around the obstacles that life places in our way.

If what you want is deep enough, and big enough, it just might be powerful enough to drive you to get it.

If it’s not, you might need to go deeper. After you think you’ve got it, ask “And why do you want that?”

There might be something else, something more that you’re missing.

Do you know what it is?

What do you want?

Thoughts Web sites

Old and New

It’s the day after Christmas and all through the house…

is a bunch of stuff we have to clean up.

Okay, that’s not very poetic, but it’s true. And since I don’t want to do that, I decided to write in here instead.

Such a sorry blog.

Every time I write in it, it has been months and I say, “Gee I forgot all about this!”

So here I am doing it again.

But why?

Because it’s true, I do get excited and write in here for a little while, then forget all about it, then write in here some more. It’s the story of my life.

Starting new things, not sticking with them, then starting something else.

But then, isn’t that life?

There are always cycles to things.

I guess some people like to keep on the same cycle for longer. I guess I like switching. But yet, I don’t fully switch, so I keep stuff hanging around.

Like this blog. It’s still here.

But I have started a few new things.

I’m experimenting with Substack. It’s a platform that lets you set up paid subscriptions for your writing (or blogging) or podcasts. Or you can use it for free.

So that’s what I’m doing for now, free content, until I decide to have people pay.

Right now, I have two publications. One is called Micromovements and it’s about doing small things to make big changes within a corporation.

The other one is just housing my old “Rex on the Road” vlog series. But I might add new episodes once I get all the old stuff up there. I figured since I own the domain name, I should use it.

So check out http://www.rexontheroad.com

And http://rexwilliams.substack.com

I also have something else going on.

The link below is my main web site where I’ll try to set up my courses and stuff that you can pay for. But for now, there’s just a free ebook for subscribing to my list. And it’s kind of under construction, so I’m not really done with it yet.

Check it out at: http://www.rexawilliams.com

Anyway, more to come on that.

But I’ll keep this around, because I like it 🙂

And I like you.

Thanks for reading.

Tags substack

personal Thoughts

Your Life is Made of Stuff

Post author By Rex
Post date July 20, 2022
No Comments on Your Life is Made of Stuff

We had the opportunity to help a friend pack up his house and move. That is an experience that no one really wants to do.

Why is that?

Because we all have too much stuff. We like our stuff. Stuff tells the story of our life. But when we have to move it all, we begin to realize how much stuff we have, and how much is unnecessary.

And it certainly told the story of my friend’s life. He had an amazing life of building fun things and pranks, and just creating unique items. He is an engineer. So as we pulled something out of his garage shelves, we’d ask him, “What is this?” Then he’d tell a story about that item, why he made it or who gave it to him. His stuff was really the story of his life.

But I was super impressed with how much he threw away. He had a whole truck full of stuff that was headed to the dump.

He gave me the task to throw away a little pile in the corner that he said was just garbage. But I was the wrong guy to do that work. I looked through it and said, “What, you’re throwing this away?” “That’s a perfectly good CD!” Until I realized, we can find all these movies or music somewhere in the cloud. So, eventually, I was able to do it. (Except for the unopened, still in the package, “Star Wars – The Force Awakens” DVD.)

In reality, our life is what happens, what we choose to do, and how we choose to interact with other people. It’s not made of stuff.

You can’t take it with you.

(But I’ll keep it as long as I can 🙂

Thoughts

A blog is cool

Two posts in the same month is pretty good.

There’s nothing to really read here, but I’m glad you’re reading it. It does actually mean something. I put these words here myself. From my own brain. And now, you’re reading them.

Isn’t that awesome?

I know, I’m easily amused.

But if you think about what’s happening, or what happened a while ago, like before you read this just now, things had to be in place for you to experience this. And I did all that work! So yay for me!

See, I have done something. In fact, when I look through all my word press blogs, I actually have 16 different sites. Hard to believe, I know, but they’re free! And back in the day, when they were popular and just getting started, I started one for each of my kids, and for other stuff too.

So my kids still have a place they could blog if they wanted to, but for some reason, Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook (for my oldest) is more appealing. They don’t understand the value of having your own space. Not something owned by someone else. A web site is your own. I still believe in that. And there are a bunch of platforms that allow you to create your own web space. Everyone should have one.

So tell me yours.

And maybe I’ll tell you about my others.

Tags blog, blogging, website, zerotohero

Thoughts

Just Write

Post author By Rex
Post date July 6, 2022
No Comments on Just Write

I’m writing this in public as a way to sharpen my mind and improve my writing.

I’ve been writing privately for many years. You know, a journal. I use both paper and pencil and a digital platform called 750words.com because I like the tactile nature of actually drawing words on paper. Sometimes I like to draw abstract art too. I use a notebook with no lines so I can write as big or as small as I want, or in circles or sideways. It’s my art.

I also use 750words.com because it’s digital and I can type faster than I can write. It’s saved up in the cloud (funny, the cloud is not up 🙂 and it has a whole system that helps you to write every day. So, I’ve been trying to keep a streak of writing every day. Some months are better than others, but I’m mostly doing it… writing at least 750 words every day. I’ll miss a few here and there, but I’m writing a lot.

But it’s not good writing. It’s dumping my thoughts in a free form ramble, which is good to get the stuff out, but it’s not something for public consumption.

This stuff here, on the other hand, is public (even though only two of you read it.) This is published. So, it requires at least a little bit of thought. Maybe. But as you’ll see, I think years of rambling text in my private space will influence this public stuff pretty easily. Maybe like this post here.

Another tactic is just to start writing, because it takes too much effort to think about what I’m going to say and come up with something super smart. It usually comes to me after I start writing. Because I have to come up with the next sentence.

Like this one here. See how easy that was? It doesn’t have to be smart.

Stupid is smart.

This is a stupid post.

And there it is, another post about how I don’t write in here very often. (I tried not to do it, promise.)

Stay tuned. There might be another post soon, or 6 months from now.

Tags writing

Thoughts

There is no time

Every time I write, it seems like it’s months apart (I mean, mostly because it is.) But actually, when you read them all together, one after another, it doesn’t seem like months apart, it’s instantly together, just minutes apart. Because, you see, when you read stuff, time has no meaning around when you wrote it. It’s only all together for you to read all at once.

I could have written this sentence a lot later than the paragraph up above. Or, I could have written it first, and then moved it to be after the paragraph. You only see the final version.

That’s the same with blog posts that are read one right after another. If there wasn’t a date, you wouldn’t be able to tell when they were written.

So, I should stop saying, “Whoa, it has been a while since I’ve written in here… every. single. time.” (It’s still true, and it’s funny to me how I forget about this blog in streaks, consistently.)

Thanks for reading. Again.

Keep paying attention (every so often 😉

Tags asynchronous, blog, time

Thoughts

My Secret Message

It’s funny. I set this up years ago. Many years ago. And yet no one has taken the opportunity to use this function. I thought it was pretty ingenious, but maybe it’s not so cool after all.

Here’s the secret.

You know how you’ve seen lots of audio posts on this blog? That is done by using a pretty cool WordPress feature that they developed years ago. They give you a unique phone number and password, and all you have to do is call the number, enter the password and start talking. Then when you hang up, it automatically posts the recording to this blog! Genius!

So, it makes it super easy to post. I could post something every day. And I was for a while.

Then I thought of a different way to use it. What if I gave you the number and let you record a post??! Or a comment to one of my posts, or whatever!

And that’s the secret. If you sign up for my secret newsletter, you’ll get the number and password and you can call in and make an audio post right here.

Now, that is pretty risky. Anybody could call in and say anything. But, I figure most people will be nice. Plus, I can also delete it if I want. And since no one is reading or listening to this anyway, it wouldn’t be that damaging 🙂

But try it out. If you want to. It’s pretty cool. I’d be honored if you said something here. It would probably be best if you said who you were.

Make sure you click on the ‘Sign up for my secret message’ link at the bottom of this page, and not the Subscribe button, that’s different.

It’s a collaboration!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thoughts

What to say… What to say

Tags content, perfect, Post by Voice

practice Thoughts

Use Your Words

Words are always important.

There are so many to choose from.

And when you put them in a certain order, they create meaning, a message, or a feeling that can affect another person significantly, either positively or negatively.

That’s why writing is so important. And learning to write well is a valuable skill.

We are a text based generation. So much communication is by text. And because we can remove ourselves from the words, they can be quite damaging. They can contain less feeling, compassion, and human connection, which ultimately can cause strife and conflict.

For the peace of humanity, let’s become better writers.

It is possible to use a better choice of words in the right order to convey feeling, connection, and compassion.

Thank you so much for reading this. I really appreciate it.

(See, that wasn’t so hard.)

Tags text, words, writing

practice Thoughts

Change the Change

I heard an interesting quote today,

“If you can’t change your company, change your company.”
Person who left the Boeing company

It makes sense. They had a difficult time feeling like they could make any significant changes in the company, so they left. And I could see why someone would think this is a good idea. I even think it probably is a good idea if you really feel powerless.

But…

My premise is that you have more power than you think. And the reason you can’t change things is because you don’t know how. You don’t know the strategies, or the fine details of how to start a movement of change within a corporation.

That is where I can help you. I may not have the silver bullet, but I think there is always hope. And ways to maneuver around the bureaucracy.

Life will find a way!

Tags bureaucracy, change, movement

practice Thoughts

Always Something To Write About

Post author By Rex
Post date December 2, 2020
No Comments on Always Something To Write About

Every day is a new adventure.

That’s why it should be easy to write something every day.

Of course, some days are more exciting or interesting than others.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you about my day today.

I’m just telling you about about my day. (I just made that up, about about.)

I’m telling you that today was different, and interesting (probably not to you) and different than yesterday. Sure, that may be obvious, but the point is that you can write about something every day, even if all you did was lay in bed all day. You could write about that.

So, if you could write about the things that happened that day, or what you learned that day, or even about about that day, the meta, or higher concepts that that day represents, then you pretty much have an unlimited amount of material to write about.

See, I didn’t even tell you that I went for a walk.

(Because it wasn’t interesting.)

(Although very sunny. Which is interesting around here 😉

Write.

Tags write, writing

practice Thoughts

It Takes Time

This year, we chose to support our local tree farm, pay a little extra, and chop down our own Christmas tree.

It’s always a fun experience looking for just the right tree. Everyone has a different perspective on what is right for them, or their house, so it’s always a personal preference to find ‘the one’.

What’s interesting to me is the business model for Christmas tree farms. Here is something that took around 10 years to grow, and then you come let people cut them down in a few minutes. And in a few weeks your whole crop is gone.

We should have the patience of the Christmas tree farmer. Our success will not be overnight. Only after years of learning and unique experience will we have something valuable to offer the world.

Oh sure, it’ll have value before that time, but not as much. The price of the tree is determined by height.

And it’ll have different value for different people. You may be ‘the one’ for someone, but not for someone else.

The great thing about your value is that when someone uses it, it’s not gone. It’s still growing!

So sell your Christmas trees. Don’t cut them down.