Truth be told, it’s not an easy thing to put your heart on your sleeve a couple of times a month and share thoughts and feelings with the world; or at least to those who have the time to click the link to the blogs I post.  I don’t always share intimate feelings or deep dark secrets, but the act of sharing your perspective or beliefs with the world can be terrifying to some. Putting your ideas out there can be challenging.  I do take the time to write and rewrite some of my opinions and thoughts, but not for the reason of worrying about offending people that read my entries.  My rewrites are done to make sure that the […]

We all know someone that has it worse than we do. They carry around mental and maybe physical scars that they use to try to impress us with. Whatever terrible story from your childhood you bring to the table, they have experienced something way worse and carry that sadness like a badge of honor. It’s one thing to own your scars, it’s another thing to constantly draw them like an insecure sword and gain attention through pity.  Congrats. You win. I’m not even going to watch the race, let alone allow myself to enter. Stop. Fueling your fragile ego with the attention you get through the pity of others is no way to move forward in life. I have had […]

I find it interesting when I see people cleaning up their social media pages and dumping followers to insure that only the right people are reading their very “important” posts.  The self-inflated “I am dropping people from my Facebook page because I am making changes in my life…blah blah blah”.  Here’s a novel idea, why don’t you just do it and not make an announcement about it?  We all have a few 100 people on our friends list and there is a good chance they probably won’t even notice if you dropped them.  Yet, you want to make an announcement.  You want the attention.  You want the drama.  “Hey look at me everybody! Not just anybody can be my Facebook […]

“You reap what you sow”. The problem with most of us (ok maybe all of us) when it comes to that phrase is that we don’t have the patience for it to come full circle. We live in a “gotta see it now” society that is void of patience.  If projects or relationships don’t immediately yield results, we pull out and move on to something new. We know it’s not healthy, but we just can’t help ourselves. Remember, you will never reap the immediate results of the sowing of today. Like you, it’s often a challenge for me to see things through to the end. Much of my workday is measured by results and the immediacy that comes with having […]

It occurred to me, the other morning while grabbing my jug of unsweet tea to have with breakfast, that everything that “belongs” to me in the Murphy family refrigerator is on the bottom shelf. The cottage cheese-bottom Unsweet tea-bottom Roast beef lunch meat-bottom. Spicy V-8-bottom   The only thing that would be considered 100% “mine” in the fridge would be the beer. Beer, the beverage that truly belongs to the head of the household, is the only thing that consistently resides on the top shelf. My wife probably puts it there so I can’t make the kids get it for me since they can’t reach the top shelf of the fridge. I’m certain that this is her way of holding something […]

I often write about my children.  They are the most amazing people in my life.  Because of them, I #tryharder.  I test and push myself to be better because they deserve a dad that desires to be the role model they can be proud of.  I want them to grow up never doubting how much their dad loves them or see limits to that love.  Like most parents, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for my children.  I am terrible with remembering directions.  I could potentially get lost, every day, as I drive home from work.  Yet, there are moments, conversations and events, from 10+ years prior, that I can recall almost verbatim.  I was in a communications class in […]

Sometimes your job can wear you out. No kidding right? The deadlines, stress, boss, whatever…It can suck the life out of you and no amount of vacation can balance the anxiety.  No matter how much you love what you do, it just happens. Even if you work for yourself; the stress is still there.   Then it happens.  You have a moment.  The thing that reminds you of why you do what you do.  That glimpse of satisfaction or success that swoops in, just in time, to remind us why we take the beating each day.  Like a small ray of sun that passes through the clouds; giving us enough hope and satisfaction to continue to endure.  Those small payoffs are […]

Truth be told, I’ve been scared my whole life.  Scared with school, career, choices, getting married, becoming a father, etc. You name it; almost every experience in life has come with a certain amount of fear.  Fear of failing, losing, getting fired; break ups, screwing up the kids, etc. The list goes on. To say that you are not guilty of any of this is a lie. We are all scared shitless about something.  Fear comes with life.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve thrown up before doing things or skipped meals and lost sleep over my nerves. In time, certain experiences or events become less scary. Either through repetition or growth, you eventually weaken their hold over […]