According to Via Institute on Character, Personality is the sum total of our psychological makeup and how we uniquely express ourselves in the world. It is the pattern of emotional qualities, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and habits that make us who we are. But for many of us it can be difficult to describe our own personality.

A personality test can be a useful tool to help you articulate the characteristics about yourself. You might take a personality test when going through a life transition, such as a career change, marriage, divorce, or retirement to gain self-confidence and greater sense of self. Or maybe you are just interested in learning more about what makes you unique and special. Whatever the reason, personality tests can be a fun way to discover the qualities that make you - you!

Many have taken a Rorschach Inkblot or Myers-Brigg personality assessment. How about the 4-animal personality test – Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever, or Beaver?

I am adding a new personality assessment “tool” into the fold – the Which Ninja…dude? Assessment. Are you ready?

Emine’ Rushton, in Ayurveda for Modern Life, teaches that we each have a dosha - a basic body type that defines our personality and physical wellbeing, from the foods we crave to those that spark intolerances and increase weight gain. She shows how a body-balancing seasonal lifestyle can help beat stress, lose excess weight, and feel energized and positive every day. She guides your through the process of determining your dosha type and teaches how to eat for your own dosha and make your body feel light, vital, energized and well again.

So, the question – what is your dominant dosha? What is your significant other’s dosha?

Emine’ Rushton, in Ayurveda for Modern Life, captures the essence of my all-too-stressful life:

“…I am often pulled in so many different directions I literally lose my balance. Clumsiness for me is always because of having too little time and not enough care.

It’s a sign to stop…whatever you are doing. Just stop. Breathe in. Breath out. In again. Then - pick up where you left off. Calmer. More carefully.”

When I am stressed, I don’t necessarily exhibit clumsiness like Emine’ but I certainly lose life balance and I lose the ability to perform optimally. The “deep breathing” trick works miracles. Heck, my SmartWatch agrees too – I periodically get prompts to stop and take 5 deep breaths.

The question is – Is there a right or wrong way to breathe?

It’s an age-old tale – the handsome, yet socially awkward guy wants to woo the pretty girl and seeks the advice and wisdom from the older, wiser man. Sound familiar? Now your movie trivia question of the day – can you name the movie? If you said Roxanne you are correct! Chris, the hot young fireman is asking for advice from C.D. (played by Steve Martin), the wise fire chief. C.D. asks Chris, “Do you know the phrase carpe diem?” Chris responds, “It’s, it’s fish, fish bait, right?” C.D. hits him with, “No, it is latin. It means, ‘seize the day.’ There may be no tomorrow, so do it now. Seek life now, while you have the chance.”

A popular slang term from 2012 captures the essence – YOLO – You Only Live Once. Wikipedia defines YOLO as: Along the same lines as the Latin carpe diem ('seize the day'), it is a call to live life to its fullest extent, even embracing behavior which carries inherent risk.

The Cambridge on-line dictionary defines YOLO as an abbreviation for "you only live once": used, especially on social media, to mean that you should do things that are enjoyable or exciting, even if they are silly or slightly dangerous.

So, a couple of questions for you:

1. What does the blog picture have to do with Carpe Diem?

2. Are you embracing Carpe Diem and YOLO? Are you living YOUR life to the fullest extent?

I am from the Minnesota Iron Range, an area rich with iron ore and its black sheep cousin taconite.  You may know a few of the area’s notables: Judy Garland, the Boston Celtic’s “sixth man” Kevin McHale, the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team’s Conehead line, and Bob Zimmerman.   I hear you, “Judy Garland – sure.  Bob Zimmerman – huh?”

In No Direction Home, Bob says that he left home the day after high school graduation – “… I’d gone as far as a could in that particular environment…”  Kind of harsh don’t you think? 

He changed his name to Bob Dylan and the rest is history.  Wikipedia summarizes Bob Dylan as

 Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time,  Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.  … In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"

While I have always enjoyed his music and his performing style, it is his life philosophy that I appreciate the most.

Hey, do you have a few minutes?  Pull up a chair – this is a doozy!

Picture it – I head to the office early to plan my day and commit to thriving, living from the soul, expanding universe and all things Tony Robbins – when my email “pings.”  Its an email from my boss with the reports due today.  My shoulders sag and I let out an audible sign… and then, what is that tinny sound in my right year – “ringa ringa ringa…”    I look around to see if anyone else is hearing this and, duh, I’m working remote – pandemic lockdown don’t you know!

I finish my reports and corresponding coversheets when the text from my regional manager comes in, “why didn’t you xyx that abc last week…”  Ugggh – shoulder shrug – and the tinny sounds is back.  I pulse my “ear closey-thing” (not sure the anatomical name for that part of the ear) thinking I must have water and shampoo in there.  The “ringa ringa ringa…” continues and then followed by a “BOOOOM BOOOM!”  I grab my jar of gummies thinking I must had made a bad purchase but no – they ARE CBD with the approved legal amount of THC.

Picture it – Friday night, heading out of town, dreaming of a mammoth bonfire to address my growing pile of branches and rotting logs.  I stop at the local gas station for a couple of “Shoppers” – the local, printed want ads – a dying entity I know but a great source of “firestarting” paper if you catch my drift.  I toss my bag into the corner of the cabin, grab a couple of beers from the fridge and a box of wooden matches and head out to the waiting brush pile…   

I crumble a few “Shopper” pages into balls, top with small sticks, and layer with the branches – spark the match and a blazing fire ensues…   WRONG!  In my dreams maybe!   The paper blazes and lights a few of the small sticks but ultimately peters out.  I stuff in a few more “Shopper” balls which keeps my hopes alive but not the mammoth bonfire.   After a few unsuccessful attempts and growing frustration, I decide to build the fire the right way.

I angrily push my pile to the side and start again – with the proper foundation this time!  I follow The Essentials of a Wood Fire: Tinder, Kindling, Fuel on premierfirewoodcompany.com and an enjoyable and productive bonfire follows…EVERYTIME!  Fool-proof!  Frustration-less (if that is even a word)! 

The question is – WHY do I do this to myself? Why do a half-hearted effort only to end up frustrated, when I know that success comes from following a proven process and building off of a firm foundation?

Hello

Is there anybody in there?

Just nod if you can hear me

Is there anyone home?

Can you name the song? Ring a bell? (SPOLER ALERT – I am going to answer, so wait if you are still working on it!)

This the opening lyric to Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb from The Wall album. I was quite fond of The Wall and listened to it continually as a late teenager. If you are a fan of the crackle of vinyl, I have the album for you! I have often described my recent “funk” as being either comfortably or uncomfortably numb depending on the day. Over the course of several years of receding, I found myself numb – with no clear purpose or passion. Can you relate?

Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning, captured what I was feeling and named it Existential Vacuum. Marshall H. Lewis, PhD, in The Existential Vacuum summarizes it this way (I added the bold):

A lack of recognized meaning and purpose in life is what Frankl calls the existential vacuum, a state he believes is the result of the frustration of the will to meaning.

Frankl describes a person experiencing the existential vacuum as living in a world in which previous traditions and values no longer provide guidance on what to do and a world in which the person may not even know what she wishes to do. A person in this situation may then simply do what others do (conformism) or do what others tell her to do (totalitarianism). Manifestations of the existential vacuum include boredom, apathy, and sometimes noogenic neurosis, a clinical term devised by Frankl to describe psychological symptoms caused by moral and spiritual conflicts.

Picture it - I am on my morning commute, the sun is rising and I am bobbin’ and weavin’ around the slightly downturned car visor to avoid the blinding sun. My highway merges with the major interstate and I have half a mile to navigate two lanes to the left before the merged highway splits off. I signal my turn and look for my opening – but there HE is, hiding in my blindspot. I can just make out the car to my rear left in my rearview mirror and we start the dance. I speed up – he speeds up. I slow down – he slows down. I have a quarter mile remaining to traverse my 2 lanes and I am getting agitated! I push the accelerator to the floor – my undersized 4 cylinder car hiccups than blasts forward – I signal and quickly merge to the left, then left again and I am in the clear. I look behind me, and my dancing partner has also signaled and moved the 2 lanes to the RIGHT – and it hits me! My dancing partner wasn’t messing with me – he wasn’t trying to add stress to my life. HE was JUST dealing with his needs – in this case – his NEED to move 2 lanes to the right in the half mile he had to work with.

“The Dance” brought to mind the second agreement in The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz – Don’t Take Anything Personally.

Do you ever find yourself immobilized in deciding when faced with multiple alternatives? I certainly do and I have found that Occam’s Razor has been helpful.

Merriam-Webster defines Occam’s Razor this way –

a scientific and philosophical rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities

Wow – can you make sense of that? I like this simple definition: the simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex. Nice. Now join Occam’s Razor with KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid – and life gets a little less complicated. Reminds me of a scene from Wedding Crashers, where the dad, Secretary Cleary, says to his daughter (in my best Christopher Walken imitation),

“Look... we have no way of knowing what lays ahead for us in the future. All we can do is... use the information at hand to make the best decision possible. It's gonna be fine. Your whole life is gonna be fine.”

The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown, captures the US rowing teams’ quest for gold during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.  Amazon.com captures the tale - It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler.

A diehard rowing fan characterized this achievement similarly to “The Miracle” when the USA hockey team beat the mighty Russians during the 1980 Olympic Games in Mt. Placid, New York.  I will have to take his word for it.  I can say while I enjoyed learning A LOT about rowing, the impact was in the quotes - some of the quotes in the book have had a lasting impact on my life.

“Technology is a wonderful thing and a bitch at the same time,” said my dad. You may be too young to remember a VCR or the “blinking 12 problem.” A VCR was this revolutionary device that let you watch movies from the comfort of your own home – which carved a chink in the movie theatre market and created a new industry – the movie rental business. You may have heard of Blockbuster…they were huge, emphasis on the were!

My dad suffered from the “blinking 12” and we often joked about this on my visits. My dad was an engineer and challenged himself to stay technically current. He was one of the first I knew who owned a computer. I cannot tell you how many times we went through the “cd dot dot backslash…” routine – for those around before Windows.

Looking back at this many years later, with me now in a somewhat similar situation, I can now see that the jokes had a little personal pain attached for dad. The sometimes-overwhelming reality of change AND the decision to keep up or just let the VCR blink. Which takes us to our CHALLENGE.

CHALLENGE: What is the “blinking 12” in your life? What “thing” do you want to accomplish and what is holding you back? What are the steps you can take to overcome the fear and inertia and get started?

Are you familiar with Maslow’s Hierchary of Needs, introduced by Abraham Maslow, in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation?  Maslow’s hierchy has 5 levels in a pyramid, with the first level meeting the Physical Requirements of food, water, sleep, warmth.  Physical is followed by Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and ultimately, Self-actualization. 

 In The 5 Levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs on verywellmind.com , Kendra Cherry says, Maslow “…suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs…    …Maslow believed that people have an inborn desire to be self-actualized, that is, to be all they can be. In order to achieve these ultimate goals, however, a number of more basic needs must be met such as the need for food, safety, love, and self-esteem.” 

My question for you – do you think the movement up the Maslow pyramid is one-directional (UP) or bi-directional (UP and DOWN)?

Dictionary.com defines Peace of Mind as a mental state of calmness or tranquility, a freedom from worry or anxiety. In 40 Ways to Achieve Peace of Mind and Inner Calm on Likehack.org, they list listening to music, deep breathing, going for a walk, enjoying nature, and such. All good ideas no doubt.

For me, experiencing Peace of Mind comes when the chaos of life is under control. I have read countless self-help books on the subject but the one that was most helpful in getting some control was David Allen’s Getting Things Done. My key takeaways were:

- Just Do It – if something can be done in “2 minutes”, do it now

- Have a To-Do list for “things” to be done in the future

- Have a Calendar to capture “things” that are due at a certain time

Simple ideas but, for me, life changing. Capturing these items in 2 spots – either a to-do list OR calendar, freed me from a patchwork of Post-it notes or worse, being haunted by worry at 3 in the morning on the “thing” I forgot to do!

Your question – What is your system for staying organized and helping YOU achieve peace of mind?

Optics is a branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, especially when a light wave comes in contact with an object. Will the light reflect, bend around the object (diffract) or go through the object (refract)?

Reflection is obvious when looking in a mirror or when squinting into the sunlight reflecting off a glass building. How about when you see a rainbow on a soap bubble or a when you can see an image reflected on a house window?

One of the most breathtaking examples of light diffraction in nature is crepuscular rays or God rays. Studioguys.com explains, “the light rays from the sun try to reach the ground but are blocked by the clouds, the light waves get diffracted and deviated. This deflection of light, due to the presence of a barrier in its normal pathway, is nothing but diffraction.”

Let’s focus on REFRACTION for a bit, ok?

There is a reason Physics gets a bad rap – here is an example from Wikipedia on the definition of HEAT:

In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer to or from a thermodynamic system, by mechanisms other than thermodynamic work or transfer of matter…

The quantity of energy transferred as heat in a process is the amount of transferred energy excluding any thermodynamic work that was done and any energy contained in matter transferred. For the precise definition of heat, it is necessary that it occur by a path that does not include transfer of matter…

Ugh! Are you still with me? Fortunately, there are great physic communicators that can make physics come alive. I recently read Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli, in which one of the lessons addressed HEAT. Carlo distilled this complex topic to a very understandable level, with some life changing analogies (at least for me!).

Carlos said that Ludwig Boltzmann, in around 1900, conveyed that HEAT is atoms moving quickly while COLD is atoms moving slowly and that HEAT is transferred from hot objects to cold objects by CHANCE. Wow! At the time this was regarded as absurd and on September 5, 1906 Ludwig Boltzmann hanged himself – BEFORE his concepts were validated! So – what are some of the life lessons?

“At the end of World War II, huge swaths of Europe and Asia had been reduced to ruins. Borders were redrawn and homecomings, expulsions, and burials were under way…. In less than a decade, the war between the Axis and the Allied powers had resulted in 80 million deaths… Allied occupations and United Nations decisions led to many long-lasting problems for the future… The growing tensions between Western powers and the Soviet Eastern Bloc developed into the Cold War, and the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons raised the very real specter of an unimaginable World War III…” stated The Atlantic in their article World War II: After the War.

Today’s Word Challenge - Choose a word where changing the last two letters makes the exact opposite of the first word.

Don’t worry – there is NO right or wrong! If you want to go a little deeper in the challenge – pick a word that addresses your current physical, mental or spiritual state and change the word to what you want your current state to BE. GO FOR IT! I will wait.

My word is PASSIVE – where if you change the VE with ON you get PASSION. Why you may ask did I come up with this combination? Well it continues to express my current emotional state. I want to have energy, action, intensity – or PASSION. Instead, I feel the exact opposite – PASSIVE.

What would be your definition of CLEAVE?

Oxford defines cleave as a verb: split or sever (something) especially along a natural line or grain.

Merriam-webster defines cleave as an intransitive verb: to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly.

The English language never fails to amaze me in its complexity. Per www.grammarly.com, cleave is classified as a contronym, often referred to as a Janus word or auto-antonym, is a word that evokes contradictory or reverse meanings depending on context. Mentalfloss.com in its article, 14 Words are their own opposites, lists 14 contronyms: sanction, oversight, left, dust, seed, stone, trim, cleave, resign, fast, off, weather, screen, help. Interesting but we will leave these for another time.