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New Guidance..

       incorporating the new “you” in the new year.

by Mark Schmidt on January 10, 2016

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” -Mother Teresa

I’ve been laid up in bed battling a vicious cold. I couldn’t help but think how odd it is in Upstate NY to be getting torrential downpours and hearing clasps of thunder. Normally this time of year it’s about a high of 20 Degrees with snow. Currently it’s 43 Degrees. Perhaps climates are changing??

Change, that is indeed the theme of the Month is it not? January 1st. Time for a renewed, a change. Time to let the old ways go and begin anew. Where do most Americans find their inspiration for change? Co workers? friends? family? I think there is a very high proponent to suggest that. I think there is even a bigger part of our society that identifies with entertainment and social media as the template for the new “you”

That is not necessarily a bad thing. Lately anything and everything associated with the arts and entertainment has been described as misleading and unattainable. The perfect body could in fact be obtained if your job was solely to live in a gym, but most of us have lives and cannot obtain that because we do not have the means or time to do so.

That got me thinking..what if the new person we want to achieve can be snippets and characteristics that are small & filling? Perhaps instead of ordering the one dish that we cannot eat..maybe if we opted for the buffet table and picked and choosed the things we want to learn and adopt and make a sensible new year's plate. Maybe we would have more success. Change is inevitable, we can remain the same. We can also decide to change things up.

I for one, decided that I was not going to make one huge significant change but reflect upon the lessons, inspiration and ideas and take small portions and work on taking the baby steps to change me. For instance, I stumbled upon a religion dedicated to the life and philosophy of Jeffrey “the dude” Lebowski. A fictional character from the 1998 coen brothers movie the “Big Lebowski” it is a mock religion yet has many followers. It was founded in 2005 by Oliver Benjamin. it’s philosophy is rather simple as it dabbles from Taoism and the ideals of keeping a cool head in situations and taking it easy. It’s practice is to enjoy the things and people in our lives by living simple and not chasing materialistic things. A more simple life.

Now, I’m Catholic. I’m not changing my religion. However, the ideas of stepping back and living a bit more simple and going with the flow sounds wonderful to me. I also combined that with some inspirational quotes I saw from Game of Thrones regarding honor and family.

I also spent the better part of 2015 working in the ER at a local hospital. I’ve seen first hand countless families suffer from loss of life, assaults, sickness and injury. My job is to talk with these families in all these situations. I developed a better sense of Empathy and keeping a positive energy and doing what you need to do to comfort those in need and despair.

In close, I reflected upon the inspiration of fictional authors, movie directors and real life experiences to develop a plan to continue to improve myself. Nothing major, but the small moments that stood out enough to resonate in my mind. Its experiences, feelings and moments rich with ideas of the ever continuing “change” that surrounds us. Good or Bad, sometimes the smallest steps make the biggest impact down the road.

Mark Schmidt.

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