The Ramblings of the Titanium Don

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What do you do when it feels like it’s all for naught? How do you handle that feeling of being on the verge of tears, ready but unable to cry, in pain physical or emotional? What do you do when you feel as if all of your efforts, all of your brave talk and tough choices feel as though they mean nothing? Don’t fight it. Let it out. Feel the sadness. Feel the disappointment. Cry if you can. Sigh and

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There are many people who suffer from self esteem issues. It is surprising just how many people have poor self esteem. It is often masked in one of a myriad of ways, and so well hidden as to be unrecognizable. But a lack of self esteem can be soul crushing, and can easily derail you from any path you might choose. Before you can do anything for anyone, yourself included, you have to have self-respect. This is an aspect of

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Showing vulnerability is not weakness. Everybody is vulnerable.  It does not matter who you are, what you have gone through in this life, what experiences you have had.  Everybody has vulnerabilities. This is simply a part of human nature.  We all have something that makes us vulnerable, and it is something different for each and every one of us. What does vulnerable mean, anyhow?  Dictionary.com defines it as such: adjective 1.capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon: a vulnerable part of the body. 2.open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc.: an argument vulnerable to refutation; He is vulnerable to bribery. 3. (of a place) open to assault; difficult to defend: a vulnerable bridge. Capable of being attacked

Pathwalking 124

Sometimes you find you are traveling upon more than one path. I have stated multiple times that there are many paths to choose.  There is always an option, or a number of options before you in any given situation. While it is certainly easier if you can choose just one single path, often it is difficult to do so. What’s more, given our nature and diversity of personality, it is also difficult for any single path you have chosen to

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Pathwalking can be as simple as 1-2-3. However, we have an amazing capacity for over-complicating our lives.  Every day need not be a struggle. Many of the things we find challenging are only a difficulty because we MAKE them difficult. We are all hard wired with this need to have a system of beliefs.  There are things we know, things we are absolutely certain of, and while some of these things are in fact solid and unchangeable, more than most

Pathwalking 122

There are signs and omens all around us, and we often miss them. Yes, I am about to get hooky-spooky on you, but please stay with me.  Once more I am going to explore an incredible paradox of our existence. Last week I wrote about the importance of critical thought.  I explored why we all need to not just act, but really give time and energy to analysis and critical thinking, before we form opinions and make various decisions. However,

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Critical thinking takes time and energy. We live in a society where things happen almost impossibly fast.  We can communicate instantly across the globe, we can pull up the weather on our smartphones in seconds, we can research information across the internet with a few keyclicks and so on. We have come, as such, to expect instant gratification.  We want what we want, and we want it NOW.  We get caught up in our mundane routines, and we let them

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Recently I read The Fifth Agreement by Don Miguel Ruiz and his son Don Jose Ruiz.  This is the follow up to the wildly popular book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. These two books present the idea that we come into this life open, but along the way we make “agreements” with how to live.  We relinquish control to outside influences, and we allow our belief system to be massively complicated and colored by the world we live

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Nobody wants to disappoint anyone else. Just like all the other feelings, you cannot control whether someone is disappointed or not.  Yet we all work incredibly hard to make certain we don’t upset and disappoint the people in our lives. Whether friends, family, coworkers or even the Powers-that-be, we are all constantly striving not to disappoint.  We change the way we approach things, we change our intentions, we shift our schedules and we sacrifice to avoid disappointment. Not surprisingly, the

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Other people do not determine your worth.  You do. The old adage is true – you cannot please everyone all the time.  You are going to do things that are going to upset and alienate and maybe even infuriate other people.  It cannot be helped – this is just a part of human nature. Choosing your own life and walking your own path is going to have pitfalls and perils, ups and downs and so on.  People will not understand