2020.08.09 Ready's Ramblings Episode 014

Just a series of notes from me to you! Thank you!  

Hello my friends and I hope each of you is doing spectacularly. If not, I hope your day swings towards the positive sooner than later.

After my last ramble session, I wanted to expand on something I get asked quite a bit. That is, “How can I be happy more often?” Great question and I think EVERYONE wants an easy to implement answer which doesn’t involve hallucinogens. Haha

From what your old pal Ready can tell from his thousands of years wandering the planet and meeting many fine folk. Happiness is work. Probably not what you want to hear but the actual accomplishment of getting happiness in your life requires a bit of work. It’s like a rose garden. You got to put in the work to see those things bloom. 

One thing I would like to put out for you is the very delicate subject of picking your friends and close associates as carefully as you would pack a parachute you intended to use. Your friends, your close associates are basically influencing you ALL THE TIME whether you know it or not. When you have supportive and helpful people you will really notice a life improvement versus when you have people who while well intentioned, will hold you back severely.

Something that immediately tends to happen when I mention this is “But READY, can’t I make ANYONE my friend?!? I mean, you said ALL PEOPLE were good inside!”. Correct, but your friends can’t all be ‘projects’ you need to work on. That doesn’t mean you don’t help a friend or a fellow human being in trouble. It means – look at your circle of support and see who’s supporting who. Are YOU the support for people, which is TOTALLY fine. Just be sure there are people who you can turn to.

On a more subtle layer you can do a huge amount of little things during your day that cost little and will give you back your time and help clear a path for your goals. Listed in NO PARTICULAR ORDER are means OLE READY uses to keep the creativity coming so YOU get your art and animation. I flux from time to time but GENERALLY SPEAKING, I follow all of these. You can see by my output and improvement how well (or how little) this works for me…. HAHAHAHAH!

DISCLAIMER – These CLEARLY can’t be applied to everyone across the board

• Stay off most all social media unless posting to relevant places (no Facebook) and all the others like deviantArt, Twitter and the rest ONLY to quickly post art. I don’t ‘check the news’ but once a day. 
• Put all my online time into Patreon and the Patreon discord. – hey, you’re here and you count a LOT to me so this is where I am!
• Have a to-do list for my daily and monthly tasks
• Work to keep time wasting people and jobs out of my life. This can be SPAM phone calls or any random non-emergency email (I turn my phone on silent during most days and only certain people can ‘call through’). 
• Constantly ask myself “What am I doing right now?” You might laugh but this simple self-awareness will get you out of MANY time-wasting moments.
• Eat and sleep in balanced and healthy fashion but NOT BE AFRAID to turn on the burn if I feel the creative vibe coming on (or I want to play the last levels of Horizon Zero Dawn, HAHA)
• Take breaks when you need and avoid sitting for endless hours in chair (stretch breaks, water breaks, etc)
• I could go on but that’s a good overview for now
• This is a VERY complicated topic and there is no way a Rambling post will do it justice. My hope is only to get perhaps ONE of you who needs to hear this message an idea where to go next. 

Remember – I hope one day to watch YOUR movie, to read YOUR book, to listen to some music YOU wrote. Maybe you are a person that will be part of a larger effort to educate children or help those less fortunate. The possibilities are ENDLESS and all valid. You have something in you. Each of us does. We all, ALL contribute to the greater whole of humanity in our way. Each way is different and important. I feel when you find something YOU LOVE, that you can dive into full force, that something will kick your ass but also give you the best rewards. You can start ANYTIME. Which reminds me of that old saying…

“What’s the best time to plant a tree? 

Twenty years ago. 

What’s the NEXT best time to plant a tree?

Right now!”

Go plant that tree people. 

-Ready