Author Archives: Frank Borelli

The Folded Ear and OCD

It may seem an odd lead-in but it’s appropriate and if you read along I think you’ll understand why. The other night after turning off my iPad (I’d been reading for a bit), I laid down to go to sleep. I tend to start off on one side or the other and this particular night it was on my left side. As I put my head down on the pillow, my ear folded over and was uncomfortable. It wasn’t painful in any way, just not the way it was most comfortable for me to go to sleep. I adjusted my position but it was still folded. I tried adjusting again. It was still folded. Finally I had to move the pillow, adjust my position and try again, and finally got things where they needed to be for my comfort and ability to relax. As I lay there waiting for sleep to come, I realized the amount of time and energy I had spent making sure just that one facet of my comfort as proper before I even thought about getting the rest of me into a comfortable sleeping position. It made me wonder how many other things I do, day to day, that take up time and seem vital but also could be viewed as relatively trivial. What I realized was that such moments exist in every day throughout our life. Continue reading →

FOCUS: Obstacles vs. Opportunities

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On any given day, but a LOT on most Monday mornings, you can look in your social media feeds and see quite the variety of posts about motivation. I’m guilty. I supply some of them. I also look through them and this morning I happened to notice just how many of them focus on outlook. When something that wasn’t part of your original plan happens, do you view it as an obstacle? Or an opportunity? Continue reading →

Is There a Difference Between Insulting and Offensive?

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Not that long ago I had an experience that made me think about the difference between “being insulted” and “being offended.” In today’s society where it seems like there is always someone offended by something, no matter how innocuous or harmless the “something” might be, it’s almost become fashionable to be offended. What’s worse, the idea that being offended seems to mean someone owes you something in reparation for having caused that feeling. Here we get to where people who have been “triggered” feel they are owed something (and that “something” can be truly ridiculous) simply because someone did something that was offensive to them. If you have this conversation long enough, terms like “snowflake” and “pansy” start getting thrown around and then we’ve moved from the realm of offensive to the realm of insulting. They are far from the same thing but in today’s world the difference has been all but lost. Continue reading →

Who Defines You?

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“What follows ‘I am’ is far more important than what follows ‘You are’.” I put that quote up on Facebook a while back and got a LOT of traction with it. It seems so simple a concept – what you think and say about yourself matters more than what others think and say about you. Right? There shouldn’t be any argument about that. But in reality, we spend a lot of time thinking and worrying about how others perceive us; what they think of us; how they view us; what our reputation is and so on. I’m as guilty as the rest. And then something will happen, or I’ll ready something or hear something… and it’ll help to ground me. It will remind me: what I think of me is more important than what someone else thinks of me. Continue reading →

Different Goals Mean Different Actions

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It occurred to me this morning as I was working through various social media feeds that there were some folks who were all taking the same actions to work toward different goals. While it’s vital to understand that everyone has different goals, or at least different definitions of what a particular goal is, it’s perhaps more important to understand, and integrate into your planning and process, that your end goal determines what your actions should be. Further, as you evolve through the process of striving toward your goal, your skill sets will change, as will your knowledge base, and if you don’t make adjustments as you go, then eventually you stagnate, lose faith, lose motivation or simply don’t work as efficiently. Let’s take a look at fitness as an example. Continue reading →

Edit Your Subscriptions

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Do you remember when “having a subscription” meant that you were either getting a daily newspaper or a monthly magazine? If so, you’re as old as I am. In today’s world, there are so many things you can subscribe to and not all of them cost money. You can have subscriptions to someone’s social media feed (get notifications) or to magazines or to electronic newsletters or to services and products. You can have a subscription to damned near anything and every company out there wants you to subscribe to their service or to receive their products. Think about it: a subscription with dollars attached is a guarantee of at least short term repeat revenue for them, and you get what you want out of it to boot, right? Now, please think about this: what subscriptions do you have wherein the services or products are dedicated to helping you improve your health and fitness? Continue reading →

What Gifts Do You Give?

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Keep in mind that it’s Christmas Eve as I type this…

This morning as I drank my coffee, sitting at the dining room table, I looked into the family room at our Christmas tree and the gifts stacked under it. The idea of gift giving and what kinds of gifts we give began to churn through my barely caffeinated mind. The thoughts expanded to include the time of year, the pending New Year, resolutions people make and more. Soon I realized I was thinking about the gifts that we should be giving… to others as well as to ourselves. The most interesting thing, I think, is that not a single one of them can be wrapped. Continue reading →

Throw Out 2018’s Trash

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Welcome to the end of another year (or close to it). As we approach the New Year, lots of people are focused on the resolutions and changes they want to make. Folks think about what they are unhappy with or set new goals. It’s a great time of year for new beginnings (although ANY time of year is a great time for a new beginning). That recognized, how many of us take a look at why we want to change what we want to change and take the necessary steps to remove some of the negativity from our day and our lives? Continue reading →

The Complete Armory

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Recently my son was home on an extended weekend after a deployment with the Marine Corps and we got into a discussion about what guns we’d like to have in our home armory. The discussion soon evolved to be more about what someone SHOULD have versus what they WANT to have. This bore further examination and, because it’s easier to keep track of lists on paper, I soon found myself writing out a list of weapons we felt were necessary. Bear in mind, this isn’t a “soldier” list, or a “cop” list; in our minds, this is an American Citizen list. Continue reading →

9mm vs .45ACP: Really? Again?

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Yes, again. Amongst avid handgun fans the debate between big and slow versus small and fast stretches back over a hundred years now I’d guess. 2011 marked the 100 year anniversary of the Government Model 1911 .45ACP having been adopted by the U.S. Military (even though it existed in 1904) and the 9mm is even older than that. What makes the debate relatively new (and hopefully interesting) is the addition of what I call “compromise calibers”. There are a couple in between the maximum ends of the debate and recently that has been thrust into my consideration almost against my will. Continue reading →