Carl Setzer

Do the best you can Live a life you are proud of And have no regrets

"All Our Dreams Can Come True, If We Have The Courage To Pursue Them." ~Walt Disney Finding and keeping this kind of courage is challenging at best. So much in life seeks to suck that out, to bring us down and drain our dreams into dust. Pursuing our dreams is often more work than surviving, but it's far more rewarding, giving life and energy.  May you find and nurture that inspires and invigorates you. 

This day now ending Flurry of mental scatter Now, tranquility

Spring has now arrived Blossoms are now bursting forth Change can bring delights May the new life of spring bring you joy and delight my friends!

What is my direction? I'm pulled so many ways? Is that bad? Or does that tension Make me bigger? I don't which is better For my soul I am challenged by "focus". When focused, other things must be ignored. Such a painful thing, to give up on interests. Yet I see that by diluting my focus, passions get sacrificed. I've searched for passion, just not very well. I'm pulled this way and that. Unsure which way is true. I've spent so much time eliminating risk that I've never truly considered passion, and how that can fit into career. I still have plenty of work to do. 

Just ten minutes more  As the clock keeps beckoning  The demands of life 

My mother died when I was 15. The impact lingers to this day. So this piece by Masaru Goto struck me deeply: “ …my mother died. I was with her. She is with me ” I love the intersection of poetry and photography. I want to explore that myself. A powerfully moving project.  

Summer's moving to fall Teachers brewing coffee Preparing classrooms My wife awake before me Coffee ground French press timed Classroom preparations Lesson planning and coordination So much effort this last week Before school starts Forget the thermometer This shows the season's change.

My most recent blog posts are over at Not Just Seattle . This Weekend: Camping at Camano Island State Park and an Edmonds Area Podcast: AquaCast Thanks for reading!

Seeking the outdoors Connect to the tree's wisdom Under summer's sky

Awake and moving Facing this day's morning light Drawing energy from coffee

Words are reflections, capturing the light reflecting off our lives.

My career has been rather unique. At least when compared to so many of my friends. It's been terribly linear. I've orbited around administrative/secretarial/office manager stuff. Orbited, and sometimes even held those titles. But it's not been a deliberate effort. Mostly, my employment has centered around taking advantage of opportunities. I generally consider the growth and development opportunities, long-term viability, and all that sort of stuff. Ironically, once I tend to be in a role, I generally settle in. Not sure that's the best way to live, but that's what tends to happen. The universe rarely lets that happen. My main element of deliberation: family. That's what's been important to me. Now, both at Starbucks and at Microsoft, I didn't see how deeply that was. When I left Microsoft and decided I wanted to focus on eliminating my commute. I concentrated on Snohomish County, and was interviewing with Boeing before I was hired with C&K...

For most of my adult life, I've felt pulled to choose a specialty. And I've tried, dozens, maybe hundreds of times. As each time has resulted in failure, I realized, some time ago, that my varied and rich perspective is a valuable thing. Oddly, I never really considered my multi-faceted focus to be a good thing, just that good things had come from this. I admired the great work done by the specialists and really only saw myself supporting that work. Not that I had a creative and powerful perspective to add. However, after this TEDTalk, I see otherwise. Ms. Warnick talks of multipotentialites, people with a variety of interests and passions. These people work those into skills. Something richer than simply generalists supporting the more valuable specialists. People whose brains work like mine. And, most importantly (to me at least) that this is good. That we have a great deal to offer the world. Considering the multi-faceted issues that our world faces, we have a particularly...

I woke early, my brain rattling. My mind blaring away these negative scripts, negation of myself, my vision. All kinds of internal challenges to my dreams. Why am I so negative with myself, but positive with others? I notice this with others, too. This really puzzles me. I deeply value and encourage the talents of those around me. Why don't I do that to myself? Why do so many struggle with this? Then there are those who belittle everyone; the only way they can interact with others. I think these may have common roots. Perhaps it's easier to negate everything than to seek the positive within oneself. Which really is sad. Sadly funny how this miserable malaise takes hold. This drags us back, sucking so much potential out of life. Oh, these wretched internal scripts!

Happiness and satisfaction are not static, but constantly evolving. I need to kept growing. The shinyness fades over time, needing continuous refreshment.

I find it far too easy to give in to rage. Focusing on difference, allowing frustration to overwhelm tolerance, these smooth the path towards anger, if not rage. Our culture elevates this sensibility, and it's hard to break free. Every direction, seemingly, comes laden with outrage. Escaping this requires a deliberate effort. I continue to create positive energy streams into my mind. Seek out affirming stories about good being done. One irony: what I see as good someone else will see as outrageous, unacceptable. As much as I might try to live a life of inclusivity, there are bounds. So, I accept that not all will going willingly towards the better place I envision. I continue this endeavor, though. Focusing upon the good being done, knowing what is focused on expands. And purging as much outrage provocation from life works the other way; unfocusing on things causes them to contract. Building positive energy in my life had always felt better; a much better way to live.

Thinking recently about Steven Covey's notion of focusing in your sphere of influence. Work where you are, that's how I internalize this. I've long thought of this simply in terms of effectiveness. Actually, this is far deeper. What's critical always lies within this sphere. One must complete the critical, our all else fails. We must hold our attention within. By managing within ourselves, the inner elements of our lives, other pieces come into play. When the core gets neglected, there is either fear of impending collapse, or the consequences of such collapse. Breaking free requires focus on the deepest, richest inner, most critical elements. Only upon mastering these, can other pieces of life become richer, deeper.

Holding yourself to a high standard and beating yourself mercilessly for not being perfect reflect two sides of a singularity. But they are not the same. One's the path towards self-destruction and one leads to a vibrant and vigorous life. Focus on self-care and maintaining realistic expectations, and the rest will naturally fall into place .

Impatience destroys quality; Feeds the tyrrany of the "NOW", Raging inferno of immediate perfection. Devaluing mastery's glorious gifts. Quality bears manifold delights Ones lost upon our gone-in-a-blink minds. We've lost something powerful, Traded for empty consumer shells. The sculptor's calloused hands Have no short-cut. Each nick, Wear, rub of creation, crafting Builds knowledge, deepest skills. Mastery: quality can't be bought It must be earned with each step, Journeying: critical. Motions, Thousands, in summation: gestalt.