Do the Next Thing

Well, it's the second half of the year and the height of summer!

Or one would think it is one day here in Oldham, but not the next!

Still, you got to make the most of each day as they are all like sand in an hourglass slipping through your fingers. We can state the need to make the most of every moment, but how many are actually doing it?

No, seriously.

How many conversations have you had with people who... just... seem... to be going nowhere in life? You know, they seem to be absent of ambition, of dreams for the future they want, and may even go as far as blaming everyone and everything around them for the reason they are like they are today.

But it doesn't have to be like that.

In fact, I'd argue that if it's like that today then, chances are, you're not doing enough to unfasten your eyes from off the present and onto future glories. It's easy to think that this is all there is if all there is becomes all you look at every day.

You need to dream bigger. Higher. Faster. Further. Longer.

I don't claim to have all the answers how to do this, just a conviction that if all I see today can be changed at any point by learning to focus on just one thing different then I'm going to do all I can do in order to find that one.

The law of nature is: Do the thing, and you shall have the power, but they who do not the thing have not the power. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

It all comes down to doing that next thing that will make that shift in perspective. Not the one after, or the one after.

The. Next. Thing.

If you want that change in your life, will you do what's necessary to have it?

As long as it's safe and legal do it, it's worth it, trust and believe that!

===TLP===

Off the Scale #81 - Any Other Name by Thomas Newman

Hello everyone!

Drawing the movie themes to a close it's back to Thomas Newman and this time American Beauty takes centre stage.

I've gone for a particular piece of music that's so soothing, so relaxing, it almost demands you stop what you're doing to consume it properly in my opinion.

Off the Scale #80 - Love Actually Suite by Craig Armstrong

 Hello everyone!

Well, we're 20 away from target now and it doesn't seem all that long since I started before I took the series on a hiatus.

Continuing in with movie themes, I've chosen one from a movie I could care less about, but the music on the other hand? This one has to get a special shout out...

Off the Scale #79 - For the Love of a Princess by James Horner

Hey everyone!

Onto the next in my mini-series within a series.

This time, it's the turn of the excellently scored movie Braveheart. I'm not wasting time on accuracies or inaccuracies of this movie because my series zooms in on the music that matters...

Off the Scale #78 - Road to Perdition Theme by Thomas Newman

Hello everyone!

We're back for another edition of Off the Scale and this time it's movies I'm paying a visit to. For the next few entries I'm going to be looking at some of my favourite themes.

I hope you can grow to appreciate them as much as I do...

Off the Scale #77 - Ma Vlast by Bedřich Smetana

 Hello everyone!

My, it's been a looong time since this series was last present on my blog!

I've been through a tough few years and have had multiple intentions to restart this series celebrating classical music in all shapes and sizes...

Then the pandemic hit and changed everything.

Then my dad got sick and changed everything.

Then my priorities changed, as my dad passed away, and I had to step back from blogging for a season.

But here I am, back once again in my journey to 100 episodes...

2023 Year End Review

 Hello everyone!

Rather belatedly, but as promised, here is my best of show for 2023. As always, the winners are not necessarily from content produced in 2023, just that it was consumed, by me, last year and made enough of an impression upon me to deserve a place on this list.

Here we go...

Life is Only What You Make of It

Hey everyone!

Two updates in a week? in two days?! Say what?!

My recent updates have been inspiring me to up my game because I have, admittedly, let it slide for long enough and there was only going to be so long that I was going to use grief as a reason little realising that the only way out is often through your circumstances. So if trying to write more is going to help elevate me even further then so be it, I'll commit the resources I can to do so.

I believe that life is only what you make of it so if you are living a life today that you are not happy with then you gotta ask yourself a question: -

What am I doing to change it? Am I doing anything? Or am I waiting for someone else to do something?

These questions, once answered, will help you paint a picture of the steps you need to take next. Never mind the bigger picture, oftentimes you only need focus on doing the next right thing to change your life...

Closer to Year End

Hey everyone!

Can you believe we're in the final quarter of the year? Already? I know for me it still feels like I'm running on an internal clock that still reads "summer" so I've been playing catch up this past few weeks trying to push my internal clock up-to-date again.

Such is the life walking through the grief journey, I suppose.

Today I want to talk about some of my goals for this blog in the run up to Christmas and beyond.

As always, in December will come my end of year review where I'll be celebrating all things entertainment that have impacted me this calendar year. The usual entries will feature from video games to movies and TV shows. Who knows, in years to come I may flip the script and create the antonym of my awards and celebrate some of the bad stuff too...

Beyond that, in the coming months heading into 2024 I'll be looking to officially restart my Off the Scale series in my illusive quest to one hundred. The book and film reviews will be continuing too.

Finishing the year strong is my only aim and that is why I'm trying to push to update my blog more frequently. Although that's only because I'm about to break  my post record for 2020, my only year-end target right now. I long for the days when I can get back to hitting three figures' worth of posts per year but that's the target in the long term.

Meantime -->> L.I.F.E. G.O.E.S. O.N.

Until next time...

Peace!

===TLP===

Grow, Then Continue Growing

Hey everyone!

Well, it's the first week after another birthday and I must say that, even though I feel like my home is in the valley just now, I can still see enough of the light to know that dawn is coming. The dawning of a new day of perspective shifting as I seek to follow Peter's advice when he instructed believers to continue their growth in Christ: -

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:18

This is a verse that has been repeatedly coming to mind at the moment as I remember that no valley experience is ever meant to be a permanent home for me; I am always meant to be transcending all circumstances to skate over the top of them. It doesn't mean I won't feel them, just that I am not meant to wallow in them so much that they end up becoming sinking sand to pull me under...