A.S.K.

Attitude is where it starts, and the needed attitude is already present.  And if it’s not, decide it to be.

This practice is a Skill, and from it – KNOWLEDGE.  You learn.  Even in the face of negative forces.

Whatever you’re going through.  You could be in a hostile work environment, or some other tension, divorce, whatever.  Nothing can eclipse the say you have over your Attitude.

Today, I had to talk myself into running.  And, I got out.  6.3-something miles and a decent pace, the whole time writing and thinking about how we so many times talk ourselves out of progress, away from attainable Heights.

Don’t ask it of yourself.  Demand it.  Decide it.

TAKE.IT.

Friend of mine in a divorce, STILL, after nearly five fucking years and he decided, enough.  No more energy goes to that.  Yes, THAT.  Not ‘them’, but that.

That energy and negativity, bitterness, the cancer they represent.  He didn’t ask himself to think differently, he just decided to.  This act became a practice, a sharp and applicable skill.

And he learned.  About himself.  About people like that.  This friend now feels a freedom that he can’t even describe, but he knows it’s there.  And he continues to learn from it.

Cooling down after the run, I find myself stuck on one of my projects.  So I stop, no longer see it as a stall or being stuck, but an opportunity to collect, be at the drawing board and scribble.

Learn from the still, the inactive moment – collect, reflect, nothing to which I can object.  Everything is where it need be, and NO ONE can introduce any contaminant.

My friend and today’s run, remind me to ASK myself for more, and sometimes yes demand it.  Just bring it about, order its material state.  What some might call “manifesting”.  I don’t, but some do.

Today’s Attitude, deciding these new tools and skills, and from there the Knowledge in the room’s universe expands and sings with me, trying here at the desk.  Like my friend at the end of his divorce, free and fearless and with new identity.

One built, not borrowed.

There’s a quiet power realizing you don’t need permission to elevate your state.  You don’t need agreement, validation, or even understanding from the negatives.  

When you decide your attitude, solidify the skill, and extract the knowledge—you become self-sustaining.  Leverage, and advantage.  Those negatives no longer have voice, and certainly not significance.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth for the other side of that divorce, my friend realized…  THEY CAN’T WIN.

Not in any meaningful, lasting way.  Because this isn’t a contest of circumstance, it’s a difference in capacity. 

If someone isn’t capable of that level of reflection, of separating emotion from identity, of choosing growth over grievance—they’re locked into repetition.  Same reactions, same outcomes.  Same fucking idiocy.

You, on the other hand, evolve.  You adapted.  You moved on, and, yes, won.

So while they circle the same drain, you’re building range.  And over time, any gaps become permanent.  Not because you defeated them—but because you outgrew the entire framework.