I would not presume to speak for something that can speak for itself.

Is it true that happy is a matter of personal choice most of the time? I think it may actually be just that. But you get to decide. -- Even if happy does not interest you, skip ahead about three minutes. The music is worth a listen even without the happy stuff.

You may assume that frustrating people generally and jerks specifically are born to the role. Not true. It requires careful attention and endless practice to frustrate consistently and effectively. It is actually a skill set that most of us cannot hope to perfect. Please join me with the 101 lecture directly from jerk school. If you aspire to frustrate, this is where to start.

You can usually put things off until they no longer matter. If you doubt, press play to listen.

This blind thing is a lot of things but not all that complicated. First, it’s a condition that ranges from mild to severe, just like most conditions. Wherever we are on that continuum, it’s likely to get worse, at least until our condition is severe. That be as it may, there is not much we can do about it other than to whine. – Never under estimate the real value in whining. Our condition won’t change but whining can help us cope. Second, blind and blindness are also variables. The condition may be static or getting worse, but how we experience them is far from static. For example, I am on average about 5% blind. Sometimes I am nearly 0% blind and once in a while virtually 100% blind. So, what accounts for the variability? Not the condition for sure. It is what it is and isn’t changing since the lights are permanently off for me. Here’s the deal. When I am in my house, sitting in my chair, listening to my music on my sound system, I am 0% blind. The condition has no effect and represents no limitation. Alternatively, a while back, I needed to get my State ID renewed. I got an Uber and headed off to the ID updater. The Uber arrived and I got out, already talking with an Aira agent to help me inside and with finding the ID updater. Still maybe only 20% blind. But, and there are those buts. Just as soon as I walked inside and had taken less than a dozen steps, the cell signal dropped. At that moment, I was nearly 100% blind. I didn’t even know how to get back outside. I did manage to recover from that very dark place with the help of a passer-by, but for a few minutes, it was pretty grim. I could tell you a thousand stories about “Just how blind am I right now,” but I suspect you get the point. Yes, blind is a condition, but more importantly, it’s a variable. What matters most is how blind I am right now. FYI, I am sitting at my desk, typing on my computer using my copy of JAWS and am about 2% blind right now. Here’s the challenge. Whether blind since birth or new to blindness, and whether the condition is mild or severe, the real issue is not the condition. Rather, the real issue is how effectively we manage blind as a variable. I of course don’t know what your goals and expectations for you may be but do know that my goal is to do whatever I want to do, when and where I want to do it. My expectation for me is that I will develop and maintain the skills and determination needed to reach my goal. As part of that commitment to me, I will find the technology, services, resources, strategies, and advice that can increase my success. – Yes, it would often be much easier and safer to be content staying in my house, sitting in my chair, listening to my music on my sound system, but that simply doesn’t cut it for me, and I sincerely hope it does not cut it for you. May I invite you to join the 5% blind club? Remember that 5% is only an average. I was about ten when I learned that I can’t play baseball, with the bump on my head to punctuate the point. I can’t do everything I want to do, everywhere I want, as is true for everyone else, blind or not. We are all limited in one way or another. Even so, getting down to 5% blind on average works fine for me and will likely work for you too. Oh, I didn’t know that. You are too old, too lazy, too afraid, too impatient, too tired, and too sure you can’t do it to consider the 5% blind club. I’m reminded of my advisor in college when I was whining to her that college is just too hard. She told me that, with the possible exception of my mother, no one really cares one way or the other whether I graduate. She smiled and added that I would have to handle all of the caring for myself. That’s it. If you were expecting some magical advice or an easier way, you’re out of luck. Just know that your slot in the 5% blind club is there just waiting for you. I sincerely hope I see you there real soon.

Do you have the misfortune of having to deal with a know-it-all, the humility challenged, a certified screw-up? If so, a little sympathy is coming your way. These humility challenged experts on everything are out there, just itching to screw something up and then point the finger at you, as they creep away. -- Let's dip into this a little further.

Six for Sunday may sound like something special, but not this time. It's just a six-pack for everyday that happens to be posted on Sunday. Even so, I think you may find at least a couple of these little tidbits worth a minute or so for quick consideration.

Here's the thing. For those of us who cannot see, there are dozens of skills and strategies potentially available to us to do what we want to do, when we want to do whatever it is. For the sake of discussion, let's say there are seventy-two skills and strategies (Call them tools.) out there for any of us who goes to the time and bother to master them. Sure, there are way more than seventy-two, but since I can only handel quite a bit fewer than seventy-two, I'll stick with seventy-two. There is no point in totally overwhelming myself before I even get started with filling up my tool box. Just for starters, there are three tools that are already there for the taking; and we may not have even noticed that they are there for us. The cool thing is that these three tools are free and only require putting them into our tool box. They do have a down side though. Just like a tiny hammer won't do the job if we have a big nail, a weak tool won't serve us very well when we need it for a big job. But it does not need to be a super hammer. It needs to be just big enough to do the job. We also do not need to put a lot of extra tools into our tool box, just in case we need them some day. Instead, we can look down the road to figure out what tools we will need to do what we want to do as time goes on. Our job is to then make sure those tools are tucked into our tool box, just on time to do the job when that job needs done. -- You've got the idea: just enough tools there just on time to do what we want to do. One more thing about these three tools. Without them, the other sixty-nine tools potentially available to us are likely to be ineffective, likely not to get the job done for us, likely to never make it into our tool box. Keep in mind that this is a do-it-yourself tool box we are talking about. If you have others who will do all of the work for you and are yourself fine with that, an empty tool box is all you need. Otherwise, you need some tools in your tool box. Not all seventy-two, but some, starting with these three. Think of them as prerequisites to putting more tools in your tool box. Motivation: I know, it always gets down to motivation. If we want to, then we might; but if we do not want to, we probably won't. We do occasionally do things we do not want to do, but usually we don't. It is also that hammer thing again. Little wants require little motivation and big wants require big motivation. But how much motivation is required to do what we want to do? -- Just enough of course. Determination: A lot of us who cannot see have plenty of motivation to do what we want to do. It's determination that is in short supply. We are highly motivated to develop the tools required to do what we want to do. We just seem to never get around to reading that book, listening to that podcast, signing up for that class or talking to the right person. What's going on here? It is pretty easy. We are motivated to develop the skill or strategy we need; but motivation alone is not enough. We also have to be determined to do what we need to do. I suppose you may be saying, "Hey Gary, slow up there dude. What's this 'we' stuff? I'm motivated enough and as determined as most anyone else. I sure don't have a motivation problem or a determination problem for that matter. You are way off base if you think my lack of tools in my tool box is due to some limitation with me or my motivation and determination. It's way more complicated than that." Well, okay. I get it. You have special circumstances that are preventing you from getting better tools, and there is little to nothing you can personally do about that. It is just too complicated to work out, no matter how motivated or determined you are. Your take is that I just don't understand how difficult it is for you; and most likely, no one else understands either. Persistence: There is one more tool that all of us who cannot see need in our tool box.

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There are the regular fools among us. They neither know better nor do better. We tend to give those folks a pass, since they have no control over just how stupid they are at times. And there are the rest of us who don't have the excuse of being standard fools. We are just damn fools, yes all of us. We do our foolishness despite knowing better. We just don't do better. This is not a permanent condition unless we extend our foolishness beyond five minutes a day. Gary has the skinny on this universal fact of life.