What Addiction Promises

What addiction promises. Your life in chaos is just the foundation.

Below is my Podcast about addiction and the longterm wreckage it causes. Good news for anyone suffering there is a way out of the horror. You can find peace and renewed hope.

addiction, alcoholism, party lifestyle

 

Give a listen: https://anchor.fm/robert-bruton

 

 

Plan B Hell NO

This is a quick look at the first chapter of my book, Plan B Hell NO. Of all my books I love this one for many reasons.

Shatter your Plan B and give way to success! 

Chapter 1

Learning the Difference

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”—Nelson Mandela

We are going to cover some perspectives that if you lean the difference between these ideologies, you will learn the first steps in unwavering faith.

You must change your mindset of lack in this first set of ideas that cause doubt. We don’t have the right resources. Learn when thinking of what you can do, say to yourself, “we just burned the boats now what?”

What to learn before you throw plan-b out:

  • Activity vs. Productivity acquire the difference!
  • Resources vs. Resourcefulness.
  • Failure, delays, obstacles, on the other side, is your success.
  • Unwavering faith!
  • Visualize, see yourself already having achieved your goal.
  • Gratitude is grateful where you are now and thankful for what is coming.

Learn to master these few things, and you will rocket ship your success.

First set: Resources vs. Resourcefulness

Where most folks fail in endeavors is their belief of a lack of resources. “I don’t have this; I don’t have that.” Ultimately, nothing begins, or they don’t finish what they started because they sold themselves on the fact “I don’t have.”

Here is what is lacking. Resourcefulness! It’s not a lack of resources; it’s a lack of ingenuity that causes you to fail. Some of the most beautiful photography does not get shot from a $10,000 camera but a $100 point-and-shoot or a smartphone. It’s not the gear; it’s the eye of the photographer. Take a look at what some of the top YouTube channels shoot with; most will tell you they started with a phone or a point-and-shoot.

We are learning to plan and execute with precision. Meaning, we learn to organize yourself for production. Days are about the output from hour-to-hour. We’re going to get into this later in the book.

So how do we learn to be resourceful?

  1. The most obvious is research. Learn everything there is to know about what you want to begin. Your knowledge needs to be you are the news organization’s first call when they need a professional opinion. The what you do does not matter, the knowledge base you have is unmatched.
  2. Learn to make do with what you have temporarily. If you need a tool to perform your job but do not own one, can you rent, borrow, a joint venture with someone who does. For example, I am a photographer, when I need a camera Lens, I rent it. If offered a job that requires a lens that might cost me tens of thousands of dollars to purchase, I rent it!
  3. I currently have a full-time job. I don’t have time. Can you get up an hour early? Give one hour a day every day, and at the end of the year, you’ve invested 365 hours to your new endeavor. If you’re more inclined to succeed get up at 4:00 AM. You would be in good company, Bill Gates is up, Dewayne “The Rock” Johnson is up, and so is Warren Buffet.
  4. Can you swap for things? If someone has something, you need to see if they’re willing to accept another form of payment from you. It’s a long shot, but long shots win at the track every day! You dare to ask for what you need.
  5. Bend the rules of any situation. BEND NOT BREAK. Bend rules to accomplish. We never bend the rules to destruct or harm. Ever! Think outside the normal.
  6. Learn to play several hands. Double down when you can. Never rely on one solution when others may work as well.
  7. Communicate with potential clients, vendors, or angel help. Learn to voice yourself to get what you need. You will be amazed at how many good-hearted people are out there if you present yourself well.

When you think about resourcefulness, think about people who have defied all odds to achieve.  We’ve all heard of or seen Escape from Alcatraz. Arguably a prison that should be escape-proof but turned out not to be.

We’ve all heard stories of cancer recovery; you’ll never walk again, obstacles placed before folks that didn’t listen. They defied the odds and overcame incredible adversity. Where there is a will, there is a way. Pardon the cliché, but it’s true.

Resourceful people also have patience. Where many fail is, they get frustrated because change is not immediate. Resources may be moving around with the help of the Universe to align themselves with you.

I told this story in a Podcast. Think about patience this way. Say you want a job, not just any job but your dream job. You pray about it, visualize it and know you can do it. You start losing faith, so much so eventually you give up. What you did not see was that your dream job that could have been yours currently occupied by someone that had you waited just a bit longer would have been available because that person retired. God was going to steer you to this job after a deserving person was able to retire with a bang. They earned that for years of service.

God was letting someone retire with the fanfare they richly earned, and he was going to put you in it because you stayed in faith, you made it. You got frustrated and moved on. How stupid do you think you would feel if you had this knowledge after you lost the opportunity?

Opportunity can come quickly, or slowly. If your faith stays true to the course, you’re on, when the knock-on opportunities door comes it will be more than we ever imagined. Imagine the wisdom you might have received from the person exiting your dream job. What did you miss because you could not be patient?

At this point, some of you may be saying, “but I’m not that clever.” Everyone can be clever. Here are some ways you can learn to quiet your mind. When you do this, it’s incredible how much your thoughts will begin to serve you instead of stress you.

  • Meditation is fantastic, and anyone can do it. What this practice allows you to do is to slow your mind down. Declutters your head so you can organize your thoughts and be receptive to receive new ideas.

If you want to learn to be more resourceful, learn to meditate so your mind can clear a pathway to new thoughts.

If life is not set too well right now, meditation can help you find peace. Living in your mind will cause us to live in fear, pain, and anxiety. Our thoughts wander off into the abyss of negativity.

Meditate to get in touch with your soul. When we live from the soul, all things are possible. During meditation practice aligning with God, the divine source will release your energy. Bring into our lives joy, happiness, and oneness with the universe where real peace can live.

Connecting with Devine Energy:

As part of healthy meditation practice, we can cleanse our bodies of toxic, life-draining anxiety. We can see what our deepest desires for health, family, relationships, all in our minds. When you believe in your soul, that’s when things begin to materialize.

It’s a simple process. Find some meditative music. Use headphones if possible. You can find lots of meditation music on YouTube®. Find a relaxing position; I like to lay down on my bed flat. Breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth. Deep cleansing breaths relax!

As you begin your meditation, don’t worry if your mind moves in thought. It will take some time for you to get to a point in your meditation practice that you can control your thoughts. It’s ok.

Begin to connect with God, ask him to come into your life, and only pray to him. Release your cares to him. Then show him through your mind, see yourself receiving blessings, see yourself in the state that you want to be. Visualize in your mind, your deepest desires and then tell God how grateful you are.

There is a reason it is called a meditation practice. It will take a bit of time for the mind to clear trash thoughts. It’s ok. Continue this practice daily. Several times a day if you have the time. For sure, before bedtime.

Connecting to Devine source will open your life to wonderous new blessings and peace.

If you want to be resourceful, learn to open your mind, declutter your head so you can find new ways to achieve your goals.

Second set: Activity vs. Productivity

Massive in changing anything about your life. So many people tell me they don’t have time. They can’t fit another thing in their day. My short answer, “you don’t know how to manage your time.” I usually get a lot of expletives shouted at me. Hear me out before you hit the refund button.

You will need to indulge me in an activity. First, get two pages of a daily calendar that starts and ends with your work times. You need a daily view that breaks up the day hour-by-hour. Then what I want you to do is HONESTLY write down what you do for two days literally by the hour.

Yes, you can do it, and yes, it’s a pain in the ass. How bad do you want to change?

Chronicle your day, I mean from bathroom breaks to screwing around on social media. Chin-wagging with friends, talking on the phone, you get the idea. Be honest; this is not a test but will be an ah-ha moment. “Holy crap, I waste a lot of time.”

We can find you somewhere close to 20 hours per week. I promise you will be amazed.

So, this is what activity will look like now let’s talk about what productivity looks like — time-sensitive projects, client fires, things that are typically out of your control but do take time. Of course, we must adjust for issues as they arise. The point to all this is once we get distracted, we immediately get back on task.

What a day looks like filled with production:

  1. Set times that you can do routine daily tasks. For example, email. Can you make two times a day for email? Morning and afternoon. Daily try and identify how much time you spend on email. Most emails can wait for a time.
  2. Give each function of your day a set time to start and complete. Never leave a task incomplete for the day if you can finish.
  3. Learn to keep distractions to a minimum. Let friends and family know that if possible, call you at designated times.
  4. Social media is a killer of time. It boils down to is looking at what your sister-in-law cooked for dinner or is a success your passion? Also, keeping up with friends during the day, why waste productive time? Social media eats time with NO benefit to your success.
  5. You have 24 hours in a day, you need 6 hours of sleep, leaving you 18 hours! Now tell me you don’t have time! Get organized with time. Time is a friend or foe.

Invest time for yourself. Imagine after a year of one hour a day; now, you have 365 hours invested in your freedom. Knowledge is freedom.

Change your perspective about sacrifice. If you feel you must sacrifice anything, you’re in the wrong mode. If you think you must surrender to realize a dream you have. Ask yourself why?

What you put into a thing, for example; getting up earlier to begin your day. Some would say this is a sacrifice. NO!

Anything you do to further your life is an investment, not a sacrifice. Learn to invest in your success. Everything you do that facilitates your life experience is an investment that yields a net result.

It’s not a bloody sacrifice to have a happy life. You don’t have to give up anything to have a happy life. You gave up an hour of sleep to further your life and that somehow realistically is a sacrifice?

Look at actions you’re engaged in that you feel is a sacrifice. Then HONESTLY ask yourself why you feel that way. My guess is you’re not adequately managing your time. Don’t get pissed. We all suck at managing time. Activity vs. Productivity!

Visualize what you want. Not just about material things.

  • Happy
  • Relationship
  • Body
  • Mind
  • Soul
  • Work
  • Home

See where we’re galloping off to here? It’s an all-encompassing visualization of our life. See the life you want to have. We do this in our mind’s eye.

The best time I have found to do this is during my meditation practice. Follow these simple steps:

  1. Have a place where you can quiet your mind without interruption.
  2. I find it easier to de-clutter my mind with soft meditation music or outdoor sounds like crickets, ocean, rain, this type of sounds are soothing.
  3. Begin to see with eyes closed focus your mind on what you desire to see change. See yourself happy, in a happy relationship, new job, new body, focus until you smile. Stay in that state-of-mind for as long as you’re comfortable.
  4. Do this practice at least once per day.
  5. When you begin to believe it, the Universe will start to manifest your dreams.
  6. Have patience and gratitude. Lock in your faith!

Gratitude for where you are, what you have today lets the Universe know you’re available to receive blessings. Demonstrate your true faithfulness in this life. Then learn to be grateful for what is coming, what you can’t see but desire to be a part of your life.

Be happy where you are and for what is coming, and miracles will abound.

Focus on Gratitude every day. Take moments out of your day to thank God for what you have and what you cannot see. Give praise for the life you have.

Click Here to Check out the Entire Book available at Amazon

book, ebook, read

Can You Find Silence

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”–Mother Thresa 

For the longest time at the beginning of my faith. The silence was not comfortable to achieve. What we mean by silence is the wheels that are spinning in our heads. Relaxing on any level is a challenge.

Finding silence will have peaceful results in your life. Learning to not freak out over daily challenges, not letting the traffic jam ruin your day. What is your joy worth?

Think about that question for a moment. What is your joy worth?

Is losing your joy worth:

  • Traffic Jam?
  • A line at the Grocery?
  • Poor Service?
  • Someone else having a bad day, spills over on you?
  • Financial Issues? (always remember temporary)

You see the point here. We all become susceptible to losing our joy for reasons that are either out of our control, brief, or only not worth the aggravation we bring upon ourselves.

It’s too easy getting caught up in silliness that steals our joy. Seriously, getting pissed because someone cuts us off at the exit. It could be that God moved you from harm’s way. Life happens for a reason. Instead of flipping the poor soul off that cut you off, maybe the purpose was to save you. Unbeknownst to any of the folks involved!

You never know what turn life throws at you that is actually saving your fanny. It may not look like it at the time.

How does standing in line at the grocery because they’re short-staffed. How about listening to an uplifting Podcast while waiting? Or you can be grumpy and ruin your day. What you choose is a choice.

Make the most out of time. Caught in traffic, let us say. Crank up some music that gets your heart pumping. Again listen to a good podcast. Choose to do something fun instead of being grumpy. Life is a choice of happy or sad.

self improvement, self help, happy

Learning to allow life to just roll of our shoulders. Don’t hold on to the lousy luggage. Let that luggage get lost at the airport. Hanging onto negativity begets negativity. Letting someone steal your joy over something stupid, well, you do the math.

My joy is no longer for sale to jerks, grumpy bosses, lousy service, or the like. Don’t let someone else miserable day ruin yours!

So how do we find silence? 

  1. Meditation, learn to sit in quiet reflection. I use rain and ocean sounds using headphones. Close your eyes and breathe through your nose, out of the mouth. Silence phone!!!
  2. Prayer. Find times to pray. Let God know what you need. Just have a good conversation. 

These two simple acts can change your life. We find answers in the silence. Allow God to flow through you when you’re quiet. This is where you hear God speak to you!

 

Quit, No Not Today

Get out of your head quitting is an option for anything other than bad habits. What this article will help with is not stopping the good stuff just because it seems too hard. It’s only hard because your brain is telling you that it is, just like it would when running a Marathon and you hit the wall.

Most of us know that Marathon runners hit what’s called “The Wall” where your brain starts telling you that “you can’t go more, you’re hurt,” “your body can’t take more.” When in fact studies show none of that to be true. Pushing through this is how you finish the race.

The brain will develop over years of conditioning run from the first sign of pain. Your mind will tell you “no, don’t do more,” this is futile. The natural response is to move you away from pain. When in fact it’s just like training. When you go to the gym for the first time and work out hard with that comes to suffering from not having worked out in a very long time.

God, hope, prayer

The soreness from working out hard can be extreme. The same principle applies to retrain the brain that you are okay. It will hurt, your mind will tell you that what you’re trying is impossible. It is not, nothing could be further from the truth.

Many times, throughout this last year, I have wanted to give up. I kept saying to God, “I’m not losing anymore.” Over-and-over again I would say those words. Frustrated, I kept moving forward even when I saw absolutely no reason to keep going when you dig in and maintain forward momentum.

Just like working out, the soreness goes away with time. It’s not easy, but it does get better, and you become wiser.

God is like a coach when you feel as though you can’t go on, keep moving. When you show God, you can handle where you are; the blessings will come in abundance. Just stay in faith that even though you cannot see a way, a way is being made!

Not being able to predict the future frustrates us all. Having faith when you cannot see what is ahead, or your brain is telling you disaster. For most, this is where they crumble. The difference in winning and losing can be just taking one more step.

If you get knocked down, get up! Look for ways to improvise, adapt, and overcome your situation. More than one way to finish anything! Just because you chose a wrong path does not mean you can’t find the right one. If you quit, you never will.

Fight or flight will always kick in when you need it not too. Fight, stay in the game, and work your way through.

Here are some activities you can do to help:

  • Learn to quiet your mind.
  • Take times during your day for sixty seconds to breathe.
  • Walk, get rid of stress and tension in your body. Make it easier to focus.
  • Listen to some music that gets you pumped up — changing your state-of-mind.
  • Listen to an uplifting Podcast.
  • Watch a video about motivation, success, self-improvement.
  • Your home’s appearance is in direct tune with your head. You have cluttered house cluttered mind clean the house! Same goes for your workspace.
  • Get to Church. Spiritual mind in tune. Life changing.

Running, sure you can choose the flight and give up. That’s a choice, not a directive.

Begin right now; do something that moves your life forward. Don’t make an excuse!

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Glitzy a Film Star well for a Minute

Everyone who reads me listens to my podcast or watches me on YouTube knows that my dog Glitzy is a considerable part of my life. So let me share with you a funny story about how Glitzy got her start in documentary filmmaking.

She even has her own page on my website: My Dog Glitzy

A few years ago, and I remember this like it were yesterday. It was enjoying a rare day off. Working retail never allows days off very often. So I took Glitzy with me she loves to ride in the car.

One of Glitzy’s greatest thrills in her life was going to the beach and chasing sea birds. Keep in mind Glitzy is half Chijuajua and half Pomeranian. So we’re in no danger of her ever catching a bird. When you ask Glitzy, “do you want to go chase your birds?” –oh my she goes nuts.

We left the house a little early to pick up my wife at the time. As we drove, I decided to stop at the bird sanctuary; it was early, and I am just enjoying my day. So we find a place to park, my mind is relaxed and enjoying the day.

As Glitzy and I were making our way down the boardwalk enjoying the stroll I was carrying her. She wiggled signaling for me to let her down. We were alone on the sidewalk, so I put her down.

Letting Glitzy down I continued down the boardwalk. In moments after putting her down, I remember hearing her nails on her feet making a clicking noise on the boards, and then it stopped. As I looked back, Glitzy was running then jumps off the boardwalk.

Looking in all directions, I finally see her racing off like a bullet. Mind you Glitzy stays with Daddy very well except for one thing sea birds. Keep in mind we’re at a bird sanctuary.

So just about the time I’m getting ready to call out to her, the whole place was empty. Glitzy looked like Carl Lewis running the 100 meters. I see this massive flock of sea birds on the beach.

Then you hear it. “What the Fu*&, cut, cut, damn-it, cut!” Dozens of people appear out from bird blinds. Some with cameras and one overly excited director. Two very forboding Texas Game Wardens. It gets worse. That day they’re shooting a documentary film about the birds Glitzy just scattered.

So I’m getting ready to jump off the boardwalk to get Glitzy and the Game Warden screams at me to stop, they will get the dog. So now you have these two Game Wardens chasing Glitzy while a cameraman who is laughing his ass off filming these officers chase this little bitty dog.

Oh and by the way Glitzy scattered the sea birds and is now barking at the Game Wardens. This too also gets worse, they’re a rare bird that had not come there for years. Hence the film crew.

Our story continues the game warden finally catches Glitzy and brings her to me. With a very stern, “You are aware of leash laws?” Can I see your identification have a seat on the bench with your dog! Oh shit!

As the film crew comes over and begins to play and hold Glitzy and laughing at the irony of the whole ordeal. The camera guy starts to playback the Game Wardens chasing Glitzy and everyone is laughing so hard, even the two officers were very cool about everyone joking with them.

The main camera guy begins to playback his film calls everyone over he too is laughing his ass off. Imagine the movie rolling these majestic sea birds chilling on the beach, nature at its finest. To all of a sudden see this little bitty bullet of a dog enter the screen and begin to chase these bird’s tail wagging and barking away.

The gasps of people the more than one saying “what the fu&* is that” and well you heard the rest earlier in the story. Back to a Game Warden who tells me not sure what to do with us right now.

I did explain that Glitzy enjoyed running on the beach chasing birds. That honestly I was daydreaming and never gave a second thought to letting her down to walk with me. Forgetting that I was at the bird sanctuary, hello.

So the main science folks came over and told the game warden they were not too worried about the birds coming back. That in nature, it could have just as quickly been a Coyote running after them as it was Glitzy.

Glitzy and I narrowly escaped incarceration. We did get a pretty stern warning about the dog being on a leash, however. Lesson learned no doubt.

If everyone could just get back to there positions per the director, once the birds saw it was safe to come back to the beach, they would naturally return. That was just what happened an hour or so later.

Sadly Glitzy’s film debut was short-lived and found herself on the cutting room floor. C’est la vie!

Glitzy, pet, Dog

Glitzy Obeying the Leash Law