Stories - FD Thornton

As some of you may know I have a small consulting business I operate from a home office. This allows me to keep my overhead down and saves me a great deal of commuting time, along with giving me the option of controlling distractions that can occur. That said, each morning while most of my neighbors are commuting to their jobs. I have time to sit on my porch and quietly enjoy the natural surroundings, while having my coffee and putting together my day.  This morning while having my first cup, I wondered about a program I've been watching the past few weeks. The program was the mini-series Cosmos that's currently running on Fox. Two weeks ago it was discussing evolution, now rather you believe in that or not isn't the point of this post. What is the point is how through DNA research it has been discovered that all life on earth and throughout the cosmos are intertwined. That through DNA study we've learned each species on our planet share various makers and that only ...

You know, to most everyone that knows me I usually present myself as being pretty positive. In public, I try and leave people with a positive or kind word. That usually leaves most with the impression Am a positive person. Now while that maybe true for me outwardly, the person within is mostly a troubled soul.  While many of you may feel the same way, I hope that a good number of you keep that mindset in check. But for myself, a lot of times this truth doesn't hold true. You see for many years I have allowed that voice that lies deep inside each of us to rear it's ugly head. That voice that doesn't speak in affirming tones, but that voice that presents all the self-doubt and self-criticism many hold deep within.  Some think of these voices as being an outside force that comes to steal and destroy . I've come to realize that while outside influences can contribute. For the most part these voices of self-doubt were usually our own.  So you may ask, "how do y...

Those most important to me can tell you, one of my most interesting character flaws is that I'm bored easily. Now this maybe because I'm lazy or maybe a poor planner, still I have a tendency to run from one project to the next, when the challenge is gone.  Like I said, for some this is a major flaw in the system, b ut after sitting here I started thinking it, maybe boredom can be an asset.  I say this because for me boredom means something has lost it's spark or challenge. For some twisted reason, I seem to thrive on learning new things. While many enjoy drama or comedy for entertainment, I find myself drawn to documentaries or science programs. Even while taking a break from school after several back to back classes, within a few days I'll get bored .  So for some while complacency can be a good thing, if there wasn't those of us that get bored. We'd never have new music or art or new ideas about who we are. While complacency has it's plac...

Have you ever been intensely working on a project or task and something or someone comes along that totally takes you off course. I'm pretty sure that's happened to each and every one of us at some point. Along those same lines, how do you handle a situation like that on a larger scale. When a distraction or roadblock causes you to loss focus on bigger plans, like on a career or educational goal? Here I'm not talking about the minor bumps in the road we all experience. What I'm speaking of are the life changing situations that can occur, how do you re-focus from that? Recently, I had one of those life changing events. That has caused me to re-think a lot about the direction I'm going, and where I really want to head in life. I wouldn't call this a mid-life thing, it feels like more than that. It revolves around many areas in my life standard, not just my career or education, but also my health and quality of living. As I've grown older certain things ...

Over the weekend I read an online article about the increasing suicide rates in South Korea. What I read was that the suicides were not focused to just one group like young people. But is considered an opinion across a number of age and social groups. It seems that the two main reasons for the increase in suicides were, not meeting financial obligates and failure to achieve set goals.  While for many years suicide has been higher in far eastern countries. I as a person of Western upbringing, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around taking ones life due the failure. Even though, does two things are more than likely major reasons people take their lives here in the West.  Maybe the thing is that there are so many books, lectures, and seminars here on the subject of picking ones self up. That I find it hard to consider death an opinion. Or it could be the belief system I was raised with that measures life beyond the physical. Either way, what a sad mindset it mos...

Have you ever been told, you have potential? You know, by a manager who maybe giving an evaluation or maybe a teacher who thinks you could do better on test. I for one, have been told I have potential by more people than I care to count. So I guess the thing is, how should one take such review? Honestly, I am not one for criticism. I have never liked being criticized, although I have on many an occasion.  It should be noted that most of the criticism directed at me has come from me. Which may be why when others do it, it cast such a dark shadow, because it only reinforces the feelings I have within myself. The point I'm loosely steering to isn't not to give constructive criticism to others. But for us to look inward at what makes us create such a poor image of ourselves.  There are so many factors that contribute to low self-image. So many that I can think of, that have driven me down the paths I ride on. That even today, derail much of the potential ma...

Over my work career ( which has been longer than I care to count ). I held jobs that were a bit mundane, and I've had jobs that require a bit of a positive attitude to be successful. If you have read my blogs before, then you know the subject of keeping focused and your eye on the true prize has come up a lot. That said, today I was thinking about the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and what if you don't. Like I said, a good portion of my work career I was involved in work that requires a great amount of self-motivation. These were mostly jobs that required me to depend on myself to seek business and to maintain my focus to get the job done. Needless to say, while I believe I had the personality and intelligence to perform those task. It was in the areas of self confidence and believing in my self worth that robbed me of real success.  After all those tries and failures, you would think I'd go back to the safety of the mundane. Well, for many years ...

As a note, this was originally posted in a private blog on my Phoenix Connect page, that can only be assessed by students and alumni of UoP. But I thought it was worth reblogging here for a wider audience. It's about keeping yourself motivated in an online setting. Considering how much many of us spend doing just that at work, I thought some here would find it interesting.   Looking back, it's kinda sad and shameful on my part to not have posted on this blog for 5 months. This was the first blog I posted to, and is what got me motivated to start working my other two blogs and website. I guess when we let it, we can get distracted and take for granted our first loves. Which is what was crossing my mind when thinking back on my educational history. I started my journey what UoP back in October 2008, wow, that's been nearly 6 years now. To look at my educational journey, some things haven't changed much on the surface. I'm still me, still a bit overweight, sti...

For the last few post I have written about a health issue that has sidelined me for a few weeks. So while I have been sidelined I have taken this as an opportunity to reassess some of the priorities in my life. First and foremost was placing my personal health at a higher priority in my life. Second, has been to look back at the myself and doing a little house cleaning and reorganizing of what was important to myself.  At this point in my life, my family (which is important) is taking on a different role in my priorities, simple because our children really aren't children at this point. They have either completed college or are finishing college and are leading lives of their own. This has left my wife and I with the task of more or less looking after ourselves.  While some have difficulty with this point of their lives, we have managed to make peace with it now and look forward to what we are doing next in this phase of our lives. This in turn, along with m...

On a number of occasions I've wrote about seeking peace of mind over the pursuit of material things. But realistically, we all gotta' eat. So for me to say, believe in love over gold maybe a misstep. Maybe what I should say is, make love and happiness the priority, not just gold . Because all of us have human needs and responsibilities to meet, but to make those needs the sole  aim in life is simply selling yourself short.  Each of us has an idea of what we believe success is, for me it was to be secure and provide for my family. But in a way that limited me, it placed a blinder in front of me that if I wasn't meeting certain goals, I was failing. As time has progressed, my worth has become deeper than that, because as I have observed, my family sees me as more than just a provider. Do you see where I'm coming from?  At the moment for me, being successful is to be loved and appreciated for your efforts, not just for what you have provided. Bes...