Does Weather Have an Effect on You?

Stoic Quote of the Week

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.?Your soul.

-Marcus Aurelius

What I learned this week:

Our minds are so powerful that most of the time, we don't even realize what is going on. We create a perception in our minds based on the conditions around us. Those conditions or the environment can positively or negatively affect how we feel and perceive things. I had a rugby player who was a great athlete and leader for our team. This young man was a powerhouse on the pitch until one game he wasn't. That day was one of those Colorado Spring storms. The morning started in the 40s, then climbed to the 50s by 11. We had a game kick-off at 1300, and between 11 and 1300, a snowstorm moved in, and the temps dropped to the low 20s with 15-20mph winds. This shouldn't have been an issue for the team because we practiced in this weather all season. Except for that day, in that hour, this young athlete let the conditions get in his mind, and he failed. He was so concerned about the cold that I pulled him out 5 min into the match. 20min later, after standing on the sidelined wrapped in a blanket, he came to me and asked, "What happened, coach? I'm ready to go back in." He allowed the conditions to set the tone in his mind, and his mind told him he could no longer survive, let alone perform in the cold. This is something that I teach all my clients as part of developing their self-awareness and mindfulness skills. I was reminded of this during a visit to VA. I had an appointment with my doctor at the VA clinic. All went well, and the conversation with the doctor was productive, with lots of referrals to come, ??. But what happened when I got up to leave reminded me of How we can allow the conditions to change how we feel. She was very empathetic, as every good doctor should be. As I was leaving the clinic, I noticed I was limping and not standing up straight and that, for some reason, going down the stairs was harder than I thought it should be. I had allowed the fact that I was in a clinic with sick and injured people around me to change how I felt. When I hit the exit and threw away my mask, I realized what was happening and changed my mindset. My leg isn't that bad; my back doesn't hurt that bad. I can stand up straight and stride out as I walk back to the truck. As you go through the week, be more aware of how you allow the environmental conditions around you to affect your actions. Remember, the effect that anything has on you is a choice you get to make. The mind is powerful enough to give you a choice. Choose wisely.

Planning thought of the week:

A big part of all the plans I worked on in the Army were the environmental conditions and how they can affect the operations. Everything from rain, snow, and wind to sunshine and moon phases. Weather will likely not have as big an impact on your plan as some of mine did. Whether it does or not, you should consider the environmental factors in your plan and how those conditions may affect the ability to achieve the end state.

Business idea I heard about or thought of:

Video editing continues to be a huge need as more and more content moves from the written word to video shorts of various kinds. Over the last several months, I've seen that the long video format is too long. People will look to see how long something is and immediately skip over it for something that is compressed to a minute or less. On our The Cam & Otis Show YouTube channel, we've seen an increase in views on our shorts. As we've surveyed other content creators' channels, we see the same thing. Many content creators take a full live video that may be five or even 20 minutes long and trim it to 1 minute or less. When you take out the "um's" and "ah's" and pauses to ponder the answer, you get that short, concise, hard-hitting sound bite that has become more and more popular. Someone has to do quite a bit of editing to get those shorts. Add in the fact that subtitles have become more and more popular, so the viewer can watch it at work without getting caught, ??. There is a lot of effort that goes into creating those shorts. That's where the video editor, who understands this, can grow their side gig to a full-time business.

Veteran opportunity of the week:

I love this summary article that the VA published this week. Best of 2022: Top Veteran Resources of the Year. Bookmark this one because it has links to everything from registering for the PACT Act to the new life insurance plan the VA is offering.

Someone I met this week:

I love running into and talking with "salt of the earth" folks. I was able to get in one more round of hunting to finish off my 2022 hunting season—this time in Nebraska on a farm that a group of us have been hunting for three years. The Kaiser family owns the farm, and the two Mr. Kaisers have been working this land all their lives they are both exactly what you would picture, older gentlemen wearing overalls that talk even slower than me with a bit of a belly, gray hair, a t-shirt, and a jacket. As we said our goodbyes and thank you's to Mr. Kaiser (the elder), I thought of how awesome it is to be in the presence of a man who is happy with what he has and does. He doesn't long for more land or fancy britches. He longs for more rain and fewer deer on his land to produce a bigger crop. Nothing fancy about it. The simplicity of living 20 miles outside a town of 810 people and being damn happy with his life. We all need to look at our lives, move away from the collection of things and infinite checklists, and simplify. In case you are wondering, we are helping out Mr. Kaiser by killing deer on his land. 2 years ago, the deer ate $10,000 worth of his crops.

Link to current The Cam & Otis Show podcast episode, Ep 228 Fran Racioppi - The Jedburgh Podcast. Please note that we updated our show's webpage to https://www.youtube.com/@thecamandotisshow.

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