Hard to Follow That One...

What's this? Another entry so soon? Sure, why not.  Thought I would answer some quick questions that I haven't addressed yet.

First of all, I have decided that my personal life is going to be private for a while.  I've made the mistake of throwing a bunch of stuff on social media and it just makes things harder.  Yes, I eventually will share, but for now, mum is the word.

Now, some of the questions.

When you meal prep (which I know takes hours), do you eat during that process?

Absolutely.  I "taste" everything.  I'm not going to lie, I cook pretty good, and when I start cooking, I can't help but eat.  The good thing is that it is mostly healthful, so no worries.

Do you have a regular gym schedule?

I do and don't.  I have a schedule, but I go to the gym when I can and when it's not full of people.  I like it when there are only a few people there, most of them know me by name, so It's a little more personal.  It's nice when I hear "Hey James!", "What's up Riggs?" or "Woohoo it's The Machine!"

Are you still training people?

Yes, but not a lot at the moment because my schedule isn't really allowing enough time for a lot of clients.  Look for a lot more #riggs shirts and posts very soon though.

When is your first video bog going to go live?

When it does. I really can't give you a time on that, as I'm still trying to figure out the flow of it.  I've got ideas, but I'm working on it.

Ok, so this was a quick entry, but I wanted to address those questions since I've gotten quite a few that are on those lines.  Keep your questions coming in!

Until next time dear readers...

A Long, Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far...

So, it’s been a few days since my last post.  A lot has happened.  I’ve been busy, and I mean busy. Between work, kids, gym, personal training, and personal stuff, I’ve had about 10 minutes of “free” time (which is spent washing dishes).  I’ve gotten a whole lot of feedback on my last post.  The majority of it was positive, but some of the negative ones are sticking with me, which provided me with an epiphany.

In life (in general), the negative things tend to stick better in our memory.  This is because they hit on our emotions and insecurities more so than positive things.  It’s normal.   Think about your childhood, you will remember good things (I hope you do), and you will remember bad things (I know you will), and sometimes the scales are tipped a little unfairly.  Sometimes we get stuck on fixing the negative and ignore maintaining the positive.  It’s all about changing your mindset, and it’s not an easy task by any stretch.

Ok, so, just some little notes here...

As I’m sure you remember, I’ve been looking to get sponsored as an athletic performer, and I’ve had some interest, and some success.  Saying too much will obviously jinx it, so, that’s about as clear\vague as I’m going to get at this point.  I’m still getting closer to getting my personal trainer certification, and when I have some extra money laying around, I’ll pay for the certification exam and go from there.

Right now, I’m really busy, which is probably a good thing, but it does cut out time for some things, and I’m trying to juggle my schedule to make sure I can get to those things.  It’s a hectic time, but I must absolutely say that I am extremely grateful for everyone in my life, and to you reading this (yes, you!) I am very grateful for you too.

Now, my podcast is going well, listener base is starting to rise slowly, but it is rising, comments and questions are coming in, and I love it!  Good or bad, let me know what you think, ask me anything, ands I will answer, unless it’s of a personal matter.  Also, for you Apple listeners, it should show up in the apple podcast app shortly, I know that will make a few of you very happy, lol.

As always, I strongly encourage you to ask me questions, give me feedback or just say hi.  I usually respond relatively quickly, so fire away!

Until next time, dear readers...

Start off With Truth

Ok, so, honesty is very important to me, so I’m going to take a minute and be completely honest with you.

At the moment, I am looking for direction in my life.  Being honest, I’m not where I want to be, and I am looking for the first step to get to where I want and\or need to be.  Do I want to spend the rest of my life at my current job, and living in my current situation? No.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, I work with some great people, and I may not live in a palace, but I’m happy to have a place over my head.

The ways of the universe, under God’s command, have placed me where I am in this moment for a reason.  It’s not my job to try to find that reason, honestly, it’s my job to learn from my situation, what got me here, and try to better myself.  I’ve said it before, but the only person I’m in competition with is myself.  I just have to be better today than I was yesterday.  I feel like I’m doing that, to the best of my ability.   Everyday I learn something about myself or others that I can take to heart and work on\with.

Do I want to be single forever? No, I really don’t, no matter what type of front I put on.  Finding that someone to spend the rest of my time here on Earth with is not an easy task.  I have met some wonderful people that will always be my friend, no matter how anything else worked (or didn’t work) out.  I am grateful.  My heart is thankful for everything, good or bad, I am thankful.  It’s not like I’m trying to hide myself away or anything.  I am putting myself out there, I am trying, and maybe I should be, or maybe I shouldn’t be, I don’t really know.  I know that I want to take an active part in my life and not just watch everything pass me by.

I have many friends.  I’m not talking about Facebook friends, I mean people I’m friends with in real life, you know, that you can talk to, not just text to.  Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has an opinion on what I should be doing, or trying to do.  That’s great, I appreciate input.  The thing is though, it is their opinion, like I said, so it is what they think from their point of view with the amount of knowledge they have about the situation(s).  I listen, I don’t just hear them.  Who knows, I might get that one bit of inspiration from a friend who is actually talking about something else.  I mean things work out in mysterious ways sometimes.

I’ve been continuing writing a chapter in my book that I know will never be read, its a chapter for me.  This chapter really captures a lot of my heart, and although I am releasing a lot of knowledge about myself in this book, what I am writing now is something I will share with no one.  Call it a more in depth journal entry, or what have you, but getting it out does help, ever so slightly.

On a final note, the podcast is taking off quite well.  I’ve gotten a lot of feedback, more good than bad, so that’s a sign, right?  Well, I’m going to let some (maybe) good news escape here - I was limiting my podcasts to 15 minutes for several reasons, but I’ve had an overwhelming response and many have asked if I can address x issue, but to do so would increase my weekly record time, so I’m removing that limit.  I’ll address everything sent to me up to the point I record.  Woohoo?

Until next time dear readers...

Obligatory Annual Post About a New Year

So, I’ve told you I’ve been working on the list with no explanations, and here it is.  There will be an accompanying podcast to this entry, so look for that here.

1. Don’t doubt yourself.
2. Accept your flaws, the sooner you do, the sooner you can be you.
3. Never depend on someone else for your happiness.
4. You are responsible for your reactions to situations, not necessarily the situations. 
5. You do not have to solve everyone’s problems, only work on your own.
6. Never be afraid to say No.
7. Just because someone else can’t see your worth, that doesn’t devalue you.
8. Take at least a few minutes each day and devote them to yourself.  Breathe. Know you are stronger than your struggles.
9. Read.
10. Laugh at yourself. We all make dumb mistakes, learn from and laugh at them.
11. Set goals, realistic, attainable goals.
12. Pay attention to people, they always show you who they are, no words required.
13. You can only grow by reaching out of your comfort zone, so if you want to try something new, do it.
14. Don’t be too near sighted that you don’t see what’s right in front of you while you are looking for something else.
15. Things do happen for a reason, but sometimes we never get to find out what that reason is.
16. When one door is closed, another will open, it just might be a long walk down the hall.
17. Practice the pause. Especially before you speak.
18. It’s ok if people try to make up stories about you, that means you are doing something right to make them jealous.
19. If you start with honesty, everything else will come naturally.  If you end with honesty, it’s too late.
20. Don’t put a filtered picture of yourself on a dating site\app.  I mean, the goal is to meet, so, yeah, don’t.
21. Don’t live in the past, it made you who you are, live in the present, looking forward to what the future will bring. 
22. Your two most precious resources are your time (attention) and energy. Use them wisely, they aren’t infinite. 

So, there they are.  Don’t worry, I’m compiling a list of all of these, so you don’t have to keep searching.  The podcast about these will be here soon.

Until next time, dear readers...

James ‘The Machine’ Riggs

A little dramatic? Too much? Not enough? Trying to figure out my ring name, as in boxing ring.  I’m liking this one right now, and it’s just the nickname I have at the gym, so I didn’t have to think hard.  It helps I have machinery tattooed on my right leg.

Around this time of year (end of year), it’s customary for you to reflect on all of your inadequacies over the past 12 months and see about changing some things.  This is something I try to do throughout the year, I mean, if I list out all my problems one time a year, it’s going to be a long list to look at.  Break it into chunks, every few months do your personal inventory.  More than just making your inventory, address it, try to get the problem solved.

Enough about all that though, I’m working up another of my “lists with no explanations.”  It it shaping up well, so I’m hoping you like it.  There will be a podcast counterpart to the blog entry, and I might go a little in depth there, but who needs feelings, right?


Back to the boxing front, I’be watched all the boxing movies I could find and I am sure I could be the next champion.  That’s of course a joke.  Runner up is probably more realistic.  Seriously, I am taking up boxing, and we will see if I can avoid getting a concussion.  Also,m we will see if I can avoid a concussion.  (See what I did there?)

Until next time dear readers...

Podcasting. Who knew??

Well, it seems that the podcast was a good idea.  I have gotten a lot of good feedback (positive and negative), and I’m taking all that into consideration.  I’m looking for new equipment to use instead of all the built in mics and whatnot.

A couple of you have suggested some things I can do on the podcast, and I’m slowly going to try them out.  In my next episode I will address a single struggle I’ve been through and my advice for getting through it.  Sorry, at this point there won’t be any relationship advice, I’ve decided, much like LEGO Batman, I do do ships (as in relationships). No, instead I will be talking about having limited time with your own children.  The worst part of divorce, is the literal splitting of time between the parents.  It’s rough, but I have a little advice on that.

The vlog is coming along, slowly, but it is.  I’ve also, started a whole redo of “Regular Dad.”  I still love the concept, but at this point, the name isn’t fitting, so I’ll have to search my brain for another title.  Still plan a lot of laughs in it, but there will be a moral (just like the government mandated in 1980s cartoons) in each episode.

I know I have thanked all of you already for the support, but again, the kind words or words of encouragement did not fall upon deaf ears.  I heard you, and although some things took a little longer than others to process, I have taken everything to heart.  I really have the best readers\listeners\watchers on the internet.

Until next time, dear readers...

Dark Is a Relative Term

After much conversation with my readers and soul searching, I've decided not to stop the blog.  On the contrary, there have been a lot of ideas I have been toying around with that I will now start to act on.

My blog brand has been growing, and as such I’m going to expand my media reach.  Ok, I know what you’re thinking - what?  That is just a fancy way of saying I’m going to expand my brand by producing video and audio content.  The audio (in the form of podcasts) will be first and I test these waters.

I want to thank all of you who have wrote emails, texted, called and stopped me on the street to tell me not to stop.  There were several things that happened back to back in my life that made me rethink a lot of life choices, but in the end, stopping the blog seemed like a bad idea all the way around.

In building my “brand”, I have created myblogaudiothing.com and myblogvideothing.com to futher the brand and inform and entertain you.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.  Bad idea, I know.  The old adage of making lemonade from lemons while seems cliche to say, but it’s true.  People and things that are brought into you life are either a blessing or a lesson (in the best of scenarios they are both, but that is rare it seems).  It’s been said that the day you stop learning, is the day you start dying. So, I’ve decided to learn.  About others, about the world, but mainly I’m going to be going on a long journey of self discovery.  I am inviting you to join me on the journey, and I really want you to continue to send me your feedback, any help along the way will be worth it’s weight in gold.

I just want to say again, thank you - from the bottom of my heart, because it has been your support which has made me realize that I am not responsible for what happens to me, or how others treat me, but I am 100% responsible for my reactions to both.  Taking control of that is my goal, only good vibes from here on out.

Be sure to check out my two new sites, I will of course post more about them on here, but the actually content will be on those sites.  They are in the early stages, so I’m sorry if they aren’t up to par at the moment.

Until next time dear readers...