Brady's Blog

As I mentioned in my last post, there were two weekends in January that really elevated the month as far as the extracurricular activities that I am bringing into my life. The first was detailed in the previous post meaning that now I must detail the second of the two. January 26-28: Oscar Prep Movie Marathon Weekend One of my New Year's Resolutions was to go to a movie each week as a way to get out of the house and do things. Let's just say that on this particular weekend, I far exceeded my goal of one each week. In fact, I hit five movies in three days. Flashback to 2011 with me for just a moment. For whatever reason, I fell in love with Natalie Portman during 2010 and 2011 and when she was nominated for (and won) the Golden Globe, the Screen Actor's Guild award, and the Oscar for Best Actress in "Black Swan", I took notice. Now, I have always loved awards shows but never paid close attention to them until Ms. Portman ushered in my fanatical love of movie...

I have been holding onto this post for a couple weeks now. As a part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I have been wanting to get out more and have experiences that will make me happy. Ya know, find the things I love and just do them. Let’s just say January has been a good month for this and there are mainly two weekends that prove this. This post will be about only the first of the two weekends....and there are pictures this time for proof. January 12-15 (MLK Day weekend) To start out with you need to know that I am not rich at all. Money doesn’t come super easy to me but that is something that I don’t want to have holding me back. This particular weekend, I spent a lot but I had one of the greatest weekends of my life. I’ve that weekend I made the decision that no matter what it took I was going to see two Broadway traveling shows. The first one was “Rent” in Idaho Falls on Saturday. Prior to this show, it had been a while since I had seen a show that was neither a high school/col...

Some recent experiences have caused me to dive deep into reflection mode regarding a topic that I have pondered far too often over the past five years. Friendship. When I was young, my life consisted of going to school, going to gymnastics practice, and then playing with my friends as much as I had the chance. It is easy to say that when I was at school or practice, I had friends there but what exactly made someone a friend. In my naive and jaded years of idealistic young-adulthood I once came up with a method of measurement to determine if someone was my friend, or better yet, a best friend. It all circulated around the idea of trust on three criteria. 1. My Wife 2. My Life 3. My Possessions The use of the term "wife" is obviously quite loose in my situation but it essentially was meant as a representation of the trust I would have with another around my significant other in not trying to steal that special someone away from me. My life is rather obvious, if a gu...

If you Know anything about me then you know that I love making New Years resolutions. Do I keep them? Sometimes. Okay maybe only once but still, I love the idea of change and growth. So 2018 started yesterday and I am super excited about my resolutions. The way I decided to do it this year was I picked a theme and then set a couple minor goals that will compliment and enforce that goal. My theme: Me I am my theme. A lot of my failure this past year (and for many years) have stemmed from my incessant need to please other people. This year, I'm gonna please myself Now the hard part. How? The pieces that make up the puzzle have to be simple but only need to be loosely connected. Then, as a whole they can boost the overall goal together. In thinking about these simple pieces I had to think about things I like to do. Things I want to do. Thing that are fun or bring me happiness. Things that have some level of productivity either physically, mentall, or emotionally. My puzzle i...

Yesterday I was able to talk to two of my closest friends on the phone. Yes, I used that strange app that doesn't make you type out words nor wait for any amount of time to get a response. It was as if it were a real conversation in real time. Pretty neat app. The way these conversations played out was quite interesting. After I had finished with my class for the night, I was on my way home and felt discomfort in my soul. I had a conversation that morning with a friend about peace and its attainability so I thought I would reach out to that friend and pick his brain a bit. Over the course of that conversation there were two ideas that really stood out: 1. Focus on the things you can control 2. Find the positive moments in every day Not long after my conversation with that friend had ended, I got a call from another friend who was rather frustrated with some of the situations that she has found herself in. Having just had a similar conversation with the first friend, I found...

In my family there is a small tradition for Thanksgiving day. It is the day that everyone in the family has to turn in the Christmas wish list to my mom so that she can start planning what she'll get, when she'll get it, and where she'll get it. I've been thinking about this year's list all month and still found myself staring at a blank list tonight. I just haven't been able to think of anything that someone can buy for me this year that would be valuable to me...but that doesn't mean I don't want anything. So what is it that I want? Fulfilling Job A different post will come within the next month or so regarding how 2017 has gone but big changes happened in my occupation and currently I am in a position where when discussing what we were thankful for around the Thanksgiving dinner table my response was "I'm just thankful I have a job." Is it the perfect job? No. Does it have potential? Absolutely. My Christmas Wish: I would like to...

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It seems like once I got my current job and started school that I lost the time and focus of my writing. That leads me to my purpose of this post. Have you taken a step back from your life, looked at what you’re doing, and asked yourself why you’re doing it? Why am I working where I’m working? Why am I back in school? Why is my free time spent horizontally? We are the ones that make the choices in our lives. I chose to be back in school. I chose to apply for my current job. But what’s it all for. How many times do you do something out of perceived obligation? Attending a group event. Going to a birthday party. But what is your real obligation in life? I feel like the answer is simple and twofold. First find your happiness. Test the waters and figure out what things actually make you happy as opposed to making someone else happy. Second, make it your own. Love your life uniquely. Please don’t be someone else. As for me, decisions are ma...