Gabriel Hummel

Found Love Yet?

Love it truly an amazing thing, whether it is the love you get from yourself, friends and family, or a significant other, you absolutely need love in your life in order to be happy

What being said, many people make their whole lives about chasing love, whether that is from a girlfriend, a relative, a friendship, or a constant struggle to love yourself, it seems that love seems to be consistently on the mind of many people

While it is very important to seek out love in your life, it is important to not fall into the trap of making your whole existence about the search for it

I remember meeting a girl a few years back who had a reason for going to college that totally baffled me

I asked her what she was going to college for/what she was studying and she said that she was going to college to, “find a husband”

Let me repeat that verbatim, “I am going to college to find a husband”

I was floored. I asked her if she had any other interests or reasons for going to college like trying to find something your passionate about, securing a job, anything

She honestly was there for the main reason of finding a husband because the guys at college are the types of guys she wants to marry

Now I am not judging her because I certainly have heard way worse answers as to why one is in college, but its statements like these that have me wondering how many people in the world feel incomplete until they find the “love of their life”

One of the fundamental ideas behind a relationship is the idea of two people coming together creating something bigger than themselves, the problem is that many people view themselves and their potential partners as puzzle pieces. They are in the constant game of trying to find their missing piece so they can be complete and lead a happy life

Let me tell you right now, if you think that a relationship will make you a more complete human being, you are accomplishing the equivalent of putting a band aid over a bullet wound

This is the male equivalent of running around juggling 7 women at a time because you are constantly trying to fill a emotional void inside you (trust me, its overrated)

Two people should come together in order to support it each and who they are, not fill the voids that exist in their persona

There are so many things you should be doing in life in addition to finding love

Build a dream career, travel the world, read to many books, become a culinary artisan

Aim to enjoy every aspect of your life and decide that you want to find a person to share your amazing adventure with

Because what’s better than one amazing life adventure? Two

Love

Gabriel

Window Shopping

Recently I was taking the elevator up in the complex that I work in and noticed a few extra details that I hadn’t seen before

The elevators themselves look as if they were hit with a hammer swung by the guys who do the Grey Poupon commercials. It has a television built into one of the panels that shows the daily news and even is encased in a gold trim from top to bottom

In the world of elevators it is definitely in my top 3

The one detail of these elevators that really separates them however is the complete glass wall that surrounds half of the elevator

This huge glass wall serves as a window into the massive hotel and courtyard area of the entire complex. Saying that the view is cool is an understatement. You can see the bar, all of the events occurring, two different restaurants, all of the other elevators in the complex, and you can even see out onto the skyline of the city as the whole building is enclosed in windows.

I saw of these details the first moment I stepped into this elevator, but today I noticed something different that had me in a daze

A group of people entered the elevator on a beautiful sunny day. Today you could look out the window as you traveled up the levels of the complex and see a million different things occurring, all within an eyes reach

Everyone’s attention was instantly diverted…..to the television news report about the weather for the day

I felt a unexplainable sense of irony creep over me, all of the eight people in the elevator had their attention solely focused on the news equivalent of the weather channel. They could be directly experiencing the weather in addition to a million other amazing happenings is they only had done a 180 in the elevator

This may seem like an oversight, but I think people who tend to think big, dream, and aspire about things on a regular basis in their life tend to be the kind of people who stare out the window. People who are more routine, system orientated, and carrot driven in life will always watch the television

The big question is then

Do you look out the window, or do you watch TV?

Keep dreaming

Gabriel

Travel Channel Much?

One of my biggest vices is the travel channel

Back when I had TV I loved watching nearly everything on this channel, from eating contests on Man vs Food to Anthony Bourdain making a mockery of everything he laid eyes on

One of the main reasons I enjoyed watching this channel so much was because it gave me motivation for future travel ideas and adventures, and also served as motivation for my super frugal lifestyle that allowed me to travel so abundantly

The interesting notion behind the travel channel was that many of my other friends loved this channel as much as I did

They enjoyed the exotic locations, the colorful people, the mountains of food, and even Samantha Brown and ridiculously chipper attitude

What I noticed was a disconnect though, for the vast majority of my friends had not done much of any traveling at all, they seemed to be using it for other purposes

An escape

The travel channel seemed to offer a window of opportunity into another world, where the rainbows ended at exotic waterfalls and the street food was more inspiring than hotdogs and hamburgers

My friends would often marvel at my ability to go on trips so frequently, and how the travel channel seemed more of an educational source to me than a form of entertainment

They were treating the travel channel like a coffee table book, admired but not experienced

While there is nothing wrong with entertainment, it’s when there is a disconnect between what you want and what you do that a problem arises in your life

If you watch the travel channel and say to yourself, “Wow, how awesome does Australia look? I would love to visit their one day”

If you are serious about this claim, and not just caught up in the hype of getting out of your hometown, take some steps to make it a reality

Start saving your money

Setup a travel fund

Eat out less

Buy less crap you don’t need

Take steps to make things you spend your time admiring as a guidebook to possibilities for you, instead of a coffee table book that only serves as a window into a better world

Travel hard

Gabriel

Dumbass

“Hey Mike, did you hear about that travesty that took place in the gulf?”

“Um yeah, what does travesty mean?”

“What are you serious!?”

Ever meet a person who seemed slightly off?

Like they didn’t know what was going on, and when you were discussing certain topics they seemed to struggle to not only form an opinion, but a coherent sentence?

Many people would be quick to call these people, “dumbasses”

What exactly is a dumbass anyway though?

Dumbass: A dunce: a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone’s intelligence (TY Google dictionary search)

So it’s safe to say that anyone that is of a “lower intelligence” than another person in comparison, can be considered a dumbass in any given situation

Fair enough, but wouldn’t that make everyone a dumbass?

In any given situation isn’t there always going to be some topic, term, or conversational piece that comes up that makes you look like a total and complete dumbass?

Unless you are all omniscient, this holds true for everyone

I will be the first to admit that I am a total and complete dumbass when it comes to fishing

What makes this situation even sadder is that I grew up fishing with family, in the boy scouts, and even with friends. If I were to have a conversation with some guys in a boat hanging their fishing poles out in hopes of days catch, I would clearly look like a dumbass in their eyes

The point here is simple; everyone will look like a dumbass at something in life, even the Ivy League graduate when compared to the hotel shoe polisher

Accept the fact that everyone has a little dumbass inside of them; the playing field then remains equal at all times, and realize that you really don’t know everything about everything

All’s well in a world full of dumbasses

Gabriel

Information Whores

I have a confession to make

I am an addict

I am seriously addicted to information

Books, articles, worthwhile news stories, podcasts, TED talks, super conferences

You name it, I probably use it

Every moment in my life that I have a passion for something, I put an enormous amount of energy into seeking out the best information I can regarding the subject matter so I can be as prepared as I possibly can

Sometimes it can get out of control and become a time sink, in which case it becomes a ridiculous time sink to be a maven of so many topics

Most of the time, this information whoring has served me incredibly well

Whether it meant getting free meals all day on my birthday, discovering the best means to cook healthy vegan dishes, or even planning out my vagabonding trip across Asia, information has yet to let me down

It’s possible that it works well for me because I am such a multifaceted individual who has interests in so many different areas (See cooking, traveling, personal development, writing, fitness, etc) but what I have recently discovered is that even if you don’t have a diverse interest range and are more focused in your passions, being an information whore can only server to benefit you even more

Why?

Being an information whore has nothing to do with planning; it has to do everything with building

Building in the sense that you are taking your initial foray into some area of interest and branching it out into as many areas as you feel comfortable doing

After you have spent X amount of time looking out and finding new answers and questions, you will find yourself coming back to your own ideas and making far more powerful judgment calls about the various happenings in your life

Say for example you love boating, but all you know about it is that it involves water and some term dubbed “stern”

As you reach out to various boating blogs, forums, magazines, and other forms of media, you will learn exponentially more about boating in general

After you spend some time learning, you will then be able to make a more accurate judgment call as to whether boating is something you really want to be a part of

The same holds true for if you were already an avid boater who knows a lot about boating

You can always find someone who knows more than you, or some awesome trick that makes that day on the water so much more relaxing and less tedious

Seek out as much information as you want to digest, you will find that you will learn more about yourself as you find out about a plethora of topics, test the waters with your interests, and ultimately come to a better conclusion about who you are through your interests (and disinterests)

K.I.S.S. and find some topics that excite you

Information is here to serve us, so I suggest you take full advantage

Prostitution rules

Gabriel

Found Love Yet?

Window Shopping

Travel Channel Much?

Dumbass

Information Whores

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