The Box

It became the catch phrase of the 90s. To think outside of the box. Apple Computers made a fortune using it. We felt like if we had an Apple computer...and now an iPad, iPhone and an iWhatisthenextcoolestthing, then you are way ahead of the pack...you are thinking outside of the box.

When in actuality you are thinking right inside the box..right where the industry would like you to be...wishing and hoping and wanting what they have to sell you. Those who truly did think outside the box, did so months ago when they conceptualized the idea for the next hottest thing that they could make the public drool over, the next must-have-it item.

When we go back and think about what causes us to want those thing, I think we must blame it on cereal.

Yes, I believe it is all the grain industry's fault. That is my line of thought anyway...and I am sticking with it.

See, I recall being a kid, around six, maybe seven. I was one of the first real generation that grew up with television..with the real Saturday morning cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Speed Racer, Scooby Doo, Flintstones, Pink Panther and so on...and we watched with rapt attention.....we even watched the commercials.

And ahhh, those commercials...they were only for two things. Toys and cereal. We still lived in an age when toys were special; they were treats, they came at Christmas, on your birthday and when you saw your Grandparents. Otherwise, it was doing chores and saving nickles and dimes that got you that new toy.

So we were not as swayed by every toy commercial that came our way. Sure, closer to Christmas, man, we made our lists from those commercials and the Sears and Roebuck Christmas Catalog. However, in the day to day viewing...no, it was all about the cereal...and which one had the coolest toy of course was a matter of playground debate.

See cereal was affordable and sugar coated. It was the mom-approved, double-dipped, triple the amount of sugar an adult should consume in a week, candy bar in a box and it came with a toy. It was the first real commercialism that was marketed in children, and we bought it, hook, line, and hyperactive overloaded sinker.

WE HAD TO HAVE IT!!! The box of Capt'n Crunch that had the magnet set, the box of Vitamin King that you could send away for a set of coloring books, a stuffed Tony the Tiger...oh. my. god.....it was almost too much to take! We would go down the cereal isle with our mothers, usually just a few hours after seeing these commercials and not just beg, but sob for these boxes of cereal...we just had to have them or else we would die. Our friends would hate us. We would fail out of school. Become a hippy. It was the worst possible outcome if we did not have this particular cereal. Regardless if our mothers had a coupon for another cereal.

And we could hardly wait for breakfast the next morning. We usually would con our Dads into pouring out the box to find the prize at the bottom. I recall being devastated when trying to collect all of the Capt'n Crunch magnets and lacking just one...the one, that everyone else at school had. I had gone through three boxes of cereal trying to get that magnet without any luck and this was my fourth. To my utter devastation, my father pulled out yet another of the magnets I already had. I begged my mother to go back to the store and buy another box. Of course she said no. She told me she would get me more when I ate this box, when I finally confessed, "But I HATE Capt'n Crunch!"

And to be honest, I still do to this day. I have no idea what posessed me to think that those magnets would influence my life to this point. I wonder if I thought that they would still be on my fridge at this age?


And there it is, think about it. It all began with cereal in a box. We began to think we were cool, ahead of the game, thinking outside of the box...buy buying a box. The irony.


So the next time you stand there and think to yourself that you simply must have something...wonder to yourself, who put you in the box?

That which we aim to do....

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying, "By failing to prepare, we are preparing to fail." In all truth, at this time of year, we heartily set goals for ourselves that we, with the greatest intent, breating in the first fumes of a freshly birthed new year, hope to accomplish. Lose weight! Stop smoking! Exercise! Save money!

And yet what people have found is that as these goals are spouted, usually in a somewhat marinated stated, is that by the end of January 31 most have been given up on. Siting reasons like, "It's winter...you have to eat hearty in the winter and it is too cold to exercise." or "I am too poor after Christmas to save money." And on it goes...we justify the reasons we cannot do that which we want to do, but cannot bring ourselves to do.

The question is, why? Why do we fail? Worse yet...why does it lead us into a tailspin of resolving never to make resolutions again?

I have thought about this for a long time...I believe that the answer lies in the inner workings our gray matter. We do not think things through long before, nor do we plan things out. We do not believe we can fail, and worse yet, we do not forgive ourselves if we do, walking away from that which we desire because it was hard...it was actually going to require something of us...a struggle.

Thus this year, I have not only made resolutions, but I have made them with the idea that, they will be hard. That I will not only stumble, fall...but I will have to find something inside myself to pick myself back up and start over again.

I have made plans, I have made goals. I have the idea that with small baby steps to start, reviewed each month, and then possibly tracked to the next step, I may, indeed be successful. Yogi Berra, the great prophet, once said, "You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." We fail to reach our goals because of lack of aim. If you have no direct aim, no bullseye, you will never reach your goal.


So here are my goals for the year of 2011:

1. Lose weight
2. Find a better job
3. Travel
4. Move with little or no drama
5. Fight less/stress less
6. Be more positive

And here are the actions I plan to take for each of those goals...for January 2011:

1. Lose 10 pounds. Begin walking 3 times a week.
2. Commit to spending 5 hours a week looking for a better job.
3. Save $25 a week from paycheck toward a trip.
4. Begin packing boxes now, purging items not needed or wanted now.
5. Choose my battles, do not give into fights with the kids.
6. List 4 things every day that are positive....things that you can be happy about.

At the end of January, I plan to revist the list and hopefully, I can say that I am moving forward. It is my plan to see each of these things become successfully integrate into my life. It is not my plan to become the Dali Lama, a supermodel, Heloise, and the CEO of Intel in a year. The Bible tells us that without a vision the people perish. This is my vision of 2011.

My goals are this: on December 31, 2011, I would like to be able to look back at the year and say that, I have accomplished my goals. I would like to weigh less than I do at this very moment. I would like to be in a job I do not abhore from my waking moments. I would like to be settled into another house with fewer things, more organized and not divorced over the situation. I would like to go somewhere on a vacation...anywhere would be fine. I would also like my relationship with those that matter most in my life to have improved. If, at the end of this year, I can say that those things are done...then I will be able to say that I have accomplished my 2011 New Years Resolutions.


And that, in itself, will be an amazing feat.