Author: yolocruz

Today’s prompt:

“We read to know we’re not alone.”
— William Nicholson, Shadowlands

Tell us about a book that opened your eyes when you were young.

Describe a life-changing experience with a book.

Over 2 years ago I stumbled upon this bookstore while living in DC. This little red book 📕 caught my eye, so I picked it up and started reading it. Little did I know, this exact moment is when I discovered #personaldevelopment which would open up many opportunities for me in the future. Since then I’ve read over 40 books 📚 to help me grow into the person I want to become. #alwaysastudent #neverstoplearning #selfimprovement #selfeducation #investinknowledge

A photo posted by J.R. “Pulse” Yonocruz (@yolocruz) on Oct 22, 2015 at 9:20am PDT

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My Instagram post pretty much sums up my first encounter with personal development and self-directed learning.

I was working at a government agency in DC right out of college for a summer. While wandering around, I came across a Barnes and Noble and decided to kill time by browsing books.

In a moment of serendipity, I stumbled upon a featured book on a bookshelf about eye-level. It had a bright red cover and a catchy title.

The book was “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

I picked up the book and started to skim a chapter or two. I remember thinking as I opened the book that I might be able to learn a some useful tactics I could apply to my career.

Two hours later, I was so immersed into the book and gained so much value out of the principles. It gave me so many “ah-ha!” moments about human psychology and people-skills.

Long story short I left the bookstore with two things:

1. The idea that people skills, once sufficiently developed, practiced, and mastered, is one of the most useful and highest paying skills across many inustries.
2. My own personal copy of the book 😁📕

Since then, I’ve recommended the book to many of my closest friends and family, I’ve become addicted to daily self-education, and the practice has led me to have the most intellectual conversations with other people.

To this day, I’m still a huge advocate of reading and personal development. I believe that as this blog develops, it’ll start to incorporate personal development into its core. I am very passionate about helping people grow and learn to achieve what they believe is important to them. 

Thank you for reading! As always, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. I read and respond to every comment 😁

Today’s prompt:

Write a post that takes place during a single day. Start at any point! The story can begin when you woke up, the middle of the day, or the end of the day.

• Structure your post as a play-by-play (or hour-by-hour) account, complete with time markers.
• Limit yourself even more: tell a story about one hour of your chosen day.
• Talk about how one particular day changed your life.

A couple weekends ago, my girlfriend and I went rock climbing / bouldering at Sender One gym. We had purchased a Groupon for two for an hour-long beginner class that included all-day access to the gym.

Needless to say, we were excited. Neither of us had ever been but it was always on a list of activities we wanted to do together.

The check-in process wasn’t as smooth as I would’ve expected. We gave one associate our Groupon to scan, only to have another worker ask for it again. Diana had to go back to the car to retrieve it a second time.

As it got closer to our class time, probably 2 minutes before, we noticed everyone else had their harnesses and shoes on while nobody gave us ours. We hurriedly asked and finally got an attendant to assist us.

The lady asked for our shoe sizes, disappeared into the back room, and then reappeared with our gear. She said the climbing shoes ran small so we got one size higher. Even then, my shoes were painfully small.

We go to one of the training areas and began to learn how to tie a double figure-8 knot (I forgot the name), and then a fisherman’s knot. Both relatively easy to learn.

After that, we learned the correct form to belay with our partner. Not too much of a challenge.

At this point, the knuckle on my toes were in so much pain I had to go back to the front desk and get a size higher. Better, but still a bit too tight for my liking.

Next, we alternated climbing and belaying. Diana went first, I went second.

When I was up, I jokingly asked Diana if she could keep up with me 😉 As soon as we got the signal to start, I began racing up as fast as I could.

Halfway to the top, I noticed there was a lot of slack on my rope. I glanced down and saw our instructor helping her out with her form. I guess she was having some trouble since she was still getting used to the form.

At that moment, I remembered that I’m actually pretty afraid of heights. I committed to not looking down and kept at a slow pace. 

When I finally reached the top, I had anxiety about letting go and rappelling back down. Eventually, I made it down safely. However, I decided I would stick to bouldering the rest of the time 😅.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I wouldn’t be surprised if we went to a climbing gym again! 😁

Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to leave comments as I read and respond to all of them 🙂

Today’s prompt:

Today, express your opinion on a topic or a piece of work. This is your opportunity to comment on something you’re passionate about, or review a piece of art or entertainment that you love or despise.

So I saw this particular video show up on my Facebook newsfeed a few months back and it reignited some strong opinions I’ve had for a long time regarding this topic.

In a nutshell: “who should pay on a date, the guy or the girl?”

I don’t know who this guy is, but I completely agree with his reasonings. Here’s some of his main points and why I agree:

• If the guy should always pay, but the girl isn’t held to anything on her end, this sets up a dangerous double standard.

This type of unequal relationship doesn’t lay a good foundation for the relationship. In the past, it was normal for a woman to be the home caretaker  and the man to be the financial provider. This uneven relationship that might have made sense back then, but it put the man in a more dominant position.

Today, women fight to be perceived and treated as equals to their male counterparts. Unfortunately, I think the push to keep the “chivalry” of the old days maintains the status quo and the old paradigms about men and women.

• If a guy should pay for a girls time, it sets up the relationship as unfair for the guy

Again, this reinforces the idea that the two parties aren’t equal. 

• If she doesn’t offer to pay her share, she wasn’t taught right. If he doesn’t offer to pay his share, he wasn’t taught right.

Manners. It’s not because you’re a man or because you’re a woman. It should be because you’re a generous and thoughtful person. What does it say about the person who unfairly takes advantage of the other person’s generosity?

• If I were dating a girl and she never offered to pay, I wouldn’t date her. You should treat your partner like your best friend.

100% yes. Let’s remove male and female “standards” and cultural normals (which greatly vary across different cultures and across different time periods) and just treat the person we want to be with like our best friend. If you treat your partner as someone to be used, what kind of long term relationship are you really cultivating?

• What matters most is trying. If your partner doesn’t feel like you’re trying to contribute to the relationship, that’s when he’ll feel used.

This is basically true in any relationship. Although we shouldn’t approach any relationship as only giving so you can get, it is important to evaluate if they value you as much as you value them.

If chivalry is dead, good. I’m glad it is.

I was raised to believe that although boys and girls are different, one isn’t superior than the other. By that sense, they are equal. I fully support being kind and courteous to others because you have class, regardless if you’re a boy or girl.

By those standards, I could never support the double standard of chivalry.

Thank you for reading! If you have any thoughts you would like to add, I would love to hear. I read and respond to every comment 🙂

Today’s prompt:

Find a spot where you can sit and observe for at least 20 minutes: a bench at a park, shopping mall, or museum; from inside your car in a parking lot; or even a place close to home, like your front porch. Ideally, it’s a location where you can watch action and interaction unfold (whether it involves people, wildlife, the weather, etc.).

Right now I’m with my girlfriend at Afters Ice Cream at Diamond Jamboree. I’ve had this craving all week for ice cream and donuts so might as well get both, right?

Meet the “milky bun,” ice cream inside a donut:

But that’s not why I’m writing this haha. I made the mistake of coming to this location which I forgot is almost always crowded on a Saturday night.

While waiting in this long line is excruciating for my craving, it’s a perfect scenario for this prompt 😁

From my vantage point, people are waiting in line. The store definitely seems understaffed for this crowd, but I commend them for their effort.

Outside there are a dozen or so guys in formal attire around a table. They must be coming from from an organization’s event.

Definitely a crowded night. We decided to go to Newport Beach to walk around near the beach. Apparently, the area we call “seaside” after a popular donut shop people fraud my late at night, has been overtaken since the release of Pokemon Go. My girlfriend wanted to go to the Pokemon stop where she can get items and catch new Pokemon.

As expected, hundreds of people walking around at 11pm at night with their faces in their phones. Probably 80% of them were playing Pokemon. It was pretty hilarious and amazing at the same time. 

Although it’s weird people are coming out in droves to play a mobile game, it’s still pretty crazy that everyone is out walking around.

Good or bad, we’ll see if it’s just a fad or if it will last a while. I think it also depends on how  long the developers can keep innovating the fame before people become bored.

Today’s prompt:

What do you do when you’re not writing? How do you reset and return to the dashboard, refreshed? What do you need in your day-to-day life to maintain balance: Running? Yoga? Gardening? Painting? Cooking?
If you’re not a full-time writer, or if your day is so full of other tasks that you have little time to write, consider these alternative questions: if you could step into a machine that gave you more time, how would you structure your day? What would you write with this extra time?

Alrhough I’m not a full-time writer, I do believe there needs to be activities that help refresh your mind and maintain that balance from variety.

For me, I try to exercise in some way daily to keep my body moving and active. I’ll hit the gym 4-5 times a week to strengthen my body, build endurance, and help clear my mind.

I also listen to audiobooks daily. Good knowledge comes in so that good stuff comes out. I like to be proactive with the nutrition I feed my brain so that I can reap the rewards down the line from the compound learning.

I’ve recently started tricking again with some friends from college. I haven’t tricked seriously since high school, as is apparent from my old 2007 sampler. (I was probably 30 pounds lighter and had crazy hair, haha)

I love tricking because it’s half mental, half physical. You can’t learn a new skill without steadily building your physical capacity to execute, simultaneously with the mental ability and breaking down your own limiting beliefs.

In college, dance used to be a big part of my life in terms of balancing school and work with something I really enjoyed to recharge myself. I danced with several teams but I particularly loved freestyling:

These days I spend most of my time at work, at the gym, listening to books, and then random weekend activities usually with my girlfriend.

Part 2: If I had more time, how would I structure my day and what would I write?

I think my day would more or less be the same, but I would add more time to working on my side projects and finding new experiences for the weekend, like when I tried Flyboarding for the  first time in Miami:

Flyboarding!!! 🏄🏼🕴🙌🏼 So much fun, felt like a combination of being Iron Man, Green Goblin, and Magneto 😎 #flyboarding #bucketlist #miami #florida

A video posted by J.R. “Pulse” Yonocruz (@yolocruz) on Jul 15, 2016 at 5:03pm PDT

 

I would also take more online courses on marketing, online business, entrepreneurship, business development.

As far as writing, I would definitely start working on my first published book. I’ve made it one of my long-term goals to be a bestselling author. Not exactly sure what the book will be focused on, but it will definitely include some of my personal narrative as well as some insight into how someone can improve their life or career in some way.

Generic, I know. But the goal is to add value through my own experiences.

Thank you for reading! As always, let me know in the comments what you think, and if you have any personal activities to add balance to your own life 🙂 I read and respond to every comment!