Are you a survivor or a zombie? Lessons from the walking dead

Welcome to the new, for now!, home of the podcast and more!  If you only have 1 minute or 3 minutes or 30 minutes, you'll have enough to take away to keep your journey focused and moving forward. That is the goal!

Reality Check:  Survivor or zombie?

The first instinct (if you are here!) I am betting is to answer 'survivor' - no one actually thinks about themselves AS a zombie.  That is insulting at so many levels.

But what is it about The Walking Dead that engages so many people?  The fight TO survive?  Or is it something else?

At one level I believe it is the relationships that most of the viewers feel drawn into.  The world that these people live in is secondary to what drives the human. That drive is less survival and more about connection.

But what I want to talk about today is what does it really mean TO survive? Watching the series again (though not Season 6 yet) I also think there is an element most of us are missing:  FOCUS.

Here are five things to think about about focus in your life:

1. Being fully awake and alive in our present moment.
2. Engaged with our LIFE and the people in it.
3. Demanding our full attention or we will die.
4. Focus on just one thing:  survival and not a 1000 daily distractions.
5. Knowing why we wake up every morning, survive.

The next question I asked was "How can we bring that kind of focus and clarity and apply it to a life that so many of us live now: one that is soft, frivolous, and with out real meaning?"

1. We find an external enemy to fight against.
2. We distract, disassociate, or deny how we feel.
3. We live in crisis and chaos.
4. We 'tune out' and become the zombie.
5. We rescue others from one of the above.
6. We die.

The irony behind all of this is most don't realize we are in a hard core survival mode right now and most of us are still more zombie than engaged with survival.

Not because we are weak or don't want to.  Rather because it is hard to look in the mirror and tell our selves the truth about who we really are.

And even harder is to keep looking in the mirror and not lose focus - check the phone, find something to eat, review a past conversation, think about what you need to go and buy. 

I walk my dog every day multiple times no matter the weather, illness, or discomfort.

I still won't exercise my self, putting it off until 'tomorrow.'

My loyalty and commitment to my dog is not WHO I AM to my self.  Why is that?

Survival demands our full attention and engagement with LIFE.  That feels good and real and meaningful.

Zombie demands nothing but aimless wandering determined by the next distraction - sound, sight, smell, or hunger pain.

And for some reason fighting to survive to save another is even more powerful than just our own life. 

How do we stay focused when there is no immediate crisis demanding our attention?  I don't have your answer. 

But I did decide to create this site to keep both of us focused at least once a day on remembering what is important - life, not death.

Come back and check it often. Sign up below to be reminded on Friday's with a summary and links.  Be the survivor and not the zombie.

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