An Old Man's Podcast

This is the old man's podcast. That title tells you there are two things going on here. One is age. And as you hear me frequently claim, with age comes wisdom. That should be about all you need to know to answer the question why you should listen to this podcast. The other aspect of the title is the gender-specificity to it….. The “Man” part.. As a man I know something every other man knows as well. We men know that the most important holiday of the year is quickly approaching. No it isn't Father's Day, and I won't even jokingly suggest that it should be.  No, the most important holiday is…. of course…  Mother's Day. 

I'm Coach Streb and I'm going to dedicate this episode of my podcast to all those amazing mothers out there.  And fellas, we all need a little help with this one.

For many men, the Holiday known as Mother's Day is a minefield. At least for the average man, not the gender neutral, confused about his masculinity and it’s purpose in our society.  Those type of males (notice I’n skipping the word “men”) aren’t listening to this podcast anyway so I might as well yuk it up at their expense.

The rest of us, proudly identifying ourselves as MEN (all caps there my friend) had better know what’s coming.  Because our memory for anything other than sports statistics is pretty short, we may have forgotten about our previous debacles with that holiday.

  Many a manly men has been lost on the battlefield of Mother's Day. The reasons are easy to understand, but don’t qualify as an excuse, we know that because we have probably tried to make excuses always to no avail

First we have to remember it, without anyone telling us. You know we're not good with remembering dates.  Well, OK, some dates we do remember date….. Like when we got our first car (and every detail about it) and we are good about remembering other important dates like who won the World Series and critical sports data that we can’t get out of our head if we tried.

But dates like anniversary dates of events not tied to manliness….. Well that is a different story.  And that my friends, is a well documented fact that I am not going to try to dispute. 

So there's that….. disability????, then there's the fact that there's gifts involved. Men are not great gift buyers. We don't match colors, we don't match gifts to personalities, we don’t know what amazing fashion accessory would be most appealing to a female……. Overall, we are just terrible at finiding gifts. 

And, to complicate this dangerous situation even more, there's a lot of people involved here.  That is the people you may need to supply a gift to.  Obviously and hopefully, there is your own mother. Then, most likely there is your wife…..  who role in all this is titled “the mother of your children”, just in case there’s confusion on how the women you married worked her way into another holiday. God help you if you forget that one. 

I guess, if you have grand-kids there's another mother for you, (which about half the time will be your own daughter). This beloved mother of your grandchildren is someone you should probably remember.  So for us hapless males who are too often really victims of our hallmark society attack on manhood, there is a lot of danger on this holiday. 

And that's what I'm here, with The Old Man's Podcast,  to help you stay in the game, to get you through this minefield as a whole, manly,  person.

And for my subscribers getting that exclusive content, I want to remind you that you are getting daily episodes Monday through Friday.  I also just dropped another “Fun With Spam” episode for your listening enjoyment.

I can get angry, I’ll admit that.  That’s probably true for most people, getting angry is a common

Human emotion. But we fight it, rightly so, hoping to be happy more often than we are angry. Kind of a low bar I guess.  We probably should be shooting for virtually 100% of the time being happy and only being angry as little as possible. I don't know about you, what sets you off, but I do know what sets me off. And if I can just remember to avoid what it is that sets me off, I can significantly diminish the amount of time I spend angry and therefore become much more happy.

So there's your old man's tip. Shop around on tickets and don't just assume that whatever ticket broker you're using has the cheapest tickets. Remember, every dollar saved is a dollar you can spend on another beer.

If you are a single adult male over the age of 50 and you are will to try to can dance, you can become one sought after commodity at one of these dance clubs. I think it'll give some of my friends out there some hope that one day you can the sought after guy.

It seems to me that people oftentimes just can't leave a good thing alone.  There are so many examples of a project, business, company… any kind of human endeavor that is successful.  That has found a winning formula for their product or service.  And then, the powers that be decide to make drastic changes.  The kind of changes that completely knock them off the course of success and into a downward spiral of failure. They couldn't just leave things well enough and as result, something that was once doing well is now floundering for its very existence.

I'm all for continuous improvement, but if you have a hit, a success, then you've got a winning formula.  Keep your tweaks small, don't overhaul something that is clearly successful. Like the football coach whose team moves down the field on the ground, get into the red zone and throw 3 in-completions then kick a field goal. If the off-tackle is working, stay with it. Same with life. If what you are doing is working then keep it working. Adjust a bit, change some simple things up a bit.  Maybe run the ball to the other side of the field, mix up where you go and see if you can find a soft spot to capitalize on. I know, I know a successful "formula" doesn't mean you don't evolve.  Change is, of course, inevitable AND healthy.  Embrace it, but don't let yourself go crazy with it. Seek advice from people you trust… from your customers even….. Surveys on that.

It's a feeling I guess, not the science of successful business but the ART of being successful professionally.  Some people just seem to have an eye for that sort of thing. Sharpen your vision, do research and ask questions. I believe that is really an important skill in leadership that we miss in education but comes out in the school of hard knocks.  Knowing when to leave a good thing well enough alone. Please Subscribe and/or Leave a review and pass it on OR Subscription Service

I remember when going to a movie was a much bigger deal. Now, we stay home, watch on our giant screen with surround sound. it's a shame really because the big screen at a theater, not to mention IMAX, can entertain unlike even the best TV's can.  Been to several new releases the past 6 months, the biggest crowd was barely more than 20 people.  And that crowd, there's not a lot of young people. Pains me to think about all the entertainment joy young people are missing. Movie theaters are dying.  Ones I've been to need updating and frankly aren't all that clean or very well kept up. Working at the theater was once a prime job, but no one wants to work at a job anymore. Poor service and out of things. 

Happiness doesn't happen accidentally.  To achieve happiness is to realize your goals… your dreams.  And to do that, to be truly successful, you need to have the proper mindset. Organization, one thing I always took pride in.  One thing I always looked to improve on as well. John Wooden "Without Organization and leadership toward a REALISTIC goal, there is NO CHANCE of realizing more than a small percentage of your potential. He's saying we have no chance for success if we're not organized. Problem is, you may not realize it. Working like your hairs on fire and your butt is catching (being disorganized) may become your method of operation.  It's your daily do and you don't even realize it. Get and honest self-evaluation, a previous topic. Work with a trusted team who don't fear being honest with you, also a previous topic. Start with organization and then be disciplined, yet another previous topic, to find success, and therefore happiness.

The great coaches and successful people I've admired and emulated all were super organized. I've always tried to be that way as well.  I've found that when I am successful…. When I'm well organized, it's a "boost" to my morale.  Being organized feels good. Same token, if I'm in a quagmire, disorganized and overwhelmed.  That's really downer and literally makes me feel depressed.