Starr Hardgrove

“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.” - Denis Waitley Most of the time, we're out of focus. There are a million things trying to gain our attention at any given moment. We are living in the most stimulating time of our lives. Whether it be phone notifications or other such things, we're constantly being challenged with our mental focus. With many of us being diagnosed with ADHD as kids, there are medications that make us focus. But is it just as simple as just taking a pill to block out the noise or do we have to be trained or learn to focus.  Much like an artist, it's good to organize your brain to work on whatever issue it tends to focus on or problem that it intends to solve. We must grab our specific skillsets or tasks and make a space where we can work. We must set a time and place to make the big leaps and to solve the gigantic problems.  During the day, we tend to move bac...

"If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living." - Joseph Campbell We only have a short amount of time on this Earth with a limited amount of energy each day to progress ourselves forward. If we think of the time that we spend, eight hours of that is usually spent on a job. Six to eight hours are spent sleeping, and you get roughly five hours to create things, to live life, and to move forward. Either we're a consumer or a producer as a gentleman once said at a conference for entrepreneurs. It's in the moments in between that we create a life for ourselves. Either you're doing something that you love or doing something else in order to do what you love. And it's gone within a moment. I remember when I was eighteen with lofty dreams and aspirations as if it were a minute ago. Now, at age forty, I see with different glasses a l...

Hey family and friends. Starr here with some updates and news. I've been doing okay here in T-Town. Living la Vida loca. Had a wonderful game night with friends where we played The Oregon Trail, Sushi Go Go, Set and Exploding Kittens. So fun. Work has been challenging yet fun every day. I've been having focus issues and working to eliminate those so I can be more productive at work. I've also been focusing on a possible dopamine detox that I am going to attempt. I think that using neurochemicals to achieve goals is 10 times more important than to just exist devouring content and shitposting.  I want to write a movie that will be fun for people to act in. I want to write plays for people to produce. I want to be an auteur. And I want to create gifts and things for people to enjoy. I want to create a successful side biz for people to enjoy.   Anything that gets in the way of the basics needs to be eliminated. And I need to be ruthless about that. And I can't do any of tha...

  If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else. - Joseph Campbell When we think about curiosity, what comes to mind? It killed the cat would the the first thing I think of. And what of a cat who is curious? It’s asking questions. It’s observing the world around us.   Explorers in older days were seeking conquests in the new world were referred to as conquistadors. They were exploring the uncharted world and seeking riches and wealth. Does curiosity bring death and destruction? We see the observable world and the world yet unexplored. At the heart, is to learn. And learning allows us to grow. To bring on new skills. To focus on what is required to progress and become a skilled laborer. A skilled professional. We decide what we want to be and then we decide what is required to be that.   We have a lot of questions. I’ve often said that the secret to life is not knowing the right answers, but asking the right questions. The brai...

 Memento Mori....remember that you are going to die soon. We all know it's coming. Like a freight train. When we least expect it. Bam. Nothingness. I recently heard an interview with Stan Lee where he said that he couldn't fathom nothingness forever. That's what he couldn't grasp. There have been many who have warned us about the inevitability of death and that it's coming for us. Here's what Seneca had to say about it. “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” Seneca and another pioneer of our time, Steve Jobs said.... Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. I have...

Nightmare Alley is a movie directed by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blachett, Willem Dafoe and Toni Collette. There are many different characters played by many actors in this grim neo-noir story. The movie opens on the main character burying a body in the middle of a house and lighting it on fire. He hooks up with a traveling carnival that doesn't care who you are or what you've done. He is introduced quickly to a carnival mainstay, The Geek Show. A major theme of this movie is Jung's statement "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." The basic idea behind this is that things in our unconscious mind will drive our conscious decisions. Stan has a major drive to make his way and make something better of himself. As he inhabits the carnival. He befriends the head of the geek show that gives him a soft bed. He also befriends Zeena and Pete, who are a couple who in the past have created a...