Tag Archives: inspirational

What’s Your Secret Mundane Superpower?

We all have that one ordinary thing we do that everyone else also does, but we’ve mastered it better than anyone else in all of humanity. That is your Secret Mundane Superpower. You may even have multiple super powers. And I want to hear about them. I want to hear you revel in your greatness!

I will tell you about my Secret Mundane Superpowers, only on the condition that you respond with yours in either your own blog post about it, or in the comments below. If you read past this paragraph, you have engaged in a legally binding contract to reveal your mundane superhero identity. Although it may seem like writing silly bullshit is one of my Secret Mundane Superpowers, it is not.

I’ve been blessed with three Secret Mundane Superpowers. The first is my mastery of the microwave oven. If you hand me a plate of any size with any amount of any food, I can immediately choose the exact amount of time that it needs to be cooked to come out at the perfect eating temp. It’s not like I just shout out “5 minutes” or any other even number. The numbers just pop into my head; sometimes it’s 1:47 and other times it’s 18:23.

My second mundane super power is cartwheels. I don’t know why, but at some point in my life I decided that I would continue to do cartwheels long past the age when the rest of humanity gives up that childish foible. Now that I’m way on the wrong side of 50, I’ll occasionally do a cartwheel to say “F you universe, you can’t stop me.” In fact, you can see many of those cartwheels in random places on my TikTok. And by the way Simone Biles, I don’t care how many medals you have, I will challenge you to a cartwheel contest any day. Hit me up. You know where to find me.

My third Secret Mundane Superpower is telling time. Not looking at a watch telling time, but telling time in the times and places when you lose time. If we’re on vacation sitting on a beach drinking margaritas all day and  neither of us has a watch or our phones. At any random moment if you shout out “Phil, what time is it?” I will respond with the time within four minutes of accuracy. I will also tell you to stop shouting. I’m sitting right next to you.

I believe that all of us do have wings, albeit mundane ones sometime, but you are not just ordinary. What you consider a mundane talent might be a herculean feat for someone else. We are all capable of greatness in ways large and small. You too are a superhero.

OK, you’re up. In the comments below or on your own blog tell us about your Secret Mundane Superpower.

~Thanks for reading, Phil

You Never Get a Second Chance, or Do You?

Contrary to what the Rolling Stones think, time is not on your side. It’s not on your side, or my side, or anyone’s side. Time is just time. It’s not anything else. It can neither be created nor destroyed. It just marches forward, unrelenting. The problem with time is that it runs out. With just about everything else in life, by hook or by crook, you can always get more. Not time though. That’s why 2015 is special.

clock

Why is 2015 special you ask? We get more time. Not a lot, but we get more. One second more in fact. Due to the imperceptible slowing of the Earth’s rotation, which may be caused by things like earthquakes, tidal drag, and other weather events, the science guys figured out that the atomic clock is out of sync with the solar day by a second. To correct that, this year on June 30th at 11:59:59  an extra second will be added. The atomic clock will change from 11:59:59 to the time of 11:59:60 before then going to 12:00:00.

This year is a second longer than most. We get more time. A gift. So what will you do with your extra time? Some of you may be saying, “But Phil,” (I love when you say my name),”what can I possibly do in an extra second? That’s not enough time for anything!” Well, for starters you can probably say Phil in one second. If you all did it at once, at that extra second before midnight on June 30th, that would totally make my day. If however you want to spend that extra second on yourself or someone else here are some things you can do:

– Maintain eye contact with someone you love just a little bit longer 

– Smile at someone who needs it

Take a deep breath and remind yourself how lucky you are to still be doing that

– Laugh a little longer at a joke that lifts your spirits

– Touch someone. Just one finger laid lightly on another. Make that magical connection for a second or a second longer. 

– Floss another tooth. People who floss their teeth regularly live three to five years longer than those who don’t. That’s a whole lot of extra seconds.

– Jump. Just one jump. Throw your body briefly into the air. For a second feel the joy you did as a kid when you jumped for no reason at all. If you’re lucky there will come a day when you haven’t run out of seconds but your legs will have run out of jumps. Make sure you take that extra one when you can.

One second doesn’t seem like much, but it is truly infinite. Over the course of your lifetime there have been a million thoughts, decisions or actions that have occurred in the blink of an eye, in the span of a second that have changed your life for better or for worse. This year you get one extra second, one extra thought, one extra decision, one extra move you make. What’s it going to be?

As always, if you have one extra second right now and you enjoyed #ThePhilFactor please share it by hitting the Facebook, Twitter, or re-blog button below. Have a great Saturday. See you June 30th at 11:59:60! ~Phil