Like, if you think about your career, what would you do differently in 2012 if this were the second time around? Would you create deeper relationships with your coworkers and clients? Would you focus more on only a certain number of projects?

What about your relationships? If you could do 2012 over again, would you spend more time with the people you truly love and who truly love you? Would you stop yourself from being spread so thin?

Frankl’s tip is a handy way to help us understand what really matters in life. It gets us thinking about what’s ahead, has us living the entire year in our mind, anticipating our mistakes, and then invites us to live differently.

What I did with this was to create a few categories on a sheet of paper and write down how I’d like to live within those categories a bit differently. For me, those categories are career, relationships and faith.

The year 2011 had me living in reaction. And while it was an eventful year, and maybe one of the more growing seasons of my life, it was filled with mistakes and way too many people and projects. I feel like I lived on planes and gave half efforts to books and blogs and conferences and movies. I had a vague notion of what I wanted to do with my life, but really just went where the wind blew. I’m hoping 2012 is different. I want to live more wisely, stick to my values and ethics, live a much smaller, slower life. I also want to surround myself with people who have integrity, who can help me become more healthy, pillars who are grounded in reality so I know where I am and what life is really about. None of this is going to be easy, but I’m going to give it a shot.

What about you? If you could live 2012 over again, before you have even lived it the first time, what would you do differently?

get ready…

– present –

“NEW YEARS EVE – FROSTBITTEN KISS”

Join Denvers’ elite as 2011 comes to a climactic end. When LoDo transforms into the hottest party destination in the metro area, dont miss out on the best party there is. RUCKUS APPAREL and The Jet hotel (located in the heart of LoDo) cordially invites you to a Frost-Bitten Kiss New Years 2012.

* OFFICIAL NEW YEARS DESTINATION FOR THE RUCKUS ARMY
* DENVERS TOP DJ TY TEK SPINNING ALL NIGHT
* DRINK & CLOTHING GIVEAWAYS ALL NIGHT
* FREE CHILLED SHOT LUGE
* DONT DRIVE!! ASK ABOUT OUR STAY & PLAY PACKAGES!!

Come out to witness The Jet Hotel transform into an arctic paradise with breath taking ice sculptures, multiple full-service bars and the most exclusive and best bottle service packages. Not to mention our “Stay and Play” options – 18 modern chic rooms available for the ultimate afterparty settings and as always – the sexiest staff in LoDo, not to mention the RUCKUS girls in full swing.

Don’t waste time get your tickets, reserve your table and upgrade with a Jet Hotel room for the ultimate New Years Eve experience. We are hoping you find that Frost-Bitten Kiss at midnight to heat up your 2012!

BUY TICKETS NOW – This event will be sold out any day!!!
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FOR BOTTLE SERVICE CONTACT 303.550.1335

FOR GENERAL INFO GO TO : http://www.newyearseveindenver.com/

Today I got punched in the stomach. It hurt like hell and I will not soon forget it. Okay, so it wasn’t an actual punch, it was a punch that is unseen, but hurts even worse. I was reading a story about these two brothers, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the oldest, a hunter; a real man’s man. Because he was the oldest, he was set to inherit his father’s money and take his place as head of the family when it was time. That’s just all back-story, the part of the story that hit me like a Mike Tyson hook was 4 verses from the end of Genesis Chapter 25:

²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!”

³¹ Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³² “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³ But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

Random, right? What the hell does that even mean? I am not here to try to interpret the Bible, what I am going to talk about is the one word this story has me screaming- APPETITES. I mean, who gives up their inheritance for a bowl of soup? Even worse, what kind of brother holds soup hostage until he can swindle his bro out of his inheritance?

We all have these appetites within us, the constant quest for more. It’s different from hunger and can be more powerful that addiction. An appetite is something internal where your body and mind are telling you that they need to be filled – they need to be satisfied. This kind of appetite is eternal though. Let me explain. No matter how much you gorged yourself on Thanksgiving, you still woke up the next morning with your body telling you that it’s time for some more. The more I think about it the more I realize that this whole internal worldly appetite for more could be the death of us.

We have this internal appetite for all sorts of things: money, fame, gratification, acceptance, beauty, importance. APPETITE. The thing that tells us if a little is good, then more must be better. It’s always there silently whispering – more, more, more. And yeah – sometimes it’s satisfied. But… the thing about an appetite is that it ALWAYS comes back.

So lets go back to this cat Esau. He comes in tired and hungry from hunting, sees this amazing stew, asks for some, and his brother says “of course… but its going to cost you.” Esau took the most prized and valuable thing that he had, and he traded it for a bowl of soup. That’s what an appetite does. We trade the future for now – We trade significance for immediate gratification. We barter away our purpose, our souls, our lives, our peace, bit by bit, for a moment’s joy, and we barely pay attention. This appetite, this disease of constant comparison and unchecked desire is killing us… and we don’t even know were infected.

I’ve boiled down my worldly appetites into five categories that will help explain EVERY SINGLE DECISION THAT I MAKE. The hunger of these five appetites rules our world and the constant quest to fill these needs is singlehandedly responsible for everything I do.

The Five Appetites:

1) Security (something that will tell me everything is going to be okay)

2) Acceptance (something to tell me that I’m liked)

3) Value (something to give me purpose or make me feel meaningful and important)

4) Love (something/someone to tell me they will never leave me)

5) Excitement (something that gives me adventure)

Aren’t these the five basic needs of every single human? The problem with pursuing these needs is that it is like storing gas in a fuel tank that’s riddled with holes. So what ultimately ends up happening is we start to seek immediate satisfaction to fill us up. We replace legitimate, lasting substance with crap, simply because it’s easy. Why patch the holes when we can just pour more in? Quick fixes become the norm; normal to the point we don’t even know that were doing it.

We’ve begun to trade security for immediate comfort, acceptance with shallow compliments from strangers. We trade in our 5 closet friends for 500 facebook friends, valuing quantity over quality. We trade value for cheap knock offs. We trade love for lust, filling our desires with quickies to only satisfy ourselves. We trade adventure and excitement for momentary rush of adrenalin. We’ve degraded our lives for convenience… We trade our inheritance for soup – and we don’t even recognize it until it’s too late.

This Fall right around Halloween we had a big family dinner planned. I am the oldest of four siblings and we’re all grown now and all over the globe so it’s rare we’re all in one place at one time. My youngest brother Jordan was back from Boston and middle brother Jeremy was home from Uganda. My mom and sister, Kayla, cooked all afternoon getting the feast ready. My dad for some crazy reason loves Candy Corn. I will never understand how he eats that shit but he loves it – so my mom bought him a big bag of it, and put it in a bowl for him on the desk in his office.  Throughout the day my dad would snack on the Candy Corn – handful here, handful there, refill the bowl, and so on. Well when it came time for dinner – he was so stuffed on the Candy Corn he couldn’t even eat. I think that’s what we do within our own lives for the most part. We fill ourselves up on crap and find ourselves missing out on the feast. If we’d been disciplined, we could have had it all, but instead we’re surprised that we can’t have any.

APPETITES – they come in all shapes and sizes trying to get their fix. We have learned to accept these cheap substitutes in place of the real thing. Porn, Facebook, Alchohol, fast food, coke, instagram hearts, sleep, cheap sex, money, fame. The list goes on and they are all just cheap substitutes for real, substantial, worthwhile, meaningful relationships and desires: we are constantly searching for ways to feed those five things and we lose sight of reality. Even with video games – how many times have you lost sleep trying to get to that next level? Because then – maybe then – you could feel accomplished and get a good night’s rest.

I am not excused from this disease, I’m probably the worst out of everyone. I have a horrible appetite for the feeling of being wanted. Not just sexually, though that’s part of it – I just want to be wanted… I want to be wanted all of the time. Honestly, my appetite for acceptance and value are at the forefront of almost everything I do. I’m reading this book called Searching for God Knows What and it talks about how everything we do is for acceptance. This life is one big lifeboat and we naturally start deciding in our head who we are better than, and it flushed itself out in a recent interview.

I was talking to Chaos magazine recently and the interviewer asked me, “why did you start Ruckus?” I thought about it and responded that – I am broken, that I like and love fashion, but basically subconsciously, I just want people to like me. The guy paused with a reflective look on his face then leaned over slowly, and looking down said, “you’re not alone.”

What I’m asking is this: what is your candy corn? What in your life has become a cheap substitute for the real thing? What’s something you can consciously do this holiday season to be that thing for someone else? I know for me personally those 5 appetites are only fully satisfied when I look to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You’ll have to figure out for yourself what does it for you. I challenge you to seriously look at your appetites that have gone unchecked, and once you’ve seen the truth of it, don’t let them keep you from living the way you know you should be.

Love – and God Bless.

Josh