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In some of my songs I have casually mentioned
The fact that I like to drink beer
This little song is more to the point
Roll out the barrel and lend me your ears

I like beer, it makes me a jolly good fellow
I like beer, it helps me unwind and sometimes it makes me feel mellow (Makes him feel mellow)

“I like Beer” Tom T. Hall

 Paul Swartos is a great guy. He’s a college buddy of mine, we played football together.

I don’t see him much because he lives about 15 states away. But, through the miracle of social media, I get to see Paul and what he’s interested in nearly daily. For example, one of his favorite things to do on Facebook is a “beer review.”

I would say over the last five years he has probably reviewed, 500 different beers.

Often when he travels or even simply goes out to eat, he will grab a local bottle, can, pour, or pint and take a great portrait photo of not just the beer but also where he is sitting and the situation in that he finds himself drinking this particular beverage.

Chomp Chomp, Ears Up!, 608 honey hops, Weldwerks, Opa’s, and even staples such as Busch lite and Coors.

It’s not unique; I’m sure plenty of people have beer reviews. Likewise, I’m sure plenty of people have reviews on steak, Sub sandwiches, pizzas, video games, etc.

To tell you the truth, I’m not even into beer myself. Sure, I’ll have one once in a while, but I doubt I have a half dozen beers in a year. The beer really doesn’t make any difference to me. In fact, even when reading Paul’s review, most of the time, I’ll kind of just gloss over the beer, unless it really stands out like the Ears Up! logo above.

Nope, the beer, despite being the object in review, isn’t what keeps bringing me back to Paul’s review.

What brings me back may be overlooked by many at first glance. So I’ll give you the secret and why it’s better than the review in the first place.

Here’s the thing…There aren’t any negative reviews in the over 500 or so that he has done over the last half decade.

This guy loves beer.

It can be a Shandy on a hot summer day. He can bully a blueberry crisp at the start of the first Jackrabbit football game. It might be a pumpkin spice as October rolls around, or it could be a Busch Light in his family basement while he’s watching the Packers game.

It doesn’t matter to Paul. Beers. They are all pretty good. He thoroughly enjoyed them. It’s got a unique taste and it fits the situation.

The thing that Paul has figured out and continues to share every day is that it probably doesn’t really have anything to do with the beer itself. It’s a mirror, yet different example of my, “How to create the best burger of your Life” podcast.

I think it’s less beer and more the circumstance in which Paul finds himself drinking the beer that makes it such a good one.

He’s found the magic ability to put himself into the right mode. And he’s been able to reproduce this time and time again.

It might be a great location, good friends or family, a happy experience such as a game or a pizza joint with his kids.

Let’s be honest; a true beer review should at minimum have a scale: Some sort of ranking system involving the numbers 1 through 10 or some kind of subjective findings that would allow him to compare one beer to the next. But Paul’s doesn’t. On purpose. They’re all pretty good, with some “exceptional” and some “unbelievably outstanding’s.” Everything on his radar hits in the top 10%. That’s why I love it. If it had a rating system, it wouldn’t matter to me because I’m not a beer guy.

Because we all should use this paradigm shift as an example of how to win at life. Paul set’s himself up for wins. Over and over again. A life of his “internal top ten list” constantly being updated and shuffled. A continual improvement of the journey being much more important than the destination.

I think too many times, we think about our life from the wrong angle. Maybe the ball game didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. Or the steak was cold in the middle. The beer had a sort of Skunky taste. or, if you’ve read my articles for a while, you’ll understand…sometimes on a Saturday, I just don’t want to go fishing right now. I have other stuff I would rather be doing.

Yet for the enlightened, as Paul pointed out to me without actually pointing it out to me. It has nothing to do with the beer or the pizza or the temperature of the steak but more with the circumstances we find ourselves in as we are partaking. The fact that he just got done watching his kid kick some butt in a wrestling meet, or that the football team fought hard, learned, came together as a team, and thought back from a 15-point deficit, and even though they lost by three at the end, their group became better. The fact that in my life, it’s not about the fishing -it’s about me spending time with my kids and watching them do things that they love to do.

So many of the articles on my website talk about being happy, awareness and a perspective change, but I don’t live that life 100% of the time. It’s impossible. Sometimes I fall back into not always seeing the sunny side of things.

And that’s when Paul’s Reer Review (PBR) brings me back to the proper state of mind. A picture of a beer on a huge wooden table in front of a Lakehouse Resort with a perfect summer sunset is the equivalent of three deep breaths with my eyes closed before meditation. It’s a universal reset, showing us the positivity in the world. Set Yourself up for this more often.

Paul’s beer review is the right way to start or end my day.

Keep it up, Paul. And if any of you out there have a great beer that he should try, I can put you in touch with him. Most likely he’ll love it!