Journal 30 October

I was listening to a talk today by Chris Brady in which he spoke about the history of David and Goliath.  One of the thoughts that stuck a chord in my mind is when he spoke about there being a reward for defeating Goliath, specifically no taxes, great riches, and getting promised the Kings daughter in marriage.  While this is in and of itself pretty neat, I wonder if we could take it to the metaphysical for a few moments.  Since the time of that epic contest people have refered to difficult tasks as Goliaths in their life.  This is quite telling since not one of the Israelites even thought they could overcome the giant, even with the offer of such a great reward. Then along comes the Rascal David.  Here is someone that looked at the situation differently.  He saw the dread of the situation.  The Philistines were going to rape and pillage Israel, destroying all her people (at least that was the goal). David also saw the dream when he overheard what King Saul was offering any potential champion.  So to do we need to look at the goals we have for ourselves.  Every person has some sort of thing they would like to see come to fruition (no matter how deeply they may have buried it in their heart).  A dream, desire, and/or dread will do one of two things to each person.  It will drive them to action, or it will "cook them in the squat". If we will take no action it is as though we were a muffin that failed to rise, it was cooked in the squat.  The muffin was ready to jump up and rise but it hardened before it could make the launch.  If we ignore our 3 D's or do not take action with them that is our destiny.  With every dream, however, we see that there are great rewards in all levels of motivation.  Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady spoke about the three levels of motivation on their book Launching a Leadership Revolution. The most superficial is material things such as cars, houses, money, things of that nature.  This is an integral part of motivation and will get some people to do what they normally would not do.  However, often the deeper levels are necessary which are Respect/Recognition and finally Legacy or what your name will represent after you pass from this life.  The rewards offered by King Saul fall directly or indirectly into all three levels of motivation.  There was material in the Riches, Respect and recognition in not paying taxes, and Legacy in what would come of the marriage to the daughter.  Taking this and applying it to our own lives we are able to apply the motivation in our life so we can overcome our Goliaths as they come.  For us and our metaphysical exploration we will have multiple Goliaths, which will also necessitate additional throttling points for our 3 D's.  If a new dream, dread, or desire is not constantly kept in the front of our mind we will stagnate and lose ground.  There is no standing still in life.  We must move forward, in reverse, or backwards. The King has offered the rewards, it is up to each of us to go out to the battle and fight for them. 

Smelting of thoughts

One of the many facets of success is the idea of beginning.  We often will contemplate an idea or venture, becoming quite excited about it, only to let it pass by for a myrid of reasons.  Chief among those is the fear of failure.  We tend to want to avoid beginning because there is a risk that all of our efforts may pass into what is percieved as fruitless failure.  Why invest that time and money if it might not work out?  However, the spectrum of Human Experience tells us that those who do begin, and work to finish (even when the finish is not what was expected) are the ones we know about and many attempt to emulate.  I don't really want to talk about the finish quite yet, though.  To begin, that is a sweet nectur in our soul.  Even with ventures that fail, there is something to be gained from the beginning.  We are often reminded by those who are on their death bed, or those who have had near death experiences, that we should live our life by priorities, not so much by obligation.  Inherent is the notion of living in our purpose.  Orrin Woodward describes purpose as the area where passion, potential, and profit intersect.  What is your niche?  What is the area of life where you come alive and thrive, as though nothing could stop you? As you find this answer as why you are not doing it (if you aren't), or what you could do to better your activity to this point.  Going back to the idea of Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust, what quadrant are you currently in? Have you sought out your purpose, your niche, the thing you have to offer this world? If so, what are you doing with it? Have you dedicated any time, effort, money, or other resources to doing this thing? How is it going for you? Is it coming to fruition the way you want or are there things you could do to make it better?  Determine what can be done to change the outcome towards your goal, make the changes, which takes you right back to the beginning.  Always in the state of growth we are beginning at something.  Every activity is not simply one activity, just as a moment in time is not simply one moment.  Time interweaves with itself in a map of transition, so too is our actions.  To go down the rabbit hole for a brief moment, time is simply a measurement of change, nothing more.  A balance is necessary to understand how to treat time.  We need to not be bound by the seconds, while at the same time live our life by the clock.  This speaks of everything in moderation.  If we live only by the clock and map out every section of every day it becomes bland and meaningless.  However to achieve the greatness within some organization has to be embraced, otherwise nothing would get done.  A great picture of this balance is the story of The Little Prince.  "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." {Jean Jacques Rousseau}  Our society has become one where the dream is a nice hobby if one has the itching for a hobby.  Otherwise it's all work.  Interestingly enough most forms of art that are out there scream at us to not become such addicts to mediocrity and the doldrums.  "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." "Jim, you have the makings of greatness in ya." "You can change your fate."  "Fear is not real."  These are just a smattering of quotes from movies speaking to the antithesis of complacent living.  We are living in a pool where a few have caused the current to move in one direction, and we are given a choice: either to pick up our feet and go with the current; or we can begin, we can put our feet down and move in another direction.  Pool bottoms are rough though, they will cut, scrape, and mangle the feet for a moment of time.  "Pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever." You can get through the trial of pain. 

The revision pt 1

I once had a book published entitled The Physical Manifestation of a Spiritual Sabbatical.  Aside from the title being quite lengthy and cumbersome, the book lacked some depth and meaty substance. Granted this was my first published book (second one written) so I was quite the novice. I have decided to take on rewriting the book at the expense of the few who bought the original in hopes that the revision will speak more of what I had in my heart to share. 
In revision I have decided to post as I go the pages I write.  My request is that you the reader would read and comment/critique as you go.  It is my hope that this book can truly make a difference in many peoples lives.  So without much more ado here is The Manifestation of Revision...

I have a friend, we shall call him Scott, since that is his name, who quoted often the phrase from Lord Alfred Tennyson: "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die." As an older teen, this statement seemed to make a lot of sense.  Why should I interfere with events and circumstances, especially those I thought were outside my sliver of impactful influence.  I was, after all, a product of my environment. At least that is what I thought to be true at the time. I felt there was little to nothing I could do to alter my fate.  I had no quirky witch whom I could barter a potion from.
As time walked on beside me this despondence took many forms: lost hope of ever finding lasting love, loneliness in the midst of crowds; I had become one of those men leading "quiet lives of desperation." I discovered I was not alone.  Most people I knew who looked like they had it all together actually were just quite skilled at bluffing.  Their lives were a seamless cycle of work to home to work again, with perhaps a memory made with an unallocated half hour found at the bottom of the barrel. While this is somewhat a macabre view, really isn't it true of most, if we are honest. We don't give those we love and care about the prime cuts of our time, most sacrifice those cuts to create someone else's dream. Collectively I can hear them silently screaming in anguish as they ask why they are even here.  Am I just here to pay some bills on my way to the grave? The answer is a resounding NO!  How then is this answer reached though? What is the paradigm that must be evicted for the answer to become that NO!?
First we must realize the perpetualization of the deception of scarcity that permeates our society in this day and age.  (I know, quite a bit to go into one sentence)  Those who are going to be wealthy and successful are already well endowed while the rest of us are simply out of luck and are fated to scrimp and scratch to get by. 
Far be this from the truth. Each person, you and I, is here for a reason, a purpose.  Providence has you here at just the right time in just the right situation.  It is for you to decide how, and if, to use this knowledge.  Finding this out might be quite a shock. In fact, you may question me and how I can be so certain of this, especially if we've not met.  It is quite simple, really.  Consider, for a moment, how old you are.  I, at this writing, will be 32 in a couple months. Best guess is I was conceived early March, 1985.  In conception, though, is the first big truth. We are not speaking about one sperm cell and one egg. At that moment there were legions of sperm cells, and the possibilities of eggs were also numerous.  The potential combinations are mind numbingly high.  It could have been any egg released that month, and any sperm that made it... Or it could have been none. The miracle of conception is just that, a miracle.  There are many ways that moment could be subverted. After that you have forty some odd weeks of growth and development where anything could go wrong.  My wife and I have had two miscarriages, one as late as seventeen weeks.  As far as can be determined they were simply genetic misfires, something went wrong in the genetic coding.  We also have two beautiful daughters, one born before, and one after the losses. After forty weeks we have infancy, the toddler years, childhood, adolescence, and on into adulthood. You are reading this, which means you have likely lived into one of the later stages. Congratulations!! You have survived the gauntlet thus far. Do you realize the odds of survival?!? By all rights none of us should have survived (if you have ever dealt with a two year old you know what I mean) No matter in what or who you believe, there is a reason to be thankful. This also means we have an opportunity to assess life up to this moment, and make shifts or changes if needed.  Recently my father had a heart attack and underwent a quadruple bypass. Also was the shooting in Las Vegas. Not to mention Hurricane Irma and the fires in the Northwestern United States.  What a wake up call for all of us.  It could happen... At any time or any place. We don't have a thousand years to live, as Marcus Aurelius said. 

Flirting with Disaster

"If the system works, but it could work better, it is as good as broken."

As someone who has lived paycheck to paycheck the axiom "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" was something I lived by day by day.  The car shakes but is still drivable, the computer only crashes once every couple weeks, yeah the door squeaks but still opens, seemingly little things in our daily lives prophecying of impending doom.  We often pay little to no attention, often too late when disaster does strike do we realize we had warnings all along.  An example in my family was a car accident. My wife was driving to work in a car I knew I needed to do some work on.  It still functioned though, and I simply had not slotted out the time to perform the task. Behold, a phone call at 8 am awakened me from my neglect. The tire, hub, and brake assembly had fallen off as she was making a turn (I'm grateful it didn't happen at freeway speeds).  A simple error could have been disastrous.
Likewise, in life, we are surrounded by situations and circumstances which are calm on the surface, but a raging torrent is underneath threatening to wash it all away. Orrin Woodward, former Systems Engineer and current Leader/Entrepreneur, often refers to what is called PDCA: Plan, Do, Check, Adjust.  As an engineer he would take a component, tear it down all the way, analyze the pieces, and then build it better. 
It is in this spirit we should strive to live our lives. The idea of not fixing something which is unbroken is simply another way of choosing to live in mediocrity.  We cannot exist in status quo, the law of entropy ensures this. We must be striving for betterment,  or we will be consumed by decay. Our blessing is in the knowledge that we can control which direction we are going. What daily activities are you doing? Do they act to improve you or allow you to vegitate? Every decision made will take us either closer to or further from our goals and dreams.
Sometimes we are in a position where the realization comes that things could be better, improvement and growth is achievable. It is in moments like that the song by Meatloaf speaks volumes: "if it ain't broke, break it!" There will always be difficulty and pain when ties to old ways are severed. Often it seems as though we are losing a part of our self in the process. Eric "E.T." Thomas says we must be willing to sacrifice what we are for what we will become. There is so much that can be achieved if we will simply go after what pulls our heart. Be fearless on the edge. It is when we jump that we discover the wings we had all along. 

Be the Warrior Poet: be diplomatic when you can, fight when you must. 

Forge of Life

"Through endurance we conquer."
~Ernest Shakelton~

Of all the success principles and ideals, the notion of endurance and persistance are paramount.  This is the fulcrum upon which balances success. Even scripture speaks of "enduring to the end".  In fitness, endurance is where work translates into exhaustion, a position where muscle growth becomes possible. I have heard of a concept called Transcendental Training.  This is where, in basic terms, you get your mind to disassociate from the body as you train. By doing so we create two powerful tools for the road to success.
First, by removing your mind from the technical stress of the situation, you allow the mind to focus on the significance of why you are doing the activity in the first place. One does not get lost in the trees for the sake of the forest.
Secondly, once "muscle memory" takes over an activity it is from then on done with unconscious competence, something you can do in your sleep if called upon.
Imagine success becoming something done by muscle memory, by being unconsciously competent with what it takes to be successful. It is in this fashion that endurance becomes victory. Success, victory, conquering, they all become systematic and natural, causing the outside observer to think they are come by these easily. It is the training in the dark, enduring trial after tribulation of untold intensity, that they emerge the champion having been refined in the forge of life. 

Be the warrior poet: Be diplomatic when you can, fight when you must.

A word concerning football

A though concerning football

Yesterday while perusing my feed from friends, leaders, and others who inspire me I noticed a trend in posts concerning the act of kneeling during the National Anthem. This is not the first time I have seen this but some of the posts made me sit up and take some notice, ultimately inspiring me to write this blog.  Interestingly this is the third attempt as the first two glitched and deleted themselves before I could share.  

For me this is not a matter of right or wrong.  I am passionately a fan of the First Amendment and free speech (which also is choice of agency aka free will).  I would never deprive a person of their right to speak and act as they choose.  In life there are consequence to every action, but I am not judge nor jury.  What I am is an American Citizen and a member of the planet we call earth.  

If someone chooses to kneel, or chooses to stand, on the field kudos for them and their right to choose.  My only concern for those who are doing this is what do they do while off the field of play.  Indeed, what are they doing in their communities and larger arenas to effect the change they are seeking.  If they are actively engaged then fantastic.  If not, however, it then becomes a question of character and integrity.  

This goes deeper than simply a protest or someone kneeling or standing. We have become a nation of couch side protesters, choosing to post a thought on our screens and take what talking head pundants tell us to think as gospel.  When did we sell ourselves for that? Don't get me wrong, Social Media can be a great tool to do much good, but it is also rich and fertile breeding grounds for tempests of destruction.  I, in fact, will use Social Media to share my thoughts here.  Social Media does not do what local involvement can do or is capable of doing. We, as citizens of this nation have a right and duty to be involved and influential. If you go back and look through the founding era writings, they were incessant about people being involved in their local policies and governance. We were not supposed to be ruled by an aristocratic few from on high.  This is what they were working to eradicate.  And yes they were fallible, imperfect humans, just the same as you or I.  They knew, though, that systemic disease cannot be solved by waving a pen of legislation at the problem. It must be solved by the people.

Our country is very ill at the moment. Disease is running rampant in our towns and communities. It is our right and our duty to stand for the individual and for what we believe.  Will we disagree? Of course, if we all agreed it would be boring.  That is what makes life beautiful and diverse. The discussion is the tapestry of human experience, in the passion of focused moments. You are part of this and you have a voice.  Shine brightly in this world.  

Be the warrior poet: Be diplomatic when you can, fight when you must.  

Ps Cammi Love encouraged me to rewrite this after it was lost so thank you Cammi.  

Get all in

"If you want a thing bad enough to go out
and fight for it, to work day and night for it, 
to give up your time, your peace and your sleep for it…if all that you dream and scheme is about it, 
and life seems useless and worthless without it…
if you gladly sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it 
and lose all your terror of the opposition for it…
if you simply go after that thing you want
with all of your capacity, strength and sagacity,
faith, hope and confidence and stern pertinacity…
if neither cold, poverty, famine, nor gout,
sickness nor pain, of body and brain,
can keep you away from the thing that you want…
if dogged and grim you beseech and beset it,
with the help of God, you will get it!"

~Les Brown~

This is one of my favorite quotes.  

Generally humans have one flaw that supersedes most others, the irony is this flaw is learned. It is so maddeningly hard to get past the unknown for most people, so much so that those who do push past the fear are both lifted up reverently and demonized.  We are not born with this though.  As children we are filled with the sense of adventure and seeking the unknown. Watch an infant and you will see what I mean. Alas time moves on and we learn to be afraid of things out of our familiar zone, as Chris Brady calls it. We seek the illusory comfort of what we know, only for the sake of our goals and dreams.  These exist in the unknown.  They cannot be discovered without first leaving the security of the known. Those who do the impossible discover it really wasn't as hard as our minds contrived it to be.  It is like running through a wall of wet toilet paper.  By appearence it looks daunting and solid, a bulwark of indomitable barriers preventing us from our purpose.  It is soon discovered to be a lie, a false appearance of power, when we will run through it.  This is not to say there are not difficulties.  Indeed wet toilet paper is hard to remove.  It is sticky and messy and a nuisance. But the reward of victory is so much more. Take the Indiana Jones jump into what can be.  

Until Later, 

Roy K.