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Strength is never bestowed, it must be attained by ourselves. You will never get yourself to anyplace you want by blaming or excusing. Your results belong only to you and they can be earned only by you.
Moving along isn't easy. When we get stronger and better, we enter a new territory. If we're always improving, we're always in new territory. Comfort doesn't find a place there. A life of ongoing growth means a life lived outside the comfort zone—always.
So, don't just stand there when you see something you want. Gauge your opportunity, then move in full tilt.
Decisions are simple if we bear in mind two things: Be direct, be real.
It's no good taking detours without need when you're in a hurry. The problem is that we like to justify detours, without considering their costs. If we don't arrive on time, whatever we're doing won't get done. Equally, it's no good going somewhere you don't want to go. Taking the direct rout over a cliff won't take you to anyplace other than regret. The problem is that we like to justify being in a hurry, without considering the risk of failure.
Win. Be real. Be direct.
If life kicks hard, it seems unfair. But, no one grows without pain of some sort, sooner or later. It's never fair, then again it's always fair. The way pain happens is never right, but the fact that it happens gives us the blessing of growth. So, the unfairness of hardship is the only way life can treat us fairly.
Are you ungrateful for the blessings in your life? People who can't thank helpful pain can't be thankful for anything. They will find a way to complain even about the nicest and best benevolences life has to offer. Be thankful.
As one pushes forward, troubles come up. Incompetence, careless mistakes, no-brainers—things like these get in the way for most people and are all to common in most organizations. When you face an uphill battle, scaling someone else's pile of disaster, there's one easy, win-all solution: Overcome by being evermore awesome.
Whatever disadvantage you were handed by someone else being a fool won't affect you as long as you rise and grow. Work, prepare, produce. Those who manufacture problems for others will end up keeping them for themselves if you don't buy. Then, they're at the disadvantage, and you're not.
When a baby is born, a mother's first instinct is to hold and care. She held the baby in her tummy nine months, now she wants to hold the baby in her arms.
A father's instinct is practical. Happy babies need fingers and toes, arms and legs. So, he counts them.
A mother knows the need for love and contact. She can have confidence that the practical needs are met because a human father's attention to toes reflects our Creator's care through nine months of detailed labor. While the mother holds, the father counts. Are the two opposed or complementary?
Confucius is often touted as a "Chinese philosopher", but his teaching was quite oppressive in many ways. Confucianism values family and respect, but to a point of dogma to older family members, no matter how obviously wrong they may be. This is the cause of so much "objection to China"—it's not that Chinese outside Mainland China despise China per se, but they despise the oppressive culture that came from Confucianism. Taiwan is no exception.
Safety isn't a shell, it's a habit. Shells, gates, and borders can hold us while we grow and hold back an enemy on attack. But, when you're grown or the enemy breaches the wall, your safety is in your strength, skill, and preparation for struggle within your borders.
Unless you walk, live, and remain at large within your domain, you have no domain to keep your liberty. When we exercise our freedoms, it has a policing affect against burglars who would sneak over our fences and lay traps in our own back yards. We are only as free we walk.
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)
Read by Jesse Steele (https://jesse.church)
The complete book, full audio, and notes included, three duplicate verses are skipped.
Translation by R.H. Charles
(Some words may differ from the identical original.)
All our emotions are self-justified. If we're angry, it's someone else's fault. If we worry, well, we should! If we're happy, it's because we deserve it. Emotions are the first stop on the highway to lifelong blame-shifting.
Panic is self-induced—always. Same goes for calm. When the unthinkable happens, which it eventually does, it's all because we weren't thinking of it. By training ourselves to count on the world being as we presume it is—then making our emotional stability dependent on that world rather than personal choice—we set ourselves up. Counting on ourselves for emotions might be better.
When you're stuck in life, you're probably stuck on something. Maybe you're hanging onto it or maybe you're letting it hang onto you. We don't like to let go of the anchors we drag, but we have to if we don't want to drag anchor.
One anchor is "offense"—someone does something no one should be allowed to do! Just remember that you don't need to be offended by an offense for the rest of your life. If you drag someone else's offense with you, you'll sail it to others. Sell anchors in port. Anchor shipping makes an unprofitable business.
Careful who you judge. It might be you who is actually on trial. One sure way to learn about others is to let others think they stand above you, then see how they respond. The person you disagree with just might be doing just that—letting you think you're in charge and watching your reaction.
That might not be the case. You might actually be the decision-maker you think you are, until you're not. Even if you hold the power seat today, tomorrow the tables could turn, then your entire history coughs up testimony about who you were all along.
Yes. It's just that simple. Life can seem confusing when we fear this word. Maybe you don't know your path in your career, business, education, or in relationships. That's not to say we should say yes to every stupid request ever made of us. But, when someone asks something that is safe and within our power—no matter how uncomfortable—no matter how unworthy we feel—say yes.
Saying yes is an act of friendship. When you need something and someone can help, the one who helps likely becomes a good friend. Be that new friend. Be a living yes.
If insanity is repeated, failed methods, priorities are the cure or the cause. Everything has a motive of some sort, curiosity or boredom if nothing else. We do things for reasons. We do things over and over for reasons. When we fail from the same method over and over, it is for a reason—a dark motive—some priority we aren't honest about, with others or even ourselves.
What are your priorities? Do you know? One good look at the path behind shows it all. Once we start to lose something else important, we start to reevaluate what we want.
Every story—every comic book, movie, novel—has a point the author wants to make. Authors write with more in mind than just a plot. Authors want to give readers a larger idea that can only be told in the form of a story.
Some call this larger idea "philosophy". Plato's Cave was a philosophy embedded into a story. Jesus's parables were Judaeo-Christian values embedded into stories. But, these neither strengthen nor bolster everyday life skill. We need philosophy and morals, but we also need cold, hard street smarts, people smarts, and marketable skills. Each is different; keep yourself balanced.
Book of Enoch, read aloud by Jesse Steele as an audiobook
It's one of the hardest things to hear: "You keep losing because you do bad work."
We work so hard, but it still doesn't cut it. We learn, we improve, but no one accepts our work. God told Cain, "If you do good work, it will be accepted," but He never promised that it would be accepted by everyone. "If not," He continued, "sin is right their waiting for you and you must master it."
Few things make us angrier than our hard work being rejected. If you can keep improving without complaining, you'll have been approved by hard times.
Live recording of "Dear Dax" on the very first take.
This is a "rap-back" response to "Dear God" by Dax
"Dear Dax" (Lyrics):
https://youtu.be/Z0dVdXh-f4M
About this rap:
https://youtu.be/_BUQPdBneug
"Dear God" by Dax:
https://youtu.be/nzCIeNhw8oE
Beats by Asaawa Dondo:
https://www.ghclassic.com/dax-dear-god-instrumental-made-by-asaawa-dondo/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpJFnvhH3cE
Behind the scenes commentary about the "Dear Dax" live recording, why I made it, and other thanks to Dax
This is about this video: (Dear Dax - LIVE first take)
https://youtu.be/qyj634-anHY
"Dear Dax" (Lyrics):
https://youtu.be/Z0dVdXh-f4M
"Dear God" by Dax:
https://youtu.be/nzCIeNhw8oE
Beats by Asaawa Dondo:
https://www.ghclassic.com/dax-dear-god-instrumental-made-by-asaawa-dondo/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpJFnvhH3cE
Thanks Royui for being so enthusiastic about good rap:
https://www.instagram.com/boolahe/
Bullies are scary. It's even scarier to stand to them. But, whatever tantrum a bully throws at those who stand up is a mere fraction of what bullies do to everyone when left unchecked. It is far scarier to think about destruction trailing a bully who daily and hourly receives the message from the world that anything goes.
The world needs truth. Truth is the one thing bullies fear most, and they return the most wrath for it. It's hard to know when to stand up to a bully and when to be diplomatic. So, just stand up for truth.
Results move the powerful segment of society that responds powerfully with their own results. When they see a thing happening, they make something else happen in turn. Results is their language.
If you deliver bad results, the result-speaking population will get frustrated with you, then make a change. That change will have results that you might not like. But, you won't be able to argue with results because results don't talk back; they result back.
Living by results is a value. Once someone stops arguing and starts "resulting", that someone has joined the ranks of the "resulting". Results overpower all.
Don't complain too fast. Don't blame the owners of a problem. The very people we complain to surely know about the problem already. They might not even be responsible for it, and there's a good chance that the only reason they haven't solved the problem is from lack of help.
That's the tricky part. People in the middle of solving sticky problems are usually defensive for good reason. Don't expect a welcoming ceremony. You'll likely need some diplomacy to give help to the very people who want it most. But, it's worth it. After all, we're all in this together.
Nothing lasting comes from borrowed steam. Just how no one should steal someone's thunder, no one should loan steam. It's a hard pill to swallow, even harder to prescribe.
You need problems. You need to be abandoned to fend for yourself. You need to grow stronger from the struggle. You need the credit, kudos, and valor that come with winning your own victory. You need to owe nothing to anyone after your own hard-fought revolution. You know how hard that is to hear.
You need to tell that hard message to others. Anything else cripples people into dependence on you.
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