The 4 Points of Leadership

Bearing compass (18th century). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 4 Points of Leadership, like a compass, we need to make sure our leadership skills, our life skills are inline with the 4 main points on our internal compass. The goal of any leader, be they corporate leaders, group leaders or mom and dads, direction and clarity are important. The 4 Points of Leadership will help you set your compass to true north and help you to set your course to a leadership style of clarity and direction.

 

Point One: Environment

Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
W. Clement Stone

The people and things we choose to surround ourselves with define us, they shape us and inform the world who and what we are. As my mother use to so, you are who you hang with, we choose to associate with like minded people, to frequent places filled with the atmosphere we thrive in. We do not often exit our comfort zone nor do we often drastically change our environment, we are creatures of habit and seek out comfort and security.

To set our compass to True North, to Clarity and Direction, we need to create an environment that is healthy and uplifting, we need to choose friends and associates that will help define us as productive and positive influences on our society.  Our Direction needs to be one of upward movement, one set with the goal of creating a better world that we entered into. This includes \more that just donating to the local soup kitchen, it includes our actions and words as well. The simple act of teaching our children to say please and thank you, or to open the door for an elderly person. Respect and charity go hand in hand, and are all part of the environment we create.

Point two:  Action

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.

Abigail Adams (1744 – 1818), letter to John Adams, 1774

Actions speak louder than words, we all have heard this saying, most likely from our Mothers, and once again, our mothers were right. Actions do speak loader than words, in-fact actions define our words. It is easy to say “I will” or “Yes” or even “I love you” but if our actions do not back up the words, the words become hollow and meaningless. Yet, if we just do it, with out the words, the action stands on its own, becomes the truth with in the words not spoken. Actions are our currency, it is with actions that we gain trust and respect. And like money, we must learn when to spend our actions and on what. Well spent actions will provide us with respect and trust, where as miss spent actions or lack of action will deplete our account and render us morally bankrupt in the eyes of our creditors, our friends and family.

To set our compass to True North, to Clarity and Direction, we need to learn the value of actions, to see the outcome and consequences of our actions on ourselves and those who surround us. We need to learn that our words must be followed by our actions, and that our actions can and do define our moral character. We are what we do or don’t do. Our inaction is as important as our actions.

 

Point three: Laugh

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.
~Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing in this world is beyond a laugh. We cannot take life or ourselves to seriously. Life is to short not to smile to enjoy and to laugh. Learn to relax and go with the flow, and you will learn that life is not all that bad. We all have run into that one person who seems to have the personality of a arm pit hair, they find no joy in any aspect of life, and fine no humor in this world. They see the world as a cold humorless place, a place that needs to be pitied not laughed at.

Before you condemn them, stop and look at yourself, are there times, moments or days that you too feel this old world is just in to sad a shape to laugh to enjoy and experience. We all could use a little more laughter in our lives, we all can light up a bit more and learn to make this world a little more bearable.

To set our compass to True North, to Clarity and Direction, we need to learn to find the silly in life’s stressful moments. We need to learn to laugh at the ridiculous and find the humor in the outrageous. We need to teach our children not to be offended so easily and to find the funny in the sometimes not so funny world. The world can be, and often is a cruel place, God has given us the grace of humor, it is up to us to use this gift to help make this world a better place, for ourselves and the next generation of leaders.

Point Four: God

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.

~J. G. Holland

Our being depends on only one Being,God, believe in Him or not does not change the simple fact that God is there and God is the Creator. God provides all that we need, but we must achieve it ourselves. We have faith in the outcome, but the work must come from within. We are not capable of achieving greatness without the graces of God flowing through us and within us. We must learn to respect and harness the graces God has provided for us, each to our needs, not our desires. God knows all our wants and provides for all our needs. Our wants and needs may not be the same, we may not understand the differences, but God does.

To set our compass True North, to Clarity and Direction we need to learn that God exist, truly exist and provides for our well being, but allows us to partake in the process, allows us to journey alongside the Creator. Our actions, words and desires need to be all for one purpose, glorifying God and praising Him for the graces He has bestowed upon us. Once again, believe in God or not, does not change the fact the God believes in you.

In Conclusion

The 4 Points of Leadership can and should be thought of as the 4 Points of Life, a life lived well. Each person is a leader, a leader of there life, there family there destiny. We choose the path we wonder, we set our compasses on the prize we seek and we gather around us the ones whom we esteem and hold dear to ourselves. God allows us the freedom, grants us the freewill to choose the path we walk, always offering us the graces we need to walk the path with Clarity and a sense off Direction. It is our decision to take up His offer to to choose to walk the path alone. Leadership is not about going it alone, not about forging a new path or even about making a name for yourself, Leadership is about understanding, understanding self, others and your place in the universe, it is about understanding your roll in Gods plan, not Gods roll in your plans.

 

God Bless

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach 

 

 

 

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Destructive Thinking

I thought I would share another found article….

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post written by: Marc

10 Destructive Faults in Our Way of Thinking

The human mind is wonderful and powerful, but it’s far from perfect.  There are several common judgment errors that it’s prone to making.  In the field of Psychology these are known as cognitive biases, or fallacies in reasoning.  They happen to everyone regardless of age, sex, education or intelligence.

Over the past few months I’ve become fascinated by these biases and fallacies, so I’ve read several books about them.  Today I want to share ten of them with you.  They are the ones I repeatedly notice myself and those closest to me struggling with.  My hope is that you will use the information in this article to pinpoint these destructive patterns in your own thinking, and break free from them before they send you spiraling down the wrong path.

1. Negative self-fulfilling prophecies. – A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that motivates a person to take actions that cause the prediction to come true.  This kind of thinking often tears relationships apart and causes people to fail at their goals.  Here are two typical examples:  1.) A man believes that his relationship with his new girlfriend is “never going to last.”  So he stops putting effort into the relationship, pulls away emotionally, and a month later the relationship fails.  2.) An intelligent undergraduate in the field of health convinces herself that she “doesn’t have what it takes” to become a doctor, so she therefore never completes the prerequisites for medical school, and thus never becomes a doctor.
2. Only taking credit for positive outcomes. – This destructive thinking pattern occurs when we take full credit for our successes, but deny responsibility for our failures.  A perfect example of this can be witnessed in school classrooms across the globe.  When students receive a good grade, they often attribute it to their intelligence and their excellent study habits.  But when they get a bad grade, they attribute some of their failure to a bad teacher, an unfair set of test questions, or a subject matter that “isn’t needed in the real world anyway.”  The bottom line is that in order for a person to grow emotionally, they must be willing to take full responsibility for all of their actions and outcomes – successes and failures alike.
3. Believing we are immune to temptation. – We have far less control over our impulsive desires than we often believe.  Sex, food, and drug addictions are extreme examples of this.  Many addicts believe they can quit anytime they want, but in reality they are simply lying to themselves.  But you don’t have to be an addict to be vulnerable to temptation.  Lots of smart people end up impulsively giving in to temptation simply because it’s the easiest way to get rid of it.  It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.  If someone wants to get rid of sexual desire, the easiest way is to have sex.  If someone wants to get rid of hunger pain, the easiest way is to eat.  Restraining from impulsive behavior in the face of temptation is not easy; it takes a great deal of self-control.  So be careful, because when we have an inflated sense of control over our impulses, we tend to overexpose ourselves to temptation, which in turn promotes the impulsive behavior we want to avoid.
4. Passing a broad judgment from an isolated incident. – An inaccurate first impression is a decent example of this one.  It’s about our natural human tendency to evaluate a person or situation from a bird’s eye view, and then presume to know enough to pass a reasonable judgment.  This happens a lot in the corporate working world.  A newer employee might show up late to work after experiencing legitimate car trouble, but their boss immediately becomes suspicious that they are not committed and responsible, and treats them as such for several weeks thereafter.  The obvious solution here is to look at the big picture before you start pointing fingers or making assumptions.
5. Believing we can control the uncontrollable. – This thinking fallacy occurs when people begin to believe that they have some kind of direct influence or power over an external event that is completely random.  It is especially evident in the minds of amateur gamblers; especially those who have had a recent string of good luck.  For example, if you flipped a coin and asked someone to guess heads or tails, and they got it right ten times in a row, they might begin to believe that their good luck is confirmation that they have control over the outcome of each flip.  But the truth is that there is always a 50% probability of their answer being correct, and their last ten guesses were pure luck.
6. Ignoring information that does not support a belief. – Psychologists commonly refer to this as the confirmation bias.  We as human beings naturally tend to look for information that confirms and supports our beliefs, and we tend to overlook information that does not.  We are selective in the evidence we choose to collect so that we don’t have to challenge our way of thinking, because it’s easier not to.  This destructive thinking trap is very common, and it can have detrimental effects on our productivity when we make big decisions based on false information.
7. Beginner’s optimism. – Beginner’s optimism is the human tendency to underestimate the time required to complete an unfamiliar task.  It occurs due to a lack of planning and research on behalf of someone who is excited about doing something they have never done before.  In other words, when we get assigned a new task that we are anxious to get started on, instead of delaying the start time to accurately evaluate the level of difficulty and resources required, we simply guess and begin.  Thus, our expectation of the workload is based on raw optimism instead past experience and reliable data.  And it all backfires on us a little later when we find ourselves knee deep in work we were unprepared for.
8. Rebelling simply to prove personal freedom. – Although more common in children, this thinking fallacy can affect people of any age.  It’s basically a person’s urge to do something they have been told not to do, for fear that their freedom of choice is being taken away from them.  This person may not even want to do whatever they are doing to rebel; however, the simple fact that they are not supposed to do it motivates them to do so anyway.  The tactic of reverse psychology is a commonly used method of exploiting this thinking fallacy in others.
9. Judging a person’s capabilities based solely on the way they look. – This happens thousands of times a day worldwide when one person assumes something about another person based on their immediate appearance.  For example, someone might see a tall, well groomed man in his early fifties, wearing a business suit, and instantly assume he is successful and reliable, even though there is zero concrete evidence to support this assumption.  Bottom line:  You can’t judge a book by its cover.
10. Trying to diminish losses by continuing to pursue a previous failure. – Sometimes called the sunk cost fallacy, this is a thinking fault that motivates us to continue to support a previously unsuccessful endeavor.  We justify our decision to continue investing in this failed endeavor based on our cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the cost, starting today, of continuing to pursue it outweighs the expected benefit.  The logical thing to do would be for us to cut our losses and change our course of action.  However, due to the sunk costs we have already invested, we feel committed to the endeavor, so we invest even more time, money and energy into it, hoping that our additional investment will reverse the outcome.  But it never will.

If you can relate to some of these destructive thinking faults, and you’re interested in learning more about them, give these books a read.  All three are equally incredible:

• Predictably Irrational
• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
• How We Decide

Photo by: Pejman Parvandi

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I hope you found this article helpful…

God Bless

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach 

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How to Achieve your Goals and Create your own Mount Rushmore

Image via Wikipedia

Our ability to succeed is truly all up to us. We are the masters of our own destiny, and we decide if we fail or not. All to often we allow others to decide for us, we listen to the negative inputs from others, allowing that cancer of negativity to eat away at our resolve. As Abraham Lincoln stated:

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)

It is our own resolution that will determine our own outcome. We must work hard and over come what ever obstacles are put in our way. Sure, it make be hard work, it may take time, sometimes it takes a life time, or even longer. Think Mount Rushmore

Between October 4, 1927, and October 31, 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the colossal 60 foot (18 m) high carvings of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history. (Source)

The size and scope  of the project

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (in order from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.^[1] The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km²)^[2] and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.^[3]  (Source)

So what is your Mount Rushmore, what project do you have that is monumental in nature that will leave a lasting impression on all? We all have our own Mount Rushmore’s, we all have something inside of us that is striving to get out, to breath and to become a life unto itself. But are we, are you and I, willing and able to be resolved to complete the project. Can we bear the hard work, can we blast away the old rock and carve out a new face?

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.Joseph Addison (1672 – 1719)

All to often we do not, all to often we give in, so what can you and I do to change this destructive pattern? Glad you asked:

• Know the goal:  Before you can even start to work on the goal, you have to know the goal. I don’t mean just a basic idea of what you want, like “I want to sell stuff on eBay” No that’s not knowing your goal, that’s naming it, but to achieve it, you have to know it intimately. Research it, live with it, understand it, both good and bad points. Know it like you know yourself.

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.

Denis Watley

•  Count every step: Everything you do towards your goal is an accomplishment, count them, plot your progress, celebrate your success.

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that?s where you will find success.”
- Thomas J. Watson

• Look at setbacks as resets: Setbacks are an opportunity to start over, in building Mount Rushmore they planned on building in a completely different location, but due to the quality of the poor stone, they reset, reevaluated and relocated.

People who make money often make mistakes, and even have major setbacks, but they believe they will eventually prosper, and they see every setback as a lesson to be applied in their move towards success.
Jerry Gillies

• Learn and keep on learning: Learning can never be a onetime thing, no matter the goal, there is always something new, some new research, new considerations or new insights. Keep a journal of your learning, tack it and reread it often.

What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.Martina Horner, President of Radcliffe College

• Accept: Accept that sometimes the goal we want is not the goal we achieve. Think Post it Notes:

Everyone knows what Post-it® notes are: They are those great little self-stick notepapers. Most people have Post-it® Notes. Most people use them. Most people love them. But Post-it® Notes were not a planned product.

No one got the idea and then stayed up nights to invent it. A man named Spencer Silver was working in the 3M research laboratories in 1970 trying to find a strong adhesive. Silver developed a new adhesive, but it was even weaker than what 3M already manufactured. It stuck to objects, but could easily be lifted off. It was super weak instead of super strong.

No one knew what to do with the stuff, but Silver didn’t discard it. Then one Sunday four years later, another 3M scientist named Arthur Fry was singing in the church’s choir. He used markers to keep his place in the hymnal, but they kept falling out of the book. Remembering Silver’s adhesive, Fry used some to coat his markers. Success! With the weak adhesive, the markers stayed in place, yet lifted off without damaging the pages. 3M began distributing Post-it ® Notes nationwide in 1980 — ten years after Silver developed the super weak adhesive. Today they are one of the most popular office products available. (source)

One last thought:

Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. If you could see them clearly, naturally you could do a great deal to get rid of them but you can’t. You can only see one thing clearly and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin.Kathleen Norris

So what ever your goal, what ever your dream, be diligent and know that only you can stop yourself from creating your own Mount Rushmore.

God Bless

Paul Sposite

Guided Insight Life Coach 

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Reflections

Image via Wikipedia

Merry Christmas everyone! And a Happy New Year! May God Bless you and keep you in his loving arms! As the New Year approaches I thought I would take sometime to reflect upon the Old Year. Over the past year my life has changed, my household has changed and well, just about everything has changed. Some for the better others not, but change is, overall, a good thing. So lets take a look back shall we….

 

The above was going to be my opening line for todays posting, but I have decided not to write that, for many reasons, one being I am not good with details and dates and such, so sometimes I am not sure when an event took place, was it January of 2010 or December of 2009… Also I decided that any major event was already posted here, so if you want to know what went on in 2010, just look at the old posts… So now what….

I still like the title Reflections, so I will keep it, but now I have to write something to fit the title… an interesting writing exercise, I have done it before, and I have always enjoyed the outcome. I like to see what comes to mind and how I can twist it to fit the title…. So lets see what may come…

 

Over the holiday session I love to watch holiday movies. In-fact I have a rule in my house, From Thanksgiving until Christmas, the only movies I watch are Christmas movies, so needles to say I have lots and lots of them, some better than others, but they all get one viewing during the session, some get many viewings, such as “White Christmas” or “Holiday Inn”  and the classic “It’s a wonderful life”.

But this session I think I found a new Christmas classic, “Beyond Tomorrow”. Beyond Tomorrow is a delightful movie that will inspire and entertain you, and like many Christmas movies, it can be enjoyed all year long.  I would recommend it to anyone who loves old movies, movies with a simplicity and style to them. My love of Christmas movies has netted me many hours of pure enjoyment, much like my love of Christmas music, as any reader of this blog knows.

My love of old movies is nothing new, I have also posted about them… My collection of old movies keeps growing, and this Christmas I have added over 60 new movies to my collection. I must say I love the fact that you can get more than one movie on a DVD, and I love the fact that with the older movies they are doing more and more of that.

A lot of the older movies are in the Public Domain, meaning there is no copywrite on them, so companies can freely use them and distribute them. This allows many companies to create DVD sets with hundreds of old movies on them. I have several of those sets. Sure some of the movies are not worth the time but over all it makes for an enjoyable watching experience.

Now before you start to think that all I do is watch old movies, I also got a few books to read this Christmas… And truth be told, I truly do not watch a lot of TV or movies. But I will admit that I have been known to sit from the time I wake at 7am or so until the time I go to bed at 10 or so to do nothing but watch old movies. And I will also admit I have done the same with books (more often than not it is with books). But I do live my movie days, just sitting and watching old movies…

As part of my New Years resolution I am am going to attempt to blog more about current Catholic/Political and Social issues, to add more links to facts and background data. Normally I don’t offer much of that, I am not one who likes to research, and when I do, I am not one who makes good notes. So the end result are articles that contain facts, but very often no link to the fact. The reader just has to take my word for it. If I am to do this, I will not be able to post daily, not that I have been, but I would have to post maybe weekly or something like that. But that is my resolution this year, to offer more facts and to back up the facts with links. I have done it in the past, it just takes some time. So look for it in 2011… Not sure what my first article will be, but I will try to post it with in the first few days of 2011… Until than….

Happy New Year and God Bless

Paul

 

Fairness is not Fair

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The excitement for November 2nd is building, the new possibilities for our Nation, for our States, Towns and Cities. November of 2010 can be known as the day we, the citizens of America, chose to take back our Government. The day we decided that personal responsibility is more important than Government hand-outs. The day that we decided that a hand-up is what we needed all-along.

The Democratic party claimed to be the party of the people, the party with a heart, the party that truly cares for the poor and underdogs of the American fabric. Yet all there polices and actions are contrary to there rhetoric. The parry of compassion has done more damage to our Great Nation than any other national organization I know. They are quietly de-constructing the nation, one law, one court appointment, one election at a time. It’s a slow death, one that we hardly notice. It all seems so harmless, what’s wrong with a little hand-out, what’s so bad about a judge legislating from the bench, what harm is there in protecting one under advantage group over another.

Lots is wrong with it, it is a divisive tactic designed to create a class war, to create a sub-set of America, creating division with in the National fabric. And its the perfect plan for the socialistic Democratic Party that is currently in power. Divide and conquer, that’s the battle cry of the Obama administration and the democratic party. They cry for fairness, but only if it means taking form one to give to the other, the chosen ones.

America is fair, each and every person has the same opportunity to archive what they dream and work hard for, that is fair. Unfair is giving more to one who has not earned it, unfair is lowering the standards for one and not the other. Fairness is not equality of outcome, but rather equality of opportunity, and all have the same opportunity.

Sure, not all can attend Harvard, and not all should. Yes some make more money than the other, but that’s ok also. What in life is played on a level playing field, in school some got all A’s others struggle to get C’s and others have no interest in school at all and receive E’s. Is that fair? Yes, you get the grade you deserved.

But some will say, what about the poor student who studies and works hard and only gets a C. That’s tough, but that’s life. Not everyone is A material, some are just C’s. I read a story, said to be true, of a collage professor who was teaching an economics class, the students were arguing that a socialistic “fair” society was what America needed, that we had to many poor and under achieving citizens. That the rich were just to rich and the poor just to poor. The rich should give up there riches and the poor should be given the money with no effort on there part. So this bright professor decided to put into action the socialist ideals in his class. He said that everyone would receive the same over all grade, based on the class average. The students were pleased, and figured they have won the argument, and this sill, capitalistic teacher would learn his lesson. The fist test, the class average was a B. The A students were not happy, but the C,D and E students were pleased. The A students felt they deserved an A for all the hard work and effort they put in to the test. But as a socialistic class, the average was a B, so all got the same regardless of effort. The next test the average was a C. The C and D students from the last test decided that they did not have to work as hard as before, because the A and B students will carry them, so the average dropped. This infuriated not only the A students as before but also the B students, who now say there hard work going punished. As you may have expected the class average continued to drop as more and more students become lethargic and discontent. By the end of the term the whole class had proceeded to fail. Not one student passed the class, the professor stated he felt for the students, but he kept the grade as they were, and felt a valuable lesson was learned.

Hard work must be rewarded and laziness must not go on unpunished. Now please understand that I know that not all C and D students are lazy, for some it just comes harder than for others. And I know that not all A and B students have to study all night, I understand that for some it just seems to come easy. But once again that is life. Should we, as a society, demand that out athletes play “fair”, fair as in the way the democratic liberal socialistic party defines it, that all are equal or should we just accept that some teams are better than others? What fun would a ball game be if we knew that the end result would always be a tie, and all teams are in the world series, and all teams win, resulting in all players receiving a world series ring? Not much fun at all, I would rather go to the ball park anticipating a win, a good game or even an upset. At least I know that the players had to give there all, and if not, well the cards will fall were they may.

The American people have been sold an idea that fairness means equality of out-come, and that has never been, nor will it ever be fair. It is, at best, rigged, and at its worst, theft. We have robbed our society of ethics and pride and replaced it with entitlement and sloth. We have created a nation that is dependent upon the government to provide for there basic needs. But now we are even demanding that they provide for our wants along with our needs.

Obama and his comrades will bend over backwards to provide this for the American people, not because he cares for the people, but rather because the more you depend upon him, the more power he is able to take. Entailments are not free, the cost the American people freedom and freewill, they make us dependent upon the federal government for our basic needs and wants. And no were in history has this ever worked, and nor will it ever work. Look at the classroom example from above, the hardworking students were punished for there hard work and the under achievers were rewarded. The end result, all became under achievers. The last two weeks of class, the A and B students didn’t even bother to show up, they saw no point in it. The great experiment worked perfectly, when you provide for everyone “fairly” no one wins.

Fairness is not equality of outcome, but equality of opportunity. Fairness means that sometimes tome will lose and others will win. Our efforts must be rewarded and our failures must not be, the idea that all players receive a trophy at they end of the little league session is nothing but an indoctrination into the group think mentality that the socialist need to achieve there over all goal of total control over the population. America is on her way, just stop and look around, individual thought is being replaced by political correctness. We are not free to think and speak as we please, for fear of hurting someones feelings. We must be inclusive in all we do or we are considered to be phobic of some sort. Silliness has hit the American psyche and we have allowed it. We are becoming less and less American and more and more European. And that would be fine, if we were European, but we are not, we are Americans!

This November 2nd your voice must be heard, we must retake what is ours, and it all starts on November 2, 2010 and will continue until November 2012, when we vote out the socialist and vote in an American, who believes hard work must be rewarded not punished.

 

God Bless

Paul

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This is my body

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In a soft voice, full of concern it was spoken. “This is my body”. It was spoken with a love that was felt by all and it lofted lightly in the air waiting for the soft breeze  to carry it away.

Contrast that with the biting words being spoken, words that hurt and kill, so heavy they fall to the ground, “This is my body!” A soft breeze could not carry it away, not even a gale force wind. The words hang like death in the air.

The contrast between the same phrase is striking, remarkable, yet they are spoken daily. The fist are spoke daily by our Lord, “This is my body given up for you” the second spoke by thousands daily “This is my body, I will do with it what I please!” are spoke by woman who are confused and lost and seek answers in abortion.

Our Lord offered up freely His life, the unborn offer up their body under force. The contrast is striking and shocking. Modern day thought is one of “personal freedom” yet freedom is not the outcome but rather slavery. Slavery to the modern ideal that freedom is doing what you want regardless of who it affects.

Everyday 4000 lives are lost in at war. The lives have no voice with in the congress nor do they sit on large company boards, yet everyday someone makes a decision for them. A decision that their life is not worth it, that they are expendable that they can be forgotten about and can be sacrifices in the war. The war on human dignity, a war on the unborn.

President Obama and others claim to be “pro-choice” yet the one they are affecting have no voice, they can exercise no-choice! How can we as a nation who claim to be one of peace and non-violence (excluding defending ourselves) murder 4000 new lives each and every day?

Four thousand (4000) lives daily, more lives have been killed than in the wars of modern history, yet the peace loving non violent left allow this, they not only allow it they encourage it! The contradiction is striking and one that needs to be called out, one that needs to be rectified!

I am pro-life, I am male and I am Catholic. I am proud to write this blog to defend the 4000 lives that will be lost today, and I hope all pro-choice people will be as proud to let there voices be heard. Write a blog, forward mine, send a letter to your representative or to President Obama, ask them to clarify how they can justify the murder of 4000 Americans each and every day, how can they look at themselves in the mirror knowing that they allow murder to take place each and every day.

“This is my body” are you hearing the soft gentle loving voice of Christ or the harsh scared hate filled voice of the culture of death? Was the body given up freely out of love and sacrifice or was it offered up to the alter of modernism and individualism? Are you truly pro-life or are you of the mindset, well I’m pro-life, but they have to make their own decisions? are you allowing the murder of 4000 babies each and everyday to take place with out even offering up a prayer?  Pro-life can not and should not mean sitting still and silent, it can not mean that, non-action is the same as participation. Be it abortion or any other social sin. We must act!

Not all are called to join pro-life movement, I for one am not, I do not belong to one and I truly do not feel the calling to one. But as a Catholic Christian I am called to defend the poor and helpless, and who is more helpless than the unborn? I try to teach the sacredness of life in all I do, and every now and than I try to write about it, maybe not as direct as this, but I try to offer what I can. I will not vote for a pro-choice candidate and I will not support many organizations that donate to pro-choice causes. I do what I can, with the grace of God and the gifts He has given me. Do you?

Just keep in mind the words of our Lord:

“This is my body, given up for you”

God Bless

Paul

A lay person’s guide to Pope John Paul II’s teaching on human life issues in his encyclical Evangelium vitae (Lay person’s guide series)

1 Peter 1:18-19“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

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Our Last Freedom

"The last of the human freedoms is to choose your attitude in any given set of circumstances." -Victor Frankl

 

For anyone who has ever read this blog or my other blog, you know that freedom is a major theme for me. Often times I use the word Authentic Freedom because we all to often mix up what we believe is freedom to what freedom really is. Well I think Mr. Frankl got it right!

Freedom is a slippery thing and has many sides, but we still are the masters of it and we decide how we choose to use or abuse it or is some cases how we neglect it or abandon it. 

I have long been a believer in the you make your own destiny, we choose to react to situations in a way that will give us the outcome we desire. I have seen two people process the same information yet each will tell you a completely different story and will react to it in an almost predictable way. A negative person will always find the bad, the down in any situation and they will project that feeling in to the situation causing it to be a negative feeling or outcome. Were as a positive person will take a negative and turn it in to a positive, they will find the positive in any situation and project that emotion in to the situation causing a more positive outcome. It truly is in our control, I myself have seen it and have participated in it,as have we all.

So what makes one positive and one negative? Why would one choose to be negative? Well there are many reasons or theories:

• Genetics
• Hard wiring in the mind
• Life experiences
• Attention
• Born that way
• Just want to be

All are valid and I thing in some small ways all are true and all play a roll in it. And the same can be said for the positive person, all the same valid reasons are just as true for the positive person, what I think it comes down to is this. I choose to be positive or negative because from being one over the other I gain greater joy, greater pleaser. Yes the negative person gains joy from there negatives. If they did not they would not be negative. Just like a smoker gains pleasure from smoking, a negative person gains please from the negativeness of there life. They create it and nurture it, so they must enjoy it. Now some may be saying well that’s just silly, no one would choose to be negative, but really is it that silly of a concept? People choose to be whipped and chained up for sexual pleasure, and most of us would have to say that, that doesn’t sound like pleasure to us. But to them it is, to them it is a great pleasure the pain turns them on. If this is so, than it stands to reason that a negative person must gain pleasure from there negativeness or they would not be negative.

It is our choosing, our freedom to choose our response to anyone given situation. This freedom to determine our reaction is one of the greatest freedoms we have, it truly is an authentic freedom. We read about people in horrific situations, Nazi concentration camps, torture chambers and such, yet we also hear of the love they felt or offered or the sacrifice they gave and the positive out look on life they still maintained.

The film “I am David” is a perfect example of how our outlook on situations will determine the outcome of the situation. It tells the story of a young boy who, with the help of a prison guard, escapes from a concentration camp in Eastern Europe, and of his journey to Denmark. Along the way he meets interesting people and has many adventures. In this movie David has a very negative outlook on life, with valid reasons, and yet he is met with some very positive opportunities that turn negative, based on his projection unto them. In the film David grows, and as he does, his negativeness changes in to a more positiveness, causing the events in his life to become more positive. Yes I know its a film, but the concept is the same.

We control our outcome, we determine the reaction we choose to give to any given situation. Life is full of opportunities to see good or evil, positive or negative it’s in our power to see it as we please, it is our last freedom, one that no one can take form us.

Paul

 

Phoenix

Well I did it, this pass week I entered a new part of my life. One part I entered kicking and screaming the there I entered smiling.

Last week marked a new era for me, one that I created, and one that, if I could do over again I would have hoped for a different outcome, but I would have done everything the same.

As I have written I am currently in a bankruptcy, and it is now official, the courts excepted the plan. This is a good thing, it means I can stop worrying about weather the courts will adjust the plan. But it also meant that I must surrender my current car, well Jeep Commander to be specific, and get a used car with no payments. I did this, I am now the proud owner of a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, one that over all is in good condition, it needs work, but she runs. By the way, this was the kicking and screaming part… I was not happy about giving up my Jeep, I like it and I wanted to keep it, just pay it off and not get a new car. But the courts had a different take on it all. Such is life.

When my niece saw the new Jeep she asked what I named it, now for the record I do not name my cars, she was being a smart butt, but after she left I thought about it. What would I name this new Jeep, this car that is now part of my new life…

The second thing that happened this past week was of my own doing, I entered in to is with a smile, I canceled cable, I went and purchased a converter box and over the air antenna and canceled cable. This has been something I have been thinking about for over a year, but each time I would decide to do it, I would come up with a million reasons not to. But this weekend I said to hell with the million reasons not to! And I went and did it, in fact tonight the cable company is coming to pick up there equipment.  Now I must confess that my nephew was not to happy with me, but he will get over it. And yes I will miss some of my shows I like to watch, but I will survive. I have a few “bugs” to work out of the system yet, but all in all, no problems so far. My next goal is to purchase a free to air dish or powerful outside antenna. This basically allows me to view any free to the air ways TV station, and there are tons of them. But that will have to wait, they are a little bit of money.

Also this past week I had a meeting with my new sales team for my company. STATIC  Solutions (my company) has just released its first product (as you have read in this blog). So to market it I needed a sales team, and now I have one.

So to review my week:

• New Car
• No Cable
• New Sales team

A week chop full of changes… So back to my nieces question, what is the name of my Jeep, well based on my week, and based on what is ahead of me I would have to say her name would have to be Phoenix. You know the bird that burns up and is reborn from the ashes. Well in a way that’s what I feel like, I feel like I am burning up and starting to be reborn from the ashes. So Phoenix it is, my goal is to fix this Jeep up making sure she is safe and replacing or fixing what ever I have to on her, and to place on her the name Phoenix.

Rebirth is hard and I am not going to lie to you, it was extremely hard for me to give up my Jeep Commander but in the end I had to and in truth I am sort of glad, a lesson has been learned, and this lesson was one that I needed to learn.  So with my cables house and my new 1994 Jeep along with all the other changes I will freely choose and the ones that will be forced upon me, I will emerge from the the ashes as a new creation, stronger and better if not because if it all, at least because of in spite of it all.

 

Paul

From Wikipedia: A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends[1]). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek).

 

Reading list…

I just finished “Gross National Happiness” a book by Arthur C Brooks who also wrote “Who Really Cares” (also a great book to read). But back to the new book, Gross Domestic Happiness, this book looks at the national happiness of our country, what makes us happy and what doesn’t. It is a fascinating look at America and Americans, how we think and see event that help shape us.

Mr. Brooks uses research data, not his opinion to form his conclusions on who and what makes America happy. He delves in to politics and religion takes a look at race and economic situations and delivers the facts as they fall, not as he wishes them to be.

His argument is that the happier America is the better off we all are. A simple argument, but one that is all to often left  out of the policy making or the discussion of America and her future. Arthur lays down the facts, backs them up with the research and draws logical conclusions from them, often they are conclusions that he was not striving for, but the facts lead him to them. He is an author who is willing to place his own needs aside and allow the fact to lead him, and not his own predetermined outcome.

Arthur followed the same pattern in his first book, “Who Really Cares” allowing the facts to lead him, in truth we all can learn from him, we all should allow the facts to lead us, and not try to skew them to fit in to our own predetermined outlook.

All of us do it, in our faith life, our work life and dour political views. We vote Democrat or Republican not because we agree with the candidate, but because of the party they are with, we change faiths to find one that better fits us rather than us changing to fit the faith we live in a society that allows us to justify the means to achieves the ends.

In his books Arthur refused to allow his own political and religious views interfere with the facts, using raw data to formulate the outcomes he allowed the data to speak for itself.

The Happiness of America and each of us individually is extremely important to our economy, communities and national security. It plays a roll in diplomacy and helps elevate national tensions. This book, well in truth both books, should be required reading by all Americans, they both are books that will help focus our national and personal affairs on what is truly important.

For more information visit his website at http://www.arthurbrooks.net/index.html

 

Paul