Have you ever had a "Divine Moment"? Sometimes our lives intersect with others for only a short period of time. But, during that time, something wonderful happens. The intersection of ideas or philosophies converge in a relationship that may only last for a season. But, during that time your life is forever changed. And then the relationship may change. The relationship may dissolve over time and then it is gone. But, what you are left with is a "Divine Moment" that forever impacts you for the rest of your life. As we go through life, let us try and create these "Divine Moments" for others by the things we do and say. We could make all the difference in the world for someone else and not even know it. Let's do this!
Have you ever noticed that when talking to people that the first excuse they give is not really, shall we say, accurate? Many times we say things simply because we think they will sound good. They're not our real reason. But, we don't want to go into the real reason. We may not want others to know what the real reason is for an excuse. And really, we may not even want to "dig deeper" into understanding what our real reason really is, for whatever excuse we give. Instead of living in a place of "truth" we live in a cloud of excuses that may not be based in facts.
When you get right down to it, it appears that there are two opposing forces at work in us all the time. They are opposed to each other. There are forces of faith, hope, love, courage, and more telling us that we can do it, there is a solution, you can find a way. And then there are forces of doubt, despair, bitterness, hate, fear telling us that we can't do it, there is no solution, you're stuck, learn to live with it.
It is my firm belief that we are called to be overcomers. We are designed to overcome whatever situations we are facing. It is built into us by design. We all have different things to overcome. It is the struggle to overcome our situations that helps us to grow and develop. When we choose to overcome, we set out on a journey that will change us. We'll never be the same again.
But, I think some people loose sight of their design. They choose to settle at a place in life. And then they surround themselves with excuses, that sound good, as for why they can't overcome. If the excuses aren't based in truth, then we run the real danger of entering into a place of delusion. We may have all kinds of opportunities around us to overcome our situations, but we can't "see" them. Having eyes, we can't see. Having ears, we can't hear. And our understanding becomes "darkened".
The problem with doubt and fear is that they are like curtains covering windows in our minds. We can't see out the windows because the curtains are covering the windows. On the other side of the windows may be our solutions that we desperately need. To draw back the curtains covering our windows will require some faith and hope. It will require us to challenge every excuse we've given ourselves as to why it can't be done.
We may not have the solutions to our situations. No mater how hard we try and figure it out on our own, we may not be able to come up with the solutions. But, if we start to believe that someone else might have the solutions we need, and we start to look for people that can help us, then we're on the road to becoming an overcomer. Becoming an overcomer starts with believing that you can be an overcomer. And, it starts with humbling ourselves and asking for help when we need it.
Without passion, what is there? Do we then live lives of simply endurance and escape? We go through life doing what we need to do to survive. We do what we need to do to make money and pay the bills. We may not like what we're doing, so we endure what we don't like because we feel we have to. What other options are there? It doesn't seem like there are any other options. We get tired of constantly trying to endure and then try to escape. We escape with movies, music, and more, for a short time. Then it is back to "enduring" once again. We feel fatigued often and try to escape this fatigue through watching television, etc. We work all day, then watch TV, or get on YouTube, to escape. Endurance and escape. Endurance and escape. It is like we are on a treadmill repeating the same thing over and over.
Is there a better way? Instead of endurance and escape, what if we did endurance and passion? What if we replaced the escape with passion? What if, instead of spending time trying to escape, we spent time trying to find our passion? Can you imagine what might happen?
Have you ever been really tired and decided to go to a movie? If it was a good movie, many times you would come out of the movie energized. You were still tired, but you felt energized. Or, maybe you've listened to music, and it did the same thing for you? Finding your passion might energize you in the same way. Sure, it will take effort to find your passion and begin to live it out. But, if it energizes you, it won't be that "one more thing I have to do". It will be what you do that energizes you and makes your life feel worth living.
If you look for your passion, you'll find it. Start looking.
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
This book inspired me to want to give most of my income away. R. G. LeTourneau did just that. He ended up giving 90% of his income away. He was able to live on only 10% of is income. This inspired me to want to do the same. I was young when my mom told me about this man. She was so impressed with him. In San Jose, there is now a church on a hill. Before the church building was constructed, they were trying to figure out how to level out the hill to build the church. R. G. LeTourneau heard about their problem. He ended up moving the dirt for them for free as he tested out one of his big earth moving vehicles. That's the story I heard. Wouldn't it be something to take all the talents we have and develop them to such a point that we had an abundance that we could share with others?
PS Went to Wikipedia and found out that about 70% of the earth moving equipment used by the Allies in World War II were LeTourneau's. Mr. LeTourneau also held about 300 patents.
I think in my generation many of us made the decision to be practical, rather than passionate. Being passionate about something might not "pay the bills". So, we put our "passion" on the shelf and worked on being practical. We worked on gaining the skills we needed to increase our value in the marketplace so that we could simply make more money. I remember going to college and researching what occupations paid the most. The thinking was that I didn't want to waste my time on an education that did not pay the bills. I wanted to maximize the money I would make for the time I invested. I don't think I was alone. Where did my passion go? Did I ever have any passion?
I also remember going through the mental process, when I was younger, of imagining who got paid the most in the world. The conclusion I came up with at that time, right or wrong, was that salesmen get paid the most. It seemed to make sense that if you were a master salesman you could basically write your own ticket. The more sales you made, the more money you made. But selling what? And why? I wrongfully thought about making the most money I could, again. And again, where was the passion?
My first selling experience was trying to sell "Rocky Mountain Munches". I was very young. I saw an add in some newspaper and somehow got the money to get a box of munches (probably funded by my mom). The plan was to go to different businesses door to door and see if they would put my box of munches in their business and sell them for me. I think I made my sales pitch once (maybe twice) and I was done with the munches. I was very shy. I was terrified. I had no training. I had no idea what to say. It was just raw determination that got me going (and there wasn't much of that).
All I knew was that I wanted to make money, and a lot of it. But, I had no real goal of what I was going to do with the money when I got it. I'll go into more details about the other businesses I tried in more blogs.
The bottom line conclusion, that I have come to, after all these years, is that passion is an essential ingredient to success. I'll talk more about passion in future blogs.
YouTube Link: OMG Moment At Bay Club
It just "hit me" while I was in the pool in the lane behind me (over my right shoulder) here at the Bay Club. I was going back and forth in this lane saying over and over again, "Oh my God." I was thinking in my mind that I could do it all. I could help people get healthy in their spirit, body, and finances. I could live a lifestyle of service to others that would be so fulfilling that I would love it. It was something that I imagined I could do for the rest of my life. In this blog I'll be covering the "how" over time. It is going to be a fun journey. I hope you'll join me.
At a young age I remembering thinking something like this:
We're born
We go to school
We get a job
We buy a car
We buy a home
We get married
We raise a family
We make investments
We put our kids through school
We retire
We do something after retirement
We die
I remember thinking to myself, "Is that it?" I think there is more....
When I was very young, my mother got cancer. She was a school teacher at the time. It was just me, my sister, and my mom. My mother and father got divorced when I was around six years old. She heard about a diet from Japan that had helped people who had cancer. I believe she was very worried about us kids and what would happen to us if she died. She decided to try the diet. She is still alive today perhaps fifty years after she had had cancer. She is one of the reasons that I've been interested in a healthy lifestyle for years. Thanks mom for living out a life style right in front of me that has influenced me for years. I recently introduced her to Kangen Water. I told that it also came from Japan. She was impressed yet again with Japanese ingenuity. For more information about the Macrobiotic Diet, check out the below books. My mom is familiar with both of them. I'm thankful to Michio Kushi. He may have saved my mom's life years ago.
Years ago I was in business with a group of people that were constantly talking about the four temperament theory and how it related to the business. They described the temperaments as "Driver," "Amiable," "Expressive," and "Analytical." We also had a book of the month club and this was one of the books. I was fortunate enough to hear Florence Littauer speak in person at a conference. I remember her striking me as a very humorous and intelligent woman who was amazing to listen to. She was a blast. Now why do I say that this book may have saved my marriage? Because this book, and all the teachings on the temperaments, gave me a foundation on which to begin to understand people. This was critical in me beginning to understand the differences between my wife and myself. You see, my wife and I are exact opposites! Isn't that the way most marriages are? We see the strengths in our mate that we don't have, and are attracted to it. But, with those strengths also come weaknesses. Each temperament has strengths and weaknesses. Once you understand this, it makes it much easier to find the grace to accept the weaknesses of your mate.
Another great book on Temperaments. This looks at the great figures in the Bible and explains their strengths and weaknesses. The theory explains in this book that we are all made up of mainly two temperaments. It then takes all of the two combination possibilities and explained historical figures from the temperament viewpoint. It is an analytical book and a bit dry. Just the facts, mam. Just the facts (as an detective in an early TV show would have put it).
After I got an email from Eric Prusak about this little girl, I felt sick. I couldn't stop thinking about her. Sometimes things hit you deeply. This one did. I could barely focus on what I needed to get done because I was thinking about this little girl. Many horrific things happen in this world. It is easy to put up walls around ourselves to protect ourselves from the onslaught of the troubles of this world. There is so much pain in the world. It simply seems over whelming to even think about. So, we push it out of our minds and focus on our own problems. And, our world shrinks down to the size of our limited vision for our own lives that does not include other people out side of our family. What if we changed this? What if we included other people and brought them into our "family". What would our vision look like then? What do I mean exactly? Well, what if we imagined adding five, or maybe ten, more people to our "family"? Could this be done? If we decided to "include" others it would get us thinking about how to do this. We live in one of the most prosperous nations in the world. We have opportunities all around us. But, if we have no reason to look for opportunities, then opportunities will slip right by us and we won't even miss them. Can I throw out a challenge? Expand your vision to include others and then look for the opportunity that, with some hard work, can make your new vision a reality.
Molly getting hydrated with Kangen water before her baseball game. She really loves playing. When I met Cynthia about 10 years ago, Molly was a lot smaller. :) She is nineteen now! Molly has two brothers too. One of them was about 4 years old when I married Cynthia. He is now 15, weights about 200+ lbs and is almost as tall as me and is wearing bigger shoes than me. His brother loves baseball and is one of the star players on his team. Recently I saw him hit a home run at a baseball game. I was amazed. He is 17 and can really hit the ball. When I stepped in as a step dad, I made a bunch of assumptions about what it was going to be like. All of my assumptions were wrong. It has been challenging, to say the least. But, the challenges have really done for me what I would never have been able to do for myself. I am grateful for what they have brought into my life and how they've helped me to become a better person. Even the relationship I have with their father has helped me to become a better me. This is my family. Thank you Cynthia for coming into my life and bringing with you some amazing kids.
