Strength Through Wisdom

I was born and raised by a single mother, God bless her, in a small town in the Midwest. I joined the military at 17 for a salary job with 100% health benefits, four weeks paid vacation a year, a good retirement, to get a free ticket to see some of the world outside of America, and last but not least, because I thought it would be good to serve our country. 

I finished my first three years in Germany and left the military to go to college. After my first college semester my report card gave me a reality check. The reality was that I was having more fun than I was studying, I was also working a couple part-time jobs. I went back in the military, and after a couple of years, I tried out for Special Forces (SF). I went on to spend the rest of my career in SF. It was an honor to serve our country, with great men and women in uniform and civilians. It was also an honor to serve other countries, doing my small part on a team, doing our small part for their country. When I was younger, I never imagined I would have made a career in SF, it just kind of happened, as I was open and willing to accept challenges and opportunities, and do my best. 

I gave my best (physical) years to the military and respected the golden rule. I believe our military members have great potential as they have proven a base level of discipline. When I left the military, I thought I had the world figured out. I tried my own business and it did not work out so well, even though I had some friends and the church I volunteered with helping me with customers. During this time I also started pursuing a business degree and became passionate about learning about business. It was no surprise to learn the most important factor in business, just like any organization, is leadership, not funding, cash flow, timing, the idea or the team, these are all choices made by the leadership. What makes a good leader? Personal and professional development is the foundation of a good leader. 

Shortly before finishing my degree I started having some significant health, relationship, and finance issues. This was one of the two very challenging seasons in my life where I questioned my hope in the future. The other tough season was losing my only child and later going through with a divorce. Like most people my age I have experienced some devastating and hope-crushing seasons. The truth is, life can be messy, but with a little age we can develop a message to pass on and help others. 

I've had many challenging years and found myself reading a lot of books to help overcome the challenges. I eventually realized that there are at least 10 single principles or disciplines that all claim to be the one most important principle for "success," however you define it. After having a talk with a friend about a local lady helping single moms I had the idea of organizing all the different principles into a framework that I call holistic personal development that includes the situation, strategy, and actions... Where we build a foundation of strength, develop the art of purpose, and follow up with the science of achievement. 

I currently live with an energetic and fun-loving Labrador Retriever who enjoys running on the treadmill before he eats. He can also be frustrating at times when he gets hungry an hour before it is time to eat, or when he just has one of those high maintenance moments. His most admirable quality is that he truly loves unconditionally. I'm trying to be more like him in that area, but it's a bit challenging at times. 

I believe all able people are leaders. Leadership is influence and responsibility. There are four categories of leadership, based on the four key areas of responsibility. Formal leadership is where people are given authority and influence, and they are compensated for specific responsibilities (formal responsibility). Informal leadership is where family, friends, or followers voluntarily give someone influence, with expectations to provide helpful insights or knowledge (informal responsibility). Parental leadership is self-explanatory, where a parent has influence and responsibility of a child/kid (parental responsibility). Self-leadership is also self-explanatory, where we all have influence over our lives and responsibility for our lives (self-responsibility). 

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible… Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast… People pursue power and pleasure when they lack purpose (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning).

Personal Development (from my book Opportunity Truth) 

Opportunity: A situation that offers a chance to have a positive impact. 

Truth: An objective fact of reality. Not to be confused with a personal belief or opinion. A “personal truth” is like saying something is an “opinion fact.” 

The truth is, our natural abilities are natural opportunities, and when developed, they are more likely to attract human-made opportunities.

We have a natural three level personal development model or opportunity system with ten key principles…

Personal Foundation / Discipline of Self: 

Identity, mind and emotions, and health 

Personal Purpose / Art of Fulfillment: 

Faith and hope, desires and strengths, and relationships and love

Personal Achievements / Science of Achievement: 

Planning (goals), productivity (habits), grit (passion and perseverance), and consistent investment. 

Compound interest doesn’t just apply to money, it also applies to our knowledge, health, and relationships. 

You can find Bible verses that told us about each of these principles over 1,000 years ago on the Christian Growth page of https://theBestBibleVerses.com. I feel there are some issues with religion, as it is meant to be a way to pursue truth and sanctification, or to develop internal values so we don't need as many external laws. It is also meant to bring people together to share life and build each other up. However, it seems to me that many have used it as a means of control. I believe it is still important to be involved with a church, as it can provide invaluable relationships and insights on how to strengthen our faith.  

About Truth that I believe

There are guarantees in life including change, challenges, opportunities, choices, and 1,440 minutes every day. Choose wisely. The top twelve most important things in life are truth, time, communication (especially with yourself), self-discipline (mind and emotions), your identity (including your faith), health, relationships, planning (decision-making, goal setting, and prioritizing), productivity (including habits), grit, finances, and consistently investing in yourself. Compound interest also applies to our knowledge, health, and relationships.

Some people truly believe there is no truth and all perceived truths are just personal beliefs, or personal truth. This seems to be a contradiction. How can one person believe there is no truth and another believe there are truths, and both be right? Consider the fact that all respectable historians believe Jesus of Nazareth truly existed. However, many people claim that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son God, and yet, many people claim this same Jesus was just another prophet or teacher, but not the Son of God. These are both beliefs, but cannot both be true, and the truth is, one of these claims must be true, because not only did Jesus claim to be the Son of God, but other main characters in the Bible also claimed Jesus is the Son of God.

Understand that worldviews and religions can be a pursuit of truth and consciousness, and a means to control people, depending on the person’s motive for expressing their beliefs. Many people feel that religion has a negative feeling to it, but religion continues to help people to love better, to overcome challenges, and to find more joy and peace in life. All worldviews and religions agree that humans are way more advanced than animals, especially with our ability to think deeply about a topic and to think about the distant future, that the natural human state is selfish and the more we can overcome our selfish desires the better our communities, and everyone wants to be treated with dignity and respect, in a fair and caring way. Where worldviews and religions differ is their belief about a spirit realm, how humans came to exist, and how to overcome our selfish desires.

I used to think everyone has a worldview by default if not by deliberate thought and decision. However, I realized people can live their life without any serious thought, and just value their fun in the present moment, or their survival. When people do not develop their identity and natural abilities based on a worldview they are more open to being manipulated by giving a lot of their personal power to their environment. As described in the book, Making Sense of Your World, by W. Gary Phillips, William E. Brown, and John Stonestreet. The main worldviews are Naturalism, which believes truth is only discovered by our physical senses; Transcendentalism, which believes truth can be discovered by our physical senses and a spirit realm (which can have no god or multiple gods); Theism, which believes truth can be discovered by our physical senses and a spirit realm with only one God; Post Modernism or Relativism, which believes there is no truth, just human perceptions and constructs resulting in beliefs. After having many life challenges and spending a lot of time seeking the truth, I came to believe there is a spirit realm. 

I feel like the spirit realm is meant to help us know truth and understand natural laws, so we can develop stronger internal values (like love, joy, and peace) and need fewer external human-made laws. Quantum physics seems to be providing evidence of a spirit realm with the quantum theories of unpredictability, tunneling, entanglement, and decoherence. I feel that the universe did not just appear out of nothing. Since scientists have proven the universe is expanding, I believe that means there was a point in time where it was created from nothing. It seems to me that the earth was placed in an almost perfect place in our galaxy, so our scientists could clearly study the universe. I also feel that the extraordinary cosmological constants beyond coincidence, like gravity. It seems to me that a single cell self-replicating organism would not evolve into male and female forms for survival. When choosing a worldview, be careful to not let your emotions dominate your logic because a person or a group misused or misrepresented a worldview.

Know the basic human needs are physical (food, water, and shelter), safety (physical, mental, and emotional), belonging (love), self-esteem, and self-actualization, as discovered by the human development professional Abraham Maslow. Know the basic human motivations are power, pleasure, and purpose, as discovered by the human development professionals Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Viktor Frankl. Dr. Viktor Frankl lived after Nietzsche and Freud and studied the power principle and the pleasure principle. I submit the human motivations of power, pleasure, and purpose are a reflection of our human spirit the Bible told us about, over 1,000 years ago, God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). 

Dr. Viktor Frankl proved that people pursue power and pleasure when they lack purpose. Viktor Frankl was a Holocaust victim and spent time as a prisoner in the Auschwitz prison camp. During that time he carefully observed human nature at its lowest level. Later, after he was freed, he went on to practice helping people develop purpose in their lives. He wrote about his prison experience and private practice experience in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. In his book he mentions how meaning can be developed through creating something, experiencing someone or something, or our attitude towards suffering.