Anyone who suggests that you are a victim of others, is trying to victimize you.  Attempting to convince you that the outcome of your life is solely the result of the actions of others is actually an attempt to trick you to give up your power of self-determination and independence so that they may the take it from you and determine the direction of your life instead.

The difference between my warning and those who would make you their victims is that if you do give in to their persuasion, you are responsible for doing so, not the persuader.  I’ve debated similar points to this before, and it continues to be a belief I hold stronger and stronger with time.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” I would expand that to “Nobody one can make you a victim without your consent.”

Next time someone tells you that it is some 3rd party’s fault that you are in the place you are in, and that you should join them in doing something about it, run the other direction.  They are not concerned with acting in your best interests, but are instead concerned with you acting in their best interests.

History is full of examples of individuals rising to power based on the platform of a scapegoat, and convincing the populace that they were not responsible for their plight, but that this scapegoat has caused them this harm.  The most classic example that comes to mind is Hitler and the Jews in Germany, but it doesn’t stop there.  Witch-hunts and mobs are the result of when individuals give up their right to make right choices.

Well, that is enough for now, but I will most likely write on this again.  What do you think?  Have you seen this before?

• Miracle Max: Beat it or I’ll call the Brute Squad.
• Fezzik: I’m on the Brute Squad.
• Miracle Max: You are the Brute Squad.

Fast forward to modern day. My brother asked me to come troubleshoot some computer issues and let him know if he had everything he needed to setup a wireless network. I fixed the computer issue quickly. Then I looked at the hardware he purchased for the network and let him know it would work for a wireless network. He told his fiance that they had everything they needed for a wireless network. Here is the actual conversation that followed:

• Fiance: So I guess we should call the Geek Squad and have them set it up.
• My Brother: Jim is the geek squad.
• Fiance: You’re on the Geek Squad?
• Me: No, but I can get your wireless network setup.

I am not on the actual Best Buy Geek Squad, but “Geek squad” is a pretty generic term obviously.  This conversation just reminded me so much of that scene from Princess Bride.  Needless to say the wireless network was really easy and quick to get setup.

Why?

I would want a high EQ.  That would make it easy to surround myself with people who know more then me (people with a high IQ and low EQ).  My high EQ would allow me to know if they were being honest with me when they gave me advice and answered my questions.  In exchange I would help them connect with others who have specialized knowledge in other areas.

It isn’t WHAT you know, but WHO you know.  I would know all the people who had all the answers, and they would want to share those answers with me.

Thanks to Tricia Ho in Australia for the question via LinkedIn.

“Practice until you get it right. Then practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

Don’t know who it is by though. I’ll research that. . .

I am also a fan of the differentiation that practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect results, while imperfect practice makes imperfect results. So always improve your practice.

Talk about a catch-all expression. This proverb can refer to leadership, nuclear deals, taking a stand — or not, and judo. But, as you might expect, the notion of “What you do means more than what you say” predates modern American culture. The 16th-century French writer Michel de Montaigne, who is generally credited with inventing the essay, proclaimed, “Saying is one thing and doing is another.” And before him, St. Francis of Assisi, who embodied this principle, is widely credited with saying, “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”

The present English version of this proverb might date to 1736, but versions of this wisdom are found in many languages and lands, even ancient Greece. Precisely who first said it may be lost to time, but it’s a little more certain who first published it on on American shores. In his 1692 book Will and Doom, Gersham Bulkeley wrote, “Actions are more significant than words.”

“It’s just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.”

I think that is a great quote, although I am not quite sure who Brian Hicks is.  Does anyone else know?

We choose in every moment of our lives if we are going to act in love or in fear.  Fear is distrust and pushing away people and things.  Love is trust and embracing life.  Love is growth and fear is death.

“A thief believes everyone steals.” A cheater believes everyone cheats

This is so true. When I was in Boy Scouts there was this one guy who always stole everyone’s food on camping trips. We will call him Larry.

There was one week long trip where we set up a base camp, and then back-packed in further for a couple days. Since the backpack trip was shorter you were only to bring what you needed. Well, Larry decided to take all his supplies since he didn’t trust anyone. We all figured our food was safe since Larry was going on the hike. Well, Larry‘s pack weighed a whole lot more then everyone elses, so he whined, moaned, cried and complained the whole time. The Scout Master ended up carrying his pack for him.

When we got to our camp Larry‘s solution was to eat all his food so he wouldn’t have to carry it back out. Then he starved the rest of the week. It was really funny. I doubt think he learned his lesson though.

If they want to call Pluto by Astroid #134340 that is fine with me. I’ll keep calling it Pluto and know it is really a planet, maybe just a small one.  Nothing to get worked up over, that is for sure.
Then I looked a little closer and noticed something about the number designation. With a little creativity is actually spells Pluto. I created an animated gif to help you see it.

134340
P LUTO
134340 -> -> PLUTO

Hit reload to see the animation again.

“Freedom lies in being bold.”
- Robert Frost

To me, being bold means being yourself and showing up for who you are.  To many times we try to be and do what we think other people want us to be and do.  In the end we are not ourselves and people don’t like to be lied to.

I have had some great experiences where, while visiting with a group of friends or aquantancies someone decided to be bold and show up for who they really are and we ended up having an incredible experience.  Mind if I share one with you?

Me and two other guys were hanging out one night.  One of them was a good friend of mine and another was a mutual aquantance of ours.  This mutual aquantance shared that he has this nervous facial tick that is making it really hard for him to be social.  We both told him that in all honesty we really didn’t notice or didn’t think anything of it if we had.  He found this quite surprising, since he always assumed everyone noticed it, and judged him based on that.  That is when the magic happened.

I suggested that most people are too busy worring about their own issues to notice most other people’s issues.  I admitted that I was working on not tilting my head to the side (like the RCA/Victor dog “Nipper”) when talking to someone, and was actually just correcting such a tip as he was sharing that.

Then my good friend smiled and admitted that he had a habbit of chewing on his lips when someone else was talking, and was sure everyone else could tell.  We all looked at eachother and realized that we were in fact too caught up with our own “issues” to notice the things those we were talking to were sure we would notice about them.

This ended up being a great evening conversation and it was all a result of one person deciding to be bold and show up for who he was and ask the question that was really bothering him.  In that moment of boldness we all were free from worrying about what other people thought about us, and now we all continue to enjoy freedom as a result of that boldness.

“Be bold and you will not only free yourselves, but also those around you.”
-Jim McKeeth