Jesus – Page 3 – Instant Coffee Wisdom

YOU CAN’T ‘FAKE’ STRONG!

Only the strong survive!

you cant fake strong

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.–Paul the Apostle , Philippians 4:13

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One of the most common breakdowns associated with cars are flat tires. When tires are low on air, you can generally see that they need air as you approach you car, but most people do not make a habit of taking the time to inspect ALL FOUR tires on a regular basis, instead looking at the two that face them as they approach their vehicle. Fixing a flat can be as simple as adding more air, or plugging a small leak. Ignoring the problem can result in serious damage to your tire, car, or even yourself.

According to Goodyear Tires:

“Maintaining proper air pressure is an important factor in tire safety and performance. If a driver experiences a flat tire or loss of air pressure, they should slow the vehicle gradually and carefully pull off to the side of the road as soon as possible. Driving on a flat tire can cause internal structural damage to the tire, may lead to wheel and vehicle damage and may result in poor vehicle handling and control — which could lead to an accident, injury or death.”

You may be familiar with the phrase “the road of life”. As you travel down the road of life, you are the vehicle which carries you on your journey. Like the four tires on a car, you have four categories that determine IF you will have forward momentum, or if your journey will end abruptly. Your car has both front and rear tires. One each on the passenger and driver sides. You can still drive on a bad tire, ignoring all the warning signs and neglecting repairing that tire until disaster occurs. Likewise YOU yourself have YOUR four ‘TIRES’ divided into two sides, and keeping all four at or as close to full strength as possible are vital to determine how far you will go down the ‘road of life’.

The two sides are your HEALTH and your WEALTH. Your HEALTH is your WEALTH, and your WEALTH is your HEALTH. HEALTH has two sides as does WEALTH. Your HEALTH is both PHYSICAL and MENTAL. Your WEALTH is both FINANCIAL and INTELLECTUAL. You need all four to be at your maximum strength to go far in life, but running on three will carry you along for a little distance, and a brief time. You cannot ‘fake’ strong, you are either strong, or you are weak. A strong person can things that a weak person cannot, and that is an undeniable fact of life.

How strong are you:

FINANCIALLY

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“There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.” Proverbs 21:20

If you have zero debt and just $10 in your pocket, you are richer than 25% of Americans. Do you spend EVERY cent you get? The reason the wealthy amass such huge fortunes is NOT because they have stolen it from the poor, but because they have mastered the art of handling money. Getting financially fit means taking the time to develop spending, saving, and investment plans.

INTELLECTUALLY

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“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!” –Proverbs 16:16

Knowledge is power! Education opens doors to greater ventures and better opportunities. The accumulation of ‘USEFUL’ knowledge and ‘USEFUL’ skills will result in greater possibilities of employment. Having specialized knowledge in technical jobs or trades will get you hired faster than unskilled laborers. There are many classes being offered in colleges and universities nationwide that are totally worthless. Graduating with a degree in ‘gender studies’ or ‘lesbian dance theory’ is a surefire path to poverty. As poet Charles Bukowski once said, the world doesn’t need poets. Would a restaurant hire a chef who couldn’t cook an omelet? The world needs doctors, teachers, farmers, and builders. An auto-mechanic may not be a glamorous job, but the next time you need your car fixed, you’ll be glad if they are experienced and competent.

PHYSICALLY

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“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you have received from God? You are not your own: you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

When you take care of your body, you can fight off illness faster, recover from infirmities, and lead an active lifestyle. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. How can you enjoy life if you are too weak and sickly to join your friends and family in various activities? Watching is fun but it is not the same as participating in the fun. Getting physically fit means taking time to eat healthy and exercise regularly.

MENTALLY

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“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light”. – Matthew 11:28-30

Depression is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of having been too strong for too long. Eventually everyone hits a point when we tire. When things go badly, we tend to focus on our troubles instead of counting our blessings. The Bible is the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and is infallible and without error. When we focus on the world, it’s a depressing place. When we turn our focus to Jesus, we see that with God, all things are possible, and that when God is with us, no one can stand against us. The Bible is a book filled with hope for something better than this fallen creation. The answers to all of life’s problems can be found in the pages of the Holy scripture, yet there are many who are reluctant, or totally against reading this book for themselves. I was an atheist when I was a teenager, but in college I became a Christian when my one professor challenged me to go to his class on the Bible and read through it cover to cover. I can honestly say I am a better man with God than I ever was without God. People may disappoint you, lie to you, and hurt you. Jesus is always good, faithful, and true. What if the one book that you are dead-set against reading is the only book which could provide you comfort and answers. Wouldn’t it be wise to take the time and discover the truth for yourself? Isn’t it time to fill your ‘TIRE’ with the ‘breath of life’? As always I wish you success and happiness!

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

(Your life may depend on it someday)

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.” — George S Patton

Two hikers stumble across a grizzly bear and her cubs. The enraged mama bear snarls and charges towards them. As the two men turn to flee in terror, the one says “We’ll never make it, we can’t outrun the bear!” His buddy replies, “I don’t need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you.”

That’s an old joke, and you’ve probably stumbled across it before. Often it gets recycled or changed a bit. Lately it’s been used pretty often in the popular Zombie Apocalypse Fiction genre. One traumatic example was in the second season of TV’s The Walking Dead when Shane shot Otis so he could outrun the zombies chasing them by sacrificing his buddy. In the move Zombieland, Columbus had 33 survival rules, but his NUMBER ONE RULE was Cardio. “To escape a pursuing zombie you will need to out-run it, and this means being in good shape. ” There is even an running app for your smart phone called Zombies, RUN!

Many people take running for granted, often fooling themselves into believing that if they ever needed to run, or run FAST and far , they could if they had to. You’ll never know how far, or how fast you can run unless you make time for a regular fitness regime that includes cardio. Now besides entertainment, end of the world Zombie fiction is good for getting people to THINK about what they what they would do if the unthinkable happened. When a natural disaster such as hurricane Katrina or Sandy suddenly devastated coastal regions would you have fresh water, power, or food? What about tools, and other supplies. So let’s assume you were smart and did have a ‘bug-out-bag’ with supplies ready and waiting for an emergence. Could you strap it on your back and walk with that load for miles if need be? Could you?

Two out of every three Americans are overweight, and half of those are obese. Being FAT is not healthy. It is bad for your heart, your veins, your bones, and your mental state. It is bad for every part of your body. I should know, I’ve been struggling with weight issues for years, and two years ago I embarked on a vigorous diet and exercise program to get my life back on track once and for all. Understand this above all else, it is impossible to lose weight by exercise alone. Exercise just helps to strengthen and tone the body. You’re food is your fuel, and your body needs the best possible nutrition to build strong bones and muscles. As a stress eater, I know that it is a struggle to give up comfort foods such as chocolate, cake, and pizza. Trust me, I know all about it. It is a daily struggle of mind over matter, but once you establish a daily routine and stick to it, you will see results. It will NOT happen overnight, all good things take time. The important thing is to start.

The Power of Positivity

When you feel good about yourself you feel better physically, and vice versa. I was in a bit of a funk a year ago because my weight had hit a plateau which is common. So I needed to change what I was doing as far as both diet and exercise. After all what is the point of being rich and successful if you’re too sickly or overweight to enjoy the fruit of your labors? Doing NOTHING is not an option. When I was fatter, my knees hurt. Running was not an option in that state. As I began losing weight, the knee pain lessened and I started doing the elliptical more and more at the gym. And I began to see results so I started feeling better about myself. Obesity causes mental illness, such as depression. Over the past two years I’ve managed to lose about 60 lbs so far, 30 last year, and 30 this year. Last summer when I lost the first 30 lbs, I was on vacation and a cute waitress at my favorite cafe noticed, and told me I looked really good. That one compliment made my entire year and provided the impetus to train even harder. So I decided to try running.

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One of my friends on Twitter is Nathan Maxwell @socialshark . I met him though CoffeeChat. He’s an Ultra endurance athlete, married with six kids. He started running 11 years ago and at the time he too was overweight, and couldn’t run one mile. Since then he has trained incredibly hard and to date has run more than 60 ultra marathons and four 100 milers. He has been (and still is) an incredible source of inspiration and motivation. I am fully convinced that I would not have reached the level of running I have currently achieved had it not been for his knowledge, wisdom, and encouragement. Almost six months ago, I ran my first 5K, that’s 3.1 miles. Since then I did a 15K Trail Run, uphill with 4 creek crossings in 90°F heat, and two weeks ago I ran my first half-marathon (13.1 miles). On October 13th I’m running another half-marathon, and four days later I have a 5K night run planned. I hope to run a full marathon in a year or so once I get my times down on the half-marathon.

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If there is one thing that I can say about the running community, it is filled with people who encourage and support other runners. I have been told that I was AMAZING more than once, and have gotten many thumbs-up, fist bumps, and high-five palm slaps. Likewise I have passed on encouragement to fellow runners, including one man who decided to run his first 5K at age 70. And yes, Richard finished, and he wasn’t last! Even if he was, the point is running the race, and not giving up. I was dead last when I ran the Chobert Challenge 15K trail run. I burned over 2000kcals and was exhausted and staving when I crossed the finish line, but I did it, and there was even pizza waiting! Next time, I won’t be last. My first half marathon was grueling, but I finished! The best thing about half-marathons and up is that you get a finishers medal when you cross the finish line. This is not to be confused with the insulting participation medal. It is a FINISHERS MEDAL and you earn it when you FINISH. Crossing that finish line is an accomplishment that needs to be recognized. Each year there are over 750 marathons and half-marathons held across America. Less than 1% of the US population runs in these races. As for 5K races and such, there are also medals awarded by divisions and gender, so you can still win first, second, or third in your bracket even if you were not in the top three over all, and your times are recorded so you can track your progress as you go for the gold! Good luck, and as always I wish you success and happiness!

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Make time for R&R!

Vacations are important!

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R&R is a military abbreviation for “rest and recuperation” or “rest and relaxation”. As you are probably aware, I recently returned from a two week vacation at the shore. My weekly blog InstantCoffeeWisdom went on hiatus for about a month during this much needed personal time. The main reasons I publish these weekly articles is to educate and motivate you to be the happiest and most successful person you can be. Often times people get into a funk where they have convinced themselves that they cannot escape their circumstances and this negativity leads to depression. Success means different things to different people, but no matter the definition , achieving success always come with an ego boost. Success is powered by positivity. You cannot have a positive life with a negative mind. This is where the importance of vacations come into play. In some parts countries vacations are referred to as holidays. No matter what you call it, it’s still a get-away-from-it-all time that you need to clear your head and get back into the game.

Vacations require three things: Time, money, and planning.

For the vast majority of people, the BIGGEST reason that holds them back from vacationing is money. Again, that is why I stress the importance of the 52 Week Challenge, which was my very first blog post two years ago after returning from a much needed vacation. The first year of articles dealt with personal finances, the second year expounded on how finances are impacted by ‘the bigger picture’ of the world, and now we are covering time, because time IS money.

Excluding the day we are born and the day we die, we each get a full 24 hours each day to use however we choose. It doesn’t matter if we are rich or poor, young or old, health or not. Plan your time accordingly. Successful people tend to over schedule their days to maximize productivity. Often times they are convinced that they cannot leave the job because no one else can do it as well as they do. There are people who work themselves sick, and in extreme cases, to death. It’s NOT worth it. No one on their death bed ever lamented about not spending enough time at the office. I have come back from many a vacation to find some disaster piled on my desk, or to hear some tale of woe reported to me by a customer. Yes, it’s a major downer at that moment, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. In a few days everything is back to normal, ship-shape in Bristol fashion. The work will always be there, even when we are not. When you die, your inbox will never be empty.

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Vacations are biblical!

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”– Jesus (Mark 2:27)

All things are created by God, including the day of rest known as a Sabbath. The time that we have here on Earth was given to us by God, and we are stewards of everything we possess. God wants us to be happy and successful, but He also gave us free will, and we do self-destructive things to ourselves and then try to blame God for our poor choices. Some Christians occasionally use the argument that it’s ungodly to waste money on vacations when there are poor people starving in the world and that money could be spent better on them. If you feel guilty about spending money on vacation, make a contribution to a Christian charity of your choice. Would you intentionally starve yourself to death because there’s a poor person starving to death somewhere in the world? That’s like saying it’s wrong to buy a house because there are homeless people. It’s nonsense. That’s why the Bible is such an important book to read to show us the proper way to live our lives. People make mistakes. God never makes mistakes. And the God gives us numerous examples for us to follow. The former pastor of my church, now retired, once gave a sermon that tied two-week summer vacations to the Bible. There is a week-long Feast of Tabernacles described (Lev 23:33-44) which takes place on the 15th day of the 7th month, every year. There’s other events that precede and follow, and planning that needs to be done. Pastor Miller claimed this was a model that God gave us for an annual two week work break from our normal routine to rest, take fellowship, and worship the Lord. It may be a stretch, but he had a point. If Jesus Christ himself took time to rest and relax, He would want us to go, and do likewise. God is good always! The United States is a great nation with many beautiful places for vacations. If you’re fortunate enough to live here, than you should praise God for the freedom and liberty granted or you to pursue your happiness. Every day you waste is a day you will never get back, so make the most of your time and live your life to the fullest! God wants you to be happy and successful, (and so do I) but you have to take the steps to make it happen. As always, I wish you success and happiness!

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SPARE TIME?

Living in the Moment!

SPARETIME

“We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.” – Charles Bukowski

There are at least two things that differentiate the highly successful individual from the unsuccessful crowd. Firstly, they handle their money quite differently than the average person. Instead of spending every cent the moment they receive it, they budget their money, save much of it, and invest. Secondly they do the same thing with their time.

You may be familiar with the old adage ‘time is money’. In a very real sense it is. When you work at a job, you get paid for your time. When you invest over time, you get a return on your investment. In fact, time is more important than money because money can be replaced, but time cannot. Every moment wasted is gone forever. Unsuccessful people usually whine about how unfair life is because they don’t have as much money as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. Here’s the main point. Rich or poor, Successful or not, every single person on Earth gets the exact same number of minutes each year. 525,600 minutes each and every year, with two exceptions. The year we are born, and the year we die. How we spend that year is up to us.

When I started writing my weekly blog InstantCoffeeWisdom over two years ago, the first article was The 52 Week Challenge. It was a weekly savings plan to be done over the course of one year, the end result being $1350.00 saved to be used as you wish. Every year, I take a great vacation at the shore in Ocean City MD, that is my decision. I know many people who always whine that they never have money for vacation, so the first year I focused on microeconomics (personal finance) to help demonstrate ways to budget, cut expenses and hopefully achieve that goal set by The 52 Week Challenge. The second year, I focused on the bigger picture, exploring macroeconomics, and explaining how religion and politics are interconnected to economics, and why you should have a firm grasp of all three. Hopefully you were able to understand my points, see where I was leading you, and you were able to reach the same conclusions. As I embark on my third year of blogging, I’m going to focus on the topic of time. As I already stated, time is money, and we each have EXACTLY the same time each day, week, month, and year, despite financial disparities. How we spend our time is entirely up to us.

When I was a still just a young boy, the biggest time waster was the TV. I had family members whose entire lives were lived vicariously through the television. As a child, it was my ‘babysitter’. Plop me down in front of the set with a plate of snacks and I was good to go. My 77 year-old aunt does nothing but watch TV all day, or sleep. It doesn’t seem like much of a life to me, but she’s 77 and you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I got rid of my TV a decade ago. I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years by ‘cutting the cord’. If I do decide to watch some program, almost everything is available online and I can watch it when it’s convenient. Although the letters TV are an abbreviation for Television, it should stand for TIME VACUUM because this activity is just a waste of time that can suck away hours of your life each day if you let it. Now the biggest waste of time and productivity is the mobile smart phone.

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The smart phone puts the sum total of human knowledge in the palm of your hands. You can load it’s memory with apps to help you track everything financial or health related. It is a tool that in the right hands can increase productivity and knowledge, and likewise can kill it in the wrong hands. In my youth, phones connected people. Now they divide people. The typical smart phone user touches his or her phone 2,617 time every day, according to a study by research firm Dscout. Extremely addicted individuals use it twice as much as that. The phone is NOT reality. When you spend your time looking at your phone instead of living your life, you are wasting your life. You are cutting yourself off from life and missing all the wonderful things the world has to offer when you bury your face in your phone.

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Human lives are terribly short. We live at best about 120 years, but that is not guaranteed. There are preemie babies that live a few hours, or a few days. My father died when he was 57. I missed out on all those great father-son moments growing up without a father as a result. We are ephemeral, a vapor, and but a blink of the eye of God. We live our lives moment by moment, stringing each moment to the next like pearls on a string. We should do our best to make those moments shine. Time cannot be replaced when it is gone, and neither can people. The greatest gift you can give a person is your time, and the second greatest gift you can give is your undivided attention.

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One of my close friends has cancer. I pray for him every day. I hope he beats it, but ultimately that’s in God’s hands, and worrying about it won’t change that fact. If God wants us here on Earth, it’s where He wants us to be. No man can know the mind of God, but He’s in control even if it doesn’t make sense to us now. It is up to us to use our God-given free will to be stewards of our resources, which includes not just money and possessions, but our time and our health as well. Make every moment count and interact with people instead of tuning out the world. As always, I wish you success and happiness!

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HERE’S THE SKINNY!

Words of wisdom from ‘the Mayor of Hollenbach St.’

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“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

The ‘Skinny’ is a slang term meaning the inside story, or the real truth. The first use of this term is listed as being 1959 and may have developed out of other related slang phrases like ‘trimming the fat’ or ‘getting to the meat of the matter’. It’s appropriate because sometimes truth can be hidden under layers of deceptions so thick that all you can see is the big fat lie being presented and not the real truth. You may also of heard another catchy phrase, ‘you are what you eat’. That is a bit older and was first used by French author Anthelme Brillant-Savarin in 1826. It also needn’t apply to physical food but can also relate to concepts, knowledge and motivations. What you put into your mind changed the way you think and becomes the lens with which you perceive reality. Wearing ‘rose-colored glasses’ doesn’t change reality either, it just changes the way you view things and means having a positive outlook. That phrase goes back to about 1830.

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Mahatma Gandhi was a man of peace who freed India from British rule in 1947. He is attributed with the pithy quote ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’, but this is not his actual quote, just a highly shortened paraphrase of the wordy quote listed at the beginning of this blog post. He wasn’t Christian, but he had some good things to say about life and living.

If you ingest a constant stream of negative, depressing, miserable lies, you will become negative, depressed, and miserable. The lies will become your reality, and you will call truth a lie whenever you hear it. If you put garbage into your mind, you get garbage out so remember that. GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT or G.I.G.O. for short. It is no wonder that the phenomena labeled ‘TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROM’ has been coined to describe leftists who totally lose their minds whenever conservatives praise our wonderful president for all the good that he has accomplished (and continues accomplishing) during his first term in office. It’s also why conservatives claim that ‘Liberalism is a mental disorder’ sometimes even go so far as to label them ‘Libtards’. Libtards truly believe the lies and fake news they hear, see, and read. For them, Donald J. Trump is literally the same as Hitler, and all his followers are racists , misogynists, gun nuts. They think socialism is a wonderful idea and believe in a free lunch . They ignore the fact that unemployment is at a historic low, the stock market is at new record highs on a weekly basis, and our wages have increased while taxes have dropped. And they are aghast that we are going to re-elect Trump in 2020.

The modern Democratic party has done more harm to the American way of life than can possibly be written in a single article. Whole books have been written. Saul Alinsky’s protégés had nearly succeeded when Trump upset their apple cart in 2016! You may ask yourself why any sane person would want to destroy their homeland, especially a shining beacon of hope and freedom such as the USA.

That’s easy. It’s because they are globalists who reject American exceptionalism and crave power at all costs. To them American citizens are nothing but cattle, a resource to be controlled and exploited. Wolves like fat sheep.

The Mayor of Hollenbach St.

If you go to the intersection of Schuylkill Ave and Hollenbach St. in Reading PA, you will see a mural painted on the side of a house. The portrait is of my late friend and former co-worker Harvey W. Kimble. Harvey died from a fatal heart attack on January 19th 2014. He was only 55. He owned several properties on that small city block, several of which he rented out as Section 8 housing. He lived in one house on the block with his family. He was a US Marine, a postal letter carrier, and a very kind and caring man. I never saw him in a bad mood or angry, and he always had a smile on his face that lit up the room. He cared about everyone, and the people on HIS block called HIM the Mayor of Hollenbach St. He always had lollipops for children and would give you the shirt off his back. A great guy.

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Harvey was also very up on politics and current events and studied the newspaper daily, clipping articles for his files. He would write up editorials and pass out copies to his friends. I always kept the copies he gave me, which was a good thing because one day his hard drive got accidentally re-formatted and he lost everything EXCEPT the dozen hard copies he had handed me over the years. Perhaps his most important editorial story was an allegory titled THE SKINNY COW. Harvey encouraged people to think for themselves and read between the lines. Always remember that ANYTHING the government provides was first taken from someone else. If you wonder why the DNC continues to entice it’s base with offers of FREE FOOD, FREE COLLEGE, FREE HOUSING, and FREE MEDICAL CARE you really need to read the SKINNY COW, which I now present in its entirety.

There once was a skinny cow. A lonely, scared skinny cow. One day The Farmer came along and told The Cow, “Come along with me I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about the food. Don’t worry about the water. Don’t worry about a nice, warm, dry place to lie, I’ll take care of you, you can trust me. You can depend on me to be there for you”. The Cow could eat, drink and sleep without worries. The Cow was happy and satisfied not a care in the world. The Farmer gave The Cow some special hay, which made The Cow eat more and sleep. The Cow loved this new life-style and thought it would last forever.

The Cow did nothing to disturb The Farmer. The Cow stayed where The Farmer said stay, walked where The Farmer said walk, ate when The Farmer said eat. The Cow utterly respected The Farmer. The Cow, always trying to please, wouldn’t even pass gas when The Farmer was near. The Farmer told The Cow “It was special and better than those other cows. Don’t worry; I’m here for you, I’ll take care of you. You can depend on me. I’m here for you. You can trust me. Don’t I take care of you? Here, eat some more special hay, just for you”. The Cow really believed it was better than those other cows because The Farmer said so, then happily ate the hay.

One day there was a commotion by the fence. The Cow never went close to the fence to see what the other cows was looking at even when they called The Cow over saying “There’s a hole in the fence come see the other side”. The other cows saw things they wasn’t supposed to see and started talking about it. The Farmer didn’t like that so he locked the other cows in the barn, while telling The Cow “Watch out, don’t trust those other cows they’re nothing but a bunch of lying, troublemaking, know nothing, jealous cows. Trust me, they won’t get much food or water and might not have a place to sleep if they keep it up”. The Farmer gave The Cow some more special hay, a pat on the head then said, “Trust me, you’re not like those other cows you’re a good cow, one I can talk to, you can depend on me to be there for you”. Then the Farmer walked away, smiling, on his way home, leaving The Cow near but not with the other cows.

When the other cows stared telling some of their horror stories of the things that they had seen, The Cow didn’t listen and even defended The Farmer. Telling the other cows not to worry, we have food, water, and a place to sleep. The Farmer will take care of us. We can trust The Farmer. We can depend on The Farmer. The other cows told The Cow not to believe everything you’re told and if The Farmer does something, it’s because he will benefit from it. The Cow turned his rump to those trouble-making cows and refused to listen. The Cow always avoided those scary troublemaking cows.

The Cow soon became the favorite of The Farmer. The Cow got extra food and water while the other cows went without. The Farmer was always telling The Cow, “It’s their fault they don’t have enough to eat, enough to drink or a place to sleep. Don’t worry trust me. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry yourself about them, it’s all their fault anyhow”. The Cow believed, trusted and loved The Farmer more than those other cows. The Cow had dreams of becoming a farmer. The Cow grew to be healthy, plump and soft. Never talking to or looking at those other, now skinny, cows. Never looking back at its past. Never reflecting on its action. Never thinking back to just a few short months ago. Never thinking about tomorrow. Just surviving day to day thanks to The Farmer. Thank you Farmer. All thanks to The Farmer. ALL THANKS to The Farmer.

One day The Farmer took The Cow for a walk. At the end of the walk, he told The Cow to stand in line with those other healthy cows and move forward. Before leaving he told The Cow, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here to take care of you. I’ll see you in the barn my special, favorite cow”. The Cow couldn’t see far enough ahead to see where the line ended, so The Cow moved forward with the heard. When the cow behind asked The Cow to ask the cow ahead what was happening The Cow said, “Don’t ask any questions, don’t worry, we just have to do what The Farmer said and move forward. Trust The Farmer.

The Cow could now see the barn door, which let one cow in at a time. After standing in line for ours, The Cow wanted nothing more than to get through that door, out of the sun and to The Farmer for some special hay. Rumors began about how cows go in but not out, it don’t make any sense. Something weird is going on. The Cow said, “Don’t worry and don’t listen to that crazy talk just move forward. The Farmer will take care of us. Trust The Farmer”.

The door opened. The cow ahead moved through the door. The door closed.

The Cow heard a muffled cry, silence then laugher.

The door opened. Too late The Cow became worried. The Cow didn’t know what was on the other side. The Cow wondered what the other cows had seen. The Cow tried to back up but the cow behind said, “Don’t worry, move forward, I see your friend The Farmer inside”. The cow moved forward. The door closed. The Cow slipped in something that looked like blood. The Cow closed its eyes not believing what it was seeing. Afraid, scared, confused and unsure, The Cow squeezed its eyes shut tighter. Then The Cow heard the soothing voice of The Farmer saying “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you”. Reassured, The Cow opened its eyes in time to see The Farmer standing overhead swinging a sledgehammer with all his might straight to its head. The shocked and unbelieving cow gave a muffled cry and dropped dead. A friend of The Farmer gave him a pat on the back then said, “You sure took care of that cow”. The Farmer said, “Yea. I always said I would”. Then laughed while opening the barn door.

THE END

I hope reading THE SKINNY COW by my late friend Harvey W. Kimble has enlightened and entertained you. As always I wish you success and happiness.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS!

The truth behind the Democrat’s deception!

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July is a hot month and it is the middle of summer in the USA. The hottest movie this month has been Spider-man: Far From Home. This is the third straight MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) film to cross $1 billion dollars, and the first Spider-man movie to ever hit that mark. It’s money well deserved because I’ve seen the film and think it’s the best Spider-man film ever made. The box office bonanza WON’T be going to Disney Studios because of a complex game of hocus-pocus with Sony Entertainment which technically still owns the movie rights to the character. Spider-Man is one of the most popular characters owned by Marvel Comics, and back in the 1990’s the company was falling on hard times and even filed for bankruptcy on December 27, 1996. While the company was struggling, it kept selling the rights to different characters to different movies studios like Fox, Sony, and Disney. When the Marvel Cinematic Universe was created the first film in the series IRONMAN was made by MARVEL STUDIOS in 2008. In 2009 Disney purchased MARVEL and all its properties for $4.3 billion dollars. Unfortunately the film rights to Spider-man were still stuck in a web with SONY while Disney went about creating an ambitious shared universe of interlinked movies which told a continuing story over the course of (currently) twenty-three films. As Spider-man was integral to the MCU, a deal with SONY had to be hammered out at all costs. A superhero universe without Spider-man was like a sundae without whipped cream and a cherry on top. Fortunately, Spider-man was introduced in Captain America: Civil War in 2016, and officially joined the MCU with shared custody of the character hammered out between the two companies. The current Spider-man film also introduces another long-time character to the MCU, Quentin Beck AKA Mysterio. Mysterio has the ‘superpower’ of creating illusions so real that you are deceived into believing that they ARE real. When you can’t believe your own eyes and ears, it is nearly impossible to distinguish fact from fiction, or truth from lies. Evidently Mysterio must be a Democrat because he has the same powers that they do.

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BUT WAIT! There’s more!

July is a special month in US history for two important reasons. The USA was born on July 4th 1776, and on July 20th 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the noon winning the ‘Space Race’ with the former Soviet Union. Although this historic event occurred 50 years ago this month, there are a small percentage of misguided individuals who believe that it never happened. Right behind Neil Armstrong was Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. In 2002, Buzz Aldrin was heckled by a moon-landing denier who asked him to “swear on the Bible, that you walked on the moon.” The idiot kept insulting and jeering at until he finally crossed the line and called Buzz “a coward, and a liar, and a thie-“. He never quite got that last word out because Mr. Aldrin punched him right in the mouth. This is what liberals always do to conservatives. They insult them and laugh at them until they lose their temper and lash out. Then they claim it’s our fault and that we are the problem. The left doesn’t believe in credit where credit is due, personal responsibility, courtesy, American exceptionalism , God, guns, the Constitution, and I could go on.

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Pick a card, any card

The Democrats use their power of illusion to create one existential crisis after another in an attempt to convince you that they are the party of ‘Hope and Change’ while fleecing the American tax payers and destroying the nation. Like a magician performing card tricks, the audience is either amazed or impressed by the illusions. The truly smart members of the audience see the deception and know that there’s really no such thing as magic. The truly dumb people believe that it’s real and the magician has special powers. After the curtain falls, the magician leaves the show with his cut of the money, while the audience goes home empty-handed. It’s all a game of cards with the Democrats, and the only power they have is what the American people give them. They only way to take away their power is to pull back the curtain and look where they don’t want you to look. WE hold the real cards, not THEM!

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The Race Card

Democrats love to play ‘The Race Card’ and tell you that Republicans are racists, and Trump is a racists, and that white privilege exists. It’s all just Swamp gas. Democrats are elitists who have supported slavery and racism from the beginning. All Americans black, white, brown, yellow or red all share the same privilege. The privilege of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness granted them by the Constitution. These are inalienable rights granted them by a sovereign God, Jesus Christ. They DO NOT come from the Government, and they especially DO NOT come from the Democrats.

The Social Security Card

Another deceptive tactic used is the claim than Republicans will end social security and have been taking money out of the ‘Social Security Fund’ to pay for various pet projects, such as The Trump Wall. There is no ‘Social Security Fund’, there never was one to begin with. Social security is an enforced tax paid by taxpayers, with the understanding that they will get it back. Unfortunately Democrats expanded the entitlement base and started giving payments to people who never paid in, or who paid the very minimum. The game is based on you not living long enough to collect everything paid in, but as modern medicine has improved, people are living longer. Also with the record unemployment caused by previous administrations, people sitting at home and not working were both NOT contributing Social Security, but in some instances taking early retirement or claiming social security disability. The reason social security will someday ‘run out’ is because the country is bankrupt and heavily in debt due to massive spending by prior administrations. Just like a household budget, spending more than you earn has serious consequences. Social Security is a shell game, and needs to be replaced with something better. Republican are in favor of entitlement reform, but Social Security will be here for years to come, and will never disappear in a day.

The Government Card

Democrats always claim that they have the solution, bigger Government, higher taxes, more spending, more programs, more, more, more. Let me make this perfectly clear. There is no such thing as Government Provided Anything. It’s all taxpayer funded EVERYTHING. Anything the government gives you was first taken away from someone else. Taxation is theft!

The ‘HEART’ Card

They are always claiming that all these entitlement programs are needed, and that anyone who opposes them is heartless. If you offer something for ‘FREE’ rest assured people will line up to take it, whether the need it or not. While some people are in dire straits from time to time, the American taxpayer is not the solution. Working for a living is! You get what you pay for.

The Wild Card

You always hear about how Republicans are trying to take away rights. Many of these so-called rights never existed in the first place, like the ‘right’ for gays to marry, or the ‘right’ for transgender people to use whatever bathroom they please. Transgender athletes who were born MALE are competing on women’s teams and beating REAL women. There are only TWO sexes. Male and Female, and God made both of them. Cutting off your penis and getting breast implants doesn’t make you a ‘woman’, it makes you an idiot, and a mentally ill one at that.

The Democrats have made a game out of government and created a house of cards that is unsuitable and unsustainable. When the curtain falls on these purveyors of illusions, WE THE PEOPLE don’t get to go home, because we ARE home. If we want to Keep America Great we need to play our ‘TRUMP CARD’ in 2020 against those Democrats and some RINO Republicans who are only in it for themselves. We have a great country. The real power lies with us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and God will bless America when America starts blessing God. As Always, I wish you success and happiness.

SWAMP GAS!

Don’t breath the poison!

SWAMP GAS

(This is the second half of two articles. For part one, read Drain the Swamp)

Swamp gas is a methane gas produced in a swamp by decaying plants that are covered by water. It is flammable, and sometimes combusts forming what is known as a will-o’-the-wisp. In folklore, a will-o’-the-wisp, or ignis fatuus (literally “foolish fire”) is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. An ignorant person seeing such a phantasm might be scared witless, but an educated one would know it for what it really was, just swamp gas. Swamp gas is also a figure of speech used to describe noxious lies used to confuse and mislead the uninformed.

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Even before President Trump won the 2016 election, one of his promises to grassroots Americans was that he would ‘Drain the Swamp’. It is a common misconception that our nation’s capital Washing D.C. was originally built on swampland. Draining a swamp was an early method used to fight malaria by removing the breeding grounds and killing off the disease carrying mosquitoes. You can see how this catchy term could apply to two-legged political bloodsuckers. Trump has been doing a stellar job of following through on ALL his campaign promises, including slowly ‘draining the swamp’, much to the horror and dismay of leftists. His sweeping ethics reforms and downsizing of bureaucracy has been rapidly restoring our government to an honest one which the Founding Fathers would approve of.

There wasn’t a Republican party (GOP) when George Washington was unanimously elected first president of the USA. If the GOP had existed, rest assured ‘The American Cincinnatus’ would have been a proud member. The greatest presidents of the 19th, 20th, and now 21st centuries have all been Republicans. The Democratic party (DNC) has been trying to destroy this country since the beginning.

In the nineteenth century, the southern Democrats were slave owners, and started the American Civil War. They wanted to split the nation in two so they could continue to enslave their fellow man. The FIRST Republican president Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and preserved the Union. A supporter of the DNC, John Wilkes Booth assassinated ‘the Great Emancipator’ in an attempt to make the South ‘rise again’. Lincoln’s successor, the Democrat Andrew Johnson cancelled the slave reparations that would have been bestowed by Special Field Order 15, approved and signed by Lincoln a few months prior to his murder at the hands of Booth. Members of the DNC started the Klu Klux Klan to terrorize their former slaves.

In the twentieth century, Ronald Regan ‘the Great Communicator’ brought us a decade of prosperity. The ‘Gipper’ brought the Soviet Union to its knees and by proxy, tore down the Berlin Wall demonstrating once and for all that free market capitalism is the greatest economic system in the history of mankind. A deranged John Hinckley Jr. tried to take the life of this great man in 1981, but ‘Rawhide’ survived the bullet wound meant to kill him. In 1984 Reagan won re-election in taking 49 of the 50 states in the largest landslide election in the history of our great nation.

Now, as the second decade of the 21st century draws to a close, the DNC is trying once again to take down another great Republican president, Donald J. Trump. Building upon the four principals of ‘Reganomics’ , ‘The Donald’ has now gifted us with unprecedented economic growth, higher wages, lower taxes, and the lowest levels of unemployment across all demographics. It’s no wonder that the entrenched swamp rats of the DNC are so enraged by the accomplishments of the Greatest President of our lifetime. These parasites have all been living off the American taxpayer and sucking the life-blood of our nation. They have been strangling the economy for years and attempting to take away our individual freedoms one by one. They have trodden on our flag, and want to change the constitution.

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They are attempting to poison you against Trump with a constant barrage of ‘Swamp Gas’ in the liberal media. They think you are too stupid to handle your own affairs, and believe that they are better suited to handle your money than you are. They are tax and spend Democrats who have gotten rich by taking lobbyist money. They are supposed to be working for the American people, NOT the lobbyists who have made them rich in exchange for political favors.

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President Donald J. Trump has not taken a single dime in salary and they hate him for it. Trump has worked hard these past three years to ‘Make America Great Again’, and he succeeded. Now he needs your help to ‘Keep America Great’. You need to stop listening to FAKE NEWS and trust that ‘The Second Father of our Country’ knows what he is doing. Trump loves our nation more than possibly every great president in our nation’s history. If you don’t support Trump, you are either a very ignorant person, an extremely gullible breather of swamp gas, or a deeply disturbed person who hates the USA and everything great about freedom. If you believe eliminating the Electoral college and changing the constitution are a good idea, you are a fool. Those who trade freedom for security deserve neither, and man is not free unless government is limited. There is no such thing as a FREE LUNCH , everything the government provides you was first taken from someone else via taxation. Taxation is theft! Honestly, how much of MY money belongs to YOU? I work hard for my money, and my money belongs to me. I have made more money, (and kept more of it) under Trump than under any prior president. If most of the voting citizens in this country feel the same way as I do, then I predict that President Trump will not only win re-election in 2020, but he will win in a landslide, taking all 50 states, the first president to do so, and the liberal tears will flow like white water rapids. I urge you to back Donald J. Trump in 2020, and ignore all the character assassination, lies, and swamp gas bombarding you about the man. Trump is on your side whither or not you believe it, and he is working in the best interest of our country . God bless America, and God bless president Trump and his family. As always, I wish you success and happiness!

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THE BLAME GAME!

Whose fault is it?

The Blame Game

“Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.”–Lou Holtz

When you were younger, you thought you could conquer the world but somewhere along the way you let the world get the best of you. Maybe you tried and failed. Maybe someone told you it was impossible. Maybe fear held you back. Soon, it became easier for you to just shift the blame for your lack of success on everyone else. They never taught you. They held you back. They won’t help. They, they, they… never YOU!

When you were a child, your parents may have mollycoddled you but once you turned eighteen, you gained certain legal rights granted to adults. You no longer needed a nanny, so it was no longer a question of who’s minding you . I’m going to clue you in on two important secrets which when you utilize them, will give you an incredible edge on your path to success. No gimmicks, nothing to buy. These two secrets are yours absolutely free. These two secrets will give you incredible power to achieve your goals in life. Are you excited yet? You should be, because these two secrets when used properly will change your entire life.

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THE FIRST SECRET

The ‘THEY’ that are holding ‘YOU’ back are very real, and they don’t want you to succeed. You don’t need to know who THEY are, just that THEY exist. THEY can include the liberal media which feeds you negative messages, questionable entertainment, and fake news. THEY can include the corrupt government officials behind the Deep State that inhabits the D.C. Swamp, which President Trump is fighting to drain. THEY can even include your family and friends, who messed up their own lives and need you to mess up yours too because misery loves company. THEY are real, and THEY want you to fail. Their goal in life is to control every aspect of your life by manipulating your thoughts with a steady stream of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ or G.I.G.O. And IF you lose all hope that things will improve by listening to their negativity, THEY WILL WIN!

Now you may be thinking ‘how does this first secret help me?’ Knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle. If you think of SUCCESS as a ‘road’, and the THEY as ‘potholes’ in the road, by avoiding the ‘potholes’ you will move faster and easier down the ‘road of success’. Which brings us to the second secret.

“The size of your success is measures by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki

THE SECOND SECRET

The second secret is that the power THEY have over YOU is an illusion which YOU allow them to have. You do not have to give them that power. You don’t have to listen to their negativity. You don’t have to acknowledge their lies. YOU are stronger than THEY are. You have the power to be all that you can be! It’s very easy to play the blame game and blame everyone else for are failures. The reality is that we are responsible for the vast majority of the decisions we make in our lives. The GOOD ones, the BAD ones, and even the MONUMENTALLY STUPID ones. If you have the privilege of living in The United States of America, then you also have the freedom and opportunity to pursue your goals and achieve whatever level of success you choose. If you’re a failure, it’s because you chose not to be a success. At some point, you stopped listening to the possibilities YOU told yourself existed, and YOU listened to the lies and impossibilities THEY told you. When you quit, they won. You need to own that. And if you want to change that, you need to start TODAY. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. If you really want to be a success, you can never quit. More importantly than not quitting, you have to start. It doesn’t matter if you fail, try again, but don’t quit no matter what. THEY may call you crazy, obsessed, stupid, or out of touch with reality. What THEY say and think has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them. YOU are capable of anything you choose to do. You just have to want it, and you have to work for it. Success does NOT happen overnight. It takes time and effort.

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“Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.”–Russell Warren

The future’s so bright, I gotta’ wear shades!

For the past two years, I’ve been sharing my knowledge and advice in order to help you achieve a happy and successful life. I can honestly say that my life has never been better, and it’s improving on a regular basis. I worked my way out of the poverty I was born into, listened to wise council, and avoided many pitfalls in life by examining the mistakes of others, and avoiding those errors. I wanted a better life. and I worked for everything I’ve achieved. I am a lifelong Republican, and have been a Christian since college. I live in a great country, and I have a great president. I started running a few months ago, ran my first 5K race in April, will be running my first 15K race today July 7th 2019, and in two months I will be running my first half-marathon. In May of this year, I purchased the Jeep I’ve wanted to own for the past decade. As a result, I now currently own THREE automobiles. If you don’t believe that success and happiness are within your power, let me assure you, it is possible, but it takes time, and YOU have to work for it. No one can do it for you. Success, or failure, it’s all up to YOU. As Always I wish you success and happiness!

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WHAT’S YOUR LEGACY?

Is the mark you make ‘spot on’?

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“To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.”— Red Auerbach

Last weekend was Father’s Day in the USA. Honestly it’s not my thing. My father died when I was a young boy, and as yet I still have no children of my own. The commercial holiday to honor fathers and fatherhood is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. It was first celebrated in 1910, but not signed into law as a permanent observance until 1972 when 37th President Richard M. Nixon signed the bill into law.

One thing that irritates me to no end is when pet owners refer to their pets as their ‘babies’ or refer to themselves as ‘fur parents’. This form of self-delusion has been propitiated by various animal rights groups, environmentalist groups, and even pro-abortion groups as a way of discouraging child birth because the Earth is allegedly overpopulated by humans who are supposedly destroying the environment and killing ‘Mother Earth’. The Earth is NOT your Mother, and your pets are not your children. Pets can be valuable members of your family, and be loyal companions who display an unusually human level of behavior and intelligence from time to time, but they will never BE human. Humans are not evolved animals.

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We are all children of God, and by God I refer to the one true God, Jesus Christ, who created all of us in His image for His purpose. We were created to be fruitful and multiply. Children are a gift from God, and our children are a living legacy.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett

The word LEGACY can mean either money or property that you receive from someone after they die, or something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time. In other words your birthright that is passed on to you, which you in turn will pass on to another after you have departed this mortal coil. Property is not just material goods, either but can also refer to intellectual property. When you write a book, paint a painting, film a movie, or teach a course you are passing on knowledge and inspiration to others. In the past, you really needed to shine bright to leave a mark in the history books and be remembered. Unless we are extraordinary leaders of men, every single one of us is about fifty years from being forgotten. When the last person who knew us passes on, we too are forgotten.

The higher you are held in regard, the further your impact will go, which is why your reputation is paramount. If you have a reputation for honesty and integrity, people will more readily believe you and follow your lead. Your enemies will do everything in their power to trash your reputation, but the truth will always be true no matter how many lies are told about it.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6 King James Version (KJV)

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In today’s digital world, nothing is forgotten, but the amount of information being generated is staggering. Information can become buried and lost virtually forever until someone uncovers and shares it. As data ‘facts’ and fake news are spread like wild-fire in nanoseconds around the globe, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. The important thing to keep in mind on is that both sides playing the game of kings for global domination want to influence you and sway you to their side. This is why fathers, and husbands, and the traditional family unit have been constantly being assaulted by the left. When you destroy the family unit, you can reshape society into any insane caricature you can dream up. This is why Christianity and Jesus and the Bible are all despised by the left, and all haters of truth. This is why President Donald J. Trump is constantly being slandered by the liberal media. Both parents (and fathers especially) play an important part in preparing the next generation and preventing them from engaging in stupid and self-destructive actions. Turning 18 may legally grant you certain rights held by adults, but it does not make you an adult. The next generation is the future, and freedom is always one generation away from extinction. If you love your children, teach your children well. As always, I wish you success and happiness!

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CONQUER THE WORLD!

Ask me how…

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. – Dale Carnegie

The world is made up of two types of people. Those who talk about doing things, and those who go out and get those things done. According to a recent article printed in Business Insider about a third of Millennials think that they are worse off today than they were ten years ago. The question that really begs to be asked is what were these ‘eager young space cadets’ doing over the past decade to improve their lives? The overwhelming response was nothing. They stayed in the same dead-end jobs for fear of finding a better job. They didn’t invest in the stock market for fear of losing money. They didn’t save because they had just enough to make ends meet, and they feared they wouldn’t be able to. The end result of doing nothing is nothing. Nothing happens unless someone makes it happen. You will never be able to conquer the world until you learn to conquer your irrational fears.

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear. –Dale Carnegie

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self. – Napoleon Hill

Many times, we are held back by bad habits. Laziness is chief among all bad habits. We put off for tomorrow what could be done today because we ‘don’t feel like it’ or we ‘don’t have time’ or we have ‘something better to do.’ Motivation can be difficult when we don’t see immediate results, but all things take time, and Rome wasn’t built in a day. This goes for all bad habits from poor eating habits to addictions to failure to exercise regularly. If you start something, keep at it until the task has been accomplished. Never give up. Focus on doing what you can, and then going one better.

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” ― William Faulkner

If you believe that something is impossible, and you don’t attempt it, you will never know if it could have been accomplished. Trying once and failing is not an indication of impossibility, it’s just an indication of inexperience and lack of knowledge. No one was ever an expert the first time they did something, and if they happened to do it perfectly that first time, it was dumb luck. You’re an expert when you can consistently deliver the same results, and that takes time and practice.

Energy and persistence conquer all things. – Benjamin Franklin

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. –Jeremiah 29:11

Make plans! If you fail to plan you plan to fail! You need to know where you are, where you want to be, and have the steps to get there. You need to know what direction to go, what tools you’ll need to accomplish your goal. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it won’t happen at all unless you take to proper measures beforehand. Spontaneity is great when you’re stuck and need to think of something to get you back on course, but it’s a terrible way to live your life. All successful people take notes, make plans, and work from paper. Again, if you do nothing, nothing will happen. You got this! You just have to believe in the possible.

I believe that in the end the truth will conquer. –John Wycliffe

As you continue moving on towards accomplishing you goals, You’ll encounter a lot of fake news and negativity. You need to cut the dead-weight that’s holding you back. Unhappy, unsuccessful people will be jealous of your attempts to better yourself. Success is the best revenge. There are many people you will meet throughout your life who will never accomplish half the things you do, and they will try to make you feel bad about yourself by calling you greedy or selfish. What they think of you says more about them then it does about you. Your success does not doom them to failure. They doomed themselves to failure by doing nothing and just want you to feel sorry for their poor life choices. You can’t help them, they are the only ones who can help themselves, and they don’t want to for whatever reason. If you have access to the internet, you have access to the sum total of human knowledge. Ignorance is a choice, knowledge is power, and the truth will vanquish any lie in time. Stay focused on your goals and they will become your accomplishments. You got this, and no one can take that away from you! If you can conceive it, and you can believe it, you can achieve it! As always I wish you success and happiness!