Fear is Jail

jail

Fear is  jail.

The world has so much information to offer.

Libraries, schools, experts, and the troves of resources on the internet make learning almost anything possible.

But is success probable? Only sometimes.

Education and information don’t create success. If it did, success would be simple and assured.

Since it’s not, there’s always some psychology to understand first.

Namely, fear.

Despite the resources, we hit bumps. We stagnant. We get discouraged. We give up too soon.

We are both afraid to fail and afraid to succeed. We fear the unknown and the too familiar. We fear change and we fear sameness.

Just knowing this can take a few teeth out of fear and can give us a cell key.

cell key

Information can help us through our fear. It’s a tool, key. But, we can sit in a cell whose door is wide open.

We assume information is the solution sometimes. It’s certainly not.

That’s why when you make resources and opportunities available to a frightened population success is still rare.

People–whether they know it or not–get stuck being afraid. Jailed.

But, back to the key: Information.
We live in a time were we can pick so many things for ourselves. The rich and powerful used to corner this market. Not just recently in the Industrial Age, but in every age. Social classes, gender, skin color and many other inescapable factors determined what you could accomplish in a lifetime. No more.

But so much will stop us. So, back to fear. It must be tamed. Always.

A path, a formula, or expert advice make wading through a bit easier. But here is the best key: As we utilize our resources we sill have to be honest that we are fearful and it affects us greatly.

If you sense that you aren’t moving forward, or you’re distracting your self routinely, ask yourself some hard questions about what you fear.

Armed with those answers you can push through if you get brave. Fear will be back of course, but you’ll be more prepared for it. You’ll do battle again and again. Know your enemy. Use your tools. Work your key.

Results are in: Wife Beating Endorsed!

I’m glad I live in 2013 in the U.S. It’s not a perfect time with no problems, of course. I get that.

Most of the time it seems people say they “remember the good old days,” you know, when things were simpler and better.

Sometimes I get nostalgic too.

This idea that things were better in the past is, of course, a myth generally speaking. Every era has its benefits and its downsides.

This clipping is my favorite recent example. (Buzz Feed featured it.)

It’s a newspaper clip which appears to be printed in The Mirror of New York. They ask ordinary men if it’s a good idea to “spank their wives.” (Meaning hit them, of course.) Their eyewear fashions point to a time in the 1950s or early 1960s, which might be why I remember driving in the car with my grandpa as he hauled off and cracked my grandma in the head or arm when he got upset with her. (When he was lost or frustrated, and she should have told him where to turn?) He was just a man of his times and she needed it, from his perspective.

It makes the women’s rights movement a little more palatable now, right?

Manhood is seen differently now, in this century, and for that I am immensely glad! You too?

You like the qualifier in this headline? “If she needs it,“? Priceless.

Good luck telling the police that line now. “Yes, I hit her, officer, but she needed it.”

Funny, right?
(Only looking back, and only laughing so you don’t cry for yesterday’s women.)

beatyourwife(click for photo source)

 

A Recipe for “Dogged Tenacity”

I’m concerned that my daughter won’t do well in life. Why? Tenacity.

Tenacity is what separates the successful from the naturally gifted.

Having a high IQ should be a good thing. It can be, but it can make a person (potentially) very lazy. For instance, it can make you try less. So, why work hard at school (to learn new things), if the grade come easy?

A lack of struggle will hold actually us back from achieving success in the future.

Smarts can mean that when you run into a problem you quits because you hate the feeling of struggling.

The only way to get into a practice of being tenacious is to make sure that some things are fought for.

We will want to take short cuts. We want to skip the work. But, we can’t.

by Seth Casteel (click for source)

It’s about dogged tenacity!

Screen Shot 2013-08-08 at 6.05.59 PM

 

That’s what I’ve been striving for with doggedly promoting my book about dogs and how having them makes a big difference in ways I never realized. In the last few weeks it’s been a lot of work! It’s hard but the success is worth the pain and toil. The success isn’t the money–it’s in the process of the work itself. The joy is in knowing you are doing something you love even though it’s tough.

I’m sometimes surprised at how much has been accomplished. The project has gone from zero to hero with hundreds of people excited about the release, on August 19th (2013). It’s exciting.

So, back to the recipe:


The recipe for tenacity…for you and me, is to try things that are too hard for us. Try what is uncomfortable until it doesn’t bother you any more.

And other things too:

1. Meet fear head-on.

2. Combat, “I might fail.” with “I’ll learn something no matter what.”

3. Persist and when you feel like letting up…rest for just a tiny bit and then persist again.

I’m inspired by the dogged tenacity of a dog on the fetch. The dog pictures of Underwater Dogs capture it well.

So, on that note, please join a whole pack of us as we get ready to doggedly put the puppy into the splashy, so to speak. Let’s do this!

Photo is the an incredible artist Seth Casteel, photographer of the best-selling and amazing book “Underwater Dogs”.

Why did I write “Dog in the Gap” -VIDEO

Click below to watch the short VIDEO promo…It’s the backstory of the “Dog in the Gap” book…Plus, meet Doug, Spurgeon, Lisa, and Luna.

DiGstill

Dog in the Gap VIDEO

 

If you like it, will you pass it on?