Chapter 4
The Art of Being Alive
"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."
"The world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.
Forget yourself."
—Henry Miller
The year 1914 marked the tragic beginning of the Great War, known more commonly today as World War I.
Ironically touted as "The War to End All Wars," this global conflagration of unprecedented proportions introduced the first war waged on an industrial scale. It ushered in the deaths of millions of soldiers and civilians throughout Europe and beyond and changed the world forever.
The same year this great conflict began, the American poet—Ella Wheeler Wilcox—penned an ironic rebuttal to the topic of death in the form of a book she entitled: The Art of Being Alive: Success Through Thought.
In her book, Wilcox lamented that only one person in a thousand is truly "alive." The eloquence and meaningfulness of her rich prose prompted me to reprint a portion of her message verbatim below, as follows:
"To be really alive means more than to be a moving, breathing, eating, drinking, and talking human creature.
"He who is actually alive finds ... life itself a continual adventure, an unfolding panorama, with opportunities for pleasure and achievement at every turn. ...
"The [person] who is really alive realizes that he must use his own position in the world, and his own environment, as the first field of action if he hopes to reach success in any venture. He must not wait for luck or a miracle to give him a change of location an better surroundings better suited to his taste. Out of whatever destiny has bestowed upon him he will make the conditions which he desires.
"And out of every earth day he will make a little bit of heaven.
"No difficulty can discourage, no obstacle dismay, no trouble dishearten the man who has acquired the art of being alive. ... [He] finds pleasure in the simplest things; and to him nothing is commonplace, nothing is menial. ...
"If you are bored with life and work, if you think the years of youth alone are happy years, if you believe sentiment and romance are evanescent feelings, if you find daily life commonplace, if you imagine you are too old or too busy to make something worthwhile out of your opportunities, then you are not alive. ... You merely exist. And you are losing your wonderful chance to utilize for the good of the world and for your own good, here and hereafter, these golden days by a knowledge and use of the Divine Will in yourself.
"Are you alive?" (1)
I have spent the past 24 years writing and re-writing this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook in hopes of lighting the torch of "divine will" within every "crude chunk of eternity" (2) whose eyes and hands happen to fall upon the pages of this work, that perhaps the human race might come more fully alive in all the most positive and productive ways in which we are often lacking in more common hours and times.
At Freedom Focused, our goal is to assist YOU in becoming a "reverent and aspiring adventurer," a traveler who is empowered to unlock the all of the "pleasures, powers, possibilities, and achievements" freely available to you—if you will but see them and seek them out with more vibrancy, vigor, and vim. (3) In short, we seek to help the ONE out of every thousand to further burnish his or her meteoric rise and brilliant influence—while concurrently assisting the other 999 to become more like the one.
 |
Emily Dickinson
1830-1886 |
If YOU
are, or at least
feel, more ALIVE for having read this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook, then I have not written it in vain—and you are not living in vain.
Not in Vain
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. (4)
—Emily Dickinson
From one self-action leader to another, here's to doing more than just living; here's to becoming increasingly ALIVE as your life flies by with accelerating alacrity. Here's to YOU and your incomprehensible potential.
Indeed... I say to YOU now what British citizenry have said to their royal monarchs for centuries:
God save the King!
God save the Queen!
For I declare unto YOU that you are a King or Queen in embryo, opportunity, and training. Do not waste away or sell your noble birthright.
Embrace it,
Enhance it, and
Invigorate it!
Live without regrets.
Choose to become one of the relatively few who can truly say at the end of the day, year, decade, or life:
"I left it all on the track."
"I crossed the finish line."
"And the victory is mine!"
SAL MANTRA
Finish Strong... and Live Without Regrets.
The Finish Line
In BOOK the FIFTH, Chapter 35, I shared a poem entitled, The Finish Line, which I had composed at Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington during my senior year of high school (grade 12).
Years later, I penned a sequel and named it: The Finish Line: Part II.
The first poem sought to prosodically capture some of the anxiety, fear, and trepidation I felt about "The Race" (my life) and the various challenges I faced at the time, including severe OCD and its accompanying anxiety and depression.
The second poem aimed to capture some of the glory, gratitude, and hope I felt after having utilized SAL and Serendipity to make several significant alterations and improvements to my mental health, personality, and life over time.
I now share this sequel poem with YOU in hopes of further convincing you that positive changes and Existential Growth are worth any price you may have to pay in time and effort along the way.
The Finish Line: Part II
The day was won,
As many had,
Another gained—
A glorious fad!
Won, yet I,
Not really through,
Still saw new dangers
Lurking true.
And yet,
Such hope did fill my soul:
For to realize
The dragons
God and I had slain,
Empowered me and
Gave me rest.
And with my newfound
Strength and power,
I'll boldly take on each new hour,
Resolved beyond the tempter's snares,
I am equipped to meet all cares.
And thus empowered,
My sword—once set in stone's—
Allowed to be be drawn forth
To help me fight,
And race,
To win,
And make it
Through the night
First Place
In the most important
Race of all—
The one that pits me
Against me
And Existential Gravity—
That I might
Each day
Stand boldly up
and humbly say:
"As time moves on,
I will keep on...
And on...
And on...
To cross
Each Finish
Line."
—JRJ
The Precious Value of TIME
In this world, TIME is the material of life and the currency of living.
As such, its precious and incomparable value is self-evident. Indeed, "The Power of Now" is a sufficiently compelling concept to have become the title of a bestselling book. (5)
Serious self-action leaders understand the value of time and invest great effort and focus on its wise allocation and expenditure.
As you reflect upon how you are presently using your own gift of time, I invite you to read the following two quotes and a poem—and then consider what improvements you might make moving forward in the area of time management, which, is really nothing more than Life Leadership on a minor scale.
"Dost thou love life?
Then do not squander time;
For that's the stuff life is made of."
—Benjamin Franklin
"Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such."
—Henry Miller
The Sun-Dial at Wells College
The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past:
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour,
In darkness, and beyond thy power:
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine:
One hour alone is in thy hands,—
The NOW on which the shadow stands. (6)
March, 1904
The Freedom and Power of the Individual
Men and women, boys and girls often forget—or fail to fully comprehend—the liberty and potential they possess as individual self-action leaders. This ignorance and/or forgetfulness inhibits their freedom and power. This is perhaps especially evident and glaring in democratic societies where it is commonplace for half or more of the populace to refrain from exercising their liberty, opportunity, and power to VOTE.
A man or woman who refuses to exercise this precious liberty and personal power has no business critiquing, much less criticizing, those who are elected to public office and the policies and laws they choose to enact and/or enforce. Failing to exercise such a priceless liberty inhibits the freedom of the individual who neglects this vital civic duty—and the populace who shares in any negative consequences empowered by his or her muted voice.
Speaking in an address to college students in the Intermountain United States in the mid-1940s, shortly after the end of World War II, one teacher and leader—J.F. Smith—put it this way:
"We accuse leaders and we say the leaders have led us astray. ... But, let it be said that before people can be led, in the beginning they have got to be willing to be led. And, I am a firm believer that any group of people get just about the leadership it deserves. I am a firm believer that when in our own country statesmanship falls down [and] leadership is ineffective, it is due directly to the individuals in the United States who have allowed that leadership to come into power. The peace of the world rests upon the individuals of the world." (7)
Part of being truly alive is awakening to the innate liberty and potential freedom and power you possess as an individual self-action leader. Again, in the words of J.F. Smith:
"Not infrequently you hear this: 'What can I do to help world peace? Here I am, one lone, miserable individual. I cannot have any influence. I cannot do anything which will help. I am powerless.' That, of course, is just nonsense, for the peace of the world rests upon the collective individuals in the world; it does not rest upon nations; it rests upon individuals in those nations. ... Do not think your lives are unimportant. Do not think for a moment that you can exert no influence because you are young or because you are few. We have got to get away from the notion that quantity is the important thing in influence. You know you can go into the laboratories in this campus and you will find that very minute amount[s] of particular substances can exert tremendous influences. ... One individual courageously choosing [one's] own conduct in [the] face of all odds, doing right, can exert a tremendous influence. ... Let us choose so that every event that comes into our lives will be enriching so that we will be bigger than any event, come whatever calamity may. ... We can have freedom each in his own sphere." (8)
While no single individual can do everything or solve all problems, every individual—including YOU and me—can do something to work on solutions to problems within one's immediate sphere of influence—and beyond.
The challenge that SAL offers to YOU, me, and everyone else in this world is not to fix the world.
The challenge that SAL offers to YOU, me, and everyone else in this world is to fix your, my, and their world.
By simply fixing up your own individual worlds—one thought, word, and deed at a time—you position yourself to make the world a better place by a factor of your own personal improvement, development, and growth.
Just imagine what would happen if everyone stopped pointing their fingers at external people and things and instead re-invested that same time, energy, and effort on internal change, improvement, and growth.
What would happen if that actually occurred?
ANSWER: We would literally change the world... one person-at-a-time—all at the same time!
You cannot, of course, control what others think about, say, or do. But, YOU can control what you think about, say, and do. As you choose to focus more fully on what you can control, rather than wringing your hands over what you cannot, YOU will truly change the world as a self-action leader.
And you will become more fully ALIVE in the process!
SAL MANTRA
No one can do everything. But, everyone can do something!
Dream Big
In 1922, the poet Langston Hughes wrote a poem about the importance of having dreams for the future. His simple and beautiful 8-line, 2-stanza piece of verse ranks among my all-time favorite poems.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
—Langston Hughes
I was first introduced to this masterpiece when I was just in grade school—which is when and where I began having my own dreams about the future.
One of the most significant dreams I have held for many years is to complete the book you now hold in your hands. The fact that YOU are reading this book at this present moment is proof that many of my dreams have come true.
I believe in having dreams.
I also believe in dreaming BIG.
I encourage YOU to go and do likewise.
 |
JJ with his maternal aunt, Ruth Smith Silver
at her home in Denver, Colorado.
2012 |
However, in the process of dreaming, it is wise to temper your expectations with certain realities that place various limitations upon all of us in
this world.
In the course of tempering my own BIG DREAMS with reality, I have often been inspired by a quote I learned from my dear maternal aunt—Ruth Smith Silver.
When I was still a young man, this precious woman—who so graciously and generously granted me the gift of both her time and financial resources to love me and help me succeed over the years—taught me a great truth when she said: "Jordan: you can have anything you want in life; but, you cannot have everything you want in life."
"You can have anything you want in life.
But, you cannot have everything you want in life."
—Ruth Stanley Smith Silver
This incredibly insightful quote, while not literally true in every particular—contains a wealth of generalized wisdom and a reminder that while all of us should dream big and aim high in our lives, we should simultaneously recognize our mortal limitations, carefully focus our finite time and energy, and conscientiously guard against our own base inclinations toward greed, lust, and pride.
As a human being and self-action leader, YOU are capable of truly remarkable things in your life and career. But, you cannot do or have everything. Therefore, you must choose what it is that you really want most and then remember that if you choose one thing, you cannot simultaneously choose another, and vice-versa.
Likewise, if you choose to pursue and embrace one lifestyle, you cannot choose a different lifestyle at the same time.
Moreover, when you choose to spend your time in one way, you are simultaneously choosing not to spend your time in an infinite number of others ways.
Hence...
CHOICES really matter!
So, choose wisely...
And never forget that every choice, endeavor, and lifestyle you pursue in your life and career will carry consequences that lie outside of your control.
When you consider how finite your time and energy is in this life, what you choose day-in and day-out throughout your life really does matter—a lot.
In fact, it makes all the difference in the end; because your decisions really do determine destiny.
SAL MANTRA
Decisions Determine Destiny
In Your Journal
- Make a list of the "small things" in your life that bring you peace, satisfaction, happiness, or joy.
- What is one thing you could do on a daily basis that would help you to feel more alive?
- How does your management of time relate to your personal confidence and self-esteem?
- What is one simple action you have been avoiding that, if regularly done, would significantly increase the quality of your life, career, and relationships?
- What is one thing you could do today (or this week or month) that would leave the world a better place because of your action?
- What can you personally do to increase the likelihood that honest, fair, just, wise, and statesmanlike leaders ascend to positions of power in your organization, community, region, state, nation, or world?
- What are some of your greatest hopes and dreams for the future?
—Dr. JJ
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 507th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 293th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
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Chapter 4 Notes
1. Wilcox, E.W. (1914). The Art of Being Alive: Success Through Thought. Google
Books edition. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Pages 2-6.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Cook, R.J. (Editor). (1926). One Hundred and One Famous Poems: With a Prose Supplement. Google Books edition. Chicago, Illinois: The Cable Company. Page 30.
5. Tolle, E. (1999). The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Novato, CA: Namaste Publishing / New World Library.
6. Dyke, H.V. (1927). Chosen Poems by Henry Van Dyke. Google Books edition. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s
Sons. Page 325.
7. Smith, J.F. (1945-6). Public address on Freedom to students at Brigham Young University on an unknown month and day following V-J day in the year 1945 or 1946.
8. Ibid.
