SAL Life Variables

 

Chapter 7

SAL Life Variables 

Have you ever faced a debilitating challenge only to hear someone say: "You just need to have a better attitude, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and make it happen!" 

Truth be told, there are times when this approach is appropriate, relevant, and needed. After all, SAL exists to inspire individuals to take personal responsibility for everything in their lives, and the reality is that there are many occasions throughout life when "bootstrapping" may be your only viable option. At such times, your ATTITUDE may indeed make or break the situation.   

On other occasions, however, this same approach could potentially be ignorant, misguided, and perhaps even insulting. Oversimplifying human problems can be problematic—just as overcomplicating, or ignoring them altogether, can likewise be troublesome. 

Self-Action Leadership does not translate into human omniscience or omnipotence, nor does it exist to suggest that solving complex problems is possible by merely "changing your attitude," "pumping yourself up," or "working harder." Other variables—both internal and external—exist to produce a variety of human difficulties and problems as well as opportunities and potential. It is important that these additional variables are taken into account as part of our SAL problem-solving calculus.  

At Freedom Focused, we have identified 17 SAL Life Variables that produce limitations and/or benefits to your potential as a self-action leader. SAL Life Variables are defined as: variables over which we have varying degrees of control and influence that influence the results we get in our lives.

SAL  LIFE  VARIABLES

Variables of reality over which we have varying degrees of control

and/or influence that, in-turn, influence the results we get in our lives.

SAL Variables

1. Forces of Nature
2. Congenital Physical Variables
3. Congenital Family Environment
4. Congenital Social Environment
5. Congenital Intelligence & Talent
6. Initial Opportunities for Education
7. Good and Bad Luck
8. Genetic and Mimetic Inclinations
9. Choices of Others
10. Time
11. Structural Inequality
12. Geopolitics and Macroeconomics
13. Suprarational Intervention  (aka SERENDIPITY)
14. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
15. Desire
16. Developed Intelligence & Talent
17. Will Power

Before diving headlong into a discussion of these 17 SAL Life Variables, it is crucial that we make one thing crystal clear. The purpose of introducing these 17 variables into our discussion of SAL is not to give you a pocketful of excuses for why you can't achieve, grow, and earn freedom in your life. The purpose is merely to keep you grounded in the way things really are (reality) in this imperfect and often unfair world. Exploring these variables as they personally relate to YOU will enable and empower you along your journey to SELF-KNOWLEDGE. This is a good thing because self-knowledge—and the self-awareness derived therefrom—lies at the very basis of SAL.

More than two millennia ago, that great Greek philosopher—Socrates—famously encouraged and invited mankind to join him along the pathways of self-knowledge by uttering two simple words, as follows: Know Thyself. His terse injunction—so richly adorned with wisdom—is as important today as it was in 399 B.C.  

"Know Thyself."

—Socrates

While the SAL Philosophy openly and liberally espouses hope and optimism in even the direst of situations and circumstances, its dual aim is to keep your eyes wide open to difficult and painful facts about real life. The goal of this balanced approach is to avoid both pessimism and unbridled optimism in favor of optimistic REALISM. 

What do I mean when I say: "unbridled optimism?" 

        The following example by Tony Robbins helps to illustrate the definition of this term.  

Robbins once remarked that it does no good to go out into your garden and proclaim: "There are no weeds, there are no weeds, there are no weeds!" Such is the error of unbridled optimism. Instead, he encourages us to identify the weeds and then take action to remove them, after which we can realistically report the progress our garden has made through our caring and optimistic planning and efforts.     

In addressing the subject of SAL life variables, we must begin by acknowledging and recognizing that every human being is extraordinarily unique. Each one of us possesses a singular combination of genetic and mimetic variables that is unlike any other person. 

Just think of that!

Among the tens of billions of people who have lived throughout recorded history, YOU are truly one-of-a-kind. The life experiences of every human being are uniquely impacted by one's own singular blend of these seventeen SAL Life Variables, otherwise known as a person's benefits and limitations formula, or one's SAL Variables Quotient.

SAL VARIABLES' QUOTIENT

A person's unique blend of genetic and mimetic benefits and limitations.

In explicating these 17 variables, it's crucial to remember that so-called "limitations" and "benefits" should be interpreted primarily as potential limitations and potential benefits. Just because a person is born (or otherwise placed) into a circumstantial or situational limitation or benefit does not mean it will always exist. You've undoubtedly met someone who has, over time, either transcended a limitation—or squandered a benefit—with which they were born or otherwise situated. So again, we introduce these variables not to provide a list of excuses for why you can't achieve or obtain. We introduce them simply to further enable and empower us to see things as they really are and thereby set goals and visions within a framework of reality as opposed to unbridled optimism, which is also known as "wishful thinking."   

With this introduction in mind, let's now define and dig a little deeper into the 17 SAL Life Variables by providing a definition for each variable in conjunction with examples of its accompanying limitations and benefits.

1).  Forces of Nature

Definition:  Natural forces that govern the physical world and universe. 

Limitations:  Extremities of temperature and weather and other naturally occurring incidents that cause damage, difficulties, and disasters.  

Benefits:  Mild, pleasant weather and ideal temperatures, and a lack of natural disasters. 

Note on Natural Laws: Laws of physics, chemistry, and biology are not benefits or limitations in and of themselves; however, our understanding of and capability to harness and direct those forces can, in-turn become limitations or benefits. For example: the law of gravity is sometimes perceived as a limitation (i.e. we are stuck on the ground). But, if we understand the laws of levitation and/or flight and work with the law, it can become a benefit (i.e. we can now bungee jump, fly, skydive, etc.).    

2).  Congenital Physical Variables

Definition:  Your atomic, biological, chemical, genetic, and physiological makeup at birth.

Limitations:  Congenital disabilities, disorders, and illnesses; disadvantages of height, weight, or physical appearance; lack of athletic abilities and other physical talents, etc. 

Benefits:  Congenital health and well-being; endowments of height, weight, physical appearance; athletic ability and other physical talents, etc.

Note: These stated limitations and benefits are generic examples and assume said states lead to a pre-supposed outcome. However, depending on a given situation, circumstance, attitude, outlook, or perception, such assumptions could, in fact, be reversed. Suffice it to say, a limitation and/or a benefit is often interpreted subjectively based on "the eye of the beholder."  

3).  Congenital Familial Environment

Definition:  Your family circumstances at birth. 

Limitations:  Poverty, abuse, neglect, malnutrition, single-parent families, absent or uncaring parents, etc.  

Benefits:  Love, support, safety, security, encouragement, moral guidance, etc.  

4).  Congenital Social Environment

Definition:  The familial and social environment into which you are born.

Limitations:  Growing up amongst people who predominantly exemplify negative and destructive actions and habits, such as: cowardice, dishonesty, disloyalty, disrespect, erratic behavior, ill-temperedness, impulsivity, unfaithfulness, emotional immaturity, myopia, etc.

Benefits:  Growing up amongst people who predominantly exemplify positive and constructive actions and habits, such as: courage, honesty, loyalty, respect, stability, kindness, self-discipline, fidelity, emotional intelligence, vision, etc.   

5).  Congenital Intelligence & Talent

Definition:  The intellectual and talent potential at-brith based upon your genetic makeup alone.

Limitations:  Some people are born with a less-endowed IQ and TQ (talent quotient) than others.

Benefits:  Some people are born with a more-endowed IQ and TQ than others.  

6).  Initial Opportunities for Education

Definition:  The opportunities for education provided to you by your parents and/or guardians/caregivers prior to entering adulthood.  

Limitations:  Lack of formal educational opportunities and/or a lack or absence of parental encouragement, enthusiasm, mentoring, modeling, and support.

Benefits:  Opportunities to receive high quality public or private schooling, tutoring, mentoring, coaching; the chance to participate in extracurricular activities; strong educational reinforcement and support at home; and well-educated parents, caregivers, and role models.  

7).  Good and Bad Luck

Definition:  Seemingly arbitrary and capricious events that occur beyond the influence of your own thoughts, speech, and actions.  

Limitations:  Bad luck—everyone experiences it to some degree in life.

Benefits:  Good luck—everyone experiences it in some degree life.

Note: It has often been said that you "make your own luck" over time. Put another way: "The harder you work, the luckier you get" is another common refrain of an optimistic outlook. At Freedom Focused, we very much support the sentiment shared in these statements. However, objectively speaking, the "luck" that we as self-action leaders create over time isn't really "luck" as we define it above because that kind of "luck" is influenced by our thoughts, speech, and actions.   

8).  Genetic and Mimetic Inclinations

Definition:  Inborn and learned inclinations from your parents and/or caregivers/guardians. 

Limitations:  Addictions, bad habits, and other negative habits and practices that are either innate or learned, such as: cowardice, dishonesty, disloyalty, disrespect, erratic behavior, ill-temperedness, impulsivity, unfaithfulness, emotional immaturity, myopia, etc.

Benefits:  Positive habits and inclinations that are either innate or learned, such as: courage, honesty, loyalty, respect, stability, kindness, self-discipline, fidelity, emotional intelligence, vision, etc.   

Note: A better—and more accurate—way of framing genetic and mimetic "limitations" would be to employ the word "challenges." This is because human beings possess the capacity to transcend many genetic and mimetic inclinations through SAL and SERENDIPITY over time, thereby turning limitations into benefits.  

9).  Choices of Others

Definition:  The thoughts, speech, and actions of those around you who impact or influence your life.

Limitations:  Abuse, abandonment, deception, insensitivity, irresponsibility, profligacy, thoughtlessness, etc.  

Benefits:  Courtesy, compassion, fidelity, integrity, sensitivity, responsibility, wisdom, thoughtfulness, etc.   

10).  Time

Definition:  The passage of one moment to the next throughout the duration of your physical existence in this world. 

Limitations:  It's finite quality.

Benefits:  It's existence. 

11).  Structural Inequality

Definition:  Having the "cards" stacked unfairly against you because of certain immutable characteristics such as: ethnicity, race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, etc.  

Limitations:  Stifled opportunities due to your possession of certain immutable and other characteristics.  

Benefits:  Expanded opportunities due to your possession of certain immutable and other characteristics.

12).  Geopolitics & Macroeconomics

Definition:  The broad and complex interplay of economics and politics throughout one's community, region, state, nation, and world.  

Limitations:  Residence and/or citizenship in areas marked by corruption, poverty, scarcity, war, etc.

Benefits:  Residence and/or citizenship in areas marked by integrity, affluence, abundance, peace, etc.  

13).  Suprarational Intervention  (aka SERENDIPITY)

Definition:  Serendipitous and rationally inexplicable events that provide you with benefits, blessings, favors, gifts, and opportunities.

Limitations:  A lack of Serendipitous aid.

Benefits:  A surfeit of Serendipitous aid.

Note: At Freedom Focused, we believe that Serendipity blesses us according to our needs and wants and is conditioned upon our willingness to care for others and faithfully attend to our Existential Duties. Given this paradigm, a lack of Serendipitous Aid may result from one's own failure to care for others and attend to their duties. 

14).  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1)

Definition:  A hierarchy of needs' paradigm set forth by Abraham Maslow in a groundbreaking academic paper published in 1943. It posits that primary needs such as safety, shelter, food, clothing, acceptance, and love must be met before one can reasonably aspire to and meet higher (secondary) needs such as self-esteem, advanced cognitive development, and self-actualization.

Limitations:  If you are born or otherwise face unmet primary (lower) needs, you will have greater difficulty aspiring towards and realizing secondary (higher) needs.

Benefits:  If you are born with or otherwise have your primary needs fulfilled, you will have greater success aspiring towards and realizing secondary needs.  

15).  Desire

Definition:  An inner yearning to achieve, obtain, or become something.

Limitations:  Possessing a scarcity of desire to work hard, sacrifice, and otherwise pay the price required to earn Existential Growth, Balance, and personal freedom.

Benefits:  Possessing an abundance of desire to work hard, sacrifice, and otherwise pay the price required to earn Existential Growth, Balance, and personal freedom. 

Note: Of all the topics addressed in this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook, human desire is perhaps the most enigmatic. This is because it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly why a given person does or does not desire something. In addition to being the most mysterious subject addressed in this text, it is also the most important, for without it, nothing else goes, succeeds, or works. It is an absolutely indispensable ingredient in everything that we do on the altars of pursuing achievement, contentment, growth, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, success, inner peace, etc.   

Desire is categorized as being a variable over which we have some control or influence, but not all. While you can't control how you feel, you can control what you do about how you feel. As a result, you do have a measure of influence over your desires and feelings by virtue of what you choose to do.  

16).  Developed Intelligence & Talent

Definition:  The intelligence and talent a self-action leader develops through discipline, focus, hard work, consistence, persistence, and determination.  

Limitations:  Theoretically, there is no limit to the potential development of a given person's intellect and talent. Thus, the only real limitation to this variable is your own desire and will to pursue it.

Benefits:  The benefits are potentially endless, and are conditional on one's desire and will to pursue it.

17).  Will Power

Definition:  The inner resolve and determination required to carry out a given act or series of actions.

Limitations:  Some people have weaker wills than others. The reason is sometimes quite mysterious and hearkens back to the enigma of desire.

Benefits:  Some people have stronger wills than others. The reason is likewise mysterious and hearkens back to the enigma of desire.  

As you review this list of 17 SAL Live Variables, you will notice that some limitations and benefits are congenital, meaning a person is born with the limitation or benefit. Others depend on what you do (or don't do) after your life begins. These 17 variables can therefore be divided into three basic categories, as follows: 

Category 1:  Variables you cannot control

• Forces of Nature
• Congenital Physical Variables
• Congenital Familial Environment
• Congenital Social Environment
• Congenital Intelligence and Talent
• Initial Opportunities for Education
• Good and Bad Luck

Category 2:  Variables over which you possess some influence

• Genetic and mimetic inclincations
• Choices of others
• Time
• Structural Inequality
• Geopolitics and Macroeconomics
• Suprarational Intervention (SERENDIPITY)
• Hierarchy of Needs
• Desire

Category 3:  Variables you can control

• Developed Intelligence and Talents
• Will

As you review this list, you will notice that of these 17 variables, there are only two that you can actually consistently control. At first glance, it might be deflating and disappointing to discover just how much you can't control in your life in this world.

But you should never underestimate the power of your DESIRE and WILL.

        Likewise, you never underestimate the power of variables over which you have little or no control.

While it's true that some bad things happen because YOU act in foolish and irresponsible ways, it's also true that some bad things happen because other people act irresponsibly and foolishly—or because external events occur beyond your control. Moreover, disabilities, abuse, and structural inequality undoubtedly pose great obstacles for many. Such challenges can sometimes seem insurmountable, overwhelming, and disillusioning to the very best of us.

That is the bad news.

The GOOD NEWS is that no matter how bad you may have had it in the past, or how rough things might be in the present, you can always choose to make the best of what you have moving forward forever into the future. Self-action leaders continually strive to do their best with what they have wherever they are.

SAL Mantra

Do your best with what you have wherever you are.

At any moment in you life or career, YOU can decide to create a better life for yourself and your loved ones. You can also work to enhance the opportunities that your children and posterity (and/or the offspring of your friends and loved ones) can enjoy for generations to come.

In many cases, your control over other people and things is either nonexistent or drastically limited. Your control over your own thoughts, speech, and actions, however, provides a perpetual opportunity to achieve, grow, and earn additional balance and freedom in your life. As such, your freedom to choose empowers you to dramatically improve your external circumstances over time—if you decide to take advantage of it. In the stirring words of Plutarch and Otto Rank: What you achieve inwardly changes your outer reality.

"What you achieve inwardly changes your outer reality."

—Plutarch and Otto Rank

On the downside, there are many variables in life that you cannot control. On the upside, you can control the most important variable of all—your own will. By focusing on what you can control in your life, you discover over time that you can actually exert a great deal of influence on many other variables.

How you choose to exercise your will—and not the external circumstances in which you presently find yourself—makes the biggest difference in the long-term results you get in your life. Thus, YOUR WILL serves as the primary catalyst that determines what you become in the end. Hence, decisions really do determine destiny.

"Your decisions determine your destiny."

—Common Saying

YOUR WILL to do—or not do—is the greatest power you possess for the simple reason that it's the only thing you can fully control; it's the one force of nature that is entirely at your command. No one else is responsible for it, and no one can take it away from you without your permission. You may give it up to someone or something else, but otherwise, it's YOURS—and yours alone—to engage, direct, manage, and lead. The way in which you supervise your own will, will make the biggest single difference in the long-term balance, growth, and results you get in your life. 

What will you choose to do with YOUR will? 

        Your decisions in the matter really will determine your destiny over time.  

Faults vs. Problems

Much earlier in my career, during the 2009-2010 school year, I taught 9th grade English Language Arts in a large, public high school in Houston, Texas. When things would get difficult for us as teachers, and especially when it came to dealing with issues that were not of our own making (e.g. poor parenting, broken homes, negative peer pressure, culturally influenced bad behavior, etc.), administrators had a mantra they would repeat to us that went like this: It may not be your fault, but it is your problem; so, what are you going to do about it?

SAL Mantra

It may not be your fault, but it is your problem;

so, what are you going to do about it?

This is one of the best SAL reminders of reality I've ever heard. 

Translation: I didn't make all the problems in my life. But if the problems are in my life, then it's my responsibility to accept, properly address, and where possible, to resolve them. Pointing fingers of blame at other people, events, or things might feel good in the moment, but it never permanently solves real problems. 

This principle of responsibility versus blame applies to YOU, me, and everyone else in the world. All of your problems may not by your fault, but they are YOUR problems; so, what are YOU going to do about them? Because I can promise you that if you wait around for someone else to solve your problem/s for you, then you will usually be waiting around for a very long time.

So...

        What are YOU going to do about the problems in your life?

You can't change who you are, where you started out in life, or what you had (or didn't have) when you began your life in this world. But you always have the liberty to do something about it. As s result, you ultimately possess all the power you need to enormously influence how and where your story will end. 

When the final chapter of your life is written, will your story be one of virtue and victory, or of victimization and vice?

        The choice is YOURS!

As you consider your life and career choices moving forward, we at Freedom Focused invite you to consider and remember the words of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, who wrote: Highly proactive people ... do not blame their circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling ... [A proactive person's] honor is greater than [his or her] moods." (1)

"[Self-action leaders] do not blame their circumstances, conditions, or conditioning

for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscience choice,

based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

[A self-action leader's] honor is greater than his or her moods."

—Stephen R. Covey

In Your Journal

Go back through the 17 SAL Life Variables with your own life's ancestry, history, and experiences in mind. What limitations and benefits arise to form your unique SAL Variables' Quotient? After doing so, review your quotient's variables as you ask yourself the following questions:

• Have I over-reported any of my limitations? If so, why?
• Have I under-reported any of my benefits? If so, why?
• What can I do to see things more accurately and objectively in my education, career, and life?
• What can I do to transcend past abuse, disappointments, disillusionments, frustrations, ignorings, rejections, etc., in a way that could potentially turn my limitations into benefits?

*************************

This concludes BOOK the THIRD, the Self-Action Leadership PHILOSOPHY, which is defined as: Principles, practices, and premises that promote taking complete personal responsibility for everything in your life that you can either control or influence.

We have now come to the end of BOOK the THIRD. With its philosophical foundation fully laid, it's now time to begin constructing the superstructure of SAL by introducing its two core frameworks: The SAL Theory and the SAL Model, which comprise BOOKS the FOURTH and FIFTH, respectively. 

—Dr. JJ

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

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Chapter 7 Notes:

1.  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs refers to a model of human progress developed in the early 1940s by the American psychologist, Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). Maslow’s famous theory states that all human beings are motivated by a hierarchy of needs, and that lower needs must be met before higher needs can motivate. His hierarchy is often presented visually as a triangle model with basic human needs forming the base and higher human needs forming the top. His five basic needs include Survival needs (Level One), Safety needs (Level Two), Love needs (Level Three), Esteem needs (Level Four), and Self-Actualization needs (Level Five).

2.  Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. Pages 71 & 92.

3.  I first heard a similar statement to this by my friend, Dr. Nathaniel J. Williams. Dr. Williams' own SAL story is featured in BOOK the SIXTH, Chapter 6.

SAL is Not Only About YOU

 

Chapter 6

SAL is Not Only About YOU 

I am responsible.

        What does it really mean to be responsible? 

Freedom Focused suggests it means two basic things. 

First, as Dr. Stephen R. Covey taught, being responsible means you have developed "the ability to choose your response" to a situation—regardless how you may feel about it. (1) This ability gives YOU the FREEDOM and POWER to avoid becoming a complacent victim of your circumstances and other situational variables. It empowers you instead to rise above negative, painful, and even tragic events to ultimately choose your own destiny in life.  

Second, responsibility means you are accountable to others for your choices. This responsibility potentially extends to a dozen different potential persons, groups, or other entities, as follows:

1. 
   Yourself
2. Significant Other
3. Immediate Family Members
4. Extended Family Members
5. Friends
6. Neighbors
7. Colleagues
8. Other people around you—including strangers—that could possibly be affected or influenced by your choices
9. Organizations, including the Community, State, and Nation in which you reside
10. Global population
11. Planet Earth
12. God/the Universe/Serendipity, etc. 

In discussing the subject of Self-Action Leadership, we understandably talk a lot about self-improvement and personal development. In so doing, however, we must explicitly emphasize that SAL is about helping others as much as it is about helping yourself. 

SERVICE to others ensures that your efforts at personal change and growth don't evolve into narcissism—or worse, into evil. 

It is important, therefore, to ask yourself the question: Why do I want to help myself? 

There are many potentially noble answers to this question. At Freedom Focused, we suggest that the noblest answer of all is: So you can more effectively help and serve others!

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once insightfully stated: Life's most persistent question is: 'what are you doing for others?'"  

"Life's most persistent question is: 

'what are you doing for others?'"

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As self-action leaders, it is important to to acknowledge that our speech and actions impact and influence—for good or ill—others around us. This makes us ethically and morally accountable to others for what we think about, say, and do. It also creates, by default, DUTIES that we all have by virtue of our membership in the human race. As previously mentioned, we refer to these basic human responsibilities as Existential Duties.

The reality and presence of Existential Duties elevates the substance of our thoughts, words, and deeds into legitimate moral matters that each of us is duty-bound to continually address throughout our lives.

SAL may begin with YOU and you alone, but it immediately begins to extend outward to your relationships, familial responsibilities, organizational duties, and civic stewardships. Thus, we are all responsible to everyone we impact or influence in any way in our personal, organizational, civic, national, and global lives—and in this prioritized order. 

The order is important because you can only help others if you are in good working condition yourself. Similarly, families and organizations can only help communities, states, nations, and the global populace and planet if these entities themselves have integrity and can effectively work together on realistic long-term solutions.

Unfortunately, many mix up and therefore confuse this essential order.

Johann Wolgang von Goethe
1749-1832

As a result, they end up sacrificing their talents, education, relationships, and sometimes even their personal health and hygiene on pet projects aimed at theoretically "saving the world" while their own houses and lives are disordered and in disarray.

As Goethe once cautioned: Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

"Things which matter most must never be

at the mercy of things which matter least."

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

At Freedom Focused, we hold that all human beings have an Existential Duty to try their very best to develop nobler characteristics of SAL within themselves for the holistic, long-term benefit of themselves and others. This duty springs froth from the reality that, like it or not, we all live interconnected lives. Thus, our decisions always impact and influence other people, either directly or indirectly—whether we intend for them to, or not.

John Donne
1572-1631

In the ageless wisdom and eloquent prose of the poet, John Donne:

"No Man is an Island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away from the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a Promontory were, as well as if a Manor of they friends, or of thine own were; Any Man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." (2)

Whether you know it or not, and whether you like it or not, Life has granted you the right to direct your own existence in this world. This right is accompanied by a solemn responsibility to conduct and direct your life in ways that contribute positively to the long-term growth, development, and freedom of yourself and others.  

This means that it is SELFISH and WRONG to live only for yourself.

Ethical and moral living involves carefully considering how YOUR actions will affect, impact, and influence other human beings and life forms, including the planet-at-large. This means you are responsible for cleaning up the messes you make; it also means you must sometimes take part in cleaning up messes you had no part in creating—with the humble recognition that others have taken part in cleaning up your messes over the years.  

To remind myself of this duty, I strive to pick up at least one piece of trash I didn't throw down every day of my life. While one piece of trash per day by one person (me) isn't going to make a considerable difference in the world's littering problem, the power of the paradigm and practice in my life—and my ability to share with and teach my practice to others—just might have a sizable impact in the end.

SAL Mantra

Pick up ONE piece of trash every day

that you didn't throw down.

While we do hold important duties to others and the world in which we live, we must never forget that our capacity to help others is rooted in our own health and well-being. In the grand scheme of things, you aren't going to be worth a hill of beans to anyone or anything—including the planet—unless and/or until your own life and house are in order. 

To wit: while caring for the Planet is vitally important, it should never trump caring for the humans who inhabit and care for it. Environmentalism happens naturally as a by-product of Existential Growth, Freedom, and maturity—after individuals have first cleaned up their own lives. The same principle holds true for family life, education, politics, and everything else. 

Self-action leaders must always remember the simple, yet profound lesson taught routinely by flight attendants the world over: Securely fasten your own air mask before assisting others with theirs. 

SAL Mantra

If you really want to help other people, then go work on yourself. (3)

In Your Journal

• What impact or influence do you currently have on other people (i.e. family members, friends, colleagues, etc.)?

• Is your current impact or influence on others positive and constructive or negative and destructive?

• What is something you could begin doing TODAY to contribute more positively and constructively to those with whom you live and work?

• What is something you could do to provide conscious and intentional service to one or more of the following groups: family, neighbors, school, organization, community, state, nation, or world?  

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 387th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 198th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 386 FF Blog Articles 

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES  

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS   

Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection

Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks    

Chapter 6 Notes:

1.  Covey, S.R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. Page 71. Italics added.

2.  Booty, J. (1990). John Donne: Selections From Divine Poems, Sermons, Devotions, and Prayers. NewYork, NY: Paulist Press. Page 58.

3.  This mantra is derived from a similar quote by Mother Theresa of Calcutta: If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.

A New and Fresh Concept of Competition

 

Chapter 5

A New and Fresh Concept of Competition 

Self-action leaders recognize that in the long-run, a healthy work and life balance that produces happiness and inner peace is more important than being a CEO, famous artist, pro athlete, or mingling financially among the one-percenters. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with achieving such things. Indeed, they are all noteworthy accomplishments that others can potentially admire, look up to, and respect. 

The statistical reality, however, is that only a very small percentage of human beings will ever achieve such elevated positions and roles in this world, and those who do typically have outlying advantages physically, financially, socially, or ancestrally, making apples-to-apples comparisons practically untenable. And unfortunately some—and perhaps many—who achieve high levels of worldly success pay a heavy moral, relational, familial, and existential price along the pathway to their outlying fame, riches, and status.

The good news about SAL is that it doesn't matter how famous (or not), or rich (or not) you were, are, or may yet become. The only thing that really matters is whether or not you are headed in the right direction morally, ethically, and existentially speaking—and whether or not you are enjoying your journey along the way. 

There are, of course, examples of outlying worldly achievers who are also unusually well balanced in their personal lives, careers, and relationships. But high-profile or otherwise highly successful persons who attain that balance did not achieve such equilibrium because they possess outlying talent; they did so by following the same Self-Action Leadership principles and practices that anyone else who achieved Existential Balance has to follow. Thus SAL—and its role in pursuing Existential Balance, Growth, and Intelligence—becomes a great equalizer within and among the human race.

What a truly magnificent TRUTH!   

The Myth of Fair Interpersonal Competition

Despite our many obvious similarities as members of the human race, all people are profoundly unique. Indeed, every single soul that has ever inhabited this planet—including identical or even co-joined twins—remain remarkably original; no two of us are exactly the same. This is true of our singular genetic makeup as well as our individual personality, preferences, strengths, weaknesses, hopes, dreams, goals, vision, etc.

Given this remarkable reality, there is really no such thing as purely FAIR competition in any precise sense. While society and culture generally aims to classify, designate, and categorize in order to maximize fairness insofar as possible, such labels and arrangements remain, at best, approximations of fairness. Thus, individuals who come out on top in any given competition usually possess a package of personal and other endowments that simply surpasses their co-competitors. There are, of course, numerous individual exceptions to this general rule; nevertheless, the base postulate is rooted in results routinely recorded in the real world. 

To illustrate this point, take a few seconds to watch a YouTube clip of Jamaican sprinting superstar Usain Bolt when he set the world record in the 100-meter dash at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany. In this completely unprecedented race, Bolt left the rest of the world-class field in the dust to clock a previously inconceivable 9.58 seconds!

Before Bolt came on the sprinting scene in the early-mid 2000s, no one had ever run faster than 9.74 seconds. When I was growing up in the 1980s and 90s, the only people who had ever run under 9.80 had their times disqualified for either doping or the presence of an illegal tailwind. Running faster than 9.70 seemed unlikely; but running under 9.60 seemed like the stuff of fantasy or science fiction.

But then, at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, Bolt did the impossible; he bested the 9.7 mark by clocking a 9.68 to win the gold medal and break his own previous world record mark of 9.71. As impressive as this blazing time was, it was more than a tenth-of-a-second slower than Bolt would sprint one year later in Berlin.  

In this record-shattering race that Usain so completely dominated, the second-place finisher—Tyson Gay of the United States—clocked a blistering time of 9.71, equalling Bolt's previous world record. Despite this incredible time, which (as of 2024) still stands as the American record in an event historically dominated by Americans, Gay still trailed Bolt by 13/100ths of a second, which in the hundred meter dash is a substantial margin of victory—as the video footage of the event attests. In other words, despite running the second fastest time in all of human history, Tyson Gay was still definitively defeated by Usain Bolt. 

When you look at Bolt's remarkable physique—the seemingly perfect formulaic blend of height, weight, and strength for speed—even an amateur onlooker can grasp why Bolt consistently performed head-and-shoulders ahead of his elite competitors. 

While the world rightly marveled at Bolt's superior exhibition of explosive power and unprecedented speed, his clearly elevated performance should be no existential "skin" of the noses of the "also-rans" in that historic race. After all, each of them did the best they could, even though they ultimately produced a less impressive final result. To wit: six of the eight competitors in the race clocked either a world record, national record, or season's best time! 

In real life, it is not unheard of for the last place finisher in any given "race" to actually expend the greatest personal effort. Losing a competition against others—even at the elite level—may have little (or perhaps nothing) to do with the quality of your own preparation and effort. In most cases, it is merely a matter of different life variables at-play; and a better endowed package of variables will usually come out on top of the lesser endowed person. 

There are, of course, endless exceptions to this general scenario, which is, in part, the beauty and glory of SAL. In other words, there are indeed cases when individuals or teams produce greater results because they invest greater intention, preparation, effort, dedication, consistence, persistence, determination, et cetera, than competitors who possessed a more well-endowed package of life variables.   

In other cases, however, one person's best can easily be bested by someone else's best, or even one's less-than-best. In the final analysis, the ultimate result of any interpersonal competition will be determined with at least quasi-mathematical precision according to the unique output of each person's individual effort multiplied by one's unique set of life variables.  

Understanding this great truism can help us to keep our own performances and results—and that of others—in perspective. It can also aid us in feeling better about our own accomplishments—and that of others.

My Personal Quest to Become an Elite Interpersonal Performer

Since age seven or eight, I have had a deep and pulsating desire to be an elite performer—if not the very best in the world—at something. It was around this same age and stage of my life that I became fascinated by time management, personal planning, and other self-leadership oriented subjects. Much of my early interest in these topics stemmed from my desire to become not just my best, but the best at something.

A 9-year old "Air Jordan"
Mesa, Arizona
Circa 1988

Like many young boys or girls, I saw myself eventually becoming a world-class performer in my activity or field of choice, which at the time was basketball. In my little boy's mind's eye, Jordan Jensen was destined to become the Michael Jordan of my generation. This notion was further fueled on the playground where the success of my local exploits in the game led my peers to verbalize this name comparison—which I ate up and did nothing to discourage! 

Unfortunately—or fortunately (depending on how you look at it)—Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, and other NBA players my age beat me to the punch. I not only failed in my objective to become an NBA star, but I lost interest in the game altogether after my ninth grade year in high school! 

It's amazing how our desires and motivations can evolve and change over time.

My early exit from the game of basketball surprised me. It also surprised family members, friends, and coaches who knew of my talent in and passion for the sport.

Nevertheless, in the end, I not only lacked the physicality and talent to become an elite basketball player, but my compatibility, desire, and vision was gradually extinguished as well.

In the end, and for a variety of reasons, basketball and JJ were simply not a good fit. Although the sun had set on my basketball career, it did not extinguish my desire to become a world-class performer at something.

JJ leads a collegiate 800 meter race
Weber State University; Ogden, Utah; 2003

My next passion was to pursuit greatness as a middle-distance runner in the sports of cross-country and track & field. I fared even better in these sports than I had in basketball, eventually earning State Championship honors in high school and an All-American accolades in college. Despite these personal successes, it became evident over time that I was a semi-elite athlete, not an elite athlete, and that no amount of work or dedication would change that. 

It was many years after college before I fully recognized and accepted this reality. In other words, for a long time after I had officially retired from competitive racing, I continued to believe deep-down that I could potentially become an elite middle-distance runner if I were to make the proper investment of time, effort, discipline, and dedication.

The truth of the matter was that this was wishful thinking on my part. In fact, as I reflect back on these musings years later, my mind and heart swells with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I am proud of the fact that I was never afraid to think big and shoot for the stars. On the other hand, I feel a little embarrassed at my inability to reconcile my actual ability with stark reality. After all, a complete commitment to reality lies at the very heart of both mental health and Self-Action Leadership.

"Mental health [is] a process of ongoing dedication to reality at all costs ...

no matter how uncomfortable the reality makes [you feel]." (1)

—M. Scott Peck

After the end of my relatively short career in athletics, I pursued other activities with an initial aim towards elite performance, only to discover that I lacked sufficient desire, passion, and natural proclivity for said fields. 

Case-in-point: SALES. 

My life has, in many ways, been one, long, bad date with the art and science of customer sales. It began with a deep dislike—even an ardent aversion—to those pesky door-to-door fundraisers in elementary school and Cub Scouts. Ironically, these distasteful experiences did not quell my pursuit of sales-oriented professional pursuits.

Not even close! 

As I grew older, I learned that many of the world's most successful people (at least financially speaking) were salespeople of one kind or another. With this-in-mind, I often felt duty-bound to face my fears of and aversion to sales by "doing it anyway" in hopes I would eventually learn to like it and then break through to some kind of monumental success in the process.  

A modest achievement as a 
network marketing salesman

While a certain nobility undoubtedly exists in such a self-flagellating willingness, my pursuit of said end did not produce the desired results. In fact, the more I tried sales, the more I came to dislike it.

Moreover, whatever victories I did obtain in sales were always meager and modest, leaving me morosely marooned on the margins of success—ever watching others outperform me at every juncture. 

Along the way I lasted for a few months as a part-time network marketing representative, a few weeks as a direct-sales peddler of cutlery, and a single day as a small-business telephone services salesman. In all, I earned less than a thousand dollars for my combined efforts across all three endeavors.

As any salesperson worth his or her salt is apt to say: "But wait... there is more... much, much, MUCH more!"

My Missionary Plaque, which hung on the walls
of my local church building during
my service from 1999-2001

I also served a mission for my Church in Canada where I faithfully canvassed door-to-door for 12 hours every week for two (2), long, often lonely years. 

Then I came home, graduated from college, and founded Freedom Focused where I spent two decades trying to sell books and seminars—with paltry results, to say the least. Interspersed into that 20-year period I spent eight years as an independent contact trainer where part of my job included "back-of-the-room" product sales. As I traveled all over the English-speaking language teaching seminars, and despite outstanding seminar attendee evaluations, my sales numbers consistently ranked among the lower-tier of trainers.

Suffice it to say, I have had to discover time-after-time over a period of several decades that I am simply not well-suited to sales. Realizing this over-and-over-and-over again has proved to be a perpetually painful predicament.

BUT in the end, it has also proved to be enormously LIBERATING!

One of the biggest challenges I faced throughout this journey was managing the voices in my head of past sales trainers (I've attended a lot of sales training over the years) who would suggest that sales is more about attitude and training than it is about inclination and personality. To an extent, these trainers always had a point—after all, education and attitude is a key component to success in anything, regardless of your native disposition and personal proclivities.

But an even more primal truth also exists, and that truth is that we all inevitably flower and flourish more fully in an activity or field we love and are passionate about than one in which we inherently loathe. It's a pretty simple concept.  

As I have journeyed along the circuitous corridors and painful pathways of my 36-years long "bad marriage" with SALES, I have learned that it is time for a divorce! While I am typically not a proponent of divorce in marriage (literally or figuratively), I am pragmatic and sensible enough to know when "enough-is-enough," and am discovering that it is very FREEING to disembark from—and then giddily burn—a ship I am not meant to sail on forever. 

The sun has formally set on my "Ship of Sales."
Now it's time to "Burn the Ships" and "Don't Look Back!"

It's crucial to note here that I do not regret any of the time I spent on my "Ship of Sales." Indeed, the long, hard, irritating, frustrating, and discouraging journey was one I was meant to travel—not only for all that it taught me, but for what I became whilst passing through its painful passage. It was for me, one of those unique professional "crosses" I had to take up as part of "doing my due diligence," "paying my dues," and otherwise apprenticing appropriately for senior leadership and other macro-influencing opportunities.

There is no question these dues had to be paid as part of a primal price and requisite responsibility to prove worthy of the place and position I ultimately intended to occupy. But it was more akin to "Boot Camp" than "Officer's Candidate School."

Boot camp is a "necessary evil" of any soldier's training.

        But if you want to be a General; OCS is a lot more fun!  

In other words, an equally (if not more) important ingredient to my long-term success was found in my relentless pursuit of what I truly loved doing, which was writing, organizing, speaking, training, influencing, and leading.

Chief among all these activities—all of which I have a natural flair and talent for—has been WRITING. 

My first Journal Entry
Mesa, Arizona, USA
Thursday, January 1, 1987

Indeed, of all the things I do well, writing is unquestionably what I do BEST. And writing is something that, from the very beginning—Thursday, January 1, 1987; the day I penned my first journal entry—I have been doing more of than anything else.

The result of these efforts and endeavors have been prolific, to say the least, including:

• Thousands of pages in personal journals
• Thousands of pages of personal and business letters, emails, and texts
• Thousands of pages of school work over 19 years of formal education
• 1,149 pages of my doctoral dissertation
• Thousands of published pages in eight (8) books
• Thousands of published pages in 500 blog articles
• Hundreds of published pages in newspapers, academic journals, and other publications

It was painful for me to repeatedly recognize the reality that I will never be elite at activities such as: basketball, running, or sales. But along the way, I discovered there are some things at which I can be an elite professional—if not the very best at. 

Dr. JJ's 4-Volume 1,149 page Doctoral dissertation

And while this recognition is enormously satisfying to me, it is not the most important realization.

Far more important than this discovery is my recognition that I can find enjoyment and fulfillment in the activities themselves—regardless of the extent of my success with external audiences or how I may stack up in any kind of comparison with others. It is this enjoyment and fulfillment that continually drives me forward in my quest to complete the mammoth, 23-year long publication project that has become the SAL Life Leadership textbook.

After all, my quest to complete this literary leviathan was always a leap of faith; there was never a guarantee that others would embrace my work in large numbers.  

As I sit in my office typing these words, the world still does not know about SAL—and quite frankly, my tireless efforts to try and promote it to the world has been an almost comical (temporary) failure to date. 

But that is okay—and for three very important reasons. 

First, I've done the very best I knew how to create and then share this message with the world. And in the last analysis, I cannot force others to pay attention to and accept my message; I can only write and invite. 

Second, I've found my unique niche and voice in my life and career; and I absolutely LOVE what I do! As such, I find enjoyment, fulfillment, and success in my work regardless of the way in which it is (or is not) embraced by others.  

Third, others have embraced it... just not in significant numbers. But in the last analysis, if I managed to help only a few people—or even just ONE—an argument could be made that it was worth it because it helped somebody, somwhere, at some point, with something—and that's one of the goals of the work!  

While I continue to believe... and desire... and hope... and pray that this comprehensive work will, in its time, be widely embraced by others, it has been so satisfying to have finally arrived at the place where I am okay if it doesn't because of the endless other beauties and bounties with which I have been blessed all along the way!

Truly, the greatest JOY of all is in the JOURNEY...

        And what a journey it has been!  

How grateful I am to have discovered that the greatest quest I can undertake is not to try and beat others in an interpersonal competition, but to simply become my own best self in an intrapersonal competition. There is little time or energy left to compete against others when you are focusing all your time, attention, and power on being your own best self and producing your own greatest results.  

In the process of doing so, you will inevitably surpass and fall short of the performances of others along the way. But either way (win or lose), you'll stop caring so much about where and how you stack up against and in competition with others because you will have developed the quiet confidence and inner peace that can only come from a knowledge that you did your best—and the truth of the matter is that YOU CAN'T DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT! 

And in the end, that's all that really matters! 

As simple as this may sound theoretically, the actual practice of this principle can be extremely tricky and difficult, and I say this from the unique vantage point of my own experience and failures over the course of nearly 40 years! Even as the author of this work and the proclaimer of this point, I confess I struggle every day of my life to compete solely with myself and avoid prideful and unnecessary comparisons with others.

It's human nature to compare ourselves to others!

        But it's also possible to retrain our paradigms to embrace intrapersonal competition.

It should be noted here that there are times when it's both appropriate and helpful to make interpersonal comparisons and to compete with others. Doing so can assist and motivate you in your efforts to elevate your own performance and potential. However, if you allow yourself to become overly caught up in the interpersonal component of competition instead of focusing on the intrapersonal element, you're bound to lose focus on your own goals for personal improvement and growth. That loss of focus can then become compounded by negative emotions like anger, bitterness, and jealousy, all of which waste valuable energy—passion that could be productively channeled toward elevating and honing your own performance. The end result may be diminished returns on your own efforts at success, whether you are officially competing with others or not. 

A Competition Paradigm Shift

The "Silver Star" that self-action leaders
are pursuing is not primarily to beat others
but to simply become their best selves.

One of my expectations for this Life Leadership textbook is to influence a widespread paradigm shift among people and organizations alike with regards to competition. The goal of this mindset change is to stop placing preeminent value on being "The Best," and instead shift our focus toward continually becoming "Your Best" and "My Best" by striving towards and attaining Existential Balance, Growth, and Freedom.

Embracing this paradigm shift frees up a lot of time and effort that can, in turn, be invested in improving your own performance instead of continually fixating on how you stack up in competition with others. This mindset change toward intrapersonal competition has the added benefit of actually improving your chances for success when you must compete interpersonally with other people and organizations. 

Most importantly, this paradigm shift will contribute to the production of positive feelings, such as happiness, satisfaction, contentment, fulfillment, and inner peace—which sure beats opposing emotions of angst, discontent, frustration, disappointment, discouragement, and jealousy. 

Considering the current cultural climate in which we live, where elite performers and their performances are held up as royal monarchs of a postmodern King's Court, while the rest of us are viewed as average citizens or worse—plebeian nobodies—it's a tall order to make, to say the very least. Nevertheless, I believe it's possible for wide swaths of the global populace to make this mindset change over time. Rest assured that we at Freedom Focused will do everything we can to proclaim, promote, and support this quest.

I've spent much of my life trying to become the very best at something. That is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it might be argued that in some ways, I have succeeded! After all, it was—at least in part—my undeviating passion for excellence and achievement that empowered my relentless composition and revision of this text through SEVEN (7) different comprehensive draft iterations over the past 23 years. Moreover, as a lifelong athlete and sports enthusiast, I will be the first to admit that there are times and places when interpersonal competition is both appropriate and potentially beneficial and inspiring to everyone involved. 

Thankfully, along the way I've discovered the GREAT TRUTH that simply striving to be my best can be as challenging a pursuit as trying to surpass the achievements of others—and sometimes even more so. Indeed, the opportunity that we each have to become our best selves provides a challenge sufficiently difficult, engaging, and exciting to keep us all busy until we eventually pass away from this world and, according to my beliefs, far beyond as well. 

Just as the decathlon is the ultimate track & field event, life provides us with one of its ultimate existential opportunities in our ongoing pursuit of the SAL octathlon discussed in the previous chapter. And the good news—the gospel of SAL—is that you don't have to compete with anyone other than YOURSELF!

With this insight in mind, I hope you are looking forward to the rest of your mortal journey as much as I am looking forward to mine!  

Generalists and Specialists

Our world is filled with a mixture of generalists and specialists.

GENERALISTS are people who perform work and other tasks that do not require extensive or specialized training and experience to perform. Examples of generalists include: assembly persons, assistants, clerical workers, cleaners and custodians, customer service representatives, delivery persons, drivers, manual laborers of all kinds, postal workers, receptionists, servers, temp workers, etc. 

SPECIALISTS are people who perform work and other tasks that do require extensive or specialized training and experience to perform. Examples of specialists include: actors, architects, artists, attorneys, designers, dentists, doctors, electricians, engineers, executives, inventors, IT experts, musicians, plumbers, scientists, surgeons, teachers, technologists, etc. 

There will always be a need in our world for both generalists and specialists. However, just as the percentage of leaders and top performers is minuscule compared to followers and "the rest of the pack," the number of generalists will always be higher than the number of specialists. As a result, generalists will usually receive less attention, credit, honor, glory, and financial remuneration for their efforts and contributions.

This does not, however, make them any less important to society.

        It simply makes them less visible.

Quarterbacks will always be better compensated and achieve greater prominence than offensive linemen. However, it is no secret that every quarterback would be in deep trouble without his offensive line!

H.W. Longfellow
1807-1882

When it comes to the human body, the brain, eyes, face, heart, and other prominent features will similarly spend more time in the limelight than the fingers and toes. Yet the former will always be in debt to the latter for dexterity, functionality, and equilibrium.

In light of this great truth, the sage words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow bear repeating here:  

"Nothing useless is, or low;
   Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
   Strengthens and supports the rest." (2)

The beauty of Self-Action Leadership and the Existential Balance, Growth, and Freedom attainable through lifelong participation in Existential Octathlon is that you don't have to compete with, or compare yourself to, anyone else. The only competition that matters in the end is the intrapersonal competition with YOURSELF and the comparisons you make between your present and past results. 

The primary goal of a self-action leader is never to surpass someone else's performance; although there are times when that may be a worthy secondary goal. The primary goal of a self-action leader is—and should always remain—to continually improve upon your own previous performances. You can accomplish this by rising each time you fall and continually striving for existential balance in your life and career. As you do so, you will continue to make a steady rise towards the upper-limits of your personal and professional potential.

And as Dr. Martin Luther King so eloquently taught us, the thing of greatest importance is not what we do for a living, but how we fulfil our individual responsibilities—whatever those tasks might entail.  

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Your Journal

• In what ways do you currently compare yourself with others?

• Are these comparisons positive and helpful or negative and counterproductive?

• What benefits might you derive from shifting your own paradigm from primarily competing with others to primarily competing with yourself? 

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 386th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 197th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 385 FF Blog Articles 

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES  

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS   

Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection

Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks    

Chapter 5 Notes:

1.  Peck, M.S. (1993). Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey toward Spiritual Growth (The Edited Lectures). New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Page 75.  "Mental health [is] a process of ongoing dedication to reality at all costs ... no matter how uncomfortable the reality makes [you feel]." 

2.  Longfellow, H.W. (1912) The Poetical Works of Longfellow. Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press. Page 186. From the poem: The Builders.