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Have You Found Your Passion? (Four Minutes to Read) 

11/1/2015

 
I don’t normally post someone else’s material on my site but it’s too good of an article about such an important topic that I couldn’t resist. It was written by a blogger by the name of Mark Manson. I did edit the content (he’s a bit colorful with his words). It was also a 7 minute article to read that I got down to less than four minutes to fit my typical format so I did take liberties which hopefully Mark won't mind.

Remember back when you were a kid? You would just do things. You never thought to yourself, “What are the relative merits of learning baseball versus football?” You just ran around the playground and played whatever looked like fun at the time. Nobody told you to do it, you just did it. You were led merely by your curiosity and excitement. And the beautiful thing was, if you hated playing kickball you just stopped playing it.
And if you loved looking for bugs, you just did that. There was no second-level analysis of, “Well, is looking for bugs really what I should be doing with my time as a child? Nobody else wants to look for bugs, does that mean there’s something wrong with me? How will looking for bugs affect my future prospects?”

I’ve received over 11,000 emails this year from people telling me they don’t know what to do with their life and if I had any ideas on where to “find their passion.” And of course, I didn’t respond. Why? Because I have no clue! If you don’t have any idea what to do with yourself, what makes you think some jackass with a website would? I’m a writer, not a fortune teller.

But more importantly, what I want to say to these people is this: that’s the whole point — “not knowing” is the whole freaking point. Life is all about not knowing, and then doing something anyway and it’s not going to get any easier just because you found your dream job. I found my dream job but it still sucks about 30% of the time…sometimes more on certain days. There’s no such thing as some passionate activity that you will never get tired of, never get stressed over, and/or never complain about.

The common complaint among a lot of these people is that they need to ‘find their passion.’ I call b.s. You already found your passion, you’re just ignoring it. Seriously, you’re awake 16 hours a day, what the hell do you do with your time? You’re doing something, obviously. You’re talking about something. There’s some topic or activity or idea that dominates a significant amount of your free time, your conversations, your web browsing, and it dominates them without you consciously pursuing it or looking for it.

It’s right there in front of you, you’re just avoiding it. You’re telling yourself, “Oh well, yeah, I love comic books but that doesn’t count. You can’t make money with comic books.” Have you even tried?

The problem is not a lack of passion for something the problem is productivity, perception, and acceptance. The problem is the, “Oh, well that’s just not a realistic option,” or “Mom and Dad would kill me if I tried to do that, they say I should be a doctor.” The problem isn’t passion; it’s never passion.

And even then, who says you need to make money doing what you love? Since when does everyone feel entitled to love every second of their job? Really, what is so wrong with working an OK normal job with some cool people you like, and then pursuing your passion in your free time? Has the world turned upside-down or is this not suddenly a novel idea to people?

The issue here is, once again, expectations. If you think it’s passion just because you’re working 70-hour work weeks and sleeping in your office like Steve Jobs you’ve been watching too many movies. Being a workaholic doesn’t mean your passionate about your job. If you think you’re supposed to wake up every single day dancing out of your pajamas because you get to go to work, then you’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid. Life doesn’t work like that; it’s unrealistic.

I have a friend who, for the last three years, has been trying to build an online business selling whatever. It hasn’t been working. And by not working, I mean he hasn’t launched anything. Despite years of “work” and saying he’s going to do this or that, nothing ever gets done. What does get done is when one of his former co-workers comes to him with a design job to create a logo or some promotional material for an event. He’s all over that and still wondering about his potential business of selling products or services. He does a great job designing. He loses himself in his work then after the design job is finished he’s saying: “Man, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Crazy.

I meet so many people like him. He doesn’t need to find his passion; his passion already found him. He’s just ignoring it; he just refuses to believe it’s viable. He’s afraid of giving it an honest-try.

It’s like a nerdy kid walking onto a playground and saying, “Well, bugs are really cool, but NFL players make more money, so I should force myself to play football every day,” and then coming home and complaining that he doesn’t like recess because he hates playing football. That’s ridiculous, everybody likes recess. The problem is that he’s arbitrarily choosing to limit himself based on some stupid ideas he got into his head about success and what he’s supposed to do.

Another email I get all the time is from people wanting advice on how to become a writer. And my answer is the same: I have no idea. As a kid, I would write short stories in my room for fun. As a teenager, I would write music reviews and essays about bands I loved and then show them to nobody. Once the internet came around, I spent hours upon hours on forums writing multi-page posts about inane topics – everything from guitar picks to the causes of the Iraq War.

I never considered writing as a potential career; I never even considered it a hobby or passion. To me, the things I wrote about were my passion: music, politics, philosophy, etc. Writing was just something I did because I felt like it. And when I had to go looking for a career I could fall in love with, I didn’t have to look far. In fact, I didn’t have to look at all…it chose me. It was already there. Already something I was doing every day, since I was a kid, without even thinking about it.

Because here’s another point that might make a few people salty: If you have to look for what you’re passionate about, then you’re probably not passionate about it at all. If you’re passionate about something, it will already feel like such an ingrained part of your life that you will have to be reminded by people that it’s not normal, that other people aren’t like that.

It didn’t occur to me that writing 2,000 word posts on forums was something a lot of people didn’t consider fun. It never occurred to my friend that designing a logo is something that most people don’t find easy or fun. To him, it’s so natural that he can’t even imagine it being otherwise. And that’s why it’s probably what he should be doing.
The truth is you already enjoy something. Finding your passion doesn’t mean you’re finding a way to make a living, it’s a state of mind. It doesn’t mean you’ll be in a state of passion all day long or every day for that matter. It just means you’re smart enough to know what you enjoy and make it happen.
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You can be passionate about bowling, passionate about watching your kids play sports, passionate about going to movies, passionate about gardening, etc. What do you love doing? Congratulations, you’ve found your passion.

History of the Automobile (One Minute to Read)

11/1/2015

 
A lot of people think Henry Ford invented the first car which isn’t the case he invented mass production of vehicles through the creation of a true assembly line; instead Karl Benz from Germany (Mercedes-Benz), did in 1886. It was actually more like a motorized carriage.

The Packard Motor Car Company was the first automobile manufacturer to offer air conditioning beginning in 1939; it was an extremely expensive feature so most people didn't have one (my family certainly didn't have one).

I saw a 1951 Packard and it was loaded with features including a lighter (invented 1925). These lighters were invented for cigars.

Electric car windows were available in 1941 in Lincoln vehicles. Its popularity came about in the 1960’s. Not in my family though, it was a costly feature so we continued to crank it by hand; it was a good workout for the forearm.

The first automatic car was introduced in 1940 through General Motors it was their Oldsmobile model. Like air conditioning it was an expensive feature that didn’t begin taking off until the 60’s.
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Anyhow, just a few points regarding the history of cars in the U.S. Could you imagine being born in the late 1800’s and seeing the automobile evolution? It would’ve been amazing. 

Mental Ilness (Three Minutes to Read) Critical Read 

11/1/2015

 
Knowing the real amount of people who are mentally ill in the U.S. is all over the place with ABC News saying 20% of Americans suffer from it all the way down to 11.4 million in another study. My question is how can we know the truth because just how many people who suffer from mental illness know they’re ill, will tell anyone about it, and/or seek help? I do want to mention something very important in this post and the dangerous/negative effects of mental illness are mostly due to people being undiagnosed and not properly medicated.

Regardless of the numbers, it’s an epidemic in my opinion and one of the most critical areas I think we should focus on because of its negative impact on our country. The reason I say this is multi-folded for example:
  • Many inmates in our prison system suffer from some form of mental illness with some murders being committed by people who are schizophrenic and haven’t taken medication to control it.
  • Many people who are unemployed suffer from mental illness because they aren’t able to hold down a job; this affects taxpayers.
  • Many divorces are due to one or both married people suffering from mental illness and we know the terrible affect this has on our society.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is mental illness is a contributor to the decline of our country. Solutions? One is getting rid of the stigma associated with it, this comes with knowing millions of people suffer from it and it is truly a disease, a terrible diagnoses.

Getting rid of or at least reducing the stigma would help get more people willing to seek help. How many people are out there not diagnosed and I don’t have a clue but maybe it’s as bad as ABC News says and 20% of Americans suffer from it. Wouldn’t it be great for those with mental illness to pursue help and what a tremendous difference this would make for all of us?

Then there’s the issue of not having enough mental health facilities and mental health professionals to manage the problem. Grow the size of government? I hate it but what’s the alternative? I think it would actually pay for itself based on the areas I listed above. Crime would go down saving us money in our prison systems, courts, etc. Unemployment would go down. More people would be able to maintain their jobs increasing productivity for both small and large businesses which would make us more globally competitive. There’s more but I’ll leave it at this.

Mental illness and the lack of education and resources to fight it is a major factor in the downfall of our nation but it doesn’t matter unless more Americans acknowledge it. My hope after reading this post is that you’ll buy in to the critical nature of mental illness. I hope you’ll do your part to help get rid of the stigma of having mental illness by understanding it’s a disease that can be managed through medications. I hope you’ll email your representatives to share some of what I wrote and that you’re worried about the extreme negative impact it’s having on our society. Ask them specifically what they can do about it.
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I’ve never written this publicly and not everyone in my world knows this because I still feel embarrassed (thus one of my reasons for writing this giving me more courage), but I am bi-polar. Being bi-polar is a strange up and down ride to where I can be depressed and sometimes suicidal at times to where I’m pretty much high as a kite and losing almost all inhibition. My disease is strange and I can’t begin to give you total insight into my illness but the fact is if I didn’t seek help I would’ve lost my job and my marriage. I would’ve been one of the victims and society would’ve been a victim as well.
Thanks as always for reading this post but it doesn’t matter unless it has an impact. As I wrote in my overview for this site knowledge without the wisdom to do anything about it matters little. Please go out and make a positive difference. Thanks!

Helping the Poor (One Minute to Read)

11/1/2015

 
Democrats try to sell the notion that the Republican Party doesn’t care about the poor when the fact is it’s only a difference in philosophy about how to help them. Republicans believe that freeing small business owners up (people making on average $150,000), through lower taxes will create more jobs and stimulate the economy thus helping all economic classes. Seventy-four percent of job growth has come from the small business sector so anything we can do to free up their cash flow benefits everyone. 

The Democrats have a different philosophy as they believe in a bottom up approach. They figure if they can get the money in the hands of people with lower incomes they’ll spend their money and stimulate the economy. One of the problems with this is that when this happens we miss out on a huge amount of tax revenues because they don’t pay income taxes which are what keeps our Federal Government afloat. Sure when they spend their money there’s a sales tax but we miss out on much needed income taxes to finance our budget.

The Democrats bottom up approach negatively impacts both Federal and State tax revenues by roughly 18% per person which is a huge shortfall. This can’t be sustained as we’ve seen with our $19 trillion dollar debt and climbing. We’re not going bankrupt we’re bankrupt which means the hand-outs are going to disappear. Doesn’t it make sense that we create jobs so we can continue to help people in need for the long haul?
If you believe in the Bible like I do then I’m sure you’re aware of the many times Jesus spoke about personal productivity; he believed in helping the widows and orphans because they didn’t have any opportunities to make a living but he didn’t believe in handouts for those who could work. He inspired the saying: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day but teach him how to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” Our forefathers had the same mentality, they believed in promoting the general welfare/wellbeing of our nation but not giving money to those who could work because our Republic would fall.
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The bottom line is that both parties try to help the poor it’s just a difference of philosophies. I strongly believe in a top down approach because of the very reasons I mentioned above. We’re paying out more and more and collecting less and less which is a recipe for disaster. 

The North Star

11/1/2015

 
When I was a navigator in the Navy I was always intrigued by the Northern Star (Polaris). The reason for this is I could see stars and constellations moving throughout the night but not Polaris. It stayed right where it was above the North Pole and 334 light years from Earth. I could count on it; I always knew which way was north. In some ways Polaris reminds me of God, everything changes/moves but he doesn't. He's always there to direct my path and I don't need to worry if I'm going the wrong direction.

Should We Have Gone Into Iraq? (One Minute to Read)

11/1/2015

 
A lot of talk lately about the mistake of going into Iraq. I'm not saying it was a good thing but let's look at the why behind it:
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1) Iraq had chemical weapons because they used it on the Kurds murdering hundreds…isn’t this weapons of mass destruction?
2) Sadaam said he had WMD's and wouldn't let the inspectors come in to check it out so why wouldn't we believe him?
3) His regime was killing and raping families (including boys and men), who were said to oppose him.
4) His sons were raping women and little girls at will.

One other thing to think about is we were more concerned about oil at that time so anything or anyone that destabilized the region was of great concern to the U.S. Now the Middle-East doesn't have the leverage it had which would change whether or not we'd engage our troops. Should we have gone in, you decide but there's always more to the story than what you hear from some politicians.

    Author: John Mann

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