Populie: Be Yourself… March 12, 2014

Jonathots Daily Blog  

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It happens all the time on shows like The Voice or American Idol: a contestant is voted off by the audience and awaits the final words of encouragement from the judges.

Inevitably, one of the mentors will pipe up with, “Be yourself.”

You can see the look of confusion on the contestant’s face as he or she thinks, “Isn’t that what I just did? I was myself–and I lost.”

It is popular. “Be yourself” has become the mantra of a generation which thinks the cure for mediocrity is pumping people up.

It is popular, but it is a lie.

POPULIE.

The problem with the concept of “be yourself” is that individuality loses its power when compatibility isn’t achieved. In other words, if we can’t find a way to peacefully co-exist with each other, merely standing firm, establishing our presence, won’t achieve much except further separation in thinking and segregation between people based upon their quirks.

I will be honest with you–if you’re able to find one other person in your life that you can actually be yourself around, without them running away in horror, you have just discovered a miracle.

Truth–fine tune who you are according to what you need to do and where you want to go.

The Good Book offers us three other “be’s” to consider “beneath our bonnet:”

1. Be not afraid.

You guarantee failure if you are frightened and choke when opportunity comes your way. If you have a reasonable amount of ability and learn how to use it well, you will find a reasonable amount of success.

2. Be of good cheer.

The greatest buzz-kill in life is to take things too seriously. A light heart lends itself to a willing spirit, which invites an open mind, giving you a chance to survive when things begin to evolve in front of you.

3. Be perfect.

Maybe that should be “perfect your be.” In other words, find something you do well and continue to practice it until it’s at market quality, and then make sure you keep it up to spec-ready to go.

If you decide to pursue a lifestyle to “be yourself,” you will have a narrow vision for what is acceptable, and you will have a smaller and smaller handful of folks who are willing to put up with your alleged uniqueness.

• It is a populie. 
• It is marijuana to the masses.
• It is the notion that we can remain the same and still get our portion.

What we need to be is whatever is necessary to allow ourselves to be part of the human family…successful without hurting anyone else in the process. 

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

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Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.

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ProbThree: “It’s not my fault” … November 3, 2013

Jonathots Daily Blog

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Fingers.

They perform two obvious functions: touch and point.

Touching is good. It’s a way of expressing our tenderness by putting our emotion into our fingertips. Pointing is when we try to place the blame on someone or something other than ourselves. We do this in three ways:

1. Pointing up.

Sometimes we feel so inadequate, inferior, ill-prepared and ignorant that we place all of our life concerns and journey needs on God in the sky, hoping for divine intervention. We use prayer to pass the buck to our heavenly Father. So we either procure our miracle or we get to act persecuted for the lack of attention.

Belief in God should build our character, not diminish it. It should make us more willing to serve ourselves and others instead of turning us into lazy supplicaters who feel that God has a responsibility to support us–since He fathered us.

2. Pointing down.

Some people, when they discover they don’t want to blame God anymore, decide to finger Satan, Lucifer or evil, which they can point down toward as the source of their failures. It is the ultimate superstition. Not only does it unrighteously free us of our own task and involvement, but it places good and evil on an equal footing and gives darkness too much light.

3. Pointing out.

This is very popular. When in doubt, accuse someone else. When confronted with deficiency, explain your indebtedness by insisting that another person has caused you to be a debtor. It is vindictive for two reasons: (a) it takes away the joy of achieving for ourselves, and (b) it often targets people we don’t like as adversaries, when those who really ARE against us are given a free pass because we like them better.

The three approaches of fingering–up, down and out–turn human beings into inferior, superstitious, vindictive souls.

The key to ProbThree–“it’s not my fault”–is to use your finger to point IN–not to create fault, but rather, to find your own definition of responsibility.

Here is my rendition of responsibility:

A. I have ability

B. I have problems

I will never be happy if I focus on one of those more than the other. If I only tout my abilities, I look like a jerk when it becomes obvious that I’m lugging baggage around. And if I only lament my problems, I become the buzz kill that turns every party into a departure gate at an airport.

It’s the blending of the two that creates responsibility. And responsibility allows me to point at myself without feeling the need to be guilty and faulty. Here’s how it works: I use my ability to help my problems and I use my problems to enhance my abilities.

Without abilities I wouldn’t have any way of addressing the problems that come up or possess the confidence to conquer. But I have to understand that if I never have a problem, I have no need to grow and increase my talents.

So every time I put the blame on God, Satan or others, I lose the capacity to become the beneficiary of a great life lesson. I also am admitting that I’m at the mercy of whatever I’ve fingered.

So ProbThree, “it’s not my fault,” is solved by the decision to point inward, taking responsibility and using my ability to solve my problems, knowing that my problems only enhance my abilities.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about personal appearances or scheduling an event