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Jonathots Daily Blog
(2821)
G-Pop tried to explain it to a family friend.
Basically, the elements of successful human interaction do not change, but the order of importance we place them in alters, thus affecting the results.
There are five pillars involved in getting along with other people:
Sometimes we decide to bring focus to one of the elements, thus mutating the conclusions. But if the list is shaken up, turned upside down or even perverted, then we end up with a disrespect for one another, even contempt.
For instance, the power of intelligence does procure some turf–but there is a danger that you will be perceived as acting superior and come across as a pseudo-intellectual.
How about talent? If talent takes the lead position, it has a tendency to demand attention and undo honor.
Where do we start?
A businessman might tell you to lead off with quality. But then you create the danger of trying to control all circumstances in order to maintain reputation.
G-Pop thinks this is the order of our present culture:
This order produces human travelers who are convinced of their abilities, inflexible to change, and who place quality and honesty in a retreated profile.
It makes for bratty people.
Bratty people are offensive and offended people become more bratty in an attempt to justify themselves.
What is your order? asks G-Pop.
Let him know.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
(2611)
I confess so I can heal.
If I deny, I remain sick.
Rick and Larry had a meeting.
It actually was a conversation that turned into a discussion about me.
Larry was my boss. I hated to admit that. I was still young enough–in my twenties–that I was unwilling to concede that I was bossed by anyone.
When Rick expressed his appreciation for my efforts and inspiration, Larry filled him up with negative notions concerning my true value, mainly citing that I had no college degree.
Rick listened carefully, being the older of the two and having acquired some patience. At the end of Larry’s tirade, he deadpanned, “No, he doesn’t have a degree–he has a message.”
Since at that time, I was not privy to their discussion nor to Rick’s defense of me, when I did catch wind of the fact that the meeting of minds had occurred, I went to see Rick and asked for his side of it.
Exhibiting great restraint, he was unwilling to share many details. All he told me was that Larry had explained to him that I did not have a college education.
At that point I had an option.
I could have just sat quietly, nodded my head and left it alone, because I knew I already had Rick’s friendship and respect. But I was arrogant. And arrogance is the fertile soil for every rotten weed.
So I acted shocked, and explained to Rick that Larry’s assertion about my lack of schooling was incorrect. I told him I had gone to college at Cincinnati Xavier, and graduated with honors. (To this day I don’t know why I picked Cincinnati Xavier.)
I was offended because someone told the truth about me.
So I kept blabbing on, making up college experiences, gradually noticing that Rick became quiet and even a bit sullen. He knew I was lying. Yet he allowed me to propagate my myth without objection.
I walked away from that experience feeling like discarded chemical waste. Yet I was so immature that I never went back and apologized to Rick, telling him the truth.
I thought about that incident today.
It was a good ten years later when a lady came to my book table and asked me, “Where did you go to college?”
I paused, and then replied, “I didn’t.”
It was the first time I had ever told the truth on that subject. I had to grip the table and grit my teeth in order to dispel all remnants of the fictitious kingdom I had constructed in my brain.
Yet I wonder–what is left of that overwrought, lying and willful instinct to lift myself up?
I don’t know.
But rather than accepting it as part of my human foible, I am trying to hunt it down and kill it … before it renders my reputation meaningless.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(2315)
“R-e-s-p-e-c-t
Find out what it means to me…”
Aretha Franklin vibrantly and tunefully punctuated the Otis Redding lyric.
Almost every human being desires to gain respect, and therefore, placement in the pecking order of the human family.
Yet for some reason or another, we’ve begun to believe that this can be achieved by boasting, bragging or screeching our requests to the world around us, bolstering our demand with the threat of bad attitude or vengeance.
It’s just not the way things work.
Although we tolerate people making claims without backing them up, we eventually require that they prove their point or we will find a way to set them aside.
So I’d like to tell you three ways to gain respect without bragging:
1. Show up on time.
Let us make it clear once and for all: there is no such thing as “fashionably late.” People who arrive late communicate that they think they’re more important than everybody else in the room. It is only excusable if humility is at the heart of an apology, and then only if it’s done once or twice.
If you want to establish a reputation for being powerful, show up on time and make sure everyone knows it is part of your conviction.
2. Show up with your mood.
Honestly, it doesn’t have to be a good mood. But people who fluctuate, constantly bouncing among emotional profiles, are considered to be unstable, gossip-worthy and basically negated by their friends and family.
Being positive is good–if you’re always positive. Being neutral is fine as long as you bring that at all times. Even being in a sour disposition has its charm as long as you don’t occasionally build up hopes that you’ve made some sort of transformation to positive thinking.
Consistent moods are powerful. We may act like we will put up with people gyrating from one mood to another, but secretly we don’t.
3. Show up with the work done.
Here’s the problem with procrastinating and failing to achieve your quota: you have to explain why, which lends itself to excuses, too much story-telling and an over-abundance of drama.
The greatest gift you can give to yourself and everyone else is to make sure that today’s calendar is free from yesterday’s “things to do” list. If it isn’t, just say so, without explanation.
So these are three things that will gain you respect without you having to plant your foot, put your hand on your hip and posture for it.
After a while, if people know you’re going to show up on time, that you have a consistent mood and you get the work done … you become the champion you desire to be.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(2132)
The words are quite stunning.
Though if you stop and think about it, it not only makes sense, but sets in motion a way of thinking, a passage of human heart and a philosophy of life which challenges us to excellence, while providing a plain path.
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Although this phrase is contained in the famous Lord’s Prayer, and often receives no more notice than other lines within the structure, it really is the heart and essence of the mind of Jesus.
Think about it. What is my job?
To find out what heaven is going to be like and do my best every day to construct a prototype in the life provided around me. In so doing, I achieve two goals:
Where it gets complicated is in trying to summarize heaven to a few ideas instead of getting all caught up in “streets of gold, gates of pearl” and ten thousand years of praise and worship.
I made an attempt. And since I’m in Gatesville, Texas, this weekend, I thought I would share with them the three aspects of heaven I feel are transferrable to earth:
1. God.
I don’t think I want a heaven without God. Gee whiz–I think I could get universal agreement on that. The problem is, God has a speckled reputation. Some people think He’s mean, some would portray him as the hall monitor of morality, and others find him ethereal–floating in the clouds. But after all that gets done, the most universal thing I find about God, and certainly played out through his son, Jesus, is that God is love. Any attempt to portray Him with different light is a dilution of His power.
So if heaven exists with a God of love, it is my mission on earth to bring that love–to myself first and then to others.
2. Unity.
I have good news. There will be no political parties in heaven. No denominations. No races. No religions. All that will survive in the place of Supreme Reward are those who have faith and mercy.
No race. No religion. No politics in heaven.
So it stands to reason that if I want to make a little piece of heaven on earth, I should replicate that in my interactions with my brothers and sisters. I have found a quick way of phrasing that phenomenon. I tell everyone I meet that “NoOne is better than anyone else.” Yes, I bring a bit of eternal life every time I eliminate the differences between people and replace them with similarities.
3. Joy.
Since God will dry all our tears in heaven, it is safe to believe that the greatest gift of eternal life is joy. So I believe it will be the mission in my life–however long I am allowed to stomp about–to teach happiness, live happiness, share happiness and be happiness.
Yes. “Be of good cheer.”
Verily, verily I say unto you, sadness and worry do nothing to aid our dilemmas–just start the misery early.
So I believe heaven will be a place with God, unity and joy.
This morning, in Gatesville, Texas, I will tell people that God is love, and any other representation is afoul.
I will insist they understand that “NoOne is better than anyone else.” To build little boxes for people is the busy project of the devil’s workshop.
And I will certainly espouse joy and tell the dear folk to “be of good cheer.”
It is not of much value to bring earthly fear to earthly creatures who are basically a little lower than the angels and a bit higher than the monkeys.
Bringing heaven is allowing the God of love to unify us in good cheer.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
Click for details on the SpirTed 2014 presentation
Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.
click to hear music from Spirited 2014
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A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 
