ProbOne … November 1, 2013

Jonathots Daily Blog

(2053)

Problems are the difficulties that come our way which tend to deflate us instead of invigorate.

Why?

Because we are convinced that change is both unnecessary and unpleasant. (Matter of fact, it’s good that evolution is a slow, tedious process or we would resist it every step of the way.)

So our reluctance to view problems as vehicles to get us to a better place creates the first wall of resistance.

The second impairment is the persistent belief that our problem is unique.

After many years of travel, family life, counseling and living, I will tell you that all problems break down into three categories, and if you learn how to handle each category, your dilemmas will not seem nearly as problematic, but instead, doorways to new opportunities. Over the next three days I will talk about each one of these individually.

The first problem that faces all humankind is: “It’s not fair.”

Something happens or we find ourselves in a situation which is uncomfortable, unfamiliar or undesirable. Our first inclination is to cry foul. We complain to ourselves, our friends, our spouses or even our God. Our message is clear: “If life was right, I wouldn’t have to deal with this wrong.”

To escape the dark cloud of “it’s not fair,” I suggest you seek the answer to these five questions:

1. Who am I working with? The success of any project always hinges on personnel.
2. What needs to be done? Until all the personnel involved agree on the destination, everybody will have a tendency to go in their own willful way and therefore pull against each other.
3. Where will we need to work? After all, certain climates are more conducive to warming to great ideas. If I go to Antarctica, I will need boots and a coat.
4. When is the deadline? Is it negotiable? Is it arbitrary? Is it up for discussion? Ninety percent of the disagreements humans have with each other could be resolved by pulling out a calendar.
5. Why is it being done? Often in the pursuit of trying to resolve a tribulation, we may find that the resolution is not necessary at all, or that the trial we think we’re going through has been misrepresented.

There you are–ProbOne. “It’s not fair.”

Checking out the who, what, where, when and why of your surroundings will take away much of the sting of your oppression and replace it with some realistic ideas or a good laugh over why such a fuss was made in the first place.

So there are some ideas about how to handle ProbOne.  Try them. You might like them.

Which leads us to ProbTwo: “It’s not enough.”

See you tomorrow.

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

The Fear Gear… October 31, 2013

Jonathots Daily Blog

(2053) 

Happy Halloween.

Is that an oxymoron? I mean, is Halloween happy?

I do understand that great fun happens from dressing up, eating candy and having the fellowship of interacting with one another. But is Halloween rooted in the tradition of human warmth, or is it a delivery system for scaring people? And is there a difference between being scared and being fearful? Probably.

Yet fear is such a devastating sensation to the human spirit that sometimes I’m a little anxious to flirt with it by just scaring myself.

Fear is at the root of all of our problems. There’s no doubt about that.

There are seven attributes of great human beings:

• Love
• Faith
• Joy
• Hope
• Mercy
• Passion
• Creativity

Fear is a toothy monster, nibbling on the corners of each of them.

1. Love: the absence of fear. When I believe that nothing can separate me from the love of my Father, I don’t have to allow worry to conquer my heart.
2. Faith: the control of fear. Even though I have doubts, I intelligently branch out my belief in a direction of improvement.
3. Joy: ignoring fear. It’s a decision to have good cheer without denying circumstances, but instead, changing them by giving ourselves an attitude to succeed.
4. Hope: the replacement of fear. Yes, fear takes up space. It pushes out any notion that things can get better, and thus, must be evicted by a new idea.
5. Mercy: the insult to fear. When we step out of ourselves and express kindness to others, we are spitting in the eye of our fear of being rejected.
6. Passion: the remedy for fear. For after all, fear is when we cease to believe in what we’re doing anymore and start to accept that a certain amount of doom is inevitable. Passion is the only way to chase that demon out of our minds.
7. Creativity: the opposite of fear. When we continue to contend that we have the talent, ability, energy and initiative to make something out of what we have instead of standing at a distance and mocking it for its lack, we generate a counter-culture in the ruling class of fear.

I don’t have anything against Halloween. Matter of fact, the only thing I’m scared of is fear. Because when fear is perfected inside us, it makes us think that gloom is normal—and we lose the seven powerful precepts listed above.

At that point we are at the mercy of the dark kingdom—we are bled dry by the vampires and eaten alive by the werewolves.

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