What works?

We aren’t the first ones to live here.  We have examples to learn from.

When we look around our communities and others and see the results of living this way or that, ask yourself – “What is working? (Compared to your definition of course)  What is not working?

Did anyone notice…

“Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results” – Margaret Atwood

Did anyone notice our Federal government is 27 trillion dollars in debt and has no care in the world about going even deeper?

This means they spent 27 trillion more than we paid them trying to “take care of us”.

Can you grasp how much money that is?

We are buying votes with handouts, printing money which will cause inflation which devalues our savings and reduces money’s buying power, and spending our children’s future.

If we did that, or our business did that, we’d be bankrupt or in jail.

Spending money is a politicians’ source of power over us.  Other issues, while they may be important, are diversions and head fakes to avoid the elephant in the room at this point.

Then there is the story in your state, (and your town).

Hello…hello…

When will we care?  When will we speak out to them?  When will we stop telling them what more we want and call for responsibility and tell them to stop spending instead?  And if they don’t, when will we vote for those that are fiscally responsible?

Nothing to do?

When I was a kid, and I’d say to my Mom “There’s nothing to do”.  She’d say “Go outside”.  I thought she was trying to get rid of me, but she was wise.  We went outside and always found something to do.

Last weekend for example, there was nothing to do.  So we got in the truck and drove.  Get breakfast here?  Cool.  We drove some more.  What are those people doing at the boat ramp in February?  Frozen Lake.  Walk out on the ice?  Cool!  Oh look, ice fishing!  Cool.  Walk out farther around the bend.  Look someone made a snowman on the ice.  I bet we can make a bigger one. Cool!  Snowball fight.  Fun!  And on the day went…

Go explore the physical world.

Delaying Gratification

The ability to delay gratification is absolutely necessary for success.  If I know that by learning/training/saving money, my life will be better in the future, even though playing would make it better now (but do nothing for my future), and I can make the better long-term choice, then my future will be better.

If I am weak, and constantly make choices that will be fun/feel good/exciting/intoxicating now, then my future will be filled with limited options and lack larger opportunities.  I will have only myself to blame tomorrow.

In a famous study, they took young children and sat them in a room with a marshmallow in front of them.  They told the kids that if they don’t eat the marshmallow, that they would get another one when the adult returned to the room.  Then they left the child alone at the table, the treat at eye level to them, and had a hidden camera to record their behavior.  Some kids didn’t wait long and ate it.  Some tried to resist but finally ate it.  And some waited patiently and eventually got a second one.  

Many years later they studied these kids again and found the ones who delayed gratification were the most successful.

Can you/do you, have you/should you delay gratification, especially in your younger years?

The balance between production and consumption

An athlete made 110 million in five years and was broke a few years later.  So was rapper 50 Cent.

You can’t spend your way to prosperity.  

If you haven’t read or listened to “The Richest Man in Babylon”, a short classic book by George S. Clayson, you should.  I like the audio.  In it there are “Seven cures for a lean purse”. 

The first is “10% of all you earn is yours to keep”.  Meaning no matter how much you make, spend less and save some.

How much have you saved?

Tough people make good times

Jim Rohn, Darren Hardy and Joe Desena. What do these three men have in common?

Jim Rohn was a personal development teacher and one of the classic great ones.  He’s passed away now.

Darren Hardy was a student of Jim Rohn and is following in his footsteps today – a real hustler.

Joe Desena is the founder of Spartan Race, where you face hard obstacles and push your limits.

Jim Rohn said “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better”.  Darren Hardy was raised by his loving but tough drill sergeant-like father.  Joe Desena is very much a “stop whining and get tough” guy.

They and so many others preach a theme of toughness and self-reliance.  Looking outside to make your life better is not where it’s going to happen and not where you have any control.  

We’ve had it pretty easy in the last decades.  Conveniences, less hours of work needed to support ourselves, cheap entertainment, lots of choice, safety nets, and little real hardship when compared to years before that.

I saw a post that said – 

Hard times make tough people.

Tough people make good times.

Good times make weak people.

Weak people make hard times.

As we seek the good life, don’t get soft.  Be mentally and physically tough, because inevitably, it will be necessary.  

Worry hurts

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.” – Wm. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

Don’t let fear prevent you from living. 

Passenger to Pilot

When you take full responsibility you stop blaming and take control of your own situation.

In what area do you feel like a passenger?

"Iron Sharpens Iron" – My new book!

I have a new hardcover book out, “Iron Sharpens Iron”.  It’s my best writing.

In it, I chronicle our quest for my son and I to both finish the longest off-road race in the world, the Baja 1000, solo. 

I will donate all proceeds to charity.  (I’m still sending a group of city kids to private school, and many other things)  I don’t have it available online anywhere currently, but if you’d like a few copies send $25 each to –

Lawrence Janesky, 60 Silvermine Rd, Seymour CT, 06483

I’ll sign the book and pay shipping to you!

It makes a great gift, especially for people who are trying to push limits, are into sports, motorsports, endurance athletes, or anyone who loves a good story.  Josh Cohen started reading it to his kids at bedtime and they love it and can’t wait to hear more each night!

How many do you want?

Eat some plants.

Eat a wide variety of them.

They are good for you.