The Savage Philosopher

Risk. I have come to believe that the only denominator of ultra successful people is their ability to accept and manage risk. This factor above all others is the one thing that determines when you are ready to take your destiny in your own hands. This factor determines the type of job, school, significant other, and an infinite number of other things that you choose. So what is risk? In my humble opinion, what we deem as risky is a logical interpretation of our emotional fear of the unknown. That means when we say something is too risky, we are justifying our fears. If that is true, then what separates the risk takers from the security takers is their ability to act in spite of their fear. They don’t conquer, overcome, or squash their fears. They feel the fear and act. THEY FEEL THE FEAR AND ACT. In an attempt to take my own advice, I finally pulled the trigger and started my own business. It is registered with the state, has a business account, business structure, and by the end of ...

I am beginning to wonder if there is a difference between malignant and benign influences. Without getting into a full debate today about the relevance of good and evil; I want to highlight an observation: An unseen power flows through repeated messages. Only recently I have begun to watch TV again. After five years overseas there was no point to watch the local cable stations. And now that I’m back in the states, over the last two weeks I have been taking advantage. I have concluded that those who have chosen the programming do not know what they do. As the word suggests, programming is a deliberate intent to create actions by convincing the cognitive space. I understand the economics of advertisement and the systems that employ them. I do not think that those who schedule the programs really understand how they affect the cognitive space outside of purchasing a consumer product. Being reborn into this environment I was not prepared for the psychological battle I would h...

Are we doing it wrong? The current economy of the western world is based on the consumption of goods and services. Any product or service that is not in need on a repeatable basis is worth less than those that are. For instance; here are some products I use everyday that are based on only consumption. Disposable razors Single serving coffee Ball point pens Pencils Paper journals Drink bottles and cans The gasoline in my car that I used to get to work Sticky notes Notecards Paper Containers to hold my food from the grocery store Tinfoil Ziploc bags This is a simple list of common items I use almost everyday in my home and professional life. I am sure there are more, and this does not include some longer-term consumables like cell phone upgrades, computer upgrades, and car upgrades. Today I simply want to reflect that in our society we award consumption versus conservation. At this point, I am not saying that either one is better or worse only that we need to be aw...

All authority must be given and cannot be taken. Those in charge may be disillusioned that somehow they ‘forced’ their authority, but in reality it was a choice by the person being ‘ruled’ to choose to be ruled. This begs the question, “how is control obtained?” What is it that the ruled do to specifically give others authority over them. My answer: Obligation When we agree to an obligation we are giving over our control to the obligation. We give over our control in our; promises to ourselves, promises to others, and promises to God. The promises we make to ourselves generally fall into changing the type of person we are. We want to be a better person, a healthy person, or a charitable person. Every day I strive to be a better friend, parent, and spouse. I’m not always as successful as I would like, and when that occurs I feel like a ‘failure’. I feel that I failed to live up to the obligation I set before myself. This pain is a point of control. I make stives to eat well, ...

The world is a dangerous and hostile place. It is filled with people who are different; they act different, talk different, and believe different. This difference has divided the world into two tribes The tribe of ‘us’ and the tribe of ‘them’. In one moment two people are in the same tribe as co-workers and in another, they are in different tribes as sport fans. This is all the work of our animal instincts to survive our hostile world. Our animal instincts are designed to do one thing, ensure our survival. Using the Reticular Activating System (RAS) it determines if something is a threat or an opportunity. The RAS basically filters out all the noise in the world to help us focus on what is important. Things that are new are immediately highlighted as a threat first, and then a possible opportunity. This is why we subconsciously choose to dress like our friends or end up wearing the same colors with our significant other. By matching, our animal feels safe and secure. If the n...

A journey of self-discovery has ended. I have defeated the main boss, received the treasure, and now back in the ‘real’ world. I have been changed on a fundamental level and I can no longer do the things I did before as this hero’s tale has come full circle and I bring my boon back home. The Boon. The treasure I gain by defeating the main boss of ‘undisciplined action’ and ‘small vision’ is a new sense of purpose and an upgrade in self-confidence. I learned that if I want to have a huge impact in the world I cannot do it alone. More than just building a team around myself to propel my career and success, I need to build other people’s teams to propel THEIR career and success. Only by developing other leaders into leaders can I even hope to achieve any sense of world-wide impact. This new purpose came with it a serious increase in my own self-confidence. Confidence is the gravity that pulls the universe inline with your goals. I originally thought that this idea was bulls...

That’s right, I said it. Don’t be a pusillanimous! You need to take life by the axle and twist it for your advantage. If it was easy, anyone would do it. But it is not. You simply have to make a choice on what kind of person you want to be; pusillanimous or heroic. When a situation presents us with an opportunity we have about five seconds to take action. Five seconds until you will choose inaction over action. I learned this concept from Mel Robbins ( www.melrobbins.com ), and she is spot on. You know that I don’t just take anyone’s word for anything. I want to see it in action for myself, so I experiment with the different ideas I’m presented with. The five second rule is a thing. Just ask Mel. What this means is that our natural state is to be a pusillanimous. Or, at least we have a very small window to be heroic. Perhaps this is why we admire heroes. We think that they are awesome because we could never do such things. And as long as someone else does it, we won’t have to. ...

Yesterday was mostly successful. I have found that eating one meal a day is very difficult unless I am with people that eat one meal a day (or by myself). Other than that, I did get a couple of blogs out and had the time to research how to write a book and the volunteer opportunities in my area. Every day I seek to learn more about myself and the reasons why I do what I do. Yesterday I struggled to keep my cool while my pre-teen daughter did what pre-teen daughters do, drive their fathers crazy. I was good initially and then got tired of the attitude and then realized that I simply did not have the skills to handle it. So I called the Mom. She brilliantly deescalated the situation and we made it through the rest of the night. What I learned is that I still have some learning to do. So I will add building a stronger relationship and reducing the frustration between me and my daughters to the list of accomplishments I want to have on this reset. Review of Yesterday. As I ment...

How to have a kickass day.  I want to take a few moments this evening and talk about how to have a kickass day by creating a morning ritual. The purpose is to prime your day the same way everyday, so that you can have consistent results.  Start the morning right. Here are three simple steps that I use every morning to get ready for the day. Do not be underwhelmed by there simplicity. I recommend you practice them with an experimental mindset and see the results for yourself before you judge them.  1. Make your bed. I get up really early and my wife is still sleeping. This does not stop me from taking my blanket, folding it half long ways, and laying it down on my side of the bed. After I take a moment to smooth it out, I top it off with my pillow. This is the first thing I do right after my feet hit the floor.  This first step is the trigger for the next thing, writing in my gratitude journal. It also puts me into a productive mood. I can say at th...

Ok, here it is. Day 1 of 17. A small sabbatical to get myself re-centered and upgraded. A time to rebuild who I am, so when I go back to the real world of work and the daily grind, I will be stronger and more capable to take on the world. Or so is the goal. The Plan. I am going to document my next 17 days here as part of a blog series called “Resetting Life”. It will be a way for me to look back on this time in the future and see what parts of this reset took hold in the long term. And of course, this is the best way I know how to share my experiences with you. Here is the list of the bigger accomplishments I want to have by the end of this reset. Some of these may be a little audacious, but that is the point. Consistently execute the One Meal a Day (OMAD) meal plan with a focus on fruit, vegetables , nuts, and seeds with a little bit of chicken or fish chopped in. Workout for an hour every day. Blog at least once a day and increase my subscription to 200...

I am inspired to take control of my life from the clutches other people’s obligations and the entrapment of other people’s desires. These are the reasons why I have not found the time nor priority to do this blog, which I love. At first, I thought it was I just out of things to say. A barren dustbowl of topics that I cared about had dried up like the desert. I had said all the things that I could say. In reality, I couldn’t find the time to even think. As I am on the cusp of a two week staycation, I can hear the faint voice of expression. It is as if my mind had been burdened with so much ‘stuff’ that it was being suffocated. In taking my first gasp of air in a long time, I see that it was the weight of the chains put on me that was bringing me down. Like an anchor, I was sinking to the bottom of the sea. I promised in the title that this will be a how-to guide. So here it is; How-to Take Control of Your Life: Step 1: Realize that your depression may not be of your making and ...

Before we get started, we should first define fear. According to our good friend Webster, fear is “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”. If we were to dissect this definition a little, we realize that there are two parts. The first is the “anticipation or awareness of danger”, and the second is the reaction to that perception with a “strong emotion”. This is important because I believe that the reaction is dependent upon the perception. This also gives us a possible lever of control. If we control our perception, than we can control our fear. Basically, we are only afraid of dangers that we know about. If this is true, then we could purposefully redefine what we consider as dangerous. In today’s world we are not normally chased by lions and tigers, but our fears of failure and loss trigger the same emotion. So, if we want to control our lives and make choices (the key to being Human) then we need a way to control our mind to minimiz...

Who owns you? To what obligations have you promised? Do you have freedom of choices or freedom of choice? Every day I evaluate my life and try to measure what I am doing to what I believe I can do. I find that most days, my assessment is aligned. If I believe I can do it, then I normally accomplish it. But this makes me wonder about the limitations of belief. What would happen if I suddenly chose to believe that I could do something I never had done before? Let’s say it is something that ‘has’ been done before, just not by me. If I believe that I could do it, then could I? And now let’s take this up to the next level. There are an infinite number things that we could do that haven’t been done yet. How do we assess the reasonable from the impossible? Or is it all possible with enough ingenuity and creativity. These particular Human attributes that define us from the other species on this planet. This takes me back to my original question of ownership. Freedom is the state of belief. ...