WANT TO

YOUR WANT TO

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, December 29, 2024

 

You get inspiration from just about any place or any event, even t-shirts.  This past week Channel 8 TV in New Orleans ran a segment about a teenager named Katie Williamson.  It was something that Kattie’s father said during the interview about Katie’s “want to” that struck me.  Watch and see and hear for yourself at

https://www.fox8live.com/2024/11/26/katie-williamson-voulez-make-perfect-pair-dog-agility/

The two words, “want to” was like a bolt of lightening from the sky, totally unexpected but what an impact, at least one me.  Those two words got me to really thinking about the hundreds of members of the U. S. Coast Guard and later the hundreds of real estate agents that I encountered. 

As I stood in front of 20 to 30 relatively new members of the Coast Guard where I was to provide them (teach) information from which they could fulfill their 4-year commitment to the Coast Guard (or possibly make a career of the Coast Guard) and at the same time provide a service to the Guard.  I taught what was known as a Class-A Yeoman School.  Out of the classes I taught, most would probably leave the service after their four-year commitment but some, I have no idea what the percentage would be, some would go on to make their time in the service a career like I did.

As I stood there looking out at the faces, it was difficult to tell which students would take their task seriously and even more difficult to identify those few students that would actually make their newly found profession a career.  This is where I would have understood the important of “want to” both from my perspective and the perspective of the students.  While I did not refer to it as my “want to”, it was definitely a term I would and should have used both for the students and for me.

What was my “want to” at that moment?  What was their “want to” at that moment.  My “want to” was to impart the knowledge that I had gained through my time in service, my personal study habits and my desire to succeed.  But why where these 30 students in my class on this day?  That is a question I failed to ask and answer, I had assumed they knew why they were in my class and what they wanted to accomplish.  Most of the students were between the ages of 18 and 20.  They were either a Seaman Apprentice (pay grade E2) or a Seaman (pay grade E3) but they were unskilled in the profession they had been selected to perform at unless they graduated from my class through what I taught them. 

I was wrong in making the assumption that they all WANTED TO be there in my class or that they actually wanted to learn a professional rating in the Coast Guard.  As it turned out, a lot were there because it was something to do rather than a strong desire to WANT TO be there.  At the end of the instruction, it became very obvious to me which students WANTED TO be there and which students where just putting in their time.

What I am about to say may sound very immodest but it is what I believed at the time and still do.  I was a Yeoman First Class Petty Officer as I stood in front of the class.  I learned my profession “on-the-job” without going to the very school that I was now an instructor at.  As such, I had to become self-educated.  In this regard I was as fortunate as anyone could have ever been because I worked for some of the most professional people I have ever met!  They helped me at every turn and because of them, I became very focused on what I had to do to advance in the Coast Guard.  Without saying the words, I KNEW what my WANT TO had become.  Do you know what your WANT TO is?  My want to led me from being a Seaman Apprentice (pay grade E2) to Chief Yeoman (pay grade E7) to Chief Warrant Officer (pay grade CWO2) and then to a special promotion from CWO3 to Lieutenant (pay grade O3).  My WANT TO turn into a very successful Coast Guard career because I knew what I wanted, do you know what you want?  Seriously, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT?  I felt very comfortable in my own skin being a Yeoman First Class Petty Officer Instructor teaching 30 new students.  I was a confident in my ability as anyone.  If that is being immodest, so be it.  My goal, however, was to graduate 30 Yeoman Students and told them that I would have accomplished my task if “30 Little Jimmy Brown’s” went out into the field and do as I would do in their place.  I as that confident.  Immodest?  It is was it was and I have no regrets!

I came upon a poem that describes the path that most young people, certainly not you, but most young people travel. 

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

 
High in the Sierra Mountains lives an old man
Who from his hermitage looks down in pity
Upon other men of higher mental aspiration.
 
One day he rescued a little group of Swiss mountaineers
Lost in the mountains’ fastenesses
When told where they were they exclaimed in disbelief,
“But how did we get here?”
 
To which the old hermit replied,
“If that question ain’t got no answer attached to it,
I ain’t got none that fits.
If you is goin’ anywhere in particular
Up here, yu’d better figger fust how to get thar.
Cuz by jest goin’ afore ya know where yere agoin’
Ya can get to a powerful lotta places ya might not wanta be.”
 
Author Unknown, pity 

If I had to start over in life from a young age, I would work overtime to determine what my WANT TO is.  Once you determine what that is, the path should become much clearer to you.  Where do you begin?  Believe this or not, the best place to begin is at the end.  Ask and answer yourself this one HUGE question: 

WHAT WILL YOUR LIFE LOOK LIKE WHEN IT IS FINISHED? 

This is exactly what the Hermit was saying in the above verse, if you don’t know, you may end up in a lot of places you had no intention of going!  That may be the best advice ever given but I have more if you are interested and I know you are so keep reading. 

If you KNOW where you want to go in life, you need a Personal Life Mission Statement (PLMS)  I learned about this in the early 1990s.  I spent a lot of time, like a year, working on my PLMS; I wanted to get it right to where it actually meant something to me.  Here is my PLMS, if you would like, send me a copy of yours to TheJimBrown@pm.me.  I would like to see them. 

TO HELP PEOPLE TO DO WHAT THEY DO, TO DO IT BETTER! 

After you create your PLMS, I would suggest you adopt using Joe Tye’s Direction-Deflection-Question (DDQ).  It is one of the most effective tools I have ever encountered, period!  This is how it works: 

You are faced with a cross roads or task in your life.  Just ask yourself, is doing this, saying this, teaching this, satisfying my Life’s Personal Mission Statement?  If yes, do it!  If no, don’t!  It really is that simple.  It may work best for weight loss.  Is what I am about to eat or drink leading me towards my desired weight or away from it?  Then follow your answer to success. 

There is a great book written by Gary Keller, co-founder of Keller Williams Realty International titled “One Thing”.  Keller asks a very simple question.  What ONE THING should you be doing at this very moment, other than reading this Nugget, that if done will lead you to accomplishing your life goal(s)?  You do have goals, right?  I do not believe that you should restrict yourself to having just ONE LIFE GOAL but having a REALLY BIG LIFE GOAL but then also having separate individual goals in the fields of finance, health, family, spiritual and any other topic you feel is important to you.

Here is how it all fits together using FINANCE as just one of your life’s goals.  If you want to be financially independent, what must you do to make that happen?  Everyone has a mental or written Daily To Do List.  The list is typically mundane things like grocery shopping, a doctor’s appointment, etc.  But…what ONE THING should you be doing to achieve Financial Independence (if you want to start with finances).  There is ONE THING that will make a difference and IF DONE, WILL LEAD YOU ACCOMPLISHING YOUR GOAL OF FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE!  While you are out shopping you see a piece of jewelry that costs $100.00.  If you ask yourself the DDQ question, if I buy this will it lead me to achieving Financial Independence?  There obviously may be circumstances such as you are buying it for a Birthday or Anniversary gift, that is understandable.  The question still remains, if I purchase this item, will it lead me to achieving Financial Independence?  Probably not!  You will be amazed at how many things you DO NOT buy when you try this simple question/technique. 

Once you have identified your Life’s Big Ass Goal (LBAG), then you decide what your big goals are in the several areas of life you have identified, you have begun a plan or a tree to follow.  Of all of the goals you have identified, what ONE THING should you be doing RIGHT NOW that if DONE will lead you to achieving your Life’s Big Ass Goal?  

I would not be telling you this if I did not do it myself.  Unfortunately, I learned most of this more by accident than by design.  I am giving you the design or a plan to follow.  You need to develop the WANT TO for it to actually work.  Who knew that this several minute long segment on a local TV news show would lead to this Nugget.  I most likely will never know if anyone takes these suggestions to heart and eventually achieve their Life’s Big Ass Goal; I think some will.  If just one person reaches his or her Big Ass Goal because of this Nugget I will have achieved my Life’s Personal Mission Statement to Help People To Do What They Do, To Do It Better! 

If it works for you and it should, you can thank me by passing it on!  Please pass it on, you never know who is sitting there waiting for a sudden strike of encouragement needed to achieve their yet to be determined Life’s Big Ass Goal

Win Some; Lose Some!

WIN SOME; LOSE SOME!
GO IN WITH A PLAN!

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown December 12, 2024

 “Practice does not make perfect. 

ONLY perfect practice makes perfect.”

Vince Lombardi

HEADS UP!  I got carried away with “story telling” on this Nugget so it is a bit longer than most but I think the message is valid and applies to everyone on the planet!  Read on… 

In the early 1970s I was introduced to the game of Darts.  There are many different types of games within the game of darts that people play but the primary game was known as 301.  You begin with 301 points.  The dart board pictured below shows the various rings on the board, some very narrow, some much wider and then there is the Bulls Eye consisting of a very small ring and a center which is the actual Bulls Eye.

The outer narrow ring is DOUBLE the number of points indicated by the numbers surrounding the board.  The small red box below “20” means you would have scored 40 points.  The larger two black areas are SINGLES of the number “20” meaning you would score 20 points when your dart falls into one of these two areas.  The very small RED box below the number “20” means you would sore THREE times the number or 60 points.  In the very center, you see a green circle and a red center.  The green represents 25 points, the red center 50 points.  The most points any player can score with three darts would be placing the three darts in the very center of the board for a total of 150 points.  Because of the small space, it is difficult to squeeze three darts into the Bulls Eye on the board.  Being so difficult, most players aim for the triple 20 slot giving them 60 points.  If you notice, the larger numbers like 20 have smaller numbers to either side.  If you aim for the 20, you stand a much greater chance of hitting a lower number and that is what make shooting darts difficult.  You need to know how to quickly add and subtract in your mind to play

In the game of 301, each player starts with 301 points and the object of the game is to score enough points that are DEDUCTED from 301 until you get to ZERO.  The first person to reach ZERO is the winner of the game.  To begin, each of two players can throw one dart and the one with the highest point total goes first.  It is up to each player to throw one of three darts into any number on the DOUBLE RING to begin.  For a lot of players, they aim for the DOUBLE 11 THROUGH 16 on the left side of the board.  I don’t know why the left side but the reason they try a number on the side is because when you shoot darts, the dart typically goes higher or lower (as compared to wider and wider) than what you aim to hit.  Therefore, to begin YOUR game, throwing for either side of the board to hit a double number makes sense.  It is possible that you may never hit a double to start deducting from YOUR score while your opponent may have already hit a double number.  Your competitor can be deducting from his or her score while you are still attempting to start by hitting a DOUBLE.  This is called DOUBLING IN.  As a player reduces his or her number, they must get their score down to an even number like 40, 32, 14 (any even number) because you MUST DOUBLE OUT to win.  This simply means that if you got your number down to 40, you must hit a DOUBLE 20 to DOUBLE OUT and WIN the match.  It really is a fun game to play.

If anyone had told me that while assigned to Coast Guard duty on Governors Island, New York, that I would venture into Manhattan at least once a week to go to a different bar to shoot darts, I would have told them that they were crazy.  Yet that is what I did.  I, and up to 5 more Coast Guardsmen formed a Coast Guard Dart Team.  We entered a Dart League in New York City where we played at a different bar every week against a team from each bar where 

Looking back or being a Monday Morning Quarterback as some would say, it is much easier to see what should have taken place as compared to seeing something as it WAS taking place.  Looking back to something that happened in 1977 is now very easy for me to see and it has become the purpose of this Nugget.  Shooting Darts is no different than bowling, playing golf, tennis or any sport you can think of.  The sport usually involves some level of skill and therein lies the very essence of this Nugget – developing a skill level in sports, business and/or life. 

I don’t know who originally said it but it is nonetheless, true!  If you want to play better tennis (golf, carts, bowling, etc.), play with better tennis players.  When you do, you very quickly learn more about the sport/event. You also tend to play to the level of your competition.  If you are an experienced golfer, you really do not improve your game by playing with beginners to the game.  Shooting darts is no different.  

I adapted to most of the sports I have ever tried.  At the risk of sounding immodest, I think I was an average to better than average player in all of the sports I  played.  Was I exceptional at any sport?  No.  I have since learned that in the 1970s through the 2000s, if you had a golf handicap of 10 or less, you were actually within the top 10% of all of the golfers in the country. Most golfers with a 10 or higher handicap would shoot scores in the 90 and above range.  A ten handicapper or less typically shot scores in the 70s and 80s.  My handicap at one point was actually a ZERO but not for long.  My handicap usually averaged between 5 to 8; golf is a difficult sport. 

Some people (me) play sports for the fun of playing and spending time with friends.  I took golf and darts a little more seriously because I actually practiced both as much as I could while still holding down a job and spending time with my family.  

It took all of the above to get to the point.  Coach Vince Lombardi was spot on with his statement above.  Yes, I practiced both golf and darts or at least I thought I was practicing.  What I was really doing, was going through the “motions” of practicing golf and darts.  I had a dart board at home and I would throw darts until the muscles in my forearms hurt.  That may be hard to believe but trust me, try it for yourself and you will see exactly what I mean.  The darts I threw were just throwing darts, there was no specific goal to my throwing.  For example, did I actually track where I stood on the line (left side/right side/center) that I could not cross to throw a dart?  No.  Did I track the number of times it took me to hit a specific spot on the board?  No.  Did I try changing the way I gripped the dart?  No.  Did I experiment and write down the results of changing the arm angle at which I threw the dart?  No.  Did I experiment with different types of darts?  Yes, I actually did. Did I ever read anything written on the game of darts as to how to acquire better results; books written by people who achieved success in dart competitions?  No.  Not even sure there were such books. 

The same was true with practicing golf.  Did I first take any golf lessons?  No, I learned by watching my father play.  Did I read any books on how to become a better golfer?  No.  Did I go to the practice range to hit practice shots?  Yes, but…  This is where the real BUT comes into this Nugget.  I hit a lot of practice golf balls BUT I did not practice hitting golf shots.  What do I mean by this?  You can take any golf club in a golf bag and hit very different types of shots ON PURPOSE.  High, low, right to left, left to right, straight, etc.   Did I try to do this?  On occasion yes, but on a regular basis, no.  I just hit ball after ball after ball because I enjoyed hitting golf balls.  What I enjoyed most was seeing how FAR I could hit them.  I cared more about distance than I ever did about accuracy.  In golf, accuracy far outweighs the distance for most if not all golfers.  

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about darts, about golf, about selling real estate, about being an accountant, lawyer, doctor, bus driver, or whatever profession you are in, “Practice does not make perfect.  ONLY perfect practice makes perfect.”  Therefore, you have ONLY ONE JOB to do IF you want to become the best at WHAT you do and that is to learn how to PRACTICE PERFECTLY!  

I experienced this first hand in 1977.  A member of my Dart Team suggested that he and I sign up to play in the United States Open for Darts.  Every sport has its premiere event such as the Super Bowl, World Series, The Masters, etc.  Darts were no exception.  In the United States the U. S.  Open for Darts was the premiere event.  Unlike other sporting events, you did NOT have to be a “professional” to enter.  We were definitely NOT professionals; we had NEVER received any money for shooting darts.  We signed up to play! 

When we arrived at the hotel in New York City, we were both shocked to discover that almost 600 people had signed up to play in the event.  The massive hotel ballroom had 52 dart boards set up and measured for accuracy.  Everyone started at the same place, 1 of 576 entries.  You drew an opponent to play and they created a playoff chart with YOUR name on it.  You discovered who you were going to play and then waited for your turn.  If you won your match, you advanced to the next round.  It was a case of win or go home for every match you played.  Both of us won our first matches.  That meant that we were now 2 of the 288 people who were still in the tournament.  Then surprises of all surprises, we both won our second matches for the day.  That meant two things, first we had to go home and come back the next day for round three and that both of us were now among the remaining 144 participants in the Open. 

That night, I could not sleep.  My stomach was in knots if you know what I mean. I knew I was in over my head.  I was not properly prepared for what was happening. The next morning. we were off to the hotel but this day was different.  There were a lot fewer entrants, after all, we were down to just 144.  People seemed more nervous and anxious, especially me.  We found our names and event times and off to boards we went.  I was blown away when I got to my assigned board.  There were hundreds of people around one particular board which was right next to the board I was to play on.  What was going on?  It turned out that the player on the next board was the U. S. Champion from previous years and people wanted to see him shoot darts.  They also saw me shooting darts.  If you have never had an audience around you while you are engaged in a sporting event, you have no idea how that makes you feel.  What I failed to realize at the time was that my opponent had never played before an audience either so in effect, we were both on the same very unfamiliar stage.  Our match exposed our nerves.  It took us both a long time to DOUBLE IN to begin the count down of points.  You were required you to win two of three matches to win the match.  We each won one match.  When we each got down to an even number in the third and final game, it took us both many attempts to DOUBLE OUT to win.  

Now for the icing on the cake.  The event paid out money to entrants who finished in the top 72 places.  Think about that.  On Saturday morning I was 1 of 576 entrants.  On Sunday morning I was 1 of 144 entrants.  If I had won the first match on Sunday, I would have made the top 72 and would have earned money for having played.  The payout would have been considerably MORE than what I paid to enter and then some.  I don’t remember as I write this how much I could have earned, what I earned was ZERO because not only did I lose the first match on Sunday, so did my buddy.  We were both out but what an experience.  We both ventured “outside the box” or our “comfort zones.”  That is always a good thing when you expand your horizons, win or lose! 

We all tend to live a life of “if only.”  If only I had known then what I know now, I could have been a champion, not only in Darts but in Golf, Bowling, Tennis and real estate sales.  If only I had learned to engage in PERFECT PRACTICE, “I could have been a champion” a line made famous by the actor Marlon Brando.  I didn’t learn to PRACTICE PERFECTLY and I ended up 1 of 144 dart shooters in the 1977 U. S. Open of Darts instead of making the “money list” or even its Champion! 

Ass Paul Harvey would say, “And now, for the rest of the story.”  The Dart Champion who was shooting on the board next to mine was Conrad Daniels.  Years later I attended a real estate convention in Arizona and signed up to play in a golf tournament at the convention.  The starter pointed to a group of players waiting for me to join them.  I went down to the waiting players and introduced myself and stuck out my hand to shake theirs and said.  “Hi, I’m Jim Brown” and waited for a response.  “Hi, I’m Conrad Daniels” the man said.  I was shocked and I remember saying, “You got to be sh#$%ing me.  Did you by any chance shoot darts in the 1977 U. S. Open of Darts in New York City?”  He said “Yes, in fact I did.”  That is when everyone else in the group chimed in and I remember one man say, “You mean that the stories I heard about you shooting darts and winning are true?”  We all laughed and had a great day; what a coincidence we would actually meet playing a different sport years later.  What are the odds? 

Successful people leave clues and they are all around you.  They write books, now they make videos, they want to share what has worked for them.  There are many ways to do the same things, some techniques work better than others.  Some techniques work for one person but not another.  The key is to keep learning, never stop learning, never stop experimenting, never stop engaging in PERFECT PRACTICE to make what YOU do, to do it better!  If you want to see how this really works, watch the video, The Fosbury Flop about how ONE MAN, Dick Fosbury changed one sporting event, FOREVER!  Initially they called him crazy for what he was doing.  What he did made him a champion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZsH46Ek2ao 

Dick Fosbury no only perfectly practiced the sport of high jumping, he excelled in the sport and then he created a new way to perfect his skills,  His new technique then became the norm rather than the exception.  

REAL LIFE.  A lot of people, certainly not you, NEVER practice what they will say, how they will act, what they will do during a job interview.  The same could be said about real estate agents going out to list a property to be sold.  People simply do not understand the importance of PRACTICING PERFECTION before they engage!  Think about a job interview.  You will be asked a lot of questions and some may even be inappropriate.  Will you REACT or will you RESPOND?  There is a difference.  If you are unprepared, you will REACT far more often than you will ever RESPOND.  Do not be caught off guard.  Do your research!  What kind of questions will the job interviewer ask you?  Will the questions be limited to what you put on a resume?  You do have an up-to-date resume, right?  Or will the questions come out of “left field” so to speak.  I have conducted a lot of job interviews and I can assure you that most of my questions you would not expect to be asked.  For example, I would ask a candidate, “What book are you reading now or what was the last book you have read?”  What does that have to do with performing the job at hand?  On the surface, nothing.  But I was searching for people who wanted to learn and who were willing to go the extra mile to learn a profession.  Or, “Tell me the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?”  Again, why would I ask this?  Do you want a robot on the job that has issues teaming up with other employees or do you want someone who has a sense of humor and doesn’t have to think very deep to come up with an answer.  Maybe one of the best questions was, “What do YOU consider your weakest point or points?”  If you are not prepared for that question, you will have no right answer.  What is the right answer?  Take something positive in your life, like self-education, then turn it into a weakness such as, “I know how important continued learning is and if I have one weakness, it is not reading more books than I already read.”  That’s turning a positive into a negative and then back into a positive in the mind of the interviewer. 

Learn to be as prepared as you can possibly be at all times.  I take this to an extreme whenever I have a doctor’s visit.  I know how busy doctors are.  I also know that they see and hear a great many patients and it would be extremely easy to get them all confused when considering the number being seen.  Before I visit any doctor, I first think about the visit.  What do I want the doctor to know?  What questions will he or she ask as follow up questions to my comments?  What do I want to happen as a result of my visit.  I have actually typed out notes I want to discuss so I would not forget even the lesser important things I want the doctor to know.  Never is this more important than when I visit my Dermatologist.  I have skin issues.  Before I go, I do a body scan and I make a typed list of areas I want him to look at.  He has said on multiple visits how important he thinks my notes are to both him and me.  None of his other patients do this and they often schedule a return visit because they forgot to draw attention to something they are concerned about.  

My advice to everyone is to: 

NOT JUST PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
but rather engage in:
PERFECT PRACTICE
PERFECT PRACTICE
PERFECT PRACTICE
IN EVERYTHING YOU DO;
NO EXCEPTIONS

Seek It Out; Let It In!

SEEK IT OUT; LET IT IN!

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, December 6, 2024

It has been said that Gary Keller, co-founder of Keller Williams Realty International, has said, “You are either IGNORANCE based or you are LEARNING (knowledge) based!”  If he did say that, he was right then and even more so today!  Just like being positive, you either consciously or unconsciously make a decision every morning when you first wake up, to be so!  Today is either going to be positive or negative and I will act accordingly.  AND, you will choose to be and remain ignorant or you will choose to be learning based - TODAY!  In both cases, my advice to everyone would be to CHOOSE WISELY!  And…it wouldn’t hurt to put notes on your bathroom mirror (assuming you look in the mirror every morning when you brush your teeth, you do brush your teeth, right?) and the notes would remind you that for TODAY, I CHOOSE TO BE POSITIVE AND I CHOOSE TO BE LEARNING BASED!

With that said, I looked up “ignorance” and “learning”, this is what I discovered on the Internet:

Ignorance

1. “Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star.” - Confucius
2. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
3. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” - Alfred North Whitehead
4. “Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.” - Horace Mann
5. “It is not good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.” - Frank Zappa

Learning

1. “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” - Thomas Paine
2. “The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.” - Robert Burton
3. “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” - William Wordsworth
4. “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.” - Daniel J. Boorstin
5. “Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never has doubts about.” – Socrates

Of all the above quotes besides the one attributed to Gary Keller, my favorite quote is #2 from Martin Luther King, Jr. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

I have underlined the key words in the King quote to draw emphasis to the fact that people CHOOSE “conscientious stupidity!”  In other words, people CHOOSE to be STUPID!  How does one become learning based as compared to learning to be ignorant based?  If you believe that attending school makes you smart, I can show you a lot of people who have non-medical Doctor’s Degrees who show significant signs of stupidity because they have learned WHAT THEY WERE TAUGHT TO LEARN in our universities.  It is not just my opinion; many people have written about the indoctrination of students at all levels of our educational system.  You learn what your teacher wants you to learn, right or wrong.  Then as adults the learning does not stop with your education, most adults, certainly not you, get most if not all of their current information from the television news, their computers, and/or soon to be out of print newspapers.  What makes the adult version of becoming “knowledge based” so wrong, is that adults only seem to learn what the television anchors have chosen for them to learn and know about.  In other words, if most adults are not paying close attention, they will not recognize the fact that they are being spoon fed very small clips of information about people, current events, news stories and situations that could affect their lives, in the near future and the distant future.  More importantly they could be watching and hearing news that is actually fake news, untrue, a lie, call it whatever you want; it’s just not true;  COVID comes to mind!   If that does not scare you, I am going to suggest that you may in fact be a member of the ignorant or stupid group of Americans.

Want more proof?  Sure you do.  I draw your attention to the website that follows that reports, according to a Gallop Poll. that Americans “SAY” they read about 12 books a year or one a month.   Is that a real number to be believed?  Maybe so, maybe not; I don’t know.  What is the important question NOT asked?  Were the books fiction or non-fiction?  To me, reading fiction is more for enjoyment, not to learn something of significant value.  If you read non-fiction books, hopefully you are learning something of value.  I spent over 33 years in real estate sales as a salesman, broker and trainer.  I could not help but notice that very few of the agents ever read any books on sales or customer relations.  To put that into perspective, would you want to buy a home from someone who does not stay atop of his or her profession by reading about the profession?  Would you want a heart surgeon to operate on your heart if the surgeon hasn’t read anything on heart surgery since he or she first became a surgeon?  I think it is safe to say you would not choose an ignorant real estate agent nor an ignorant heart surgeon.   https://news.gallup.com/poll/388541/americans-reading-fewer-books-past.aspx

Since my early 40s, I have made a conscious decision to read AT LEAST ONE book PER MONTH but had a target of TWO BOOKS per month.  For decades I met the latter challenge.  Now approaching my 80s, that represents a great many books and only about 1% were fiction!  I studied my real estate profession and I carefully chose the books I decided to read.  I wanted them to fill a void in my education or my experience and just as important, where I saw my career going next.  I once counted up all of the books and eBooks I had read and they exceeded 1000. 

Since the early 1990s, I have moved on to reading more and more books and articles on politics, world history, U. S. History, biographies of famous and infamous people.  It was about this time that I came upon a phrase I had not heard before – becoming awaken!  What did that mean?  I now know what it is supposed to mean but how is it defined in the dictionary or on the Internet?  Here you go:

to become conscious or aware of something

awoke to the possibilities

At the same time, Italian prosecutors awoke to the international magnitude of their Sicilian underworld …—Selwyn Raab

To me, this is exactly what being “awake” meant but I would have expanded on the examples provided.  The Internet used the word “possibilities”, I would have added “probabilities”, “natural progression if left unchecked”, “natural digression if left unchecked” and finally “stagnation through conscientious stupidity!” 

People in general, certainly not you, CONSCIENTIOUSLY HAVE CHOSEN TO BE STUPID on all things involving their environment and politics or they CONSCIENTIOUSLY CHOOSE TO BE LEARNED!  The Learned People are AWAKE PEOPLE.  The Stupid People are the people that sleep walk through life verifying how Alfred Einstein defined insanity, “Doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.” 

WHICH ONE ARE YOU?  WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD BE AS COMPARED TO THE ONE YOU ACTUALLY ARE?  I have chosen to be AWAKE!  I have become awaken by reading, by listening to different opinions and beliefs as expressed in written words and spoken words of people from all walks of life; not just the words TAUGHT in schools or spoken on the television programs.  And…while I am on the subject, have you ever asked why they are called “programs?”  Could it be that both our schools and our main stream media and all of the various television shows are doing nothing by “programming” the way we think.  If so, we all, except those who have been awakened, we all begin to think in a very certain way.  As an example, how could anyone think that allowing millions of non-U. S. Citizens to cross into America is a good thing for our country?  If that is all you hear and read, that is what you will ultimately think, believe in and even argue for.  Look at all of the topics in today’s news that you should be questioning as to why they are being allowed to happen.  Could it be that we as a society are being systematically “programmed” to think in those terms?  IN MY OPINION, RIGHT OR WRONG, IT IS MY OPINION THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING TO AMERICA BY AMERICANS!  Also in my OPINION, that makes the millions of Americans who cannot see the disaster just waiting to happen as being bone-headed thinking all originating from CONSCIOUSLY STUPID AMERICANS! 

I have become very discouraged that I have chosen the road “less traveled” and I can assure you that while there is very little traffic on that path, it is a lonely road to follow.  On both sides of the road, millions of people have lined up to throw stones at those transiting the path to becoming awakened to all that is happening around them. That is a very uncomfortable feeling.  I know this because…

People who have chosen to become knowledgeable (awake) about activities and circumstances that could eventually become very harmful to civilization, should be respected, not ridiculed!  It will be those who have been awaken to the depravity, corruption and the wars created by governments all around the world, who will eventually open the eyes of those who have consciously or unconsciously chosen the path of “conscientious stupidity”, the opposite of which, is “enlightenment!”

C. JoyBell C, “The dance between darkness and light will always remain— the stars and the moon will always need the darkness to be seen, the darkness will just not be without the light.”

I could say that slightly differently: 

“The dance between ignorance and knowledge will always remain;

the stars and the moon will always need the darkness to be seen, ignorance cannot exist with the light of the knowledge so readily available! 

The information is out there, all YOU have to do is:

seek it out and then, let it in!”