Introducing Myself

There was a book that had a major impact on me.

Know Me, Like Me Follow Me by Penny Power.

She teaches that in order to be successful online you need to reveal your true self.

Then people get to know the person behind the product or service.

They have a chance to like or dislike you.

When they like you then they are more likely to follow you.

The following leads to sales, repeat sales, word of mouth promotions, and buzz.

So here I will provide just a snapshot of myself.

Then you can know me better. 

This is a rather long post.

When I encounter a wordy webpage or PDF I use this text to speech app.

Natural Reader app https://www.naturalreaders.com/app/ 

You might like to have your computer read this and other documents to you. 

These are some simple sound bites I use to describe myself: 

66 years old (in February of 2020)

Baby Boomer generation 

6 foot tall

165 pounds (slim)

Anglo American

short-cropped hair and a gray beard

cisgender 

heterosexual male

single, celibate, and content

I was engaged 3 times but never married. 

I have zero interest in sex or romance.

retired and living alone

born in Houston, Texas
living in Ennis, Texas, that is south of Dallas 
my younger brother is living in St Louis, Missouri

dropped out of college 3 times

self-educated mostly from libraries and the Internet

several near-death experiences

seek to always be honest, responsible, and truthful 

seek to treat others with respect, empathy, and support 

seek to feel purposeful, prolific, and engaged with others. 

People have called me intelligent, articulate, and passionate.

I do not consume alcohol, tobacco, or street drugs.

On the keto diet with a few modifications 

Most of my protein is from pasture-raised eggs.

I include 3 raw eggs in my smoothie most days.

I minimize sugar and carbs, so no bread, cookies, or cake and do not miss them.

Using intermediate fasting, so I eat during an 8-hour window daily.

When dining out I enjoy eating healthy, hearty, home-cooked, and country-style meals.

I enjoy taking a walk most evenings.

I journal many times a week.

I am continually improving my prayer and meditation habits. 

I frequently pray to think clearly, choose wisely, and be grateful. 

Zealously committed Christian that has been seeking ministry for decades.

I have been a member of local churches from various denominations.

I have felt deeply frustrated with the gap between what they say and what they do.

I believe God has called me to pioneer a new kind of ministry I will describe later.

I have known many difficulties, hardships, and challenges.

During my college years, I abused alcohol and drugs.

I was in a church-based rehab for 18 months. 

I have been involved in various 12 step recovery programs that greatly helped me.

I have attended hundreds of 12 step recovery meetings.

I worked the 12 steps several times in various programs.
Those included Al-Anon, Codependents Anonymous, and Celebrate Recovery.
Currently, I attend conference calls for Workaholics Anonymous. 

I am online most of my waking hours.

I take a few online courses each year.

I enjoy writing and I write a few dozen pages each week.
Those are shared on emails, social media, and blogs.

My strengths include researching, writing, planning, and designing educational systems

My three main passions are education, missions, and media.

I am living to leave a lasting legacy of leaders, lessons, and libraries.

My long term goal is to launch and lead an innovative educational nonprofit organization.

Apolitical – I have been disappointed repeatedly by broken campaign promises. 

Fiercely independent in my thinking.

Yet I welcome various inputs and feedback to improve my thinking.

Enneagram Type 1 

INFJ on Myers Briggs 

Strengths Finder results are Futuristic, Learner, Intellection, Responsibility, Connectedness

At my core, I perceive life as an idealist with ultra-high standards for myself and society.

I aim high and plan to achieve great things.

But I have failed to persistently implement many of my grand plans.

So that has forced me to get real with myself and gradually make needed changes in me.

Those changes have various practical steps but all this serves my ideal values.  

I tend to resonate best with missionaries, international students, and church planters.

Health-conscious without being too whacked out about this.

I take several nutritional supplements daily. 

I am grateful for pharmaceutical medicines and surgery, as a last, and not first resort.

I am inclined to favor chiropractic adjustments, therapeutic massages, and detoxing.

I am currently learning about the importance of working with crystals and sounds.

I have begun to spend time before I go to bed at my art table.

There as a beginner I am learning Zengangles, sketchnotes, calligraphy, and drawing.

One of my few recreations is watching videos online at Netflix, Youtube, and Prime.

Movies I like are biography, documentary, nature, science fiction, and historical drama.

Recovery Slogans to Ponder and Spark Your Journaling

I have read and said millions of words over the decades. Yet these relatively few words got deep inside my soul at the times and ways that transformed my life.

I offer them in order of importance to me.

• 1
• Keep it simple
• First Things First
• Live and Let Live
• Let go and let God
• One day at a time
• 2
• Progress, not perfection
• HALT = don't get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
• Principles before personalities
• 3
• This too will pass
• We are only as sick as our secrets
• Cultivate an attitude of gratitude 
• I was sick and tired of being sick and tired

Feeling Less Depressed - THANK God

By the grace of God, I am feeling MUCH better.

God has been answering the prayers of many people. 

I am grateful for your support. 

After many days of overcast skies, the sun came out today in the Dallas area. I went for a long walk to bask in the bright sunshine and sat in a porch swing to enjoy more sun.

Lately, my prayers have included MANY more expressions of thanksgiving.

Thankfully, my headaches are GONE.

PROMPTS

Soon after I sent out the recent prayer request I was taking my daily walk. I have always asked God for wisdom and I have asked others to pray for God to grant me wisdom. See James 1: 5 and Proverbs 2, 3 and 4.

During that walk, I felt inspired to notice all the things that are blocking my life. I put those on keywords on index cards. Then I put those cards face up on the dresser so that I see them daily. I have used those cards to remind me to briefly pray over them.  Mostly these are things I have been procrastination about for far too long. 

Please pray for me to make faith-filled prayers as often as needed until these stuck items move and are no longer obstacles. 

JOURNAL

Shortly after I sent out the urgent prayer request earlier I got out a new single subject spiral notebook and Palomino Blackwing pencil. I dumped out all my thoughts and feelings. I kept writing no matter what came up. 

When disturbing thought would occur to me away from the journal I quickly went back to writing in it. I put the dark thought at the top of a new page and asked myself why I felt that way. I kept peeling that onion. 

Gradually the pain behind that impulse dissolved.  The writing was full of uck expressed in different ways. It rarely repeated. Doing that was like taking medicine for sickness. I am ready to continue but the drive to dig into those places has decreased.

MEDITATION

I know that most Christians are not keen on meditation. Yet both prayer and meditation are highly recommended in the 12 step recovery program meetings I have attended. Just stopping to observe the breath can help to calm the mind and emotions. What works for me is to breathe slowly and count my breaths from 1 to 10 and start again counting from 1 to 10. I have done that many times this week and used the recorded guided meditations. 

DRAW

I have not yet begun the Draw-a-Box https://drawabox.com/ lessons. I feel intimidated after scanning the lessons. I believe it will be a great way for me to finally understand and apply the fundamentals of drawing in the long term.

God reminded me of much simpler drawing related books I own. 

Art of Business Communications by Graham Shaw teaches how to make super simple drawings to illustrate business messages. I LOVE to write and when I can include related drawings I made then they would be easier to understand and more appealing. 

Zentangle 1 by Suzanne McNeil is a super simple workbook. I have started and stopped using it many times. A Zentangle is a kid of a doodle on a small unit of paper. There are lots of Youtube videos and websites that offer lessons. But what I have found with those and all other drawing instructions they LEAP from beginner to intermediate and advanced lessons. I need the SIMPLEST lessons that GRADUALLY progress. 

Please pray for me to both begin and continue with any or all these. I put on my calendar to draw on Saturdays. But mostly I have ignored my own guidance. 

NEWS

I have struggled to decrease my news intake. 

Mostly I want to know realistically what are the long term risks of the coronavirus for me, my senior citizen neighbors, and others.

Note that there are about 74 neighbors here in the small apartment complex for seniors. Many of them cannot even walk to the dumpster to take out their trash. So the maintenance man picks it up at their front door on Monday and Thursday mornings.  They could not sit down on the floor or in a bathtub to get up again. They use the walkers with wheels. Many cannot drive. ALL of them watch TV. It is on CONSTANTLY all day and all night. Imagine what it is like for them to get news updates about the coronavirus. 

Please pray for my neighbors and other seniors. Pray for their mental and emotional health amidst all the uncertainty. Most of them are isolated. Family members might make rare contacts. Many of their long term friends may be dead or infirm. A few of them play BINGO weekly and attend the monthly pot luck lunches. 

I know many of them personally. I want to be of service to my neighbors. That service might be to pass along simple and wise recommendations IF the coronavirus reaches our small town. 

TIME

My creative imagination can come up with dozens of appealing projects and hundreds of tiny tasks. So I have been constantly studying time management and productivity. I have used lots of different time management tools. 

Long ago I read the classic time-management book by David Allen titled Getting Things Done https://gettingthingsdone.com/ Here is an infographic that is a summary of the book that has helped many thousands of people https://ideas2followup.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/gtd-workflow.jpg

There are many videos by David Allen about Getting Things Done by others on Youtube.

One part of the system that has helped me the most is to quickly capture new ideas and put them into a system that you trust. So I carry paper and a pen with me all the time. I jot down my fresh ideas. Then I put them on Kanbanflow www.kanbanflow.com where I organize my short term ToDo tasks. These include appointments, purchases, emails, reminders, etc. And for the longer term and Bigi Picture projects, I use Mindmup www.mindmup.com which is an online mind mapping service. 

What David teaches and I have experienced is by doing this I have greater peace of mind. So my brain is not always working to remind me because it knows there is an external record. 

There are so many items online that I use a way to prioritize them. In some areas, I use NOW, NEXT, SOON, LATER and DONE. In other areas, I use High, Medium, and Low priority. 

This has worked well for me for may years. BUT thanks to answered prayers I noticed that this had become far too cluttered. There were lots of duplicates and outdated items. 

I have felt led to review and prune these tools. So it has been like cleaning out a junk drawer, overstuffed closet, and jumbled garage storage area. 

I recall in the old days I had heaps of printed materials in manila file folders. Then every 1 to 3 years I needed to purge and reorder them. 

Just like in the old days this has often felt tedious. But at the end of the day, it was refreshing to look back on nicely ordered areas that had been chaotic. 

This is not busywork. It relates to my recent times of depression. My ToDo lists and projects were far too disorganized. I felt overwhelmed and conflicted. So after some effort, I would quit hide out in some escape activity. 

Little by little, I am getting clarity about both what I need to work on in the short term and how that will contribute to the long terms goals. Please pray for me to have the concentration and strength to complete this digital housecleaning. 

GOALS

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I like to take several days to reflect and genuinely thank God for my recent and past blessings. 

My second most favorite holiday is New Years. I like to look back on the previous year and forward to the coming year. 

On the one hand, New Years Resolutions have been fruitless for me. I seek to change far too much that never becomes a reality. Yet, on the other hand, I have been using a different approach that others advocate. I pick One Word for the year as a core focus. My One Word for 2020 is FOUNDATIONAL. I intend to focus on doing what it takes to lay a good foundation for my growth and development the future years. 

Several of the teachers I follow on Youtube gave guidelines to orient and prepare for 2020. Some of them emphasized thinking super long term like aspirations for the coming decade due to the change from 2019 to 2020. So many of those inspirations cluttered up my online mind maps. 

Those distant horizon ideas for the coming years serve to inspire and motivate me. But I need to keep them in perspective. Then what I concentrate on thee days will lead to those desirable outcomes. 

VISION

What I feel called by God to do for the next 10 years is just like how I have felt led for the last 20 years. I see myself as an educator and a teacher. 

The notes in my files point to launching and leading an innovative educational enterprise. There I will be one of many teachers. 

It will harness the communication tool and methods used in business and apply those for missional purposes. The target market is still international college students studying in the USA. It will be like the Continuing Education departments of colleges. There will be Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits awarded and certificates. 

Unlike most educational institutions the departments will focus on non-traditional core areas like time management, talent management, academic skills, essentials of Christianity, adulting (basic life skills for young adults), singleness, marriage, and parenting. These are the kinds of lessons that young adults need yet they are rarely taught in a systematic way. 

COURSE and COMMUNITY 

I have been limping along for many years based on what I learned from various teachers online and books. What I have is a patchwork that is better than nothing but very imbalances. 

After many prayed for me I noticed a new online course that is by a teacher I respect and at a price I can afford. Brian Johnson for Optimize https://www.optimize.me/ has begun a new 10-month online mastery course. For only 12.99 a month I have access to the new lessons as they roll out. Plus there is the archive of previous courses. 

And unlike a book, there is an active online community that discusses the lessons. 

What makes Brian Johnson unique is that he has been reading and giving a summary of hundreds of books online for years https://www.youtube.com/user/PhilosophersNotes/playlists 

This course is his way to weave together all he has learned for the last 20 years. This video gives an overview of the course  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoDDsrKUAHo 

I have put taking this online course on my list of projects as a top priority. This aligns with my One Word of FOUNDATIONAL. As I learn and apply the lessons it will pave the way to consistently progress in the future.

You are invited to take the course too. And if you do let me know.

Please pray that I make time to both hear the lessons and do the exercises. Plus what will help me as much or more is engaging with fellow students online. 

CONCLUSION

Studies show that many men die soon after they retire. When there is no meaningful long term pursuit that is linked to short term activities then laziness can set in. Mental, emotional, and physical health can decline. Most of my neighbors are widows because their husbands died long ago. 

The good news is that I can sleep as long as I like and most days that includes a nap. 

I do not need to deal with cranky customers or office politics. 

I do not need to cope with commuting to and from work.

All of those parts are great. 

I have been in Ennis for two and a half years. 

I have dabbled with many projects. 

I have written and shared many units. But they were not part of a long term strategy. 

It is time for me to take responsibility to do what it takes to obey what I believe God has been calling me to do for decades. 

The people who are taking the Optimize mastery course are ready, willing, and able to make radical changes in their lives. They know it will not be easy but it will be worth it in the long term.

I appreciate your prayers. 

I trust that God answers prayers in His way and in His time.

I am grateful that you have read this long message. I wish it was shorter but there are many complicated and inner connected matters in my life. 

Even the act of writing this and the previous message was therapeutic. Always writing means I must translate my various thoughts and feelings into words that make sense. 

Shalom

John 

My Disappointments Fueled My Depression

I had become so overcome by the news that I became emotionally paralyzed. 

God answered many prayers and that helped to relieve the symptoms. The Lord led me to talk with various people about how they were dealing with the news about the coronavirus. That gave me a broader and more peaceful perspective. 

There was more besides my fears about that virus harming me or my neighbors who are senior citizens. 

I have felt deeply disappointed in my lack of progress on the many projects I have started and not completed. 

I have felt disappointed that political leaders talk like adolescents. They do not talk and act like the wise elders we need these days. They are not leading us to bridge the many polarizing gaps. They are not facing the hard truths needed to deal with the issues at hand. 

I have felt disappointed that the local churches and most Christians are not obviously salt and light that is required to heal individuals and groups. Christians are known by the outside world for their self-righteousness and not their compassionate care. Thankfully there are some individuals, mission agencies, and parachurch organizations that are clearly Christ-like and getting the biblically mandated jobs done. 

When I objectively review the current state of our nation and the international affairs I feel bad about the next generations. What legacy are we leaving for the children and grandchildren? 

We have all these gee-whiz new technologies. We have all these labor-saving devices, We have all this prosperity so that all our real needs are met and we worry about meeting all our wants. Yet are we so distracted, entertained, over-worked, selfish that we do not notice or care for others? 

We have plenty of news and documentaries about those that cannot help themselves. We give plastic toys that are costly and wear out to children. Yet veterans with PTSD are left to suffer from nightmares when there are proven therapies that are not affordable to them. We click on news headlines about those children at the borders and get outraged. But we do not take great care of battered women and children that are here in our cities. We whine about the weather, taxes, and celerity gossip but do not take measures to get enough sleep, eat healthy foods, and exercise better. 

We could take a little of our blessings to greatly benefit others overseas so that they can have clean water, learn to read, gain a marketable skill, have initial livestock to raise and feed their family. 

I admit that I am an idealist. I find myself in a real-world that is far from ideal. I accept that perfection is not possible. But when I consider history I note that humans for thousands of years before us struggled in ways we cannot imagine just to survive from day-to-day. We are a spoiled people in the USA. I believe we have an obligation to our ancestors that sacrificed for us to do the best with what we have and not just accept mediocracy. 

SERENITY

So the bottom line is that I come back to the Serenity Prayer. 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and wisdom to know the difference. 

I cannot change how the coronavirus operates. I cannot change the hyped ways it has been reported. 

I cannot change the economic ripples of the disruptions of the supply chain worldwide. 

I can change the ways I deal with my fears and anxieties. I can take precautions to minimize my exposure to this or any illness. I can trust God to meet my needs no matter what happens to the global economy. 

I cannot change the ingrained habits and attitudes of others including my neighbors, church members, fellow citizens, or those thousands of miles away. I can change my own habits and attitudes gradually. 

SLOGANS 

Besides the Serenity Prayer, what has helped me has been to recall and apply the slogans I learned at the 12 step recovery meetings over the decades. 

FIRST THINGS FIRST reminds me to be diligent in reviewing my priorities. I make major and minor adjustments to my priorities each day and week. I use these online tools Kanbanflow www.kanbanflow.com and Mindmup www.mindmup.com I do my best to just focus on the top priorities and trust God for what does not get done. 

EASY DOES IT reminds me to be gentle with myself. It is easy to try to accomplish all the items on my ToDo lists. But that is not possible so I choose to relax and do as much as I can at a gentle pace. 

ONE DAY AT A TIME reminds me to focus the best of my energy on this present day. I can do that best when I have also invested some time to review and review my priorities. I have made it a habit to use part of Mondays to prune my plans for the week and take care of lingering tasks from the past.