Leaning Toward Wisdom

Thanks for watching. If you choose to listen, thanks for that, too. Other than that, I’ve got nothing. The show speaks for itself. But here are the links I mentioned (and promised to share): LetTheBibleSpeak.tv
https://hotspringsvillageinsideout.com/a-champion-bull-rider-who-loves-to-cut-hair/

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I apologize for being absent lately. Let me explain.

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He asks me, “How do you measure success?”

I have questions before I answer.

“Success in what?”

“Sales success is easy to measure. Serenity, not so much.”

Turns out he was focused on how I viewed MY success in general.

Part of the challenge of measuring or defining success is the common disease of comparisonitis.

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It doesn’t mean you’re to blame. It means you accept responsibility for yourself—for your choices, decisions, behavior, reactions, feelings—and all the rest. I’ve yet to discover a downside.

Mentioned in today’s show:

VIA Survey

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All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things by Robert Fulghum was published in 1986. It was quite the rage because it was filled with commonsense life maxims. I read it and appreciated the author’s point that even children can (and should) learn how to behave toward others.

We are almost 40 years later, and it seems like a prehistoric work of fiction. When I purchased this book, I had yet to turn 30. I had two small children and a wife I’d been married to for about nine years. Back then...

I posted this on social media a few days ago.

It’s easy to desire improvement, but it’s hard to change our habits to bring about improvement.

Each year begins with the hope that 2025 will be better than 2024. Maybe it will. Maybe not.

Our habits are going to determine it.

These 2 sentences are true. Life bears witness to their validity.

Links mentioned in today’s show:

• In Thy Paths, a YouTube playlist of sermons
•

Happy New Year, 2025!

In the fall of 1997, I uploaded my first audio under the tagline “Leaning Toward Wisdom.” It was my documentary, the journey of a 40-year-old dad desiring to pass along whatever lessons I might. Twenty-seven years later, I’m still unsure how successful the quest has been to lean more toward wisdom and away from foolishness. But life ain’t over yet, so let the leaning (and learning) continue.

Thank you for joining the journey. I hope it benefits you.

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It started with a voicemail from a client. His message said, “I’ve got a situation – a problem. I could use your advice. Call me back.”

The problem? A relationship. A couple of relationships. At some point during my questioning him, for my understanding, he stopped and said, “What I thought was the problem may not be the problem. Guess I’d better make sure I’m solving the right problem, huh?”

That’s solid insight – especially when it’s a relationship problem.

During the holiday season, relationships are often strained. It might be a good time...

“My ambition didn’t allow me to fail,” said Jack Barsky, an ex-KGB spy who was a sleeper agent in the United States.

Barsky was quite successful in avoiding detection. Until he was, then no amount of ambition would prevent authorities from moving in. He stayed around his smart spots for years, navigating North American culture to spy for the Soviet Union and his faith in communism.

Barsky might argue that over time, he learned how corrupt and wretched communism was – and how he had been brainwashed to think the pursuit of Utopia...

https://randycantrell.com/inside-the-yellow-studio/

The link above is a comprehensive list of the gear inside The Yellow Studio. Assume every link is an affiliate link.

Ironically, I chose to make this an audio, not a video. Yes, that was intentional. I hope you’ll click PLAY.

It started in 1997. This podcast. It was a handheld Olympus digital recorder. No SD card. Just built-in memory. It was less than $100 and I’d been using it for a while to dictate work notes and ideas.

Audio was easy. And cheap.

Well, reco...

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm—but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. - a line in the T.S. Elliot play, The Cocktail Party It's another episode of Free Form Friday for October 11, 2024. Enjoy. Links: Hot Springs Village Inside Out, the podcast - HotSpringsVillageInsideOut.com  Barry Switzer article at EPSN Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join...

“It's a bizarre but wonderful feeling, to arrive dead center of a target you didn't even know you were aiming for.” ― Lois McMaster Bujold Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.   --- Lawrence Block Travel light and trust in serendipity.  --- Mike Brown Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one defini...

John Newton said, “I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be. I am not the man I hope to be. But by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be”. He was a slavery abolitionist who had once been a slave trader. Perhaps that context provoked his statement. I can't fully relate to the first 3 statements in the quote... I'm not the man I ought to be. I'm not the man I wish to be. I'm not the man I hope to be. Not because I'm per...

I learned early in sports that to be effective - for a player to play the best he can play - is a matter of concentration and being unaware of distractions, positive or negative.    -Tom Landry Distractions destroy... Creativity Productivity Efficiency Accomplishment Love Contentment Relationships SUCCESS HIGHER ACHIEVEMENT Distractions embraced equals selfishness. Colossal selfishness. Because it's pride that drives us to distraction. Past beliefs about yourself won’t carry you into the future. Side hustles became a phrase and thing over 70 years ago, but I suppose there's always been moonlighting. That is, going to work, getting off work, then going to a...

"It's amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces." -Ella Harper Mutually desired relationships are likely going to include some heartbreak. I've had my heart broken. I'm certain I've broken a heart, too. Not like you're thinking - I'm hardly a heartbreaker! But I do have the ability, like all of us, to hurt or injure somebody I care about. Sometimes the heartbreak is because of loss. Like when I lost Rocky and Rosie to old age. These two White West Highland Terriers were fixtures in our lives for the...

H is for home. Since last year, for the first time in our lives, we have split our time between two homes, both starting with "H." Hurst, Texas, and Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. But last night we spent a night in another "H" home - Holiday Inn Express in Hurst, Texas. Yes, we had a good reason. When you're having knee surgery and your bedroom is upstairs...you improvise. That meant finding a local hotel for at least one night to avoid the staircase. Enter Holiday Inn Express at 820 Thousand Oaks Drive, Hurst, Texas - mere miles away. It all...

Let's define "partner" broadly. It could be a spouse, a business associate, a legal partnership, an informal collaboration, a co-worker, or something else. In short, it's a joint venture of some sort. You get to define it the way that best suits you. My first partnerships were likely being a sibling to my sister who is 6 years older. We may have been too far apart in age to be a real partnership, but aren't all kids with brothers and sisters partners in some sense? I watch my grandkids and it seems not much has changed. As children, we had to...

It starts with an innocuous request, but you notice it's not a request as much as information --- or a subtle command. The person on the other end of the phone is telling you what they're going to do. The problem is that it involves having you do something for them. Something you never agreed to, and something that is an imposition. Worse yet, it's not a close family member. We're mostly ready, willing, and sometimes able to serve our immediate family members with requests that seem otherwise loaded with gall. ;) Not so this time. This is a friend. I...

Well, it's not true that how you do anything is how you do everything, but still I'm rather fond of the concept because it works. For instance, do you step over things that need to be picked up? I don't mean snotty tissues or other debris that might be a campground for all kinds of filth. Say you're out walking on a trail and you see a discarded soda can. Do you pick it up or leave it? Some would pick it up and others wouldn't. There's also a 3rd group - those who don't see it. Or don't care. ...

Bariatric surgeries have increased over 500% since 1998. Bariatric surgeries have exploded (that might not be the proper verb) in recent years. Part of the reason is the improved technologies to make it "minimally invasive," but I think it's primarily because people want a fast, easy fix. And now add a new found popularity of drugs like Ozempic ® making weight-loss even easier. Everybody wants fast and easy. Nobody prefers slow and hard. But there are some things where slow and hard provide a value not found in fast and easy. After a round of NFL playoffs games as the 2023/2024 season was winding d...

More specifically maybe...false assumptions about my (our) retirement... That you must have at least a million dollars to retire. That you really need three million dollars to retire with security. That you should delay collecting Social Security until at least 65, and preferably until 70. That you should travel. That you should do all the things you've always wanted to do, but never got around to. That you'll struggle with a sense of purpose. That you may struggle with boredom if you're not careful. That it will cost you much more than you figured. That it's important to have (and pursue...

Happy Father's Day 2024! My dad enjoying the sunshine The what was crystal clear. The how was no where in sight. Casey Neistat is the OG of YouTube, vlogging and social media creation. He's associated with New York, but it wasn't always so. Casey set his sights on NYC knowing he wanted to make it there. Without any idea or plan on how to do it. But he'd grown up hanging on by a thread so he was comfortable. Casey had two qualities that drove him, gratitude and optimism. A little boy with absentee parents. No restraints. No security. Hanging on...

Kenneth Aronoff is a drummer for John Mellencamp. He's also part of a documentary, The Untold Stories Of Your Favorite Musicians. He talks about the early days with Mellencamp when he was asked to come up with a drum solo of sorts for a new song, Jack & Diane. When I first heard him say it my mind went into a few different directions. One, being good under pressure. Not everybody is. How can we improve that skill? Two, being good on your feet. That is, being able to figure it out in real-time, with the clock ticking. Again, how can...

On Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom YouTube show with Tim Kennedy, a Special Forces master sergeant and author, Kennedy was recounting the extensive training of special forces. In the fog of war there is no time to think when bullets start flying. It's all reaction. He details the many micro movements of firing a weapon during a fire fight, emptying the weapon and reloading - all within seconds. It's not a strategic - "I now need to do this" - kind of thing. It's something you've practiced tens of thousands of times. So much that when the moment comes, it just...

Note: The picture in the featured image is my 100-year-old dad holding my 92-year-old mother's hand as she lay dying. She passed from this life on April 4, 2024. They were married for 73 years, a testimony to the power of companionship. Companion / Companionship a person or animal with whom one spends a lot of time a feeling of fellowship or friendship Do you want to be alone with yourself? And if not, then why do you think anybody else would ever want to be around you? What is it about you that might be off-putting? Or unsafe? Let's begin with a word...

In 1982 I stood in front of a group of employees of the retail company I was running to tell them, "Who would have thought we'd reach a time when saying "please" and "thank you," "sir" and "ma'am" would be a competitive edge?" That was then. This is now. Superior customer service is rare. That means the opportunities are extraordinary! Seize the day. Abel seized the day. Here's his story, as posted on my Facebook profile. Abel with Schlotzsky’s in Grapevine, Texas Schlotzsky's Grand Prairie, Texas Is Today's Customer Service HORROR Story (Small Hill Drive location) Rhonda placed an order vi...

Sloping seems more gentle than stumbling. And graceful. But when it comes to growing older it can be inaccurate. We don't slope toward a face plant. We stumble. We fall. Face-first into the ground. "Everywhere I look I see opportunities," I said. The conversation was about how we see the world and our place. Me? I have lived life trying to take various hills. Then quickly seeking out a new hill to take. Sometimes the hill is simply making it better. Always making it better - or trying to - is the curse of my mind. As I approach the...

February 1974, Baton Rouge. Near the entrance to Louisiana State University. A record store, my favorite hang out. Leisure Landing. I enter the store and a record is playing. It's alt-country. Weird. Because the guy's name is Ian Matthews. Ian isn't a southern United States name. I grab the album cover and begin to read the back. Two players who I already admire are on this record. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Steely Dan fame and David Lindley of Jackson Browne fame. I love both of these guys. I'm enjoying this record. Ian is an Englishman playing alternative country, folksy tunes. Some...

"The only way to learn how many plates you can spin is to break some plates. The question of capacity guarantees failure."        - T.S. Elliot He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.  - Jim Elliot (no relation to T.S. that I'm aware of) I'm not a plate-spinner. I am able to multi-task, but it's not actually multi-tasking at all. It's really intense focus on a single thing with enough speed to get a number of things accomplished over a short period. That makes it look like multi-tasking. Themes of the we...

Galatians 6:7-9 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Show High-Lights Anybody can do easy. It requires resolve and grit to do difficult things. It requires skill, talent and solid determination to learn to do hard things well. We're the constraint. The value is...

About 15 years into my podcasting journey I recorded an episode entitled, A Virtual Tour Of My Podcasting Studio. I published it 9 years ago today, January 25, 2015. In 2019 I published an update, Welcome Inside The Yellow Studio (This Is How I Podcast Now). Since then I've tried to keep a page on my personal website updated - Inside The Yellow Studio. The technology has changed monumentally since I began almost 24 years ago. Things have gotten so much easier - and so much more refined. As much as I enjoyed those early years when all of us were figuring it out, today is...

Shameless An adjective meaning insensible to disgrace Retirement A noun meaning a withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from active working life or the age at which one normally retires The United States adopted an initial retirement age of 65 with the Social Security Act of 1935. By the mid-20th century, almost all countries had adopted a retirement age of between 60-65. About 40% of Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits as their exclusive income. The average benefit is just over $1700 monthly. Financial advice is varied, but advisors widely suggest no more than 70% of your retirement income should come from Social...

Sorry. My usual show notes don't exist. And I was too lazy this time of year to write them. But I do have a couple of calls to action. One, join us over in the Facebook group if you care. I'd love to have you in the group. Two, support my efforts to lean hard into video in 2024. My goal is to crowd-fund $1000. I'm about 50% there so it's coming along. But you can help me out if you'd like (see below). Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me Help Me Reach My $1,000 Goal I pl...

I appreciate you all very much. Thank you. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me Help Me Reach My $1,000 Goal I plan to start vlogging from Hot Springs Village, Arkansas because the place is spectacular. The scenery will make for a great backdrop. Plus, there are many places I'd like you to see. To help, click the link (or the image below) to donate Sweetwater Gift Certificates (use RandyCantrell@gmail.com). Thank you!

The Reality Distortion Field. Guy "Bud" Tribble was Vice President of Software Technology at Apple Inc. As Apple was developing the first Macintosh computer in 1981, Bud used the term to describe Apple's founder Steve Jobs. The term seems to have originated in a 1966 episode of Star Trek when it was used to describe how the aliens encountered by the crew of the starship Enterprise created their own new world through mental force. It seems the great thinkers who are doers, like Steve Jobs, embrace (and enjoy) living in the reality distortion field of their own making. That is, they see...

There's a Chinese proverb that declares owning two houses is a path toward madness. That's probably true, but I wouldn't know. I've never owned two houses 'cause I've never been part of the rich and famous. ;) I'm practical. And I'm not rich by American standards, but I'm extremely wealthy by global standards (and by my own measurements). I'm content with my life and grateful for every blessing - most of them are priceless any way! From my practical viewpoint I've never quite understood folks who maintain multiple houses. Even the super rich. The exceptions are those folks who spend a...

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with. —Mark Twain Rhonda and I went on our first date on July 2, 1975. On January 2, 1978 we were married. This coming January 2, 2024 will mark our 46th anniversary. Today, let's talk about marriage. More accurately, let's just dip our toe in the water of conversation about marriage. Enjoy this old Vince Gill song about old love. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me Help Me Reach My $1,000 Goal I plan to start vlogging from Hot Springs Village, Arkansas because the place is spe...

So we can take full advantage of what they know. Their insights, experience and wisdom need to be more easily passed on. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me Help Me Reach My $1,000 Goal I plan to start vlogging from Hot Springs Village, Arkansas because the place is spectacular. The scenery will make for a great backdrop. Plus, there are many places I'd like you to see. To help, click the link (or the image below) to donate Sweetwater Gift Certificates (use RandyCantrell@gmail.com). Thank you!

Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place, then come down and shoot the survivors.   -Ernest Hemingway I was 11 when I learned how men will clamor for power and authority. Sitting along side my father I watched men wrangle, argue and get worked up. Cooperation was absent. Collaboration wasn’t even an afterthought. The only objective was, "Who is in charge?" And it was apparent to me that more than more man wanted the role. Hence, the wrangling. Life rolled on and as a young teenager working in a stereo store I saw more of the pecking orde...

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.      - Thomas A. Edison Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me Help Me Reach My $1,000 Goal I plan to start vlogging from Hot Springs Village, Arkansas because the place is spectacular. The scenery will make for a great backdrop. Plus, there are many places I'd like you to see. To help, click the link (or the image below) to donate Sweetwater Gift Certificates (use RandyCantrell@gmail.com). Thank you!