Leaning Toward Wisdom

As we close out the final day of 2025, it seems fitting to engage in two of my favorite activities: reflection and anticipation.

Links:

My other shows are GrowGreat.com (a city government leadership show) and HotSpringsVillageInsideOut.com (a show about retiring, living, and thriving inside Hot Springs Village, Arkansas).

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Happy New Year!

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Today’s topic has preoccupied (and occupied) my thoughts for decades. Boys. Girls. Men. Women. Our differences. Our wants, needs and desires. Those things we crave most. From one another, as husbands and wives. Our duties and opportunities to serve each other. To make a difference for this person we love most.

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Once we were young.

Now, we’re old. Okay, older.

Being older is good. Often, it’s great!

She was always gorgeous. I was always smitten. Madly in love.

The love affair began on Wednesday night, July 2, 1975. During a church camp meeting in Oklahoma. I asked her out on a date following church services that night. She said yes.

That orange car in the picture was our chariot. We drove around a bit. Talked a lot. Probably went to a Dairy Queen for soft drinks. I can...

Let’s discuss some important words:

Regrets
Wondering
Wholesome
Sacrifice
Restraint
Self-Control
Struggle
Discipline

They all can help us understand and practice wholesomeness.

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Show notes? Nah. You don’t need ’em. Not for this episode.

Enjoy!

Randy

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Today’s episode is about something we’ve all experienced, often without realizing it at the time: not knowing you’re in trouble.

Not because you didn’t see the warning signs—but because you couldn’t, or maybe you wouldn’t. Pride, foolishness, selfishness—they can all blind us. And sometimes, the most dangerous trouble is the kind we don’t know we’re in.

Important link: Let The Bible Speak YouTube Channel

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Your Story Is Their Inheritance

Why documenting your life may be the most powerful gift you leave behind

“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” – African proverb

We spend our lives accumulating experiences, lessons, values, and insights — but how much of it do we pass on? Not the stuff — the stories. The moments. The decisions. The wisdom.

Your story is your legacy. And your family needs it more than you think.

Why Your Story Matters

We all come from a long line of sto...

Are you overwhelmed, overloaded, and constantly feeling behind? You’re not alone. Let’s explore the anxiety that comes from having too many responsibilities, too many projects, and too little clarity. Okay, more precisely, I’ll share with you my recurring sense of overwhelm in hopes it can help you with yours.

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I know, I’ve been a dog on a bone with this. Some might say, “You’re beating a dead horse!” Maybe. And maybe that’s the method to my madness in the past few episodes.

Do you know about the dead horse theory?

It’s had a long-standing place in management lore. It goes like this, according to the Internet.

The “Dead Horse Theory” is a satirical metaphor that illustrates how some individuals, institutions, or nations handle obvious, unsolvable problems. Instead of accepting reality, they cling to justifying their actions.

The core i...

No notes today. No excuse. I’m just lazy today.

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When we learn that our behavior and choices belong entirely to us and are independent of what others do, it’s the road less traveled to becoming a better person. Rare are the people who have made up their minds to behave like that, likely because it demands a willingness to suffer wrong and move on to do what’s right. No matter what.

Self-discipline is at the heart of enduring suffering, sacrificing, exercising grace and gratitude. All hard things!

Easier things are becoming bitter, harboring resentment, and embracing a victim mentality. Hatred. Retri...

A few weeks ago, Megan Moroney was on The Bobby Bones Show. She’s an emerging country music star touring with Kenny Chesney. I only know that because I’ve seen snippets of their shows on social media. Not knowing who she is or anything about her, I trolled through a short clip of Bobby Bones’s interview with her. During the interview, Bobby asked her a question that prompted an answer we can all relate to, but here’s a young lady who seems to be breaking through country music in a BIG way. But that’s hardly th...

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:

•

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 art...

“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 countl...

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...

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…

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 w...

“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 Terr...

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 beg...

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. A...

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...

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...

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 a...

More specifically maybe…false assumptions about my (our) retirement…

Happy Father’s Day 2024!

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...

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...

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 happe...

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...

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.

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 appro...