Live & Be Free

Most of us spend much of our life looking around for what our purpose for being on this planet may be.  We are so busy going through the motions of daily life we frequently just ignore the fact that we are here for a reason.

How do I know we are here for a reason?  Each human is unique.  No two of us are exactly the same.  I don’t believe that life is the result of random events.  So that implies there is a force beyond humans.  Many of us call that force “God,” but the name is not really important.  The important point is that there is something beyond us.

If there is something beyond us, what are the limitations of that something?  Does the something direct the daily activities of each of us, making us into veritable robots?  Or does the something allow people to direct their own path and find their own way?  Interestingly enough, the latter is much more difficult to pull off because we all know it is much easier to direct the actions of others with the certainty that it will be completed as opposed to allowing another to control the outcome.

I believe that God has allowed us the freedom to choose our destiny.  Since we have this ability, finding a purpose gives us a direction to follow.  We can only see so far from where we are currently standing.  I have lived in Northern Virginia for many years.  As you drive west from Washington, first you can only see as far as the first range of the Blue Ridge.  But soon you reach the first ridge of mountains and can see the valley beyond.  If you go up on the ridge you can see much further than if you stay down in the pass.  Regardless, you future perspective is limited by your current position.

What happens when you do find your true purpose is that all of a sudden you find the passion required to proceed.  Dogged determination will get you to the intended endpoint out of sheer will power; but adding passion will allow you to get there more quickly and more directly.  You are able to put the blinders on and focus on the destination because all you see in the end point.  Obstacles are more easily dealt with when you have passion to fuel your progress.

Passion without a purpose will not reach a target – after all there is a target.  I know this all too well since I have spent much of my life wandering aimlessly without a true purpose or destination.  I was trudging along, reacting to things as they came along, sometimes with passion, sometimes with a great passion.  The end result was the same.  I was not tapped into my purpose and as a result I made little real progress in my life.

When you put Purpose and Passion together, you are able to generate the energy necessary to overcome the obstacles, roadblocks and burdens that come between you and your end goal.  And energy is what is required to have Power.  You will need Power on the days when the calls are tough, the prospects or clients or associates are unreasonable.  Power is an essential element that moves you from day to day, week to week, month to month.  Power will get you to your next end goal.

But you will also continue to find out that your end goal is really a way point to the next destination.  Life is a journey, not a destination.  There are many stops along the way.  As you continue to push your boundaries, climb past ridges, learn new things, you will see new and different things.  Some of these may impact your purpose, some may refine your passion, but it is “all good” as one of my coaches, Dr Charles Drake says.

by Jeff Ferguson

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How many different things can you think of to do before you PROSPECT TODAY?

How many times can you go through your To Do list and pick out the easy ones before you PICK UP THE PHONE AND MAKE YOUR CALLS?

How many times can you get psyched up to pick up the phone before you PICK UP THE PHONE?

I must admit that GETTING STARTED is the most difficult part of getting it DONE.

And as a result, my results are much less than I would like.

I heard this over the weekend:  An amateur practices until they can get it right, a professional practices until they cannot do it wrong.

Think about that.  How often do we just wing it, fail to practice or prepare, and then wonder why we don’t get the results others get? 

Do you see the hundreds of practice swings that Tiger Woods takes everyday and has been for most of his life?  No, we just see the magnificent results he gets as a result of all of that practice.

I listened to a Master Prospector, Dwayne Golden, last night for about 30 minutes talking to various prospects.  Guess what?  He was hung up on, told to “Go away and don’t call back,” and several of the ways of “no” we have all heard.  But at the end of the call, he was just as upbeat and positive as he was in the beginning. 

Why?  Because he was detached from the results.  He had done what he planned to do – make calls – and was satisfied with the results.  The fact that he had not been able to schedule a single interview was not his fault.  He had made the dials, talked with a few people and presented the information, and then waited for the other person to make the decision. 

Bottom Line:  There are people out there who are waiting to start in your enterprise.  Connect with them and present your information and wait for their decision.  But it all starts with the DIALING.

Jeff Ferguson

Jeff Ferguson is a Business Entrepreneur, who allows my purpose and vision to be the driving force behind my Entrepreneurial Calling. He is a success driven individual who is making a positive difference in the world.

In his past, Jeff served in the US Navy Submarine Force for 12 years and subsequently worked as a logisitics consultant for Naval Submarine Programs.  One day he realized this was not his purpose or his passion and he has now found them in serving others through network marketing and personal development.

Jeff am married, has three daughters, one son, one step-son, two daughters-in-law, two sons-in-law, four granddaughters and two grandsons. 

He and his wife, Linda Baccus, sold their house in the spring of 2008 and now travel about visiting friends and relatives (sometimes they are the same) as well as touring and working on the road.  The transportability of their business makes it all possible.

www.breakingoutofnormal.com

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My wife and I find it interesting that as we have entered the new phase of our life that a number of people have told us that “I wish I could do that,” or “I wish I had done that.”

Our “dream” is that we will tour North America in an RV so we can see the many areas we have not seen and revisit areas we have been to before.  We will visit with our many friends across the country and make many more friends along the way.

You will notice that I said “dream,” not “wish.”  And I said it intentionally.

A “wish” is something that rarely gets put into action.  You really don’t care to make the change that it would take to get there.

A “dream” on the other hand is something that will energize you to take action, to remove yourself from the status quo, and make the changes that will take you somewhere new.

Change is difficult – most are really quite satisfied with what they have.  If you are satisfied, you will remain just where you are.  And without change, you cannot get to a better place. 

Einstein said “The significant problems we have cannot be solved by the same level of thinking with which we created them.”  A couple things to note:

• All problems are not “significant problems” – what may appear to be significant may not be truly significant in the grand scheme of things.
• “We created” our problems – problems do not come from outside, they come from within.

Problems come about to teach us new things.  I will not go into where problems come from in this writing but you certainly cannot believe there are no problems. 

So back to teaching us new things, given the principle from Einstein above, you will continue to be stumped by a problem until you learn the new level of thinking required to solve the problem.  And we also know from experience that change is difficult, so solving problems can be difficult until such time as we are dissatisfied with our current results and are willing to change.  When the magnitude of the problem gets big enough, we will seek the change that will bring about a different solution to the problem.

Returning to “wishes” and “dreams.”  How are they connected to “change”?  Reaching your “dreams” will cause you problems in the form of obstacles:  considerations, fears and roadblocks. 

Considerations are things that are apparent and must be addressed.  They exist and there is a way to resolve them.  Finding the resolution is part of how we will change.  Think of all of the technology changes that have come about in our lifetime that make so many “dreams” come true.  The computer on my lap has more computing power than the one that filled an entire room at the college I attended forty years ago.

Fears do not exist.  We have all heard “False Expectations Appearing Real.”  We all have fears – they appear reasonable at the time and we may confuse them with considerations.  But they are not real.  The required change may just be to face up to the Fear and pass through to the other side.

Roadblocks will also come up and generally they will not be anticipated.  But you have to deal with them none the less.  Frequently there are lessons to be learned from roadblocks, and similar roadblocks may continue to arise to prove that we have learned the lesson

We will talk of these in the future as we think through getting your “wishes” to become your “dreams” and then to become your reality.

Jeff Ferguson

www.breakingoutofnormal.com

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Isn’t it amazing the way we fail to plan and then wonder why we get nowhere?

I have spent most of my 60 years just responding to situations that arise.  Now I am in the process of learning that I had it all backwards. 

If I truly visualize the future I want, and then take the action steps necessary to get there, I will get there.

I had a commanding office while I was in the Navy who told his wardroom officers that he selected each of his future assignments as he was getting to one.  That way he knew what he had to do to get ready for that assignment and he trusted that the system would put him in that place.  He had done this throughout his career and been successful throughout in getting the assignments he chose.  He told everyone who would listen where he was going long before the orders were cut to get him there.

And of the six commanding officers that I had in my career in submarines, he was the one whose ship I wanted to be on when we went into harm’s way!  He was a dynamic leader, but also very patient in teaching us how to improve. 

We are told in “The Secret” and in “Awakening” and by all personal development speakers that we create our own reality. 

That being the case, is it any wonder many of us create chaos since we perceive a chaos for our future.  The Law of Attraction, the Law of Harmonics, whatever name you want to give it all comes out to the same place:  you get what you focus on.  If you focus on disproving the Laws, you will.  If you focus on proving the Laws, you will.  Both of which prove the Laws.

The only way to change your circumstances is to take the small daily steps necessary to change.  Quantum leaps rarely occur (although they can); the more common occurrence is for things to change slowly, gradually and steadily.  And the latter changes will also be more permanent because a better foundation is laid.

So here you are – you have a choice to make.  You will continue to do the same things, going to the same job, meeting with the same friends, etc and you will get the same results that continue to make you dissatisfied with your life.

Or you will decide to make a change.  You will seek a new opportunity to develop yourself as a leader.  You will search out the company that has the products you can represent and provide you the compensation you are worth.  You will make small changes day by day as you grow, and learn the lessons from the obstacles that come your way (and you bet they will come or you are not changing).

To a better tomorrow for each of us.

Jeff – breakingoutofnormal.com

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You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught by Rogers & Hammerstein

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear

You’ve got to be taught from year to year

It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear

You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made

And people whose skin is a different shade

You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late

Before you are six or seven or eight

To hate all the people your relatives hate

You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be carefully taught

 This little ditty is located in the middle of Act II of South Pacific, caught between the lively “Happy Talk” and the reprises that wrap up the love stories, one in tragedy, one in happiness.    

It is really quite a social statement for the period just after World War II when these types of sentiment were awakening in our society.  Don’t forget that the military was still segregated – full integration did not occur until the Korean War. 

But I would like to concentrate on the first stanza and the first line of the second stanza because even in this day of social awareness, children are taught to “hate and fear” and “to be afraid.”  We may have changed the targets of the “hate and fear,” but we still teach it. Society is very good at controlling the individual.  And one of the tools used by society is “fear” to manifest control. 

We are taught to “fear” so many things in life and we then let the “fear” control our day to day activities. 

We are taught to “fear” failure to the point where we do not take the risks necessary to learn the lessons necessary to be a success. 

We are taught to “fear” rejection to the point where we are paralyzed at the thought of picking up the phone to talk with people who have asked for our assistance. 

We are taught to “fear” being different to the point that we are trapped in the mediocrity of everyone else. 

This reminds me of the story of the African tribe that had a canoe race every year.  But all the warriors were afraid to win because the winner would be killed.  This is how the elite get to be elite, they control the rest of us to the point that we are convinced we will be _______ (you fill in the blank because we all have different fears) if we should attempt to step ahead of the crowd. 

The problem here is then no one takes charge and the group is left to flounder around headless until a strong leader emerges who is willing to overlook the “fear” to set things straight.  Strong independence can be seen as a threat by the greater group.  The group uses all of its forces to control the individuals but some choose to ignore the control and step out despite the “fear.”   

This is not meant to imply that “fear” doesn’t really exist.  When the courageous are interviewed, they will never say they are without “fear,” it is more that “fear” has a different impact on them.  They use “fear” to direct their efforts, not prevent effort. 

The same is true for successful entrepreneurs, they are able to overcome the risk involved in their venture to achieve the results they are seeking. 

So how about you?  Can you overlook the “fear” you were taught and move on to the plan for the success?  Can you overcome the “fear” you were carefully taught and reach the goal you have set for yourself?

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You probably think watching golf on TV is boring, like “watching the grass grow” as my kids would say.

But I watched Tiger yesterday win the Arnold Palmer tournament and it was anything but boring. 

I listened to the commentary as he played the last hole.  The weather conditions were changing significantly as a front was passing through.  The wind shifted and blew harder than it had all day.

The announcers expected him to win - in spite of conditions that worsened by the minute.  There was a sense of awe and respect from those who were watching the event.

And then the putt went in and the emotion that erupted from all present was absolutely stunning.

Here was a man who had won more tournaments than the rest of the field put together and yet when it came down to it, he showed more emotion in making that final putt than you see from a weekend golfer when he makes his first hole in one.

Passion for his chosen field is what separates Tiger from all the rest, in this and every generation to this point. 

He is on a mission, and just like the NE Patriots, he is winning them one day at a time.  He has paid the price.  He is prepared. He does what it takes on a day-to-day basis.

What a model he can be to us all - make a decision, take the action, and ignore the “how” that always seems to get in our way.

Jeff
www.breakingoutofnormal

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Our world is full of hypocrisy.  In fact it probably is more about the extent to which you are guilty than it is about whether you are guilty!

We are all well aware of areas of our own life where we rarely, if ever, do or don’d do what we criticize in others.  You all know what I am talking about.  And I am talking mostly to myself in this musing.

I have been reading from Matthew 22 and 23 the last several days.  In the chapter 22, we read of the testing of Jesus by the Pharisees, the Saducees and then the Pharisees again.  They pose word puzzles to stump Jesus and to prove he is as hypocritical as they are.  Unfortunately, Jesus provides compelling answers to each of the problems that makes them look even worse than they originally imagined.

Then in chapter 23, Jesus provides a list of offenses the Pharisees are guilty of.  But the biggest item is the “Do as I say, not as I do” that Jesus demonstrates them to be practicing.  The fact that he is able to do this after passing their verbal test, and also with pure humility on his part, makes the passage all the more moving to us.

In our world, hypocrites are constantly being found out: 

the “moral” conservatives who are caught in some sex scandal,

the “moral” liberals who demonstrate they are only giving of others money through the government while contributing much less that the tythe to social or religious causes,

the “moral” government officials who pass laws that exempt themselves from the lot of the common man, such as high pensions, extensive medical insurance, and exemption from equal opportunity rules,

the “moral” business men who pocket huge earnings off the backs of their workers, and

the “moral” religious and civil rights leaders who are found to be guilty of the very crimes they accuse others of.

The real problem is that we can very easily see in others the characteristics that reside in us.  And that is the real message of Matt 22 and 23.  Instead of spending so much time examining Jesus record that was spotless, the Pharisees should review their own performance and make the changes that would bring them back to the God they profess to follow.

For us, we should examine our own behavior and ensure it is consistent with what we profess to be true.  Ensure we are without spot before we go casting stones at others.  Ensure we are true to ourselves, and keep the promises we make to ourselves as we are true to others and keep our word with others.  And take responsibility for our own actions and learn the lessons from our failures rather than looking for the scapegoat to blame.

 Jeff Ferguson

http://lbfgroup.lifepathpro.com/0001

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B ecoming

Develop new relationships that will enhance your development

Drop old associations that will be a drag on your development

Take ACTION to reach your goals

E nvision

Visualize the new you

Visualize the new circumstances

Visualize you achieving your goals

D emonstrate

Take action to demonstrate your desire and commitment

Key to leadership

O pportunity

Right Place at the Right Time

Preparation essential to take advantage of the opportunity

H ome

Build your Family to demonstrate your love and understanding with those you are closest to first

A ssets

Build your assets as the foundation for your future fiscal health

V acations

Plan, execute

Gain the benefit of the recreation

E state

Have a multi-generational view

GIVE

Share your blessings with those less fortunate – you never know when you will require the assistance

Hoarded money stagnates – both yourself and the economy

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This is a comment I made against the following article:

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/230/story_23011_1.html?uid=SmMwWkpqd2IwZU09

 I am a Republican by birth and longstanding belief as well as a Christian. From my perspective, it began more in the 40s and jelled in the 60s with the government providing more and more reason to pass the blame on to someone else rather than suffering the consequences for our individual actions, learning our lessons and looking to how we can correct our own problems, rather than depending on Uncle Sam to solve them for us.  
A result of the course of action (or maybe inaction may be more descriptive) we have taken is unending litigation to resolve generally unintended wrongs through a lottery system and lawyers who believe it is more important to “win” than to obtain justice for all.
We have become a country of people that want to do what we want to do, rather than people who do what they ought to do.  (try to maintain the speedlimit on our interstates and see if you can prevent yourself from being run over)One of the main purposes of religion is to provide us the framework of what we ought to do and all formal religions have a basis in morality that provides a foundation for this framework.  Having allowed this framework to be eroded through a misreading of the intent of “Separation of Church and State,” we are now suffering the consequences.Collectively, we can now learn from this error and correct the problem, or continue to blame others for the difficulties that have arisen as a result of the choices we have made corporately.Jeff

www.breakingoutofnormal.com

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I recently saw a discussion about Goal Setting that stated the following:

“Goal setting is for losers!” “People set goals because they are used to failing!”

The proposition is an interesting one - and I can understand the logic, because failing to achieve goals can be a downer that you never recover from.On the other hand, our use of goals to determine our daily, weekly, monthly… objectives really looks more like planning disguised as goals.

Another approach i recently heard was to view goals more as a road-map. The really important things are knowing where you are, where you want to end up, and when you want to be there. Determining the path is a matter of responding to the road conditions in between.

When my wife and I commuted, we sometimes would ride together and one time she said to me “You never take the same way twice.” My response was “The conditions are always changing and they determine the way.”

Conditions are always changing and getting to where you intend to go may or may not be non-negotiable. The negotiability of the final destination determines our desire and willingness to achieve the goal or reach the destination.

“persist without exception” - Andy Andrews

jeff - beyondnormal
www.breakingoutofnormal.com

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