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Category : Personal Development

The Maturity Test: Spank Your Inner Child And Tell Him To Grow Up Or Else

“Reality is like a fine wine; it will not appeal to children.”

- Don Miller, Author of ‘Searching For God Knows What’

“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child,
reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”

- 1 Corinthians 13:11

There are two types of people in this world. Those who like Neil Diamond… and those who don’t.
This article has absolutely nothing to do with the sentence right above this one.

There are another two types of people in this world who actually specifically
matter as far as this particular article goes…

One type seeks to discover life as it truly is, no matter what the cost.
Reality is held in high esteem. Even if it hurts.

The other seeks to discover nothing; his only concern is to avoid pain
and experience pleasure. Kind of like… an animal. A really dumb one.
Like a buffoon. Reality is subconsciously avoided at all costs. It’s like kryptonite.
Just a whiff of it is enough to turn him into an ostrich.

For the former, the value of truth supersedes the value of a good time.
For the latter, complete delusion is chump change in return for the comfort it affords.
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“Ignorance is bliss.”

– Cypher, The Matrix 1999
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Did you know that the majority of men out there in the scary scary world are
only men in terms of chronology? Inside… they are still boys.
Still looking for someone to take care of them, still holding on to fairy tales,
still believing the world is a playground.

These man-boys rarely have money, never get girls, usually whine, and love prison.

Children expect someone else to take care of them.
Mature adults take full responsibility for their lives.

Children believe in fairy tales and magical spells.
Adults know how complex life is and how hard they have to work in order to
see anything actually happen. They take the words “easy” and “simple” with a grain of salt.

Children tend to hate work and would rather play all day.
Adults embrace work as a way of life and find joy in it.

Children are naturally selfish. Adults… are naturally selfish too. : – )
But the mature ones work hard to not be.

Children see the world in very simplistic terms.
Adults know better than to believe there are 7 easy steps to ANYthing.
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“The simple believes every word; but the prudent considers his steps well.”

- Proverbs 14:15
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It’s changing you. And the more you change, the more money you will naturally make.

Get It Out Of Your Head That Money/Success Is Of Primary Importance!

Until you begin to work harder on yourself than
you do on your business, success will elude you.

Why?

Because your outer world is nothing more than a reflection of your inner world.
Get your inner world right, and success will come as a byproduct.

Weak/Simple/Childish Inner World = Disaster In The Outer World

The world eats weak people for breakfast.
Heck, it eats them for mid night snacks while it’s sleep walking.
I just pictured a globe sleep walking and grabbing a miniature
alive person out of the fridge and eating it. Is that weird?

What will you do to strengthen your inner world?

95% of the world has the weak/simple/childish viewpoint.
Are you sure you’re not one of them?

Are you open to the possibility that you ARE one of them?

Closed minded people operate out of fear.
The 5% of people who do NOT have the childish viewpoint are probably
the most likely to read this article and think they’re part of the 95%.
Strange, huh?

Here is the bottom line, and I don’t care if this costs me a thousand subscribers:

God created YOU and He created this WORLD SYSTEM.
I think He knows how it works. I double dare you to start asking Him to
show you the truth about life. Heck, I TRIPLE dare you. But I warn you,
ask this question with any degree of faith, and He will answer it…

But it’s not gonna feel good.

Boys don’t become men without trial and suffering.
In some cultures they literally torture the boys during their initiation phases.
The Unites States is one of the only countries without an initiation tradition
for boys seeking to become men.

Hence all the people out there seeking Get Rich Quick schemes and being broke all the time.

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“Whoever works his land will have plenty to eat, but the one who chases unrealistic dreams has no sense.”

– Proverbs 12:11
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Are you willing to suffer for the truth? Or are you happy with your head in the sand?

Go BIG or Go Home.. Life Lessons From Big Waves

Bomb Wave

I recently had one of the best surf sessions I’ve had in a LONG time. By “best” I mean most satisfying… stoke-inducing… I don’t know. If you haven’t surfed, it’s hard to translate the feeling.

Just think of what activity turns you on the most & think of the BEST session you’ve ever had of that activity. A time that, when you think about it 2 weeks later, still has you excited.

(I realize where you may be headed with the above exercise, but let’s move on. Perv.)

As I’ve processed what it was about this session that made it so special, I realized there are 2 lessons that can be applied to life & business.

1) Big steps of faith reap big rewards

This day was big. Big enough to make an experienced surfer’s heart race.

And that’s exactly why it felt so good.

We can continue surfing fun 1-2 footers all our lives (.. or even worse, just lay on the beach & get wrinkly), or we can CHOOSE to face double-overhead set waves.

In other words, we can stay within our comfort zone or we can choose to step into the unknown… face our fears… and see what happens.

Our biggest rewards in life come when we conquer things that initially seem beyond our ability to conquer. Bigger risk = bigger reward.

This is the #1 reason most of the human race spends 40-60 hours a week (.. plus commuting time) doing something they hate. Anything else involves confronting fear & is too big a risk.

2) When confronting fear, charge

This particular day, I wasn’t surfing my own 6′6″ custom-shaped JC board that I’ve surfed 100s of times and feels like an extension of my own body.

This was supposed to be a relaxing day at the beach, so I didn’t even take my board or plan on surfing.

But the waves were too enticing, so I grabbed my wife’s pink 6′2″ thruster and headed out. This is a board I always thought was way too small for me & never been on once… and on this particular day, we were sans-board wax so I was SURE I’d be sliding all over the place.

So I paddled out with basically nothing to lose.

And once I caught that first wave & stuck the drop-in, it was smooth sailing the rest of the day.

That’s the cool thing about life… once you start busting through your comfort zone & knocking out fears, ANY challenge comes easier. Once you make the first drop on that first big wave & prove to yourself that you can do it, big waves actually BECOME your new comfort zone.

For me, public speaking has always pushed my C-Zone meter into red alert.

If you’ve ever heard my presentation on “Joint Ventures & Internet Marketing,” you know that I actually had to walk out in the middle of 2 friends’ weddings (.. as a groomsman!) because of my anxiety being in front of people.

Today I speak regularly to audiences of 100+ … but ONLY because I intentionally decided about 2 years ago that it was time for this fear to go bye bye for good.

We should all be hitting the edge of our comfort zones on a regular basis. In fact, if you’re not facing C-Zone issues on a regular basis, you’re probably not trying hard enough at life.

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The whole reason I believe the above truths exist is that God WANTS us to face situations that are beyond our control.

When we do, we have no choice but to put things into His hands.

And trust me, His hands are a WAY better place for our challenges than our own.

He wants us to write incredible life stories of success… continually confronting & conquering new challenges.

And to to be windows rather than mirrors. When we succeed, he wants the world to be able to look through us & see Christ getting the glory.

What is the biggest wave you’re facing today?

Are you just sitting on the beach watching it at a distance? Are you paddling around on the inside just to say that you “gave it a shot”?

Or are are you in the deep ocean — sharks, reef, monster waves and all — charging, conquering, and feeling the unique and indescribable stoke?

You are more than a conqueror. Paddle out.