Morning Mindset with Paul G. Markel

Endurance - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Endurance is the mental and physical stamina that is measured by your ability to withstand pain, fatigue, stress, and hardship. For example, enduring pain during a conditioning march in order to improve stamina is crucial in the development of leadership.

Develop your endurance by engaging in physical training that will strengthen your body. Finish every task to the best of your ability by forcing yourself to continue when you are physically tired and your mind is sluggish.

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Loyalty - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Loyalty means that you are devoted to your country, the Corps, and to your seniors, peers, and subordinates. The motto of our Corps is Semper Fidelis!, (Always Faithful). You owe unwavering loyalty up and down the chain of command, to seniors, subordinates, and peers.

To improve your loyalty you should show your loyalty by never discussing the problems of the Marine Corps or your unit with outsiders. Never talk about seniors unfavorably in front of your subordinates. Once a decision is made and the order is given to execute it, carry out that order willingly as if it were your own.

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Knowledge - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Knowledge is the understanding of a science or art. Knowledge means that you have acquired information and that you understand people. Your knowledge should be broad, and in addition to knowing your job, you should know your unit's policies and keep up with current events.

Increase your knowledge by remaining alert. Listen, observe, and find out about things you don't understand. Study field manuals and other military literature.

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Courage - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Courage is what allows you to remain calm while recognizing fear. Moral courage means having the inner strength to stand up for what is right and to accept blame when something is your fault. Physical courage means that you can continue to function effectively when there is physical danger present.

You can begin to control fear by practicing self-discipline and calmness. If you fear doing certain things required in your daily life, force yourself to do them until you can control your reaction.

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Unselfishness - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Unselfishness means that you avoid making yourself comfortable at the expense of others. Be considerate of others. Give credit to those who deserve it. Avoid using your position or rank for personal gain, safety, or pleasure at the expense of others. Be considerate of others.

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Bearing - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Bearing is the way you conduct and carry yourself. Your manner should reflect alertness, competence, confidence, and control. To develop bearing, you should hold yourself to the highest standards of personal conduct. Never be content with meeting only the minimum requirements.

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Enthusiasm - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Enthusiasm is defined as a sincere interest and exuberance in the performance of your duties. If you are enthusiastic, you are optimistic, cheerful, and willing to accept the challenges.

Understanding and belief in your mission will add to your enthusiasm for your job. Try to understand why even uninteresting jobs must be done.

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Integrity - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Integrity means that you are honest and truthful in what you say or do. You put honesty, sense of duty, and sound moral principles above all else. Be absolutely honest and truthful at all times. Stand up for what you believe to be right.

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Tact - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Tact means that you can deal with people in a manner that will maintain good relations and avoid problems. It means that you are polite, calm, and firm. Begin to develop your tact by trying to be courteous and cheerful at all times. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

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Decisiveness - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Decisiveness means that you are able to make good decisions without delay. Get all the facts and weigh them against each other. By acting calmly and quickly, you should arrive at a sound decision. You announce your decisions in a clear, firm, professional manner.

Practice being positive in your actions instead of acting half-heartedly or changing your mind on an issue.

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Initiative - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Initiative is taking action even though you haven't been given orders. It means meeting new and unexpected situations with prompt action. It includes using resourcefulness to get something done without the normal material or methods being available to you.

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Dependability - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Dependability means that you can be relied upon to perform your duties properly. It means that you can be trusted to complete a job. It is the willing and voluntary support of the policies and orders of the chain of command.

Dependability also means consistently putting forth your best effort in an attempt to achieve the highest standards of performance.

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Judgement - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Judgment is your ability to think about things clearly, calmly, and in an orderly fashion so that you can make good decisions.

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Justice - JJDIDTIEBUCKLE

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Justice is defined as the practice of being fair and consistent. A just person gives consideration to each side of a situation and bases rewards or punishments on merit.

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Do You Want the Problem or the Solution? [MM286]

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

During a recent conversation, a person that I know was telling me about an issue that they were having. When I offered what I thought was a solution, they rejected it out of hand. That got me thinking. Are we being intellectually honest with ourselves?

Do we want solutions or do we instead embrace the problem because accepting the problem is easier than applying the fix? This might be a valid internal conversation; do you want the solution or do you want the problem?

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Eddie Van Halen Didn’t Know ... [MM285]

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

While watching an old interview with Eddie Van Halen, it was filmed in the late 90’s, Eddie made a statement about why he played the guitar the way he did. Though he only devoted a few sentences to the subject, what I heard seemed tremendously profound. We’re going to discuss and consider what Eddie meant when he said he didn’t know what not to do.

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The Monk and The Mountain [MM284]

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 10:00:00 +0000

We examine the parable of the monk and the mountain. What lessons can be learned from this short tale? Professor Paul will discuss the modern lie of “fairness”. What is “fair”? Perhaps, "fair" is a place you go to eat cotton candy and ride the Ferris wheel.

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10,000 Hours: How Long Will it Take You? [MM283]

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0000

I was reading a story about Jose Feliciano (Feliz Navidad) and how when he decided to learn to play the guitar he would practice all day long, sometimes for 12 to 14 hours.

Friends of Jimi Hendrix have reported that Jimi used to take his guitar with him wherever he went. Anytime he had a spare moment, Hendrix was plucking his axe. If 10,000 hours is the requirement for mastery, the big question is; how long will it take you to reach that number?

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Fishing Lessons [MM282]

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

What life lessons can we take from the simple act of fishing, casting a line into the water? What lessons can we instill in our children and why is a valuable investment in time to take your kids fishing? Professor Paul offers some advice from the trout stream.

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[INTRO] ♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

(Official Permission has been formally granted by the band and studio)

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The Short Sightedness of Pandering [MM281]

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 10:00:00 +0000

Pandering, telling people whatever it is they want to hear, is a short-term strategy and a shortsighted undertaking. If that is the case, why do so many people, groups or organizations do it? Why is pandering still prevalent? On whom does pandering work?

Most importantly, can you be an effective, successful business without pandering? Do you need to pander to be a success?

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MM280 - Blessings; Watch for Them and Acknowledge Them [Best Of]

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Blessings come in both large and small packages. Often we get so wrapped up in our day to day living that we may either take blessings for granted or fail to recognize them altogether.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM279 - Do What You Hate

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sometimes we need to do that which we do not want to do in order to grow. Paul does not like to do barbell rows. However, it is part of the training program. Once more, trust your coach and make yourself do what you “hate”.

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MM278 - Reaching Your Goals

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 13:44:42 +0000

Are you reaching your goals or do you find that you are coming up short? If you are missing your goals, you might consider whether or not something is missing in your program. We consider lessons from strength training and from business.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM277 - Observe the World

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Paul received a question; “How do you find things to write about?” There are many ways to stoke creative fire. However, all good creative writers share one thing in common; they are able to minimize distractions and observe the world.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM276 - Finding Inspiration

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Do you have “writer’s block” or are you just not inspired to sit down and write? During this episode, Paul will share a couple of methods that he uses when he is not feeling motivated or inspired to write. Maybe these tricks can help you.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM275 - The Lesson of Seeds

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

More lessons from the garden. Sometimes you need to plant the seeds and have faith and patience. You might be surprised. Paul has a garden report for you.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM274 - Growth without Discomfort?

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Can growth occur without discomfort? Childhood is tough but constant growth is happening. Neither muscles nor intellect can grow without discomfort and stress.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM273 - Finding Mentors

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Finding a mentor or multiple mentors throughout your life requires a deliberate effort. Teachers and mentors are not going to come find you. You need to put yourself in a position where they have access to you.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM272 - Cognitive Dissonance

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

First, share your favorites episode of Morning Mindset on your social media story. How does the term cognitive dissonance fit in our modern world? What happens when people refuse to recognize this situation and make a change? Also, Paul is going to take a summer vacation.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM271 - Comparing Yourself to Pros

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Recently, my wife and I went to our local greenhouse to purchase some starter plants to make up for some of the seeds that never took root.

I was feeling pretty good about our garden until I walked into the greenhouse. Then I reminded myself that I am a novice, an amateur, and they are professionals.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM270 - Fear is Not a Virtue

Fri, 29 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Fear is a natural human response to danger. Being afraid is not a sin, but neither should it become a lifestyle. What we are witnessing, through our virtue-signaling world, is fear being mistaken for virtue.

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MM269 - Pleasing Everyone

Thu, 28 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

The shortest road to madness and depression is the attempt to please everyone, all the time. Despite the fact that we all “know” that we cannot please everyone, how many of us are still frustrated by that attempt?

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM268 - Have Faith; The Office Story

Wed, 27 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

“The Office” is one of the most successful television shows of our generation and is beloved by millions. However, The Office was almost canceled after the first season. It was not perfect and many studio execs wanted to drop the show.

However, one man had faith in it, even though it was not perfect. Kevin Reilly, the head of NBC, had faith in the show and saved it.

Today we focus on faith and not giving up just because something or someone is not perfect.

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MM267 - Yesterday vs. Today

Tue, 26 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

We all like to look back at old photos. Sometimes when we look at those pictures we say “What was I thinking?”. Do not let yesterday’s behavior cloud or take away from today’s successes.

The old way was not wrong if it was the best way for the time, today’s successes are built on yesterday’s behaviors.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM266 - George Washington and Fort Necessity

Fri, 22 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

How did, arguably the greatest leader and President in the history of the United States, begin his military career? What lessons can be taken from the story of George Washington and Ft. Necessity?

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM265 - The Answer

Thu, 21 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

An answer is not invalid just because it was not the one for which you were looking. We have questions in our lives and we all encounter problems. Sometimes we need to accept an answer or a solution even if it is not what we expected it to be.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM264 - Lost Trail

Wed, 20 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Sometimes we lose the trail or find ourselves off of the path on which we wanted to be. Today Paul talks about ways to find the trail or get back on the path to success.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM263 - Memories are More Important than Ceremonies

Tue, 19 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Paul has some advice for disappointed High School Seniors who are moving on with their lives minus the graduation ceremony. Ceremonies are nice, but are they truly what is important in the grand scheme of life?

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM262 - Make Deposits in you Emotional 401K

Mon, 18 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Today’s topic came from a recent discussion by Paul’s strength coach, Matt Reynolds. Every person is going to have to face unforeseen challenges in their life.

How can we prepare ourselves to weather the storm and ride out the tough time? Make some deposits in your emotional 401K on a regular basis.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM261 - Believe in Yourself, but How?

Fri, 15 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

People love to throw around the advice, “believe in yourself”. But, how? How can you learn to truly believe in yourself?

Genuine self-esteem does not come from a poster or from getting a participation ribbon or trophy. Paul will offer one way to truly start to believe in yourself.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM260 - Minimize Distractions

Thu, 14 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Most professionals, at some point in time, will have to engage in the creative writing process. One of the greatest roadblocks to creative writing is distraction. Today, Paul will talk about how he minimizes distractions in order to accomplish his writing chores.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM259 - The Epiphany

Wed, 13 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

What does it take to have and epiphany, a breakthrough moment? Can you plan or arrange this “Aha” moment? Obviously you cannot. However, there are things you can do to help prepare the way for the breakthrough realization.

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MM258 - Passion: The Mick Foley Story

Tue, 12 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Success takes more than education and training. One key to success is passion. Today we consider one example of a man who had genuine passion; Michael Francis Foley.

You might know him as Mankind, Cactus Jack, or just Mick Foley. Foley is a great example of passion.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM257 - 10 Year Overnight Success

Mon, 11 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

To the casual observer, you might be an overnight success. What that person did not see was the ten years of struggle and sacrifice it took to become that “overnight” success. Success rarely ever comes instantly or overnight.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM256 - Let your Eyes See Something New

Fri, 08 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

As humans, we become conditioned to the world around us. The passing of time often makes us forget the beauty of the world in which we live.

Take the time and make a conscious effort to let your eyes see something new.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM255 - Get Out and Let Things Happen

Thu, 07 May 2020 11:00:00 +0000

You cannot force open the petals of a flower. Sometimes you just have to go out and let things happen. Paul went out into the field and had a close encounter with our national symbol.

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MM254 - Good Things Don't Come Easy

Wed, 06 May 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Are you looking for “comfortable” and “convenient”? If your answer was yes, you are limiting the amount of good or worthwhile experiences.

Today, Paul shares a couple of stories of difficulty and sacrifice that lead to good things. Good things don't come easy. Occasionally, we need to be reminded of that fact.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM253 - We Do What We Do, Because is it the Right Thing to Do

Tue, 05 May 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Today, Paul will reference a recent phone call with a friend. Frustration was shared and feelings were vented. Why do we do the right thing? Is it because we seek praise?

Do we do what we do only if everyone agrees with us and appreciates it? Be sure that you are listening louder.

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A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel.

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MM252 - Perception based on Ignorance is not Reality

Mon, 04 May 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Paul shares two different stories to help us understand that perception is not always reality. Sometimes we witness perceptions based upon ignorance.

If you are going to lead a positive and productive life, you must be able to discern the difference between reality and perception based on ignorance.

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MM251 - Room to Grow

Fri, 01 May 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Consider that lesson of plants. Can start a seed in a paper cup on the window sill. However, if you want that seedling to see its full potential, you have to give it room to grow. We cannot grow if we are living in paper cups.

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MM250 - How You See Yourself

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

How you see yourself, and how you describe yourself, will directly affect how other people see you. Believe it or not, you do have a say in how employers, co-workers, friends, and neighbors view you. It all begins with how you see yourself.

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MM249 - 10,000 Hours w/ Guest Matt DiRito

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

What does it mean to devote 10,000 hours to a subject? We have our first guest ever on Morning Mindset, Matt DiRito, musician, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.

Matt and Paul talk about dedication and what it takes to achieve mastery.

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MM248 - Success is the Greatest Revenge

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

At some point in everyone’s life they will have to deal with those who either doubt them or who are actively working against them.

You have a choice to make. You can either focus on that person or you can focus on improving yourself and success.

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MM247 - Me Too Mentality

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

When people act and behave that merely mimics what others do or is a blatant attempt to just be a part of the crowd, we call the Me Too Mentality.

The Me Too Mentality is not a positive or productive thing as it can lead to destructive behaviors and outcomes.

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MM246 - True Friends

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

What does it take to be a true friend? Paul takes a moment to acknowledge and mention some of the true friends that he has in his life.

He also considers the stumbling blocks or difficulties that people have in our modern age when it comes to developing true friends.

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MM245 - Unconscious Conditioning

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:22:54 +0000

When I was a kid, growing up in Detroit, Michigan, all of the banks had bullet-proof glass separating the customers from the tellers.

It was not until my family moved to rural Ohio that I realized that not every bank in the world had bullet-proof glass. I just assumed that was the case because of my lack of experience.

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MM244 - The Search for Inspiration

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Inspiration cannot be found by sitting behind a desk. Our advice is to get out from behind your desk, go outside, explore and find that inspiration you need.

But, what if you cannot hike in the woods, climb a mountain, or stroll along the beach? Let’s talk about how to find inspiration at home.

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MM243 - Who is a Hero?

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

We hear and see the term “hero” expressed and written so often, that it has largely lost its meaning. Today we will consider just what it means to be heroic and how someone can genuinely become a hero.

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MM242 - Finding Balance

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

We all need to escape from reality once in a while in a good book or by watching a movie. We also need to address the very real problems and issues that require our attention. The key is to find a balance between the two.

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MM241 - The Power of Perspective

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Often, people will feel and behave as though the problems that they are experiencing are unique or somehow worse than any problems that came before.

If we take some time to read and examine history, we will see that almost everything we see today has happened before.

Most importantly, we survived those problems and kept going.

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MM240 - Lesson of Seeds

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

How are seeds like ideas? Paul and Nancy recently planted an herb garden. Today we will consider some of the lessons we can take from the simple act of planting seeds. How many seeds have you planted recently?

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MM239 - Stick to the Plan

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

We all make plans. How many of us stick to our plans? Today we consider the importance of sticking with the plan, regardless of whether or not you are tired, frustrated, or uncomfortable.

Once more, we have to apply a gut check and decide if the plan we made was worth carrying out.

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MM238 - Our Time in the Sun

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

The sun is not always going to be shining. What are you going to do with your time in the sun? Sunshine is like an opportunity.

When opportunities come along, do you take advantage of them or do you wait because they are not perfect?

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MM237 - Watch Your Step

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Recently, Paul was up in the rocks and was reminded of some advice that used to be very common from parents and teachers; watch your step. What does that mean to us as adults in our modern age?

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MM236 - Prepared People Don't Panic

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Personal responsibility and preparation take time and effort. Paul talks about what it takes to be a prepared person. Also, he considers that as many decisions are made through inaction as are made through deliberation.

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MM235 - Time Management

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

What are you doing with the time you have? Time is constant and it has a tendency to slip away from us if we don’t pay attention. It is time to take inventory of your time management schedule. Are you making the most of the available time?

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MM234 - Finding Inspiration: The Edge Story

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

The Adam “Edge” Copeland story on WWE network. Adam Copeland's story is both motivational and inspirational. Adam Copeland came back from a career-ending neck injury. How can you find inspiration from this story and what do you do with that inspiration?

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MM233 - Shut Up and Let People Help

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

One of the most difficult things for proud men to do is accept that they need help. Paul discusses how he accepted assistance or help from others.

Sometimes you simply need to close your mouth, be quiet, and let other people help you.

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MM232 - Mental Maintenance

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

During this trying time in our nation’s history, it is extremely important for your mental health and well-being to deliberately and purposefully focus on your own mental maintenance. Paul will offer some advice to avoid the constant barrage of bad news.

What is Paul doing to focus on his own mental fitness? He relates several methods that he employs to step away from the bad news and focus his energy in positive ways.

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MM231 - Avoiding the Victim Mentality

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Keeping with the Fighting Solves Everything theme, another method of fighting is to avoid the victim mentality. When we encounter problems and setbacks, it is a natural human reaction to feel like a victim. Nonetheless, allowing yourself to feel like a victim or embrace the victim mentality does you no good.

During this episode, Paul will discuss ways to avoid falling into the victim mentality trap. He shares with you all a few strategies that he employed to avoid feeling like and appearing to others to be a victim.

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MM230 - Fighting Solves Everything

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000

After a year away from the Morning Mindset microphone, Paul is back. During this segment, he tells about his journey and battle against an enemy he never expected to encounter.

It’s a new year and a new studio and this nation could use some positive and productive talk.

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Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being.

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MM229 - [Best Of] Rebuilding Bridges- Repairing Strained or Fractured Relationships

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

How do you rebuild burned bridges or repair fractured relationships? Can you be the one who helps others to rebuild their strained or broken relationships? Remember, anger is not a sin, but it is also not a strategy. There is time to consider whether or not a relationship is salvageable or whether or not the bridge is best left burned.

Ask yourself if the relationship was mutually beneficial to both parties or just to one? Was the respect reciprocal or largely one-sided. Were you doing all of the work in the relationship?

(Original Publish Date: 01/30/18 | Original Episode #: 012)

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset, and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hey, welcome to Morning Mindset. This is your host Paul Markel, of course you know that because you heard the intro, and I truly appreciate you joining me today for this show. Aaaaaaggghhh, so today’s topic. This may, hmmm… I don’t know if it’s gonna hurt your feelings, but it may bring up hurtful feelings, or feelings on anxiety, or what have you, but we are going to talk about Rebuilding Bridges, and that is repairing strained or fractured relationships.

Now you may be thinking that I’m talking about men & women, husbands & wives, boyfriends & girlfriends and so forth, but it could be any kind of a relationship quite frankly. It could be a friendship, it could be a previously romantic relationship, it could be a relationship between you and a family member. Such as aunts and uncles and cousins and so forth, maybe your mother or father, maybe your kids. But it could be a business relationship. Business relationships often become strained and fractured, and sometimes the bridges get burned. *Stammer* If you’re going to be a mature adult, if you’re going to grow as a human being, every once and a while you need to take the time to consider, whether or not it is time to try and rebuild a bridge, or whether it is time to repair a fractured relationship.

Alright, I have a personal story for you, and it’s a business story. I’ve had, I’ve been writing professionally for over 25 years now, and I have a lot of personal contacts in my field on the endeavor, which is the outdoor shooting sports, law enforcement, military community. When I started writing and became a very active writer, I had many relationships with manufacturers and people who, people who made products for well, like-minded individuals. Like I said, the outdoor shooting sports, law enforcement, military type world, and what I found is that as my career grew, and then changed, my business relationships would change.

For instance, when I was writing very actively for outdoor shooting sports magazines, at some point I was having between 40 & 50 articles per year published, so I was generating, what we called in the industry “A Lot of Ink”. When I started generating a lot of ink, I had people who would call me up, or they’d send me emails, or send me notes, or they’d see me at shows and they’d be like “Oh hey Paul, did you know that we’re working on This, or would you be interested in talk, or writing about-” specifically writing about this, taking pictures of this, because when I started writing I also became my own photographer, and took thousands upon thousands of pictures and so forth.

Well things changed a little bit and I went off on my own, and developed my own television channel and my own radio show and… so I was no longer working for the regular publishing houses. What I found was, some of the people who wanted to be my best friend or wanted to be good friends with me, when I was generating a lot of ink for publishing houses. When things had changed, they weren’t so interested in being my friends anymore, and it the time it was kind of, I don’t know if it was depressing, but it made me kind of sad, to realize that there were a good number of people in the in industry that I thought were friends, they weren’t really friends they were more acquaintances, they were only interested in being my friend or acquaintance as long as I could get them, like I said in the industry we call “Free Ink”.

If I could give them free ink, or free public relations and PR, they were all about being my friend, and when things changed, I needed them to support me in my new project, they weren’t so interested anymore. That’s something that I… when you have a relationship that was strained, fractured, broken, the bridge was seriously burned, one of the things you have to ask yourself was, is that relationship a mutually beneficial relationship to both parties, or was one of the parties getting more out of the relationship than the other? Was respect reciprocal? I know that’s a lot of R’s & S’s & C’s right there, but was respect reciprocal, or largely one sided?

Were you doing most of, or all of the work in the relationship? Were you investing the lion’s share of the effort in the relationship and it’s like I said, this could be a romantic relationship, a personal relationship, a business relationship. Before you decide, “It’s time to repair that broken relationship”, you maybe need to take a moment and say “Well, maybe the reason that that person and I are no longer friends, or may the reason that that person and I no longer work together or have a business relationship, is because I was putting in all the work, the time and the effort, and as soon as it became time for them to put in work, time, effort, as soon as it became time for that person to invest in the relationship, they no longer wanted to be involved in it.

So that may not be a relationship that’s actually worth repairing, it goes back to that while Gut-Check time, ya know Honest Self Assessment. Now you may find when you do the honest self-assessment, that the relationship you had that is now broken or strained, well it was broken or strained because of ego. Because of your ego, or because of someone else’s ego, or a product of the two. Maybe your ego took you in one direction and their ego took them in another direction, it could be that there was some animosity or some anger there.

Now remember, Anger is not a sin, as we discussed previously, but it is also not a strategy. Being angry all the time or being angry at someone is not a successful relationship or business strategy. So once you get to that honest self-assessment, and the reason I am talking about this right now, is because I have just returned from a trade show, a convention, and I saw a lot of people there who I’ve known for upward, going on 25 years. Matter of fact there are some people, very few people that I’ve known for going on 30 years, and when you go to these shows, you see these people who are acquaintances and friends, and you see people who you may have once had a good, productive relationship with, and you think to yourself, you realize “hm, we haven’t done business together, we haven’t talked or communicated in a year, or two or three, or however long it’s been”, and that’s a good time to ask yourself real quickly, why is that?

Are we, am I not exchanging phone calls or text messages with this person just because I’m really busy, they’re really busy, or was there some kind of strain, a fracture put on this relationship? If the relationship wa beneficial to both parties, and you might want to take a second to say “Did my ego, did my own personal ego damage that relationship?” and again, going back to honest self assessment and growth, you may come up with that Gut-Check answer of “Yeah, it might have been my ego that got in the way of that relationship”. Or if you’re honest and you can look in the mirror and say “No, it wasn’t my ego at all. It was the fact that that person no longer wanted to put time and investment into the relationship.”

But there is time, if we want to be mature, responsible, growing adults, that we need to examine these relationships and decide whether or not they can be salvaged, and if they can, that’s probably one of the hardest things for those people to do. Because being able to Rebuild a Bridge, may require you to go back and park some ego. It may require you to humble yourself, to approach that person, whoever that may be and say “You know what? I think things kind of got off track, you and I were very close before. We had a good working relationship, we had a good business relationship, we had a good personal relationship, now we don’t. What can I do to help rebuild our relationship?”

Don’t tell them what they need to do to rebuild it, ask them what you can do to rebuild it. Now there may be nothing, but let’s face facts. There are some relationships out there, if you’re honest with yourself, if you think about, you might say “You know what, the reason that it didn’t work or it’s not working, is because I let my personal feelings and my ego get in the way. I hope that you can savage one fractured or broken relationship, that you may actually be able to build a Bridge that you set fire to many moons ago. Alright Ladies & Gentlemen, go out there and see if you can rebuild one bridge.

This is me Paul Markel, reminding you that all of my books, if you’re interested in learning more, all of my books are available on Amazon as paperbacks, or you can get them on the Kindle App as Kindle versions, how cool is that? I know a lot of you guys like Kindles, thank you to everyone who has left a review of this on your favorite podcast player, whatever that happens to be, and to everyone who has shared it. If you haven’t shared it yet, why not? Don’t be greedy man, you know there’s at least one person in your life who could use this information. I’ll talk to you again, real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.

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MM228 - The Road to Hell

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:59:21 +0000

The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Intentions, in and of themselves are not bad. However, intentions are not substitutes for actions for work. Beware of allowing others to substitute work or actions for good intentions.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset podcast. Yes, I am your host Paul Markel, and if you read this if you read the I'm sorry, if you read it the title of today's episode. You probably filled in the blank yourself. How many times have you heard? Someone say or you said yourself? The road to hell is paved with good intentions or hell is full of good intentions. Now who said that according to the internet it was st. Bernard of Clairvaux who said, "Hell is paved with good intentions".

For according to the internet some people believe that John Ray said that cited a proverb in 1670 and said hell is paved with good intentions or you could go back to the Bible or you go to Proverbs or songs or what have you and there is some form or phrasing of that essentially saying that the road to hell or the way to hell or the path. The hill is good intentions. Let's talk about intentions today intentions in and of themselves are not necessarily bad, you know, we come up with an idea or we realize that there's a problem, there's an issue in our lives or something that needs to be fixed or changed or repaired.

Or maybe there's a better way of doing something and so we think about that. We realize that we say I'm going to make a change we say to ourselves our spouses our bosses or family members. What have you let's make a change. Let's do something different or better or what have you we have the intention of doing them and we may even go into great detail about what our intentions are. Intentions are not acts, are they? Our intentions-, excuse me, sip my coffee

Intentions are not actions, intentions are only words or what's the most popular thing in our culture today feelings and intentions are basically feelings. Well, I feel that this is wrong or I feel that this needs to change or I feel that there's a better way of doing X Y or Z. Okay, great, you feel that way. So what see intentions cost nothing? Intentions are easy intentions are cheap intentions are words and words are cheap. Anyone can say, oh that's a problem, and we really should do something about it.

Okay, and what well and that's when the rubber hits the road intentions without works. Meaningless intentions without actions are meaningless, you know, if you told your child, let's say you have a child who is in junior high or high school age or what have you and and you're going to work or you're going out or what having you say. Hey before I get back home. I need you to take out the trash and do the dishes or I need you to do whatever you assign your child a task. He said it's not a, you know, most times really not hard but you assign them a task and then you leave expecting that the task will be completed.

But you come home and you find out you come downstairs you go downstairs and your kid is in front of the video game the Fortnight or the Xbox or the whatever it is, right and you're like hey. Did you did you get that done? You get the trash out? Did you get blank blank? Oh, no, I was going to I was as soon as I finish this game, I was going to do it that now if your child says to you as soon as my plan was my intention was as soon as I get finished with this game. I'll do it. I'll get that done. Do you accept as a parent? Do you accept that as an excuse do you say? Oh, okay. Well, I know you didn't do what you're supposed to do. But according to your own words you intended to do it and that's good enough.

Do we accept that? I hope not. I'll tell you what if you're if you're a parent out there and you have a child and you're accepting intentions as actions. As the same thing your you're setting yourself up in your kid up for failure. How about work? Let's say you are at work and you are a worker and your supervisor your boss your whatever comes and says, hey, I need you to do this. I need to get this done. We need to get it done by the end of the day because blankety blank blank fill in. Okay, and then add, you know, quarter till five your supervisor comes in find you and they say hey did you did you get that finished? Is it all done?

They expect that it's going to be because you know, they told you to and then you say "Oh man, I was really going to but then I got busy and I went over here and I saw something else that I needed to do and I just you know, I was I really planning on doing that. I was going to and I was going to do a really good job", and let me tell you what how good that job was going to be, does your boss or supervisor say oh yeah you intended to but you didn't but you intended to well.

Okay fine. I'll just tell the client. I'll just tell the customer that you intended to finish you intended to do that. But but you didn't so and they'll be satisfied. They'll be like, oh well, let me pay you anyway. Let me pay you for the product that wasn't delivered because you intended to deliver it. Now you're laughing you're out there. You're like, that's no Paul. That's not how that works where I am, and that's not how that works in my home. We don't accept intentions as a substitute for actions or work.

Then why do we allow other people to do it? When you mean, how often do we allow people to get away with not doing what is right what they should. What they said they were going to do. Just because their intentions were good. Hmm, exactly. Exactly the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It doesn't that phrase doesn't say the road to hell is paved with good actions or good works or a job. Well done. No, it says good intentions, and what does that phraseology mean? It basically means that words are cheap. Anybody can say anything.

It's actually the sweat of your brow. It's the labor of your back that makes something happen. That means a something so stop allowing people to get away with good intentions. Intentions are not works. They're not actions. They're cheap. The feeling's right. Anybody can have them anybody can say him anybody can say anything. It takes a man or a woman a stand-up person a mature person to actually do it to get the job done. So don't don't accept it from yourself and don't accept it from others.

As I said, intentions in and of themselves are not bad the problem we encounter is it when people think that just by saying something it's the same or the equivalent. I'm getting the job done and it's not it's not at all. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining me today. I truly appreciate it share this podcast with somebody that you feel could benefit from it. Leave us a review if you'd like. I would appreciate that. I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM227 - Motivation or Maturity

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

We hear people extolling the virtues of motivation all time. Some people make a lot of money writing books and speaking about motivation. However, motivation is not always the answer. Perhaps what is lacking in our family, workplace, or community is not motivation, but maturity.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset podcast. Thank you once again for sharing this with other people for letting your friends and family members and co-workers know that there is such a thing as the morning mindset podcast, you know, there's at least one person in your life that could benefit from this. Recently, I was listening to a friend of mine who has his own podcast and he said something that struck a chord with me and I wrote it down and I wanted to make the comparison that he mentioned something about doing what's right for instance in the fitness world.

We are constantly as coaches and trainers in the fitness world are constantly trying to motivate. Our clients or our teams or whatever. If you are the coach of a team whether it's basketball or football or whatever coaches are constantly trying to motivate their players trying to you know, get them pumped up psyched up. But motivation doesn't last forever motivation is actually temporary. There's external motivation where someone stands in front of you and they give you that cheerleader speech, you know, they're like "Rah, rah, we're going to do it" and all that and go and so they're trying to motivate you from the outside and then there's motivation that you get from the inside motivation when you psych yourself up, you're like, okay self.

We're going to do this. We're going to get it done hoo-ha, and one of the things that my friend talked about he said he said motivation isn't always the answer. To do what's right and what you need to do and his example was every day I get up in the morning and I brush my teeth and I brush my teeth before I go to bed and sometimes in the middle of the day depending he said I'm not motivated to brush my teeth. I don't look forward to it.

I don't wake up in the morning saying alright, I get to brush my teeth. Now. Wow, that's awesome. I can't wait till I get home so I can brush my teeth. We're not motivated about that. But what are we doing? Well, because you said well we do it because we were taught to we were taught basic oral hygiene by our parents or dentist or a combination of the both or whatever and so we don't do the teeth brushing routine because we're motivated we do it actually because we're mature.

Often we will hear trainers and mode and not moderate trainers and coaches and people you know, and we go to work. I bet you that several of you in my audience work somewhere where they have those motivational posters, right? They got the posters with the ocean setting or the mountain setting or the beach setting or whatever or maybe a fighter jet or something and they're up all over the place in your work. It's they're there to motivate you right, and we can motivate ourselves and others can motivate us, but it doesn't last that long. You say "Well when it comes to doing what's right, doing the correct thing-" Let's say super mundane tasks, right? Super mundane tasks.

It's Saturday morning and imagine that there's not snow on the ground imagine the springtime or summer. It's Saturday morning and you really really really really want to go out and enjoy your favorite recreational activity. Whatever. Happens to be tennis or golf or Trapper skeet shooting or hiking or biking or whatever you want to do that and you can't wait to do that. You're really excited and motivated to get on your bike or fill in the blank, right? You wake up Saturday. It's the sun's out. It's a nice temperature. It's not raining you really you're motivated to do what it is you want to do? But you also look in your yard and you realize that it rained, you know, Monday Tuesday Wednesday the yards finally dry.

The grass is tall and it really needs to be cut but you're motivated to do what it is you want to do what you like to do? You don't like mowing the lawn. It's not fun, but you do it. What makes you before you get on your bike or you go grab your motorcycle or your golf clubs or tennis? Whatever what makes you go out there in a garage fire up the freaking lawn mower and go. Mow. The lawn first. Is it motivation? Are you doing it? Because and you're an adult and that's the thing, you know, when you're an adult you do what you want to do. No one's going to come to your house and yell at you.

You know, your spouse might yell at you your spouse might say hey, when are you going to get that done? But no one's going to stand over you and make it happen. It happens or it doesn't base upon what's in between your ears. What's going on in between your ears? They're in your own mind. So if you're not mowing the lawn if you're not and I use it just as an example, but because of motivation why are you doing it? You're not going to make any extra money. No was going to give you an attaboy it just something that needs to be done.

Why do you do it you do it because it's the mature thing to do because a child wouldn't but an adult knows that they should? If we examine the world that we live in if we examine whether it's our workplace or our communities or our families, if we examine them and we find shortcomings, it may not know a lot of people make a lot of money writing books and doing videos and all that about motivation or now. How can I motivate you to make sales and all that stuff, right?

Maybe that the problem that we're encountering, whether it's with our families or our workplace or Community or what have you? It's not a lack of motivation. Maybe the problem is a lack of maturity. Who are you to tell me? Well, answer the question for yourself. Why do we do the things that need to be done? Even though they are mundane or boring or tedious or whatever. We take out the trash and we mow the lawn and we brush her teeth. We don't brush your teeth because we love doing it and we're motivated.

Maybe there are some people out there that like literally wake up in the morning and they're psyched to get in there and brush their teeth. I mean, that's what we do with our children, right? That's how you get you. How do you get little kids excited about brushing their teeth? They're not mature yet. So what do you have to do? Well, I know when I was young either you got superhero or cartoon hero or whatever toothbrushes, right? You got a Scooby-Doo toothbrush or a Batman toothbrush or Spider-Man toothbrush or whatever you take the toothbrush and you make it a, you know, exciting for the kid.

You get them their own special little toothbrush and Cup Kit and with the Batman thing and the Spider-Man thing and all that and basically, you're applying external motivation. You're trying to get them excited about it because they're not yet mature enough to understand that it's just something that they need to do. How often do we see that in our own world? People don't do what's supposed to be done. They don't accomplish the mission that needs to be accomplished and they expect others to provide them with motivational tools or tricks or what-have-you to get it done.

Maybe I'm just throwing this out there just saying it could be that the problem is not a lack of motivation at all. It could be that the problem is a lack of maturity. Lack of mental maturity on that person's part so examine that think about that as your day progresses, you want to live a positive and productive life. Sometimes you need to do it without a cheerleader. Sometimes you need to get it done without coaches without trainers without cheerleaders, and what makes you do what needs to be done even though it's not fun or exciting is maturity. Alright, help your children, help your teenagers to learn and develop that. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM226 - Accepting Thanks vs Asking for Handouts

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

There is a big difference between allowing someone to say “thank you” and asking or expecting handouts. We should be gracious when people want to say thanks but guard against the arrogance of demanding or expecting thanks.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to another Morning Mindset podcast. I am still your host Paul Markel, and I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to spend just a little bit of time with me, maybe 10 minutes or so and think about well productivity and positivity and motivation and so on and so forth It's the morning mindset show. If you've been with us for a while, you may remember an episode that I did about letting people thank you.

A long time ago, when I was a very new police officer, I hadn't even finished the police academy yet. I was doing my ride-along time with the chief of police and one of the things one of the pieces of advice that he gave me is he said. Let people thank you we're talking about and if you remember the episode was talking about a cup of coffee how the chief would go into the Kwik-E-Mart or whatever. The place was called the Stop-and-Go or whatever and he would pour a cup of coffee and he'd walk up to the counter and he'd set it on there and he'd set a dollar down on the counter and the lady would say "Sorry, register's broken. Can't take your money. Catch me later" or what have you.

Or something similar to that and he with a dollar back in his pocket and he said, "You know people will tell you, as you become a police officer, the academy they talk about morals and gifts and so forth and whether or not you know, they'll tell you never allow take anything for free or never take a discount because if you do it's a violation of the code and so forth." He said "That's nice on paper, but the fact the matter is you will encounter people like the woman who runs the Kwik-E-Mart that want to thank you. They want to say thanks to you somehow, and they want to thank you in their own way." Now you wouldn't want them buying you presents, right?

You don't want them to give you gifts, that would be silly. But how can they thank you? He said "That cup of coffee is a thank you. That is a way of them telling me 'thank you'." He says "Now I could follow the letter of the law or I could be, you know, a hard-ass and I could say 'Oh no, you will take my money. I will not accept anything free', you know or whatever." He said "I could do that, but what did I just do? I just heard that person's feelings. I just told them that their thanks weren't good enough, and whether you put it in those words or not, what you do if you hurt their feelings and you would alienate them."

You just made them, if not an enemy, at least somebody that doesn't care or is going to stop caring. The way the chief put it to me, he said "How do you think we find out what's going on? We're a very tiny, small Police Department. We can't be everywhere all the time. Just how do you think we find out who it is that's been hanging out behind the alleys who all of a sudden is flush with cash because they stole stuff and pawned it? You know, just how do we find that out? You should we find it out because the locals, the citizens, the business owners, they tell us 'Hey, you know, I know you guys are having a string of car burglaries or break-ins and these four teenagers have been hanging out in the Municipal parking lot" or what have you.

He said "That's how you find things out. You've got enough enemies on your job, you don't need to create enemies by hurting people's feelings on purpose." So that was the 'Let people thank you' part of the story. Here is the problem that we run into, or at least that I see with people who are either veterans or police officers or public servants or this or that or what have you when it comes to be expected. For instance my chief, he never walked into the Quickie Mart with no money, just assuming that he was going to get the coffee for free.

Later on, in my career, I was in a similar situation where I would go into a local restaurant where you know, I worked and the owner of being like, "Oh it's on the house today" or whatever. I say "Look I can't just take free meals all the time, it's going to look bad." She's like "Well, I'm the owner and I can charge whatever I want" and I said, "Alright, well charge me whatever you want." She said it's a dollar, or two dollars or whatever, but I didn't go in there expecting a handout. I didn't go in there expecting something for free. There is a difference between allowing people to express their thanks to you, and expecting a handout, expecting a discount.

Part of the problem or part of the impetus for this in the United States of America at least as far as public servants and Veterans and all that goes back to 9/11, you know after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 all of a sudden police officers and firefighters and emergency responders and military personnel, all of a sudden they were good people, all of a sudden we cared about them. As a nation up to that point most people were pretty much, you know, lukewarm to police officers or firefighters or first responders or whatever, and so what did we as a nation do businesses big and small car dealerships and restaurants and Disney World and all these other businesses, started doing Special bonuses and discounts for firefighters and emergency personnel and Veterans and active duty military.

All this because they wanted to say thank you, that was their way of saying thank you. Of course, it's a marketing tool too, don't get me wrong. I understand that but then we developed a generation who believed a generation of first responders, firemen, veterans and so forth that believe that because of their status then they were owed. They get discounts and free stuff and so forth, and rather than waiting and I see this all the time, and it really irks me, rather than waiting for someone to offer a discount or what have you they go in they go into the situation expecting it asking for it almost demanding it.

Actually, I've heard people demand it. A good friend of mine used to work at casinos, and he worked in nightclubs and so forth and he would tell me stories about these early twenty-somethings, fresh out of basic training. Sailors and Airmen and so forth, showing up at the club demanding their servicemen's discount to get in, not asking if there was one, but expecting it. Because they grew up or they've been educated to believe that because now they do a certain job. Then things should be cheap or free for them.

Ladies and gentlemen, on one hand, you need to whatever profession you're in, whatever you do. You need to allow people to thank you when people want to thank you. You need to learn to be gracious and you need to accept it, and it's just as good or just as important to be able to be a gracious person and receive thanks or to appreciate things as it is to give thanks, I believe but there's also, you know, another side of that coin and that is when people go out expecting or demanding discounts and freebies and handouts.

There's a big difference between Thanks & Handouts, and we need to understand that and you know, maybe you're listening. You're like "Paul I get it, I totally get it, I understand that." Yeah, but I bet you there's somebody in your life and some of that your encounter you're going to encounter maybe this week or next week or next month who doesn't quite get that and it makes it makes it look. Looks bad on all of us, whether you're a police officer or fireman, veteran, you know a current military member, whatever.

It makes you look bad when people that are in the same boat or on the same team as you go out demanding free stuff for demanding discounts from businesses because they believe that they're owed that it's a slippery slope and I thought I would address it because I see it all the time and I've been there done that and gotten the T-shirt. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that's all I've got for you today, and I thank you for being a part of the morning mindset audience. If you'd like to pick up a copy of the book a signed copy Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life, go to our website that is MorningMindsetPodcast.com pretty simple, or you can just go over to Amazon.com and you can get a paperback or a Kindle edition. I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM225 - Beware the “C” Students

Fri, 11 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Beware of the C-students and the underachievers. There will always be people around who will tell you that you “can’t” do something or that you should not even try. They have settled on mediocrity, don’t let them force that thinking on you.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Alrighty, here we go again. Thank you of course to Pop Evil and my friend Matt for that fantastic intro music that gets us going get this pumped up every morning. That's what I wanted. That's what I wanted for the morning mindset podcast and want anything that low. I wanted something that would get you pumped up your blood moving. It's ready for a new day. Alright, you may have read the title this before you hit play Beware of the C-students are like the C-students. Yeah, you know like when you're in school and you get grades A-B-C-D-E-F. Yes, something strange. Where do how do we skip he and go to F. You're like f stands for failure. I understand that but the other letters don't stand for anything.

Are you like “A stands for awesome and B stands for Bravo”? When I was in kindergarten as I'm going to take you back way back, I remember. Bringing home report cards because I sought my parents saved my report cards throughout the years. I saw my kindergarten report cards and you had Stars & Hearts and like, smiley faces and all kinds of weird stuff and then I went to first grade and when I was in first grade, they actually use an A through E system. Yeah, you're like no just a lie, and now my parents save the report cards and a was the best grade in Easy was a failing grade. But let's talk about C-students.

What is a C-student? Is a C-student the absolute worst? No, they're not is a C-student the absolute best. No, a C-student is somebody that does just enough. To get by now. You could say you could argue the fact that well a D-student, you know if you get a D+, you know, as Tommy Boy did there you still pass even though it was a D but let's just talk about C-students. Let's talk about people who aren't they don't really want to excel they're not trying to be the best there, but they don't want to fail either so they just do enough to get by.

The Underachievers of life now, why should you be aware of them know if you are listening to this podcast if you are a fan of the show if you read books about bettering yourself, if you have gone to training classes or schools or seminars if you've decided that you are not going to settle for average, and maybe you're going to venture out and you're going to try something new whatever that new thing is. I don't know could be motorcycle riding or playing an instrument or maybe you're going to try for a different job or you're going to attempt to change career fields or whatever.

You take a risk you're going to go out there you going to do something do something new something different. What do we encounter, and I would be extremely surprised. If you do not encounter these people in your life. They C-students and The Underachievers that are perfectly satisfied to be mediocre. But the problem with the C-student in the underachiever. Is they can be very very happy and intellectually, you know pleased with themselves that they're psychologically comfortable being Underachievers and B & C-students, as long as they're not around other people who are attempting to do more.

Or should you better or to achieve more? You see the C-student in the underachiever doesn't hang out with the the A and B kids or the A and B people or the overachievers or what have you because why because they feel bad because the C-student in the underachiever, they know, you know at the end of the day in or when they look in the mirror. They know that they're doing just enough. To get by they're not in the poor house and they're not failing but they're not really excelling either. They're doing that, bare minimum just enough to stay off the radar and you know to get by and that's fine with them and they can be psychologically comfortable with that until they run into you or someone else who has the motivation and drive and is trying very hard to be an A-student.

Trying to do something more with their lives trying to achieve trying to do something different and beneficial, and when the C-student sees that when the underachiever when they encounter you. Well, it kind of like shines the light on their average nests on their mediocrity going to like that, and so it's C-students and Underachievers will do is it will say to you things like. Why are you working so hard why you trying to work so hard they will convince you or they will attempt to convince you that you can't do something. You can't and you shouldn't even try. Well and mediocrity mediocre, she's me and The Underachievers. They will say things like, you know, if you do that, there's this chance or percentage of failure. Why would you risk? Why would you risk your good job? Why would you risk your career? Why would you why would you do any of that when it's not a guarantee?

You know what if you try and you fail, are you prepared for that? You know what if you try that business in the business doesn't succeed. Well, then you're a failure. No, not necessarily a failure. You start again you do it again. You see the mediocre or they will criticize I forgot about this part or the C-student or the underachiever will see what you're doing, and then they will they will pick it apart. They will find little problems with what you're doing to what Andy should pull this is really psychologically Twisted. Yeah, it is psychologically Twisted but it is a very genuine and real situation. It is a reality. Of the world that we live in. Often you will try it you and why do people not attempt to achieve why do people you know, stay where they are.

They're not necessarily happy and they decide I'm going to try something new and at maybe family members, you know you some of your family members maybe C-students. Your friends our co-workers, maybe C-students and you tell them you're like, you know, I've got this idea. I've got an idea now. Like I said before I did this for if you tell your wife or your parents, you're like, I've got a great idea. I'm going to go out tomorrow and start a VCR repair shop. Now if they love you, they'll say that's probably not a great idea, and here's why that's not being an underachiever that's being realistic and practical.

But have you told people I have this dream or this desire or I'm going to do this and the first thing out of their mouth is to tell you why it's a bad idea and why you can't why you shouldn't try and they'll throw all these statistics about failure and so forth. You know why they can do that because that's how they lead their lives. That's how they live their lives. They don't attempt to achieve because they've already decided that if they do or they try they're going to fail. So why bother. what kind of a world would we live in if everyone decided to settle and be a C-student?

Look at all the technological marvels that we have every day, that you use everyday alright the phone or the tablet or the iPad that you're using to listen to this show is a technological Marvel and it didn't become that way. It didn't happen because people thought and why even try. Stop listening to the C-students. Stop taking the advice of the underachiever and stop allowing people to talk you out of success. Everyone has choices to make in their lives. Some people have made the choice to do the absolute minimum that they need to get by and that's fine.

You know, you're well within your rights to do the minimum to get by but what happens is when those people see you and they find you talk to them or they encounter you and you're like I'm going to do this. I'm gonna try this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to know right now what, why? Why are you going to do that? Why you don't work so hard? Why are you going to work harder than you have to? How many times have you heard that dude? You're working harder than you have to you shouldn't no one expects you to work that hard.

No one expects you to achieve. No one expects you maybe you expect it from yourself. Maybe you should expect it from yourself. The next time that you have that you're feeling motivated that you feel like you're going to try something new that you're going to venture out that you're going to expand your knowledge base or your skill base and someone tells you don't try. That person is an underachiever, they’re a C-student. They've already settled and they want you to be the same way. You know nod your head or smile or whatever, but don't take their advice.

Don't let the C-students, don't let the underachievers bring you down or keep you down you're better now. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Once again for being a part of the morning mindset podcast audience. Thank you for sharing this with other people letting people know about it. Maybe you have friends or family or coworkers that you feel like could benefit from it, and as I said before we do have an actual website if you feel like doing that go to MorningMindsetPodcast.com. I'm your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM224 - Farm Dog or House Dog?

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Both the farm dog and the house dog are worthy animals. However, they each have their place and will fair far better in the appropriate situation. Are you a farm dog or a house dog? It might be a good time for you to make a change.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Welcome back to yet another episode of the morning mindset podcast. I'm your host Paul Markel, and I'm excited to talk to you today. Today we're going to talk about dogs. Now when you’re a kid, when you’re a child, we've had dogs, I grew up with dogs. I grew up in a dog type household from the time my first memories, and I don't know how old you are. When you first start remembering things three or four years old or five or so, but my first memories in my memories of our houses, we didn't have a lot of money, but we always had enough.
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We always had a dog or sometimes two dogs or you know, depending on circumstances, but I grew up in a doghouse household that had dogs now when you're a kid you pick a dog based upon what? Based on how it looks and baseball and whether or not it's friendly or and all puppies are friendly and all puppies are cute, and it doesn't matter what the breed of dog is when you know, when you're young or if you're inexperienced, you could be an older person to be an experience all puppies are young and playful and cute and so we get our dogs often based upon whether or not we think they're cute.
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Right, they're cute dog, or maybe you're a little bit more advanced and you know, maybe your mom or says we're not getting a long-haired dog because they shed everywhere and or we're going to get a short-haired dog because this or we're going to you know, large dog, small dog, whatever but if you have experience with dogs, if you are a dog person if you're serious about it, if you've been a trainer whatever, you know that different breeds behave and perform differently and I know that seems like stating the obvious, but it's not just about how they look, they're wired differently.
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Some dogs are perfectly content to lay on the porch. You know porch dogs, we've all seen this the old hound dogs in movies and TV and you know, and you walk up on the porch and the dog doesn't even get any lift his head. It might shift its eyes, look at you and like “Hey, what's up there buddy? You know I'm taking my nap, leave me alone.” I sleep 20 hours a day and then there are other dogs that are extremely energetic. We live in cattle country right now, and there are a lot of there are specific breeds of dogs that are cattle dogs, and why are they cattle dogs, why are they farm dogs?
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Well because they're bred in there is part of their DNA to be very energetic and outgoing, they're intelligent, they're smart dogs. Yes, believe it or not, I know that you probably look at your little puppy down there or you look at your dog and you think that your dog is the smartest dog and whole widest world. But the fact is there are differences in breeds now a farm dog who has a lot of energy and is a working dog a high-end.
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No, they're not really going to be happy in New York or Chicago or they're not going to be happy living in an urban area. Right and that can be having a happy living in an urban area where you leave them in your condo or your apartment all day long, right is they want to be out in the wide open spaces now are there dogs that are perfectly content to just take a nap lay in the sunbeam and you know, you know hang out while you're at work and then, you know, you come home they get excited for 20 minutes and they go lay back down again. Yes, there are and shape all this is Morning Mindset. What why we talked about dogs. Are you a farm dog? Or are you a house dog? Are you City dog?
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You farm dog, and the reason I ask that is you may currently be very happy with your career situation your job situation, but you may not be, and if you're not happy with your current living conditions, if you're not happy with your current job situation, it could be because you are not wired for that job. Now. You may have thought that you were you may have thought, you know when that would be the ideal situation for you many times people will buy when I was a young kid. I was probably kindergarten or first-grade time frame, and my parents were young people obviously because you unless you have five-year-olds, you're young a young couple in your 20s and somebody offered my parents a husky puppy and it was, of course, it was cute as beautiful blue eyes.
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Husky puppy, playful and all that. Well in the dog grew up Huskies, if you know anything about husky dogs, they're very active. The very smart dogs and even though we had a large fenced-in backyard, my dad could not keep that dog fenced in that dog would dig under the fence that dog would climb on stuff that dog. He ate our as little kids. He ate our socks like he'd eat one sock consume an entire sock, and then there would be socks in the backyard in dog poop how we had to give him away. We had it seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Seemed like you know, we had kids, you know, we were little kids and we had a backyard a fenced in a large fenced-in backyard, but that dog needed more he needed to be out now when you guys hear me tell you this I'm not joking. I'm not being glib and we actually when I was a kid a little kid, we had a Milkman. Yes, there was actually a truck that came around and it had a route in the guy stopped in front of your house, and you could buy and it wasn't just milk. It was all kinds of other things like for instance juices and popsicles and ice cream and so forth.
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We legit had a Milkman, right? I know that's you know gone the way of the dodo but we did and the Milkman lived on a farm and so we arranged for this dog to go live on the milkman's farm, and I know it sounds totally cliche and you're like bulk. Now Paul your parents just told you that actually, we went there. We visited the farm and I saw the horses and cows and all this stuff, and so the dog was way happier there because he didn't even have to be in a fenced-in yard. He could just run and Rome and bark at the horses and cattle and so forth, and he was very happy.
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Now originally we thought you know that it was a good idea, my parents, I didn't have any idea that I was five or six. They thought it was a good idea turned out it wasn't but the dog was way happier, and we were way happier we change situations. You might not be happy with your current job situation. You maybe you thought when you got that job or you entered that career field may be at the time it seemed perfect to you. It seemed like a great idea, perfect idea. I'm going to do this. I'm going to be happy and then a few years down the line you realize that you're not, and you're frustrated and you may not even know why like why am I frustrated?
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Why don't I like this anymore? Why don't why do I dread going to work every day, and what is that maybe because you're a farm dog it living in a condo? Maybe you're not wired for that. Maybe you need to make a change. Now could we have and unfortunately, the sad, sad reality of our modern world is what people will do if their dog is super hyperactive or what have you or wants to be outside or if they get a working farm dog, and they want to live in a condo they go to a veterinarian and they get special pills to calm their dog down and they medicate their dogs so that they're calm, and maybe in your situation you're like well, I mean, I don't really like this job.
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You know, I can I can live with it I can deal with it. I can find a way around it. It could be better just to make a change now is changing easy. No, it's not, it requires dedicated effort and it may be a little scary. You know, you might have to take a risk. But it could just be that what you thought was a good idea originally for you. What you thought you were going to be a good fit is not and you need to make a change you need to realize you like and you know the house dog if you put a house dog on a farm, you totally expected it to work. It probably wouldn't like that either. So if you switch situations neither one of them are going to be happy. You may be a house dog. You may be a farm dog. You might be a working dog and you may need a different change.
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I had a different change, a different setting and different venue might need to make a change in your life, and if you do you may be way happier more productive. So I thought that was a, you know, it's a worthwhile conversation, and yes, we had many many dogs over the years and we had some dogs that were perfectly suited for kids houses and so forth and there were times that we lived on a small farm and we had dogs that could just free room. Just depends on your situation. Maybe you're in a situation where you need to make a change. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining me today. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM223 - Blessings; Watch for Them and Acknowledge Them

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Blessings come in both large and small packages. Often we get so wrapped up in our day to day living that we may either take blessings for granted or fail to recognize them altogether.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset podcast, and once again, I am still your host Paul Markel and thank you again for joining me. Today we're going to talk about blessings. But before we get into the very specific topic of the day, Blessings; Watch for Them and Acknowledge Them, let's talk about what a blessing is. Do we even know anymore in our modern world? In our current culture and Society do we actually acknowledge the fact that blessings and to be blessed exist at that exist in our world are their blessings and what is a blessing may say "Well blessing, I'm from the south and a blessing is when you for each food you sit down you say the blessing you bless the food.

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Yes, but what is a blessing to you or I a blessing is not something that you are owed. Okay, you are not owed a blessing you are not owed that it's not something that that to you work for you can't work for a blessing, you can't purchase a blessing. A blessing is something that is given freely, and nothing you can say or do-, it's like grace. Nothing you can say or do can earn you a blessing. Now you may be a good person and you may lead a good life, and because you are a good person and you lead a good life, blessings come to you.

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But you can't go and buy them, and no one owes you them, and they're not obligated to give them to you. A blessing is something that someone gives to you of their own free will, or you could say that God gives them to you of his own free will, because they care about you because they love you. It's not something that they owed you, but they do it because they care they do it because they're generous.

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They do it because they're-, often I believe in our world, in our modern society. We are so busy doing what we need to do there. If you are a young parent, you are so busy with your job in your career and your daycares and your after-school activities, and your this isn't your that we become so busy and so wrapped up in our lives that we forget to take notes. Blessings, whether they are large or small, we get so wrapped up in our day-to-day lives, we take blessings for granted what we fail to recognize them all together.

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Recently, I was sitting down at the table with my wife and we were talking about a situation that we find ourselves in and not specifically so much ourselves, my wife and I, but a situation that our oldest son is in, and there's a person who has been a tremendous blessing, not necessarily to my wife and I but he's been a tremendous blessing to our oldest son, and I mentioned that to her I said, "This person has been a tremendous blessing to our oldest son", and she said, "You know, you're absolutely right" and we just took a moment, the two of us, to acknowledge that.

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How often do we Overlook or take for granted blessings in our lives? I believe that that they are out there that if you are a good person if you are a moral person, I believe that if you don't cheat trying to cheat people or deceive them or take what doesn't belong to you that you will probably encounter blessings on a regular basis. But I also believe that many of us we see them or they occur, but they're so small that we don't take the time to appreciate them.

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For instance, your wife said, and this is me, you get a text from your wife and she said "Before you come home, stop at the store and get coffee cream and bread" or whatever, fill-in-the-blank, right? So you do go to the grocery store you get those two items you walk up to the counter and there's somebody with an entire cart full of groceries, and you have two items that you could easily pay for in 38 seconds and be out of the store, because all you want to do is pay for your two items get out of store and go home because you're on your way home.

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You wish you weren't there anyway, and the person sees you standing there with just two items as says hey just go ahead and jump in front of me. Did they owe you that? Did you just deserve it? Did they have to do that for you? No, they don't have to do that for you. But that is a small blessing. You know, you were in a hurry because you're running late because of life and you pull into the parking spot, and you find that perfect right up in front spot the one that's never there. That was a blessing, it was. Someone goes out of their way to help you, to aid you, to assist you, [they] didn't have to do it. But they did it.

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That is a blessing. Do we take the time to recognize and acknowledge the blessings that come into our lives? Sometimes blessings are just a circumstance. Like I said before, you're in a super hurry and you pull in and you see a spot right up front, and that never happens, but you got it and you're in and out, boom. The person says "Hey go ahead and jump in front of me. You only have two items. Just go ahead and do it", [they] didn't have to do it, but they did. Sometimes blessings are people going out of their way to help us to assist us, to educate us, to maybe hip us to something that we didn't know or weren't aware of.

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How many of you are new on a job or new in your career field you show up and somebody takes their time to show you around you don't have to or they tell you what's not in the employee handbook or what's not in the 3-ring binder. What was not in the PowerPoint. They give you those little helpful hints to that age you and kind of smooth your way, your smooth your path. Even though it's not in the official company PowerPoint.

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I talked about Sgt. Sizemore previously and how Sgt. Sizemore, he was one of those guys. He was a blessing to us, not because he was nice to us, not because he was kind, but he was kind. Because he gave us more than he had to, that little Lagniappe that we've talked about previously. I guess you know, a Lagniappe is a type of a blessing, that little something extra. So as you progress throughout your week, throughout your year, your month or year, whatever. I want you to take the time and think about it. It'll make you feel better.

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You know, if you think and acknowledge "Hey, you know what? This person, that person, this situation actually turned out to be a blessing. I didn't realize it was going to be, I didn't know it was going to happen. But there it was, I couldn't buy it. I couldn't expect it. I couldn't demand it." You cannot demand blessings. You know a lot of us get used to buying and demanding things. "I have money and I can get whatever I want" and what you can't get, you can't get blessings and don't care how much money is in your bank account and I don't care how powerful of a person you are.

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You cannot demand them because they come to you freely, and when you get those things when they show up to take a moment to acknowledge them, and if you haven't acknowledged any blessings in your life lately, or you say "Well Paul it's easy for you to say, you know, because your path is paved in Gold." It's not, but I don't ever have that. I bet you that if you get up if this is the morning and you're drinking your coffee or whatever and you're getting ready to begin your day, I bet you that you'll experience at least one blessing today if you pay attention, and look for it. So that is the Morning Mindset for today. It's number 2-2-3. Geez Louise we’re already on #223. Can you believe it? I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM222 - Boots and Shoes; Amateur or Professional?

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Decades ago, I realized that the difference between a professional and an amateur was the footwear that they choose. What do your shoes or boots say about you?

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If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Ho ho ho! Welcome back to the Morning Mindset podcast, and if you're listening to these in order as they are released chronologically per the calendar. It is almost Christmas as a matter of fact, I believe if my show notes are right that this episode. We'll be releasing right before Christmas weekend Christmas weekend. 2018 and if you're listening to these episodes in the future, well, hello future man, or woman welcome from the past. But and also we will be dark Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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A little bit of Showbiz Ligety for you guys there we will be dark on those days. So, what was the best Christmas present you ever received or what was the best Christmas present ever people ask this, you know pretty frequently around the holiday season people will say oh, what's the best present you ever got or you know, what have you and of course there is the expected answer your you could think what if you're an adult with children and a spouse then you're supposed to stop and think "Hmm, I should say whatever gift it was that my wife or husband gave me or then you say well, they expect me to say whatever the macaroni picture that my child made in first grade. That was my favorite one ever."
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What have you, these are the expected answers or you could say the birth of our Savior. Jesus Christ is the best present ever and that is, of course, something that is expected of you. But that doesn't really take a whole lot of thought doesn't matter of fact, it takes only the thought of figuring out what other people want to hear and that's the problem that we encounter in our world is often when people ask us questions, Rather than giving them an honest answer we stop and try and think what do they want to hear? What do they want to hear? Do they do they want to hear X, Y, or Z or is that the actual answer?
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Now I thought about this, I gave it some honest thought what was the best Christmas present ever or some of the best presents? You know when you're a child you get toys and so forth, and when you're an adult you get practical things like wool socks and ties and underwear and shirts and stuff like that. Like, you know, I got you something. I knew you needed, and your wife's like I know you need new underwear. So here you go there in multiple colors, but what are some of the best presents I've ever received.
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Well, I'll tell you thinking back to when I was a young child as opposed to an old child when I was young. I received a Playmobil. If you guys know what Playmobil is Knights of the Round Table playset and if memory serves me there were either six or eight nights, and they had all the accouterments it came with they had little horses and swords and Lance's and helmets and Shields and there was like a little round actually wasn't around table. That was a rectangular table, but there was a throne and I'm sure that there's a crown for the king and so, and I law when I was a kid when I was a young child in the 70s. I loved Playmobil stuff and my absolute number one favorite thing. When was the Playmobil Knights of the Round Table or night or whatever it was?
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They called it the knights set, and I would sit on the, you know when I got that Christmas morning, I ripped into that thing and I opened it up. I got all the little figures out and all the little horses and everything and I laid there on the floor of the living room by the Christmas tree and I played with that thing for hours. Why because it inspired my imagination there is no batteries. Nothing lit up. You know that it did they didn't make sounds, there is nothing electronic about them. They didn't make sounds it didn't make lights. There's no app to plug in there was no online upgrade to come up with then when I was older my parents knew that I was and then I got into The Dungeons and Dragons thing and so I would go to the Hobby shop.
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I think it was called Hobby Lobby or, Hobby Kingdom. The Hobby Kingdom or whatever and they had these little LED figurines dwarves and elves and nights and fair maidens and monsters and Orcs and goblins and all that stuff, and of course, when you bought them they were just plain. Gray, you know their unfinished and what I did in on Junior High I got the little testers paint kits and I painted them various colors and all that stuff and my parents knew that I was into that when I was in junior high and they bought me this set.
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It was a Roman legion set and it had all the little legionnaires and chariots and tiny little figures and you could make dioramas and what have, and I remember that because I got that and I thought it was fantastic and I painted each, you know, all the little characters I painted them and and so forth and I would set up scenes and what have you and when I was you know, the thing about Dungeons dragons is the original most kids don't understand this today. They don't realize it because they all have Xboxes and PlayStations or Wii's whatever, but Dungeons & Dragons really required a tremendous amount of thoughtful creativity and imagination because it wasn't all laid out and played out for you.
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I mean you had your little figures and you had your cards and you had so forth, but most of it was in your imagination, and so thinking about the greatest Christmas presents that I ever received. At least when I was a child, the greatest Christmas presents that I ever received were those that caused me or required me or inspired me to use my imagination whether it was the little Playmobil said or a little figurines or what have you, and I guess I had an active imagination or whatever you want to call it when I was a kid, but thinking about that and I would spend hours and hours.
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I mean that I when I was in elementary school, I was in elementary school. I was probably well. I know I was I was 10 years old the year that Star Wars came out and we went to see in the movie theater and it was the greatest thing at my ten-year-old eyes had ever witnessed. It was phenomenal it changed my life, and so I immediately assumed well as soon as they're available. I discovered that there were Star Wars action figures and so of course, you know, 10-year-old me, 11-12-year-old me there. I am and I had the Star Wars action figures and the reason the Star Wars action figures, the same thing, you know and inspired my, and that's what I would say.
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Now you can do whatever you want. I don't care, maybe it was a football. There's a little football, maybe was a Red Ryder BB gun. I don't know. I never got a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. I was surprised although I gave my child one. I was able to give my youngest child. I gave him a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas many many many years ago. At least for me my honest thoughtful response to that inquiry. What's the best Christmas present ever? Well, if you're talking about sitting, you know at the base of a Christmas tree with all the bright lights and shiny tinsel and ornaments and stuff the best Christmas present I ever got or those that inspired my imagination.
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There you go, that is my honest answer to you freaks out there. I hope that you have a wonderful holiday weekend Christmas New Year's whatever it is that you're celebrating, you know, maybe you're celebrating Leif Eriksson day or. What do they do on Seinfeld it a Festivus. I've got over again. Maybe you're celebrating Festivus just year, but regardless, I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM214 - What Lifts you Up?

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

We all get down or feel down. That is natural. We should focus on and remember things that lift us back up and make us feel good. What in your life lifts you up? Try to spend more time focusing on that. (Filter: Take a Picture, playing my guitar, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset, I got it right that time. That's right. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you, once again for joining me for this show for sharing this with other people for leaving comments on your favorite podcast application. Whatever that happens to be today. We're going to talk about what lifts you up. We all get down. We all feel down at certain times we go through highs and lows in our lives. That's what life is all about. That's natural.
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But what we need to focus on is not so much the things that get us down or when we do get down when we feel low when we feel bummed out when we feel like we don't want to get out of bed or we don't want to do anything, what have you. Need to focus on things that lift us up? What lifts you up? What makes you feel good? Put you back on your feet, again, Julie Andrews. She sung are saying about it in The Sound of Music.
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That's right, it was called favorite things and you older people understand this and you know these younger people are like, what is he talking about raindrops on roses and Whispers on whiskers on kittens, not Whispers and warm woolen mittens. Those are a few of her favorite things when the dog bites when the bee stings when she's feeling sad. She simply remembers her favorite things and then she doesn't feel so bad. That's an actually a concept that's pretty old. But how often do we think about that?
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How often when you're feeling down when you get down when you just win the blues have taken a hold of you. Do you have a plan in place to bring you out of it? Or do you just kind of float along? I know I've been guilty of this. Sometimes I've gotten down or felt like, you know, what's the point and I don't have a plan or I didn't put a plan into action. What I want you guys to do is I want you to think about that now it's easy to feel good when everything is going well course, it's natural when you encounter something that makes you, legitimately, seriously just it uplifts you.
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It makes you feel good. I don't know what it is, it could be a song. It could be a picture that you look at it could be an episode of a television show. They're the office is a classic American television show. I know it was British first, but no one cares about that. There are certain episodes of the I like the office. It's been off the air for a while now, but it's still available on Netflix and there are certain episodes of the television show The Office that actually just make me feel good. There are certain songs that just instantly it's like an adrenaline rush. It's like a stiff drink or what have you makes me feel good. For instance. The band filter has a song called take a picture. That when I listen to that song it instantly lifts me up.
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They're older songs that lift me up. For instance. I talked yesterday about Stairway to Heaven Sarah to have an instantly lift me up because it transforms me back to where I was at the time and I think about that that makes me feel good. Playing my guitar as I said before I'm not I don't claim to be a musician by any stretch of the imagination and I don't play for other people, but when I have the opportunity I sit down by myself, and I play and I don't think about other things. That's the great thing. That's the greatest thing about musical instruments is that when you're focusing on the instrument itself and focusing on trying to hit the right chords and hit the right strings and all of that stuff.
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When you're focusing on that, you're not focusing on anything else. You're not focusing on what's got you down or depressed or angry or frustrated or what have you when I'm playing my guitar. I don't think about what's on Facebook or social media or anything as think about the good stuff. What lifts you up? Maybe it's a passage that you have read or a poem or a song or what have you something that I when I if I'm feeling depressed or if I'm feeling like extremely frustrated. I guess. I like to read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. If you guys don't know what Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, it was actually turned into a song many many years ago.
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But it's a time for everything and it explains an ecclesiastic that includes you a sees that as humans who inhabit this Earth. There's not only time for happiness. There's also time for sadness. There's not a time for us, for death, but for birth. Birth and death happiness and sadness peace and War there's a time for all things under heaven and when I read that, I reread it. I'm in a pretty much have it memorized by now, but I'll go back and I'll read it. It makes things and puts things into perspective. Sometimes we just need some perspective in our life.
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Sometimes when we get down or feeling down or we're bummed out, we just need something to kick-start us to give us that little bit of perspective to make things seem like they're not all that bad. Just like Julie Andrews song sang about or something about what is the correct pronunciation is she sing. She sang she sung. My English professors. I hope they're not listening to this right now. But so. What I want you guys to do when you're feeling good when you're feeling up when you're feeling upbeat and you encounter something and there may be things that you've never thought about. You know, what I forgot about that song Or that passage or that book or that show or whatever set yourself a plan.
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Set up a defense mechanism or a defense plan create your own defensive plan against the blues that sometimes we all need to sing the blues and sometimes singing the blues is just part of life and I understand that you know, that's something that Darryl taught Michael singing the blues is sometimes part of life. There's an office joke for you guys for those who get it, Congratulations.
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If you don't don't know what to tell you. So what lifts you up and when you find something that lifts you up make a mental note of it so that the next time you need to enact your your plan your defensive plan against the blues you can go and do that thing, and appreciate that thing for what it is whether it's a song whether it's a passage whether it's a book whether it's a musical instrument, whatever it is, maybe it's just petting your dog.
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I don't know but think about that consider what it is in your life that lifts you up. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that's all I have for you today. Thank you. Once again for being a part of the Morning Mindset audience. I hope you're enjoying it. I hope you're sharing it with others. Don't be greedy. Don't be greedy. Share this show with other people. I'm sure that there's at least one person that you know, that would get something out of this show, and if you'd like to leave us a message or write us a letter or what have you go to MorningMindsetPodcast.com and you can do that, and if you'd like to get a copy of the book it's available on Amazon, or you can get signed copies from our website. All right, that's it. That's all I have for you guys today Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM213 - The Staying Power of Kindness

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

We remember those who have wronged us, but we should remember those who have treated us with kindness. Being kind is not just niceness. Sometimes kindness is honesty.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*
Hello and welcome back to... I almost said the other the name of my other show, but welcome back to Morning Mindset. Yes, I need to remind myself. I need to get myself in a Morning Mindset type of mood before I hit record on the digital recording software that we use here in our studio. Alright, today I'm going to share something personal with you. You're welcome. A lot of people I would say most people probably have a song or a group of songs a playlist that defines their time in high school or their time as a young person.
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I have actually several songs. There are several songs that if they come on the radio or if I find them on my phone or a search for them deliberately that I can be transported right there. Right back to where I was at that time when I was listening to it, and one of those songs is Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and if you're an old codger like me, you're like, "Duh, that's everybody song." But if you're a young crumb crunching Millennial, you're like what that old classic rock song from that old band Led Zeppelin. Yeah, now the reason that I mean other than the obvious that the fact that it is a monster ballad, why Stairway to Heaven means something to me.
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That's because when I went to high school in Detroit, I started high school at the time. It was the early 1980s and if you know anything about music history Stairway to Heaven was released in the late 70s, it became a monster hit and the DJ's that DJ'd is high school dances. That song was chosen to be the final dance of the Night song and I don't know how long they had been doing it before I went to high school there and I don't know how long they continue to do it after I was gone. But while I was there Stairway to Heaven and it’s a long song was the that was the signal that this is the last dance of the night. Now in modern times, people would be like, oh that's a stupid song and, you know, dance to that and the fact of the matter is it wasn't really it was a slow song but it wasn't a slow song.
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It was a slow song that got faster didn't matter. It didn't matter. Now. The reason that that song means so much to me. Is I recall the Freshman mixer if you guys don't know what a mixer is. This is something that they used to do in the old days before the Advent of Facebook and Snapchat and Instagram and all of these Modern Marvels they wanted. Freshman to get to know each other and to get comfortable with their new school because why because well the fact is the majority of the people that were at the high school didn't go to elementary school or junior high together.
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Now I know many areas of the country, you know, you go to elementary school with the same group of kids and then you go to Junior High with the same group of kids and you go to high school with the same group of kids and you know each other from kindergarten through graduation, but when I was going we had a lot of small parochial elementary schools all over the Greater Detroit area, and then we had just a couple handful of high schools, and so all these small parochial Elementary and that basically they went K-8 schools.
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You would all get together in this one school and you only knew maybe 20 or 30 people when you actually started your freshman year. So they would have this thing called a freshman mixer and it was a dance and it was only for freshmen because they didn't want the freshmen to be overwhelmed or intimidated by the upperclassmen. Now the people who put it together in addition to teachers obviously was the student council the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior student council members. They put it together, they organized it in all that, and I remember during the Freshman mixer, asking two senior girls. I know I was 14, I asked two senior girls not the same time separately. To dance. and they both did and it was like I was dancing with angels.
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I was so far out of my league, but you know what? They said. Yes, they danced with me out there on the gymnasium floor in our socks because you weren't allowed to wear Street shoes on the gym floor, and their names were Janice McPhee and Patty Duffer. He says wow, Paul. How long ago is that Ben? It's been a while take today's date and go back to the fall of 1981, and that's how long it's been. Why do I remember them and why do we remember that dancing water? Remember that because ladies and gentlemen, they were kind. To me every freshman every 13, 14, 15-year-old doesn't matter whether you're a boy or girl. You're self-conscious. You're awkward and I was no different but even though I was an awkward skinny 14-year-old freshman.
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These senior girls. Do you guys remember that? Can you can you recall when you were 13 or 14 or even 15 years old looking at the seniors a high school seniors and they just seem so old and wise and mature and so far out of your league, even though today it's funny because if you look at someone that's three or four years older and you're like, yeah, whatever no big deal but back then, you know when you're that young. But those two girls and they're obviously grown women now, but they were kind to me, and I remember that kindness all these years later now kindness doesn't always have to be about just niceness or being you know, smiling and you know false niceness sometimes kindness can just be Honesty.
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When I was in infantry school, and I was in the Infantry School in the Marine Corps the sergeant who was in charge of my assault section and I was in assault man so we had an assault section the sergeant who was in charge was a salty infantry marine and he took the time and I talked about him before his name was Fred Sizemore sergeant. He took the time not only to teach us what he was supposed to teach us what it said in the, you know, but he also had the 3-ring binder that said teach these kids this these are the subjects you need to cover. These are the tests. You need to give this is what you have to do according to the rules. He did more than that, and he was honest with us. He told us he said there's the way they say things are, and there's the way things really are in the Infantry in the Marine Corps.
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He told us that the Marine Corps you as you might think it's big. It's a large organization. He said but the Marine Corps is a small organization in the global scheme of things and the Infantry is even smaller. He said you might think that you can screw someone over here and you'll never see them again. I said but you will be said or you could treat someone right and do the right thing because then you'll end up in a unit with them a year or two or so from now and you'll already have a relationship established with them the moment you arrived, and Fred Sizemore was absolutely right everywhere. I went in the Marine Corps every base.
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I checked into or checked on to every unit I was a part of, I ended up at some point in time running into or being stationed with people, Marines, infantrymen that I had known previously. Now Sergeant Sizemore did not, he would not fit the I guess the general textbook description of kind or kindness, but he was kind to us because he was honest with us and he told us exactly what we could expect out of our new lives out of our lives as Marine Corps infantrymen, and I remember that. I remember that to this day. I remember his name and I remember how he treated us because of the staying power of kindness often. We remember and we dwell on those who have wronged us. It's human nature.
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Everyone does it I do it you do we all do it. But what we should be doing is we should be dwelling on we should be remembering we should be thinking fondly of. Those who have treated us with kindness. Now those people that I just mentioned here, they probably didn't think anything of it. They probably, those wonderful young women who were kind enough to dance with an awkward freshman. They probably don't sit at home thinking about that dance or about that freshman they danced with.
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Sergeant Sizemore probably had hundreds, if not thousands of young Privates and PFCs go through his school there were in his in the assault section while he was stationed with the school of the Infantry there on Camp Geiger. He probably doesn't remember me as an individual. But that's okay cuz I remember them remember them all. Things that you do that you don't think anything about May resonate with others. If you are honest, if you are kind if you are considerate to other people you have no idea that could resonate with them and stick with them for years and years. There is a definite staying power to kindness. So give it a try. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM212 - Appreciate Good Service

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

How often do you take the time to truly appreciate good service? Do you show appreciation or do you just expect it as a given? Praise in public, correct in private.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Alright, let's get right into it. Welcome back to another episode of Morning mindset podcast and we are on I heart radio and iTunes and Stitcher and all those good things. But if for some reason your favorite podcast player is not working that morning or that afternoon you can always go directly to our dedicated website and the dedicated website is MorningMindsetPodcast.com and the audio links will be there as well as the show notes and all the other good stuff, and if you'd like to send us a message or ask a question or what have you. You can do so directly from our dedicated website. How easy is that? Super easy, yes indeed.

When is the last time that you took the time to truly appreciate good service? Have you taken that time and have you gotten any good service lately? Have you done business with a company that went above and beyond? Have you eaten at a restaurant or shopped at a store where they went above and beyond the norm to give you good service a good product a good experience. Good service. Do you show your appreciation or do you just expect that as a given you're like, “Well, that's their job, they should be doing it right and I'm not going to thank them for doing their job, right?” You can be that way. It's true.

The fact that matter is we live in a world where unfortunately more people will complain than praise. Unfortunately the fact that that's why that is why when you have a podcast like I do there's a reason why folks like me and all the others that do podcasts and television shows and all that on demand stuff. That will actually ask you we will say if you enjoyed Today's Show, please leave a review. Because unfortunately, the reality is most people if they have a good experience. They just appreciate that experience in their own heart.

They think oh that was a good experience and I'll go back again, but they don't say anything about. But those who feel that they were slighted that they didn't get a good experience somehow that it was a bad experience or they didn't get exactly what they wanted when they wanted it. Well, they'll complain it seems that the only time you hear from people is when they have something to complain about. Now Morning Mindset is all about leading a positive and productive life and one of the ways to lead a positive and productive life is not just to be a complainer.

That's what everyone does that's the easy default to the world people only speak up when they have something negative to say. Do you want to be that person? Do you want to be the person that only speaks up that only says something when they have something bad to say do you ever have anything good to say have you ever taken the time to let someone know even if it's a complete stranger that they did a good job and that you appreciate it. It's also a sign of maturity. It's also a sign of mental maturity for you to thank people that do a good job and genuinely mean it.

We've had a really positive experience. Since we moved to Wyoming since my family moved to Wyoming we move the entire business up here to Wyoming, and the first year we were here we decided that we wanted to give out a Christmas gift baskets to our friends and family members, and we wanted to do something special something, you know from the West something that represented or the west and Wyoming we found a company called the Wyoming Buffalo company or. IO Buffalo.com, and my wife it was it was her job. It was her job to come up with with the gift baskets and arrange them and you know, send them out and so forth, and she was having kind of a hard time.

She actually tried several different companies and she got really super frustrated. She was extremely frustrated all she wanted to do was send out gift baskets to our friends and family members and. She found out that she was being led down these click-bait sites or that they were their bait and switch in you know, they would say oh, you know, this gift basket is $29.99 you like what seems like a good deal and then you find out that it's $20 shipping or that that gift basket is a limited thing and the actual one is $49.99 and so on and so.

Well, my wife stumbled across this company called the Wyoming Buffalo Company, and what Wyoming Buffalo does is they send out gift baskets and all kinds of Western Americana type stuff like meat that's right and sauces and salsa and all these there's just too much stuff to mention. Well, they took care of her. The woman she called her up and she said hey, I'm having a hard time. I need some help and she said what can I do for you?

This and she was fantastic and so actually during this year my when it was not Christmas time. My wife sent her a card sent her note said hey, I just wanna let you know that I really appreciate all the effort that you put into helping me for going the extra mile. We had one situation where a gift basket got lost in shipping. It would Som something happened the shippers lost. It didn't send it. What have you and the person that we were sick because we send everyone a heads up or like heads up?

There's a package coming. Let us know when you get it and the person said I never. Received anything and they should have gotten it. So we call the folks. My wife. Did she call the folks at this company Wyoming Buffalo Company and she should arms terribly sorry that that happened and she put together and shipped out a replacement basket that day? Wasn't her fault wasn't the company's fault. It was the shipper's fault because they were morons and they lost it, but that didn't do us any good. Matter of fact she shipped it before we even gave her payment. This Christmas season and all year long. Take the time to let people know when they do a good job.

It's a sign of maturity on your part and it'll probably be a relief on their part because let's face facts most of the time if you have a small business if you work in a restaurant or store or shop, the only time you hear from people is when they have something bad to say do you want to be that person do you want to be the person that only speaks up when they have something negative or bad to say? I hope not that's not what this show is all about.

I'm not and I'm not saying to ignore, you know, somebody screws up or does something bad or poor you get bad service. I'm not saying to ignore that but don't let that be the only time that you speak up. Somebody goes a good job. Let him know, tell them that you appreciate it. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that is all I have for you for today. Thank you very much for joining me. I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM211 - Wear Out Your Shoes

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Wearing out a pair of running shoes is actually a good thing. If you purchased quality shoes, when they wear out it means that you have actually used them.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset podcast. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you. Once again for being a part of this show for sharing it for listening for applying it in your life. All those good things that today we're going to talk about something that is well. Actually, it occurred to me kind of by accident recently. I was playing my guitar now. I'm not a musician by any stretch of the imagination. I own a guitar and I like to sit down and strum the strings and make some noise and it's just for me.

It's not for anyone else, but. I looked at my guitar pick a pick that I've had for I don't know several months and it had the original company logo or brand on it and I looked at that pick and I realized that there was just a tiny tiny little bit of the original. I can't remember which brand it was is a black pick and it had a white logo on it. But the logo is basically gone now it's worn off and I realized obviously that. The reason that the logo is worn off of the pick is because I've used it because I've had it in my you know held in my right hand and I've been using it quite a bunch and I was also looking at the guitar and I thought I'm probably going to have to replace these strings pretty soon now from a financial standpoint.

You might be thinking. Oh, I don't want to have to do that. I don't want to have to replace strings on a guitar because that cost me money, but when you replace them, what does that mean? Well, it means that you've actually been using right. Let's think about other aspects in our lives other areas such as Fitness, whether its strength training or cardiovascular training or what have you how often or how many times have you worn out your workout shoes your training shoes your running shoes your Crossfit shoes, whatever. How often have you worn those things out?

If you haven't worn out a pair of running shoes yet, then guess what that is a really easy simple indicator that you're not doing what you should be doing or at least not what you have planned to do. You should actually look at having to buy new running shoes as an achievement. If you have to buy new running shoes or whatever type shoes athletic shoes, if you have to buy new shoes, that means that you actually use them that you wore them out because you use them so much that now you need new ones, and again from a financial standpoint, you're like, oh man, I gotta buy new ones, but it actually from a psychological standpoint.

You should be pleased with yourself. You should be pleased that you have to replace your running shoes your training shoes your workout shoes because that means that you actually put in enough work to wear those suckers out because they don't wear out by themselves. Do they know they don't I was looking at my gym equipment and I was looking at my knee wraps and my wrist wraps and so forth and I was wondering how soon I would need to replace those wraps and I don't want to have to replace those wraps because they're not cheap. But the reason I would have to replace them because I'm using them.

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to the Morning Mindset podcast. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you. Once again for being a part of our listening audience. I truly appreciate it, and if I say that too often if I thank you too often. Well, what you can do to get me to stop is write me a letter to add MorningMindsetPodcast.com and say “Paul, stop thanking me. I don't want you to thank me anymore. Alright, but until then I'm going to continue to thank you. During the previous episode, we talked about memories as Christmas gifts.

It was most of us have a lot of stuff at least I do. I have a lot of stuff and I don't really need stuff and I think that I'm at that time in my life where I'd rather have the memories than the stuff. So what did we do here just recently? Well my family and I. We went out to the woods. Yes, that's right. We went up into the mountains into the national forest, and we harvested our own Christmas tree. That's right. I bought the tag, and we stalked and hunted and took it out. Now. I probably could have been doing this when I was younger when I lived in Ohio or even Mississippi because I mean, let's face it.

There are pine trees, evergreen trees, just about everywhere in America, but here in the west the National Forest Service actually encourages people to go into the woods and harvest their own Christmas trees and you go into the office and you give them a ten dollar. They give you a yellow or pink or orange tag, whatever.

It happens to be that year and little pamphlet instructions on how to harvest a Christmas tree in case you couldn't figure it out for yourself. Yes indeed. They even tell you what you should take along with you when you go out into the woods to get your own Christmas tree. So we did this is the second year in a row that we have done that last year. We did it and it was quite the adventure. Yes, indeed.

We did not realize just how much snow was actually going to be on the ground already and we went up above 8000. I guess close to 9,000 feet to get her Christmas tree last year. This year we were a little bit more worldly and a little bit wiser and we did not Venture as far up into the mountains, but we were still I guess around 8,000 maybe 8,500 feet up and up there. The snow was about two feet deeper.

So way deeper than it is in town. So but we did we went up we part we went out and we got our tree now is the. Christmas tree the tree that we took out of the woods does it look as full and attractive as a Christmas tree lot tree those that are specifically grown on a Christmas tree farm. They were planted and raised and basically genetically designed to be fluffy full Christmas trees. The answer is no.

The tree actually looks like a native evergreen tree that you would get from the forest in the mountains. So the question that many people may ask is would you rather will would you rather have an attractive farm-grown tree and some people will say yes. Absolutely, I don't want some tree that looks like it was growing on the side of a mountain. I want a big fat full tree, and you can go and spend your money and you can stop on the way home from work tomorrow night or in the afternoon.

You can drive by the Christmas tree lot and you can exchange $30 or $40 or $50 or however much they're charging for trees and you can take one home and that's great. That's fantastic. Or you can invest your time, and what we did is we spent way more. We invested much more time in our Christmas tree Harvest than we did money, and when you invest the time you're creating memories, and it's up to you.

You can do whatever you want. I'm not telling you that you have to, you know, be Clark Griswold and trudge out into the Wilderness to harvest your own Christmas tree. Remember this if you are going to do that you need a. I saw of some sort whether a chainsaw or what I use is I actually have it's a manual chainsaw. It's one of those pack saws those emergency saws. It has two handles on it. It looks like a chainsaw chain, but it has handles. I'll basically they're leather. They're not in the leather nylon straps and you just hold them and you cut the tree like that and that's what I did.

We took along a tow rope this year case we had to pull the tree out of the woods, but it turned out that it wasn't that heavy and Zach the shipping ogre just carried it out on his shoulders. But that was our Christmas tree hunt and we didn't spend a whole lot of money, but we invested some time made it probably took us between the time. We left the house and got up into the mountains and got back.

We probably had, you know to three hours invested or so and of course my I also had to buy the family lunch. Because I'm the dad and since we all went out into the cold everyone wanted to stop and have a warm lunch inside on the way back which is fine, which is fine so that when you are adventuring out when you're venturing out this Christmas think about that. Will you do you want to spend the money?

Or do you want to spend the time and I know sometimes it's just easier to spend the money because you don't feel like you want to waste the time or take the time but every once in a while is I would suggest that you purposely and deliberately invest the time instead of the money, and make those memories that we were talking about previously. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I've got much more for you coming up.

I'll be back tomorrow with another one and the as the Christmas season quickly approaches. If there is someone in your life that you feel would benefit from the Morning Mindset podcast or the Morning Mindset. You can either go to Morning Mindset podcast.com follow the links and get them the book Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life. The book is available as a signed copy from our official website. You can also get a coffee mug.

A motivational coffee mug that you can look at every morning when you're listening to this. That's pretty cool. There's a poster on the store, there's a coffee cup on the store or there's the book on the store and if you don't want any of those. You just go to amazon.com and type in the word Paul Markel. That's me, M-A-R-K-E-L and all of the books that I have written will pop up in front of you including the Morning Mindset book.

So get it by it. I'm sure that as you listen to the ship plenty of time to get it before Christmas if you want to give it to someone as a gift. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that's your instructions go forth and do good things. I am your host Paul Markel, and I'll talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM206 - The Best Xmas Gift for your Family

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

We all have things. Many of us have more things that we want or need. One of the best things you can give your family is something that cannot be purchased in a store; fond memories.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Welcome back to the Morning Mindset podcast. I am once again still indeed your host Paul Markel. Thank you very much for joining me. Now during last week's episodes a couple episodes last week. I talked about Christmas and Christmas Memories some of the memories I had from when I was a very young child and some of the memories that I had when I was a young man, just recently married, had a little son and such. Shared those with you and I keep those memories with me share them with my wife and my family and I wanted to talk today about what I believe is probably the best Christmas gift for your family now, I don't know about you. But if you're if you're similar to me or if you're in a similar position.

Each year, you know you will hear from your family. They will ask you what do you want for Christmas or do you want anything for Christmas? We do this with our kids all the time, right Little Johnny Little Suzy we say what do you want for Christmas Johnny? What you want for Christmas Susie the used to be really simple didn't it used to be simple? We wanted a GI Joe with the Kung Fu Grip or we wanted the Six Million Dollar Man. Steve Austin action figure, right? He wanted that I wanted a football or whatever a football.

Daisy Red Ryder BB gun 200 shot Range model with a compass in the stock in the thing that tells time it used to be really simple. Didn't it? We were kids. It was simple to just ask for something whatever it was you maybe you wanted ice skates or you know, you name it. But you wanted something simple or something that you'd had your eye on all year, and like I said when I was a kid, there are two times a year that you got toys or presents on your birthday and Christmas and Lord help you if your birthday was close to Christmas.

Because then you had to wait a whole rest of the year, you know, if you're born in January, you're kind of shortchanged man because people are like man, I just gave you a Christmas gift and it's your birthday. My son. My son has a January birthday and he gets kind of shortchanged the best way to do it is maybe to have like a June birthday. That way you can spread it out. My we don't do that anymore. We indulge our kids today. We spoil our kids we give them presents and toys all the time. But when you get older, you don't really need toys. You don't really need presents.

You know, when you're an adult if there's something that you feel like you need, that you need to satisfy your life, whether it's a new golf clubs or a new bowling ball or whatever. Whatever it is that you see generally you figure out your budget and you just go get it. You don't wait for Christmas you know when you're an adult especially if you're the dad if you're Santa Claus, you don't wait around for Christmas time to ask for a new whatever because you're the one who's in charge of getting this stuff anyway.

So, how do we deal with what's the best Christmas gift? What do you want for Christmas Dad? Do you want for Christmas Mom, and most of the time the honest answer is I don't need anything. I don't have to have anything. Now. You always say well, come on dad. I know you don't need anything. But what do you want? I got to give you a present. I got to get you something or you save your wife, you know, she says to you. I don't eat anything this year.

Don't get me anything. Which really means you need to get me something but you shouldn't have had to ask me that's what that really means or there's some better be something under the tree because of there's not I'm not going to be happy the best Christmas gift that I can remember ever getting and now that I'm older and I can consider it the best Christmas gifts to me are the memories. Of Christmases past. Are the memories of the times that I spent with my family?

As a child the memories of going over to my grandparent's house and having Christmas dinner and exchanging gifts in the living room, and you know, I got gifts that I that I enjoyed when I was very young right after Star Wars was released. I was a child once the original Star Wars came out. I was in elementary school and I immediately got into the Star Wars action figures, and I started collecting Star Wars action figures and one year for Christmas. When I like I said, I was in elementary school. I remember what year it was. It wasn't even 1988. It was in the 70s, but I got a death star playset.

That's right, the Death Star playset from my grandma and grandpa for my Star Wars action figures and that was wonderful, but. You know aside from the actual physical things when I think about that now when I go back and think about the Christmases that I've had over my lifetime, I don't think so much about the objects about the things about the toys. I mean you remember things like that because it's nostalgia. But what was more important to me and what has been more important to me, especially as I get older is the memories of the times that I spent with the people in my life where I was and I think about where I was I think about the situation, you know, there were sometimes when I was in the Marine Corps.

There was a couple of times a day. Could not go home for Christmas and that's one of the big things at least it was when I was in being in the military and you're in the military, especially if you're in the Infantry and you're deployed all the time, it's will you be home for Christmas? You know, we are home for Christmas this year, and if memory serves I was home for one. When I was active duty, I was able to come home for one Christmas and that there were several times that I made it home, you know a week after Christmas or I got to go home before what have you but one year I wasn't able to go home for Christmas because it just wasn't in the cards.

I had Duty and you know, we were doing we were doing our military stuff. But a good friend of mine only lived his hometown was only a few hours away from where we were stationed, and so we got a couple of days off not really enough time for me to fly home and fly back, you know, it's just by the time you get there you're finishing up in your turn around you're coming home again. So we drove over to his house and I spent Christmas with him and his family and it was wonderful.

It was wonderful, even though I wasn't able to be with my family. I was able to I was able to share it with him and his family. There were times when I was deployed overseas and I just shared the Christmas holiday with the people in my company my platoon my unit. Then I got married and had kids and so forth and what I'm saying to you is this right now as the Christmas season is approaching. People will say to you. What do you want? Maybe your kids say that? Maybe your spouse says that?

I would say and if you're the dad if you're Santa Claus, maybe your responsibility is to help all those other people. Make good Christmas Memories. Your job is to create fond Christmas Memories and sometimes the memories don't seem so fond when they're closed up and they become Van Der as you get farther away from them like trudging up and down the side of a mountain to harvest a Christmas tree to harvest your very own Christmas tree. It doesn't seem that fun when you're actually doing it.

After you're done years later, you can talk about it. So if you're the dad if you're the Santa Claus, if you're in charge of getting gifts for people, I would say one of the best gifts that you can give yourself and your family is to do something that creates fond memories. Things that people will carry with them long after the toys and the Trinkets and the ties and you know, all the crazy stuff that you get and you put on the shelf and then you just like don't even know what happens to it long after all that is faded away. You'll have those memories and that is what I hope that each and every one of you will have this year. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I am your host Paul Markel. I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM205 - Be Professional, But How?

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

People tell you all the time to “be professional” or at in a professional manner. However, what does that truly mean? The mere word “professional” is not a magic fix it.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset podcast. I am your host Paul Markel and I hope that you are ready. Are you mentally ready? Are you psyched up for today's episode, and if not get yourself there real quick. Maybe take a moment, pour yourself a cup of coffee. Do whatever it is you need to do to psych yourself up and get ready for today's show. Alright, keeping in in line with the productive and positive, want to lead positive and productive lives, don't we?

Whether it's personally or whether it's in a business aspect or career field or whatever it is. We're endeavoring to do you will hear, and you probably have heard, throughout your life the admonition, the advice, to be professional. At work or you know, you may have been doing something, you may have been engaged in some behavior and a supervisor or a manager or somebody came over and said: “Hey, guys, be professional you need to be professional”.

Or you're in a seminar or a training session or something and then the guy up front or the girl up front was advising you and how to deal with customers or contacts or what have you, and they said: “Be professional, always be professional.”How many of you work in an office environment, or have worked in an environment? Where they had some type of one of those posters, you know, the motivational posters or what have you and it advises you to be professional. But how? It doesn't do us any good to just throw those words out say be professional.

Okay, that's like telling someone to. Play hard, you know do a good job. We can't just say to do something people need to understand how and sadly I do not believe that the adults of this world have done a very good job of preparing the Utes of America the Utes of this world to be professional. Let me tell you why, when you are a professional, you treat the situation not with levity or as a joke, you treat it as a serious job as something that needs to be done a task that is required something that needs to be completed needs to be done in order to achieve a goal.

If you're acting professionally, if you're behaving in a professional manner. You probably have an end goal in mind or you should have some type of a goal in mind right? You say well, I don't know maybe yes, no. Be professional one of the ways to be professional is to leave your personal feelings out of decision-making processes or proceeds. Leave your personal feelings at home leave your personal biases and I know that's difficult extremely difficult.

But when you're making decisions, are you making decisions based upon facts based upon Real World experience or are you making decisions based upon your feelings or your emotions, and ladies and gentlemen what we have done I would know. I don't know I guess since the mid-1990s. We have slowly moved away from facts and moved more toward feelings and emotions. We have taught the current generation, the generation that's entering the workplace is early 20-somethings.

We've been teaching them for 20 years that. When it comes down to it, the most important thing to them is how they feel. How do you feel about that? How does that make you feel? Is that make you feel? Okay? How do you feel? Well, if you feel like you tried hard will give you a ribbon. You didn't really do anything. You didn't actually accomplish anything. You didn't really put forth any actual effort, but you were there. So here's your Ribbon. Here's your trophy, and why do we give ribbons and trophies to people that don't actually accomplish anything?

Well because it's the nice thing to do because we're trying to make everyone feel good. Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot behave in a professional environment. You cannot behave professionally. If you make all of your decisions based upon feelings and emotions, but what if we taught people what if we taught these young people that feelings and emotions are the most important thing in the whole widest world.

You wonder why you're in a business environment that is not professional. Maybe it's because of instead of dealing with facts and realistic goals basing our decisions on experience. We're basing them instead upon feelings and emotion. You don't want to do that leadership here on the Morning Mindset podcast. We've gone over the 14 United States Marine Corps leadership traits and what they mean and why they're there. If you looked at "professionalism" and you applied that to the leadership traits, you probably would see that they go hand in hand. Punctuality being where you're supposed to be when you are supposed to be there.

That is the sign of a professional fairness and Equity making decisions not based on your own personal feelings, but on actual fact and reality that is being professional treating others with respect and equally treating them based upon. Their Merit and their performance not on whether or not you want to be their buddy or whether or not you want them to like you or whether you like them that is being professional judging people not by their skin color or their sex or what have you but judging people and evaluating them based upon how they actually perform in the workplace and what they do not what they said they were going to do.

Not their feelings about a certain thing, but what they've actually accomplished that is being professional. It's not enough folks for us to just say the words be professional because just telling people putting up a poster on the wall that says be professional doesn't do us any good doesn't help us how and if you see a poster that says be professional. There should be the word how question mark but how. Not joking when it's not appropriate now sometimes jokes and levity are appropriate.

I don't think I could get through my day. If I didn't make at least a few jokes or smart-alecky comments but understanding when that is appropriate that is the key. Yes indeed. Ladies and. So I think we've nailed on our we've hit on a few Nails here that we can hang our hats on “Be Professional”, how? Jokes, levity, only when it's appropriate to treat people not based on their skin color or their sex or whatever, treat them based on their performance. They either perform very well and did their job correctly or they didn't base their evaluations on that.

Base your business decisions, not upon your feelings and emotions, but base your business decisions on fact and experience. What are your goals? What do you hope to accomplish examine those first then make decisions? That's how we act professional, and it's very difficult in this world that we live in because everyone wants to give all their weight. To their emotions, they want to put everything behind their feelings. when we do that. We are not acting in a professional manner.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining me today for this episode of Morning mindset. I truly appreciate it. If you have a friend or a family member that you believe would benefit from this podcast. Please share it with them. Let them know that it is out there Christmas is coming up and is not too late for you to order the book Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life. You can get that by going to Morning Mindset podcast.com and ordering a signed copy, or you can just pop over to Amazon and you can order one there. It's as easy as that. I am your host Paul Markel. I'll talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM204 - Growth through Pain

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Recently Paul had a conversation with someone regarding strength training and the occasional strains and soreness that is common to the process. It the growth and development worth the risk of pain and injury?

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Welcome back to Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel and thank you once again for taking the time out of your day to join me for just a small amount of time just a little bit maybe the time it takes you to drink your first cup of coffee, or maybe the time it takes you to commute to work in the morning.

Either way, today we're going to talk about growth through pain. Recently, I was talking with someone with a young man about starting strength and about my strength training journey, and I mentioned that I had strained a muscle in my arm and I was currently in the process of rehabbing it and I've done that before I've strained muscles in my legs or in my back or what have you, and it takes time it's frustrating it takes time to fix it.

It takes time to come back from that injury, but it's not the end of the world and the old man I was talking to said well, if you're going to be hurting yourself, or if that training or exercise program requires you to hurt yourself. I don't know if that's something that I would be interested in and from a young person's perspective that might seem. Like a good idea or reasonably logical thing now as a person who's been on this decade for this decade on this Earth for five decades. Now I can tell you that I've been involved in a lot of programs where I was sore and strained and injured.

I guess we could say now, you know, not tremendously injured. But I played football when I was in high school for a little bit. I was in a big football player, but I did it and I engage in other types of physical activities. I engaged in martial arts types activities and obviously, you know, I was in the Marine Corps. I was in the Infantry and when you're in the Infantry specifically you get injured, people get injured in training all the time. They don't try and injure people. It's not the goal for people to be injured, but it's a hazardous duty and sometimes you get injured.

If you're going to grow your muscles. You have you actually when you if you know anything about human physiology when you're growing your muscles, you're growing your muscles because you're breaking them down. You're actually tearing down your muscles, from a truth, you know standpoint from a true standpoint. You're damaging your muscles when you overload them with the steel weights. But then your body responds by what, and sometimes you need to go through some pain in order to achieve some growth.

Now this could be applied to us from a well a personal or psychological standpoint. Doesn't necessarily have to be growing muscles or from a fiscal standpoint. Sometimes we need to experience pain in order to grow. That could be any aspect of your life. I don't know what's going on in your life, but understand this just because there's pain involved does not mean that the endeavor is not worthwhile, and it doesn't mean that the endeavor should be avoided sometimes pain is just pain and it's something you should deal with and you need to learn to deal with and get Beyond it and grow.

Not going to belabor the point but I wanted to touch on that. I thought was a good topic for Morning Mindset because we're all about being positive and productive here, aren't we? Yes, indeed we are. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM203 - Christmas Memories Pt. 2

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Paul shares some Christmas memories from a time when he was a young married man and had only one child.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, let's go ahead and continue on with the season of Christmas and I feel like sharing. So I'm going to. That's a great thing about being the benevolent dictator of this show, is I get to do what I want when I want to do it. That's right, and I didn't get to this position overnight, it took a little while. Going back thinking about Christmas Memories. I've got a lot of very fond Christmas Memories, and one of those and this is one that my wife and I share with each other and we talked about, we have for 20+ years now, is when my wife and I were a young married couple and we had we moved into an apartment and this apartment was part of a large house.
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You know, many cities in America, there are large Victorian houses big houses two-story houses, and what do they do? Someone will buy the house and they'll divide it up, you know Upstairs/Downstairs and the divided into Apartments, and we were in one of those types of homes was a large house. It was probably over 40 years old at least when we moved into it, maybe older. So it had really high ceilings. We were on the first floor, and we had high ceilings probably at least 10', 10 foot ceilings, and the first year that we were there this is when we're a young married couple our oldest son, our first son Jarrad was just a toddler at the time.
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He wasn’t quite 3-years-old and that's a special time in a little kid's life. Because you know when a child is one or two, you can buy them Christmas presents and you can give them things, but the fact the matter is is you know, a really young child can't really appreciate it. They just as soon play with the wrapping paper in the bows is any kind of a toy. It's not until they get into that pre-kindergarten stage that they can appreciate the Wonder of the shiny, you know, presence and the lights and the colors and all that. So Jarrad was, he wasn't quite 3-years-old yet.
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He was almost three at Christmas time and his mother and I, we went out we said we're going to get a Christmas tree, obviously, and we wanted to get a live one or a real one a genuine Christmas tree went to a lot in the snow. It was snowing and purchased a tree purchased a big tree, a tall tree. Tied it to the top of the car, because I did not have a pickup truck then, and did as most people do. You know tied it to the top of the car and drove it home and we set that thing up and it was almost as tall as the ceiling, it filled up the living room.
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It was a giant beautiful tree, and Nancy and I decorated it with all the lights and everything, and she started wrapping Christmas presents for Jarrad. Remember, this is the time we only had one child. So you'll have one child you dote on them and you spoil them and she went out and she bought all kinds of things that you know, a three-year-old would like, and she bought coloring books and she bought this's and she bought that, and rather than take the crayons and the coloring book and wrap them all in one or take all the coloring books and wrap them up.
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She wrapped every single individual coloring book, and she wrapped the crayons, and that kid had so many presents underneath the tree that when he woke up on Christmas morning, he came out into the living room and I'll never forget this. I'll never forget him standing in the doorway. He had those footie pajamas, you know, the fuzzy footie pajamas that you put your toddlers in, because they're so cute and it keeps them all warm and snuggly. Well, he had yellow footie pajamas on, and he walked into the living room and he stopped and he stood and the tree was all lit up.
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It was filled, you know with presents underneath it. and he stared wide-eyed and then we told him he could go ahead and open. So we started handing him presents, we handed him so many, that he got bored with it, and got tired of opening presents. He didn't even want to finish he wanted to play with the stuff that he had and I laughed and I still tease my wife for rapping every single individual coloring book and box of crayons and everything, and she wanted to make sure that he had enough presence open and he did he had plenty of presents to open
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It was one of those memories at that, 25 years or while Jarrad's not quite 30 yet, but all these years later, we still remember that that Christmas and that apartment. We only spent maybe a year and a half in that apartment, but we remember we remember that giant tree. I remember him in those yellow footie pajamas, sitting at you know at the foot of the Christmas tree unwrapping every single coloring book and box of crayons and what have you. I hope that you have memories like that and if you're a young person, if you're a young, recently married person, if you have little kids, I hope that you have the opportunity to spend the time with them to take the time to spend with them, and you know, it's tough.
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Let me tell you what, you know it we're doing okay now. I mean, I have a car to drive and have a home to live in and I have food to eat. So we're doing alright, but it's hard when you are a young married couple it's difficult. If you are a young married couple right now and you're frustrated because it's tough, understand this. That's the way the world is. It is and the reason that you're able to do it, is because you're young. That's why people have babies and kids when they're young because they have time and patience and energy. But I hope that you, during the season, are able to take some time, make some memories and they don't have you don't have to do everything all at once.
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It doesn't have to be Monumental. Sometimes it's just the simplest things. Sometimes it's just the simplest things that really matter, so I'm not going to belabor the point. I just wanted to share that with you. I hope that you appreciate it, and I hope that you're out there wherever you happen to be enjoying Christmas Memories with your family. Alright, folks. I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM202 - Christmas Memories Pt. 1

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Paul takes the time to share some of his fondest Christmas memories from his youth. Merry Christmas everyone.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Okay, welcome to another Morning Mindset podcast. I am your host Paul Markle and it is still the Christmas season and if you would indulge me. If you would I'd like to share with you some of my Christmas Memories now when I was a young man, I was a young child my parents had lots and lots of photo albums. I don't know if people even do people even do that anymore two, people have legitimate photo albums, or is that something that only your grandparents do?

But we did we have photo albums and I remember looking at pictures of myself when I was two or three or four years old or five or what have you pictures of sitting on Santa Claus's lap in the mall, you know picture sitting in front of the Christmas tree in my parent's house. But I don't really remember those Christmases. Those are just you know, other people's memories that I that I see that I was there and I was present but I don't remember that one of the first Christmas is that I actually do recall though was when I was in elementary school and we were living in the suburb of Detroit called Roseville, Michigan, if you know anything about the geography of Southern, Michigan and the greater Detroit area there's a lot of suburbs that surround Detroit, Michigan.

I was born in Detroit. I was born actually in the city of Detroit, but when I was young I lived in this little subdivision lots of, you know, a suburb named called Roseville, which is right next to Saint Clair Shores and so on and so forth, and I remember we would have a Christmas party at school every year, and we had a gift exchange and I think back then the the gift exchange limit was like two or three dollars, you know, they would tell her moms and dads that that we were and we would bring a gift for a boy or a gift for a girl if you were a girl you brought a girl. If you were a boy you brought a boy gift. Can you imagine that in today's world?

Yeah, where there was no gender fluidity when I was we knew in the 1970s that we were either little boys or little girls and we understood that. Even in the second and third grade we did but I remember how excited I would be at the idea of the gift exchange because back then we still put Christmas trees in our classrooms and we would decorate the Christmas trees and we will put the little gifts underneath them and then we had room mothers how many of you guys had room mothers? If you're young and you're listening to me, I don't know if that if they still do that if they still do that, but the room mothers were volunteers.

They were moms who volunteered every year to assist the teacher with party's right there. Like the if you guys know the office that the TV show The Office they're like the party planning committee, and the room mothers would always make sure that for our Christmas parties and birthdays and stuff that we had cake or cupcakes usually cupcakes or cookies or punch or juice or whatever it was, and they would come in and they would just kind of oversee it and help the teacher out.

But I remember before the last day before we would get out for Christmas break. We would have our little party are in class Christmas party, you know, and we would do the gift exchange and it was always a trepidatious feeling wondering if you were going to get a good gift. Because you knew that there were some kids in your class who are going to show up with really lame gifts. But when I was I don't remember what year it was with it was in third grade or fourth grade or what have you but the gift that I got for the Christmas gift exchanges school was a little red by plane.

Yes, it was it was made of metal. It was a toy biplane. It imagined a Hot Wheels car only a little bit larger. Now like the Red Baron would have flown and back then we knew the Red Baron wasn't because it was cool stuff. I remember how excited I was to get that and I came home and that was my main focus for several days because you get out of school. Obviously, you get out of school before Christmas Day. We probably got out three or four days before who knows when it was so there I am at home around the Christmas tree waiting, you know playing. My little toy plane, my little red biplane and to this day I still remember that thing. It was so cool, I was so excited about it.

I remember the Christmas season in Michigan as I don't remember Christmas season in Michigan. We didn't have snow. I don't recall one. Sometimes we had a lot of snow. Sometimes we had a little bit of snow, but we would go out. You're ordering that Christmas break myself and my brother and sister and the neighborhood kids because there's always neighborhood kids and at the end of the street we would build snow forts and we'd be out there with our plastic shovels and buckets and so forth making, you know snow fort blocks and what have you and we'd stay out as long as we could until our cheeks were red and our fingers were numb or mittens were all wet, and then we go inside and you know, Mom. My mom would warm us up.

She'd make us hot cocoa. We didn't have microwaves back. Then she would actually make it on the stove and she would take all of our wet stuff because my mom was very handy. She would. She needed scarves or crocheted are scarves and she could even do mittens and hats and all that stuff, and of course we'd come trumpet in the house and our hats and mittens and scarves and all that would be wet and she take them and she'd throw them in the dryer, and so by the time we were all done drinking our hot cocoa and we're all warmed up again our stuff would be dry, and at least for me, I would be back out at it.

I'd be back out in the snow messing around with my buddies and friends and playing and throwing snowballs and all that until the sun went down and we had to go in for the night, and those were wonderful memories. We didn't have a lot of money when I was young, as a matter of fact, it was hard, it was tough on my mom and dad when I was a young person. I remember having you know, a car would break down or something would go wrong with the family car and there was a time when we only had one car there was often when I was young.

It was very common for a family. You know Mom and Dad kids and silver is very common to only have one car to car families. You hadn't had that money and we didn't have a lot of it but we still had everything we needed. We had a warm home to live in we had parents that loved us. We had gifts under the tree even if they weren't super expensive gifts, but we appreciated him. I know I did and I loved I grew up. In the warm embrace of not only my immediate family but my aunts and uncles and cousins and my grandparents on both sides because back then in at least when I was young in the I was born in the 60s and grew up in the 70s.

Grandparents and aunts and uncles all lived within a few miles of each other. So it was very easy to you know, visit each other's houses for holidays and so forth and that was something that it's something that I've carried with me all these years and I'm very very tremendously grateful for that. So I thought that if I would just share a little bit with you, we don't always have to be solving all the world's problems in the Morning Mindset right? Sometimes we can just share, have a good time. Alright, folks. I'm going to keep saying this because I can and this is my show. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM201 - Understanding the X in Xmas

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Despite what you may have been told, Xmas is not a secular way from removing Christ from Christmas. Paul will explain why this is.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*
Welcome to a brand new week a brand new episode of Morning Mindset, and we actually we are at a benchmark or we reached a kind of a high water mark. I guess you could say in the morning, we did episode 200 last week and now we're moving on. This is episode number 201. How did I come up with 200 things to talk about? I don't know but I did and here we are and we're advancing now as I speak the words into this microphone and this is getting ready to be broadcast out to you. It is now December, that's right.
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So we're getting ready for the season of Christmas. I know that your local Walmart probably had Christmas decorations out in September, but for me, I don't really start getting excited about the season of Christmas until it is December. Let's talk about understanding the X in Christmas. Now maybe it is you who is guilty of this or you know, someone, a relative or friend, many of us may have an aunt or a grandmother or a mother or an uncle is usually women that get all bunged up about this, but it could be mental.
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That has told you every year, it seems like that this person rails against the use of X, Mas, and they have contrived to convince you they have told you that that is a secular worldly way of trying to remove Christ from Christmas and you may have seen the bulletin boards or the reader boards out in front of the church that say things like let's keep Christ in Christmas and similar things, right? Well, people who say that don't know anything really about the history of the Christian church, and I'm going to head I'm going to go ahead and quote from an article called The X in Christmas literally means Christ.
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Yes, it's they're not trying to remove Christ from Christmas by using the X. The article goes "I guess you probably heard the phrase keep Christ in Christmas and so on and so forth. The idea always seems the same, that the usage of X is to rub out or remove Christ from the Christmas season, but that is not the case at all. The X actually comes from the Greek. Christos or Chi, C-H-I, meaning Christos or Christ." I remember when I was a kid, going to church during the Christmas season and I was raised in a Lutheran Church and if you know anything about the Lutheran Church, they are very big on Christmas trees because Martin Luther was really big on Christmas trees.
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Now, I know that there are people in the in the secular world or even in the Christian world that will debate whether or not Martin Luther was the first person to cut down a pine tree and bring it inside and decorate it and call it a Christmas tree. Some people say that that's not true that it goes all the way back to Pagan the blah-blah-blah, whatever I don't care but the fact the matter is if you grew up in Lutheran Church like I did they put up Christmas trees. Every year big ones and they decorated them with Christian themed ornaments and one of the Christian themed ornaments was a very decorative X, and you're like it's like the letter P over an X, and that is the Christos meaning Jesus Christ. It's shorthand for Jesus Christ.
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You may have seen the word X IA n used for Christian as a shorthand for Christian and that is perfectly legit. Is a perfectly legit thing to do. So I just wanted to touch on that real quick because and I know I have had my own relatives people that I'm very close with, you know for years have said things they like don't use and what's you know, what's weird or strange about this whole X Mas thing or Christmas thing? I don't recall growing up or in my youth anyone complaining about that.
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But my entire life as long as I can remember Merry Christmas has been abbreviated X-Mas. I remember being a child being an elementary school seeing that but I don't remember people complaining about it or getting on their high horse about it until recent history. I guess so before during this Advent season during this Christmas season during this holiday season. If you have one of those people in your lives that says, you know that admonishes you never to write out X Mas or that the use of X Mas is the worldly or secular way to try and steal Christmas away from Christ or remove Christ from the Christmas season.
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Understand this that's not the case at all, and in fact, it's Christians who started using the x or the Greek Chi. As Christos meaning Christ, so the X in Christmas is not it doesn't mean Xmas. It's not like an episode of Futurama where they refer to the holiday is Xmas and it was Christians actually who started using it. So the next time your beloved aunt Susie gets all bunged up and she wants to. She wants to tell you not to use that you might want to say alright, let's go ahead and educate ourselves a little bit and use the language properly and know what we're talking about, and maybe that's part of being a productive and positive individual maybe have it leading a positive and productive life.
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One of the ways we can do this is actually knowing what we're talking about. Think about that, what a cool concept that is. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that's all I have for you guys today. It's the Christmas season. I hope you're you're getting excited about it. I hope that you have some I don't know where you're living in the world, but I hope if you live above the frost line that you get some snow for Christmas, and I know it's still early in the season. I'm perfectly aware of that, but I'm into it. Alright, Merry Christmas, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM200 - Arrogant and Opinionated

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Accusations of arrogance or being opinionated or even dogmatic are thrown about. But, are those accusations warranted or true? Is it wrong to be opinionated or dogmatic?

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*
Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*
Welcome to episode number 200 of the Morning Mindset podcast. Wow, and I've been doing this show for less than a year as I speak the words into this microphone. I hope you're enjoying it. I hope you appreciate it. I hope you like what we've been doing. When I say we me and my producer in the background who you don't ever hear from because I am alone in the studio alone with my thoughts and loan with this carbon steel microphone.
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Today we're going to talk about opinionated and arrogant or arrogant and opinionated, and it kind of dovetails right in with yesterday's discussion on identifying quality. Now if you have gone out and gotten the experience lived life got an education and training and so forth. You may be better able to identify quality then other people, and for instance, whether it especially when it comes to training, let's see education or types of training or what have you if you go out and you get lots of Education you take lots of classes training courses.
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What have you, I've done that for 30+years, and so I feel that I am very, very capable of identifying a good trainer, a good training program, a good class, a good instructor. I'm very skilled or well-equipped shall we say to identify high-quality good instruction and poor mediocre or average instruction. It doesn't take me very long to sniff out an average or a poor instructor because well because I've got 30 plus years of experience doing it and what that leads to I may say, I don't like this or I don't appreciate that or I don't endorse this.
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There are also programs products gear things that I wholeheartedly and very strongly endorse. and the reason that I'm endorsing these things is because I have this experience and the spaces in Education and Training, but when you go forward and endorse something when you endorsed a when there's a training program or whether it is a product or where there is a way of thinking when you endorsed that and when you endorsed it strongly and wholeheartedly you open yourself up to the accusation of arrogance or opinionated.
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I've been accused of both of those. I've been accused of being arrogant because I believe that I'm right. Or that I believe I'm always right that Paul Markle guy. He always thinks he's right. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I do think I'm right and the silly and ridiculous thing about that accusation is that people that throw it out? What is the other option? Is the other option? Not believe in your own thoughts not believe in your own decisions. Opinionated people say that guy's very opinionated all I don't I don't like him because he's opinionated.
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For what makes an opinionated? Well, you know, he said exactly and here's the thing people are often accused of being opinionated because they tell you. with without reservation exactly how they feel about a certain subject. They don't beat around the bush. They don't offer half-truths. They don't temper what they're going to say with political correctness. They say exactly what is on their mind with Noah. No uncertain terms, right and when they do that they're accused of being opinionated.
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She politicians are rarely accused of being opinionated because they temper everything that comes out of their mouth. They never tell you exactly how they feel they never take a stand on anything because they may need to change it tomorrow or this audience might not like what they have to say so that they have to modify their opinions. Or their thoughts or their decisions or whatever they have to modify their speech based upon whose hearing it. Now when you don't do that. When you offer your own opinions your thoughts your beliefs and you don't take into consideration.
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Who's listening? You're accused of arrogance you're accused of being opinionated and recently I was listening to Matt and Scott talked about starting strength and some of the people who have criticized starting strength over the years and they've criticized it for being dogmatic. Meaning that there they hold firmly to their beliefs and they refused to change them. Yes, sometimes being dogmatic is actually a good thing. I ask you this if you were looking for someone let's say I don't know, let's go ahead and say something like you wanted to learn how to play the guitar.
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You wanted someone to teach you and you could pick any person right any person in the world to teach you to play guitar to show you the ins and outs in the upside downs and the Mastery of the guitar. Who would you go to like, you know, when one of those Lottery situations where you could just pick any person, and they would be made available to you to answer all of your questions and to show you what they knew and so forth. Who would you choose would you choose someone that is a master of that for instance, would you choose Eddie Van Halen?
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Would you choose Eddie Van Halen to teach you the guitar or would you choose somebody that? Well, that doesn't feel that they're very good. It's silly to me, but yet it still exists. people don't appreciate those who they accuse those who have strong truthful opinions of being arrogant people who don't change or modify their thoughts based upon who the audience happens to be that day and they're accused of being dogmatic or opinionated sometimes it's good to be opinionated and I don't know what about the arrogance thing, but I can tell you this if someone has experience education and they have been striving or if they have striven to master, whatever it is their field of endeavor.
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Whether it's strength training or you know being a musician or what have you they probably have very very strong feelings about that because they've invested a lot of time and effort into it. So before you're willing to throw out the arrogance label or the opinionated label or you know, before you listen to someone like that you might want to think about exactly where that comes from. I just thought I would date. You know, what the heck I would I would deal with that subject. I would address it because I run into it quite frequently. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, like I said today was episode number 200 of Morning Mindset podcast.
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Thank you very much for being a member of this audience. I would truly appreciate it. If you would leave us a rating on whatever podcast player, it is that you use to listen to this and if you purchase the book, Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life. Thank you for doing that, and if you would leave a review for that as well, that'd be fantastic. Alright, folks. I'll be back again, and we'll start off with episode 2-0-1 next time. I'm your host Paul Markel, I'll talk to you again, real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM199 - Identifying Quality

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

How do you know what is really the best? How can you discern quality from the average or the inferior? Experience and education. An 18-year-old Private has no idea if the training he receives is the best, average, or mediocre. The same goes for food, coffee, clothing, gear, etc.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*
Welcome back to Morning Mindset, I am your host Paul Markel and I'm happy to be here speaking into this black carbon steel microphone at you, and we're fastly approach or rapidly, we are rapidly approaching episode #200. Yes, I'm sitting here looking at my show notes thinking man. Is it possible? Can we have almost a 200 episodes already? The answer is Yes.

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We're going to talk about identifying quality. How do we learn to identify or recognize quality or appreciate? I guess I should say appreciate quality. This is a topic that I decided to talk about or discuss because I had a recent discussion with a couple of friends and we were talking about this very thing. How is it that some people just don't seem to be able to recognize or appreciate quality and why is that? Sadly, I think many people in our world today have substituted convenience for Quality.

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If they can get it quick they can get it fast if they can get it immediately. They'd rather have immediacy or convenience than quality. It's set as a fully grown adult a seasoned and mature adult. It is sad to me to think that there are people who would rather have something that is an inferior product, but have it fast or have it delivered conveniently, than to have to wait for something that is a quality product, and it's not always just that.

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Sometimes it's the fact that people don't know any better. For instance, and I've mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating. When people have no basis in experience, education or training, they really can't identify something that is quality or not. Because they don't know. Let's say, for instance, you take an 18-year-old, an 18-year-old College freshman, right? Super impressionable and part of the reason that they're impressionable is because they deceive themselves into believing that they're geniuses that they're super smart, that they know everything.

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Now so an 18-year-old takes a class on you fill in the blank philosophy or what have you, and they come away from that class thinking that that Professor is the smartest person they've ever heard. It's the greatest class on philosophy on human philosophy or psychology or whatever it is. It's the best thing and they're they're just overcome by the geniousity of it and how great they think it is. now is that class actually the. Philosophy or psychology or whatever class was at the best information available where that was that person the best instructor the best professor and you say I don't know was here wasn't he the 18-year-old thinks he was, but why does the 18-year-old think?

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Because they have nothing to compare it to it's their first ever experience with that thing, and so they have nothing to compare it to. They have no idea whether it was the best available or mediocre or the worst. There are P. I like to you know, I use the phrase that life is too short to drink bad coffee. I will not deliberately drink bad coffee. Now it's not because I knew coming out of the out of the womb in the Cradle. What good coffee was I learned over time? That's right. I went and experience it for myself.

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I tried out all kinds of different coffees and I educated myself and after educating myself and gaining lots and lots of experience. I was able to determine. What at least to me is a quality product, and it doesn't matter whether its food or clothing or gear or coffee or what have you many times people settle for mediocre or average and it's not necessarily because they're lazy it's because they just don't have the experience or education or knowledge to discern, and you should have that. She that is why we try so many different things.

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That is why human beings can't well, they should I mean you can travel that is why they should travel. Many people believe that their city or the way things had that transpire in their City their Town their Community is the way of the world, and it's not until they travel and go somewhere else. So they realize it's not or folks do not appreciate. Where they live there are many people that think that that the state that they live in at the country the country that they live in is inferior or it's somehow morally wrong or what have you, and that things are better other places and they believe that until they actually go out and experience.

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Those other places I have been to many, many countries many continents. I've been in a Cell the country, but I've been on every ocean on planet Earth and I've been on the majority of the continents of planet Earth, and I've seen how people live and I've seen how life is in other countries and I can tell you this compared to them. The United States of America is a pretty good place to live, but I know that and I can make that comparison realistically because I have seen with my own eyes and I've experienced good bad and ugly.

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Often we cheat ourselves people in our in our modern world. We deprive ourselves of experiences. We deprive ourselves with the ability to deprive ourselves of the ability. To discern between what is poor or mediocre average or high quality, and we've cheated ourselves because we don't take the time and opportunity to get the experience get the training to get the education to go out there and live life and experience different things, and then after we've done that we can come back and we can say okay.

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This is probably better than that. This gear is probably you know higher quality than that gear this food and or coffee or clothing or whatever. Often times people just settle and it makes me you know, but you're a free man, you're a free woman you can do whatever you want. If you never want to leave the town in which you were born if you are perfectly free to do that. You can stay there. You can stay there are some people who never live more than you know, five miles away from the hospital that they were born in and that's fine.

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You can do that. But if you do you're really shortchanging yourself, you're like that 18-year-old that has no basis for making any kind of a comparison because they don't know any better at all. So if you really want to be able to identify quality. To know what good food tastes like good coffee. Good gear, good clothing, good gravy, good grief, Charlie Brown. Get your butt out there get some experience get some education and live life. Alright, that's all I've got for you guys today. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again, real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM198 - Jack and Diane

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone. How do we hold on to 16 as long as we can? That, my friends, is the question.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*
Alright, welcome back to get another Morning Mindset podcast and those of you who take the time to actually read the title of today's show, or these shows before you listen to them, you might be thinking "What is he going to make a musical reference?" Yes, he is going to make a musical reference. When I work out when I go into the gym and I pick up the steel and put it down, rinse, lather, and repeat over and over again.
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I like to put my phone I take my phone and I pull up the music app and I search out a station and I plug it into the speakers and I listen while I'm working out and I had it plugged into our turned onto a station. I think it was the Amazon Prime music Queen Radio station. If you know anything about this these quote-unquote stations, you pick an artist and they play that artists and other artists from that time frame and that genre that style of music. So there I am doing the thing the other day in the gym, and the song Jack and Diane from John Cougar Mellencamp when I was first introduced to him.
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He was John Cougar and then he decided that he was going to go change his slave name back to his birth name, which was John Mellencamp. I grew up. In the early why I came of age in the late 70s early to mid-80s. I graduated from high school in 1985. So when the American full album from John Mellencamp was released in 1982. That was right there right in my bailiwick right during my era Mighty naira freshman-sophomore year, you know that kind of a thing and. Jack and Diane was a big song was a huge song when I was growing up.
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A little ditty about Jack and Diane. now if you're my age, if you are around 50 you remember this probably very fondly you remember that it was top of the charts for a long time, like a year or so and I heard that song, I don't know 500,000 times during my teenage years. But I hadn't heard it for quite a while, in fact, the other day when I heard it in the gym was probably I don't know the first time in 10 years or more since I actually listened to the song, and one of the lyrics you know, or the chorus is life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone, and you say well, you know, you probably heard that if you've heard the song Jack and if you've never heard it, if you're a young crumb-crunching Millennial person, go to YouTube and look it up and watch it and listen to it.
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This is life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone and it's just holding onto 16 as long as you can change coming around real soon. Make us women and men. and. What's funny about that is when I heard that song when I first heard it, you know going back to 1982 in 1982. I was 15 years old, so I wasn't yet 16 like he was talking about in the song. but think about when you were 16, think about when you were a teenager think back to that time and how every day was. Exciting the prospect of every single day at least to me.
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It was exciting everything you did was of great import what you use me what you wore. You know, what kind of clothes you wore who you talk to what kind of car you had or didn't have everything was of critical importance. Right every day was an adventure it seemed I remember being a teenager and if you couldn't like I had there was a girl that I was very much fond of, and if I couldn't see her for one day, you know for if I had gone two or three days without seeing her it seemed like forever.
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Or if I had a family obligation, you know when I was 16, 17, 18-years-old. I don't know in high school that a family obligation on a Friday night and I couldn't go out with my friends. It was just it was like the end of the world. Because when you're young everything is fresh and exciting and new, and then what happens to you when you grow up and in the truth is you need to mature what we can't have an entire Society of 16-year-olds of juveniles because people who are juveniles have no concept of the future.
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They have no concept of civic responsibility or Duty because everything is all about what they want and they want it now, which is fine. Because that's the way kids are supposed to be but they're supposed to mature over time. But part of what we lose during the maturation process is we lose that thrill. Long after the thrill of living is gone. How many of you have thought about that over the years? Maybe you haven't maybe the first time you did. Life goes on after the thrill is living is gone, and when you first hear that, you know when I was 15, I thought that's kind of weird because you know.
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I couldn't imagine at age 15, the thrill is gone because everything was fresh and new and exciting and you know, the world was open to me nothing but the future, and here we are now, I don't know how old you are if you're listening to me you maybe 20s-30s-40s-50s or Beyond. Maybe you're in your 60s or 70s. I don't know. Is there any been thought my audience in their 70s if so, hey, how you doing? But how do we keep that? How can we keep the thrill of living?
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Even though we are way beyond 16 now sit changes have come around real soon and made us women and men now we have responsibilities and we have mortgages and we have families that need to be taken care of and we have careers and we have all these things that weigh on our heads. Yeah, teenagers today these Moronic teenagers that stick that you know that the news media finds them and they asked them their opinions. Does anyone else feel that this both ridiculous and insulting at the same time? Some news reporter will go and they'll ask a sixteen-year-old their opinion about anything, and we're supposed to listen like, what basis does an experience in reality?
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There's a 15 or 16-year-old have they have none they have none. But how do we as adults? Is there a way that we can keep that thrill of living? I think there is. I think there is one of the things that I enjoy and it may seem simple or simplistic but I really enjoy music. I enjoy the music from my era. But I also enjoy other music as well as I've grown and aged. I've kind of expanded my musical tastes and I like to listen to music when I listen to music.
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It makes me feel younger. When I exercise when I do physical training and I don't know I haven't always done the starting strength and the barbell training but you know, I used to hit the bag and I used to do other, you know, physical things. I still do sometimes but that made me feel younger it gave me that thrill. What is it for you? I don't know. I don't know but I just thought you know, I was listening to that and it struck me. It struck me as I was listening to that song that I should come to this microphone and talk about it for a little bit.
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Maybe you felt the same way. Maybe that is why we run into trouble as adult humans. You know, why do men, and women, not going to exclude you, women. Why do they get into trouble? Through extramarital Affairs through the use of recreational as opposed to professional or commercial drug use or what. Have you going to going to bars and drinking when you're in your 40s, you know or 30s even 30s or 40s or 50s going to bars and engaging in the behavior. That is self-destructive.

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Because why what? Maybe that's their way of looking for the thrill after The Thrill is Gone. I don't know are there other positive ways that we can look for the thrill that we can reinvigorate ourselves and make ourselves feel like we have that excited 16 17-year-old minds again. I think there are, and we talk about those quite often here on the Morning Mindset podcast. So alright, ladies and gentlemen, according to the clock on the wall is time for me to be quiet and let you guys go to work or get back on with your life, whatever it is you happen to be doing today. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM197 - Time for New Paint

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Sometimes cleaning is not enough and you need to apply a fresh coat of paint. The same applies to our lives. Once in a while, we need to apply a fresh coat of paint. Women are good at this, men not so much.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, and here we go again, and it's time for yet another Morning Mindset podcast, and I want to take a moment right now to thank all of you out there in the Morning Mindset listening audience. That's right, every one of you who have written us a letter or letter like, you know what I mean. No one actually sends paper letters anymore, but an email or to the Facebook page or what have you, thanking us or acknowledging us telling us that you're listening.
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I truly appreciate that. Sometimes when I'm sitting here alone in my studio because yes, I am alone in the studio talking into the microphone. I think "Is there anyone out there actually listening?" I hope that there are people listening and I assume that there are other people listening, but when you're in the studio, you're all by yourself talking into the black carbon steel microphone, you don't know.
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So for those of you that have reached back to us to say "Yes, I have been listening and I have been paying attention. Thank you, thank you very much, and for those of you who have left a review on your favorite podcast application. Whether it's iTunes or iHeartRadio, I just realized recently iHeartRadio is a little bit different than iTunes and some of the others. You have to have so many, you have to have X number of episodes in the can and pre-produced before iHeart Radio will accept you and you have to have been running for so long.
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It's a certain amount of time before iHeartRadio picks you up. So if you're listening on iHeartRadio, thank you very much, and I hope that you will leave a review to let those folks now. Well, wherever it is iTunes or in Stitcher, Podcast Gallery, there are a thousand podcast players. But leave a review and let those people know that you're paying attention and you're listening because it does matter iTunes pays very close attention to recent and 5★ reviews.
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The same thing with iHeartRadio and you may not know this and I know I'm going a little longer with just the talky-talk, but that's okay. But when it comes to internal promotion Amazon is the same way in order for Amazon to promote a book internally to their other customers, it has to have a minimum of five 5★ reviews. Until a book has at least five 5★ reviews that have been guaranteed or verified or whatever.
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They won't promote it internally, that's why when people do these podcasts and write books. That's why they reach out to you and they say "Hello, if you liked the product, please let other people know." You said is the only way that the because I don't talk to people at Amazon on a daily basis. I don't talk to people at iTunes or you know, Stitcher, Podcast Republic or iHeart Radio. I don't have conversations with them.
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The only way that they know that this is a valuable product and that they should promote it to other people is based upon your reviews. So it does matter. Alright, it is a holiday season and what do most people, or the majority of people do during the holidays? Many of you have family and friends over to your house right for visits and dinners and this is an ATS, and what does that mean? Well, generally it means that you do house cleaning, but you do more than you normally do. I mean most people sweep the kitchen floor and they vacuum and they take out the trash and stuff like that. But when you have friends coming over or relatives coming over, that's when you do the things that you don't do all the time.
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That's when you dust the heat vents, that's when you pull up the the the rug in the entryway and you mop the entryway floor and you dust the banisters or the railings or what have you, and we're no different. So recently we did the like top-to-bottom thorough detailed cleaning because we anticipated people come on over and like most people, we have a two-story home, and when you enter the front of the house, you have to go up some stairs to get to the main kitchen living room area. Which means that you go upstairs that if there's a banister a handrail there's a handrail there and the handrail it's painted white like the wall.
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It's the same color as the wall, and what do we all know about white handrails or white handrails get dirty, because people put their dirty paws on them all the time, and so I had the task of scrubbing the handrail, and I did it and what I realized after I cleaned it thoroughly top to bottom was that, even though it was clean, a lot of the paint had started to rub off on the edges on then you know on the ends the top than the bottoms and in certain places in the middle, it had started to rub off, and so what do I need to do now?
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Well, I realize now I have to actually go through the process of taking the handrail off the wall, unscrewing it all and imma take it out in the garage. I'm going to repaint it because the cleaning is no longer going to cut it, just cleaning it. Now often when you clean things, like for instance you clean the toilets or your bathrooms or whatever, and after a fresh cleaning, it looks all "Wow looks great. It looks brand-new", but with something like a handrail or what have you, eventually you have to break down and you have to put on a fresh coat of paint. Just touching it up, just cleaning. It just wiping it down isn't going to do it anymore. It's not going to cut it, you're going to have to go the extra mile.
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You can have to put in the extra effort and apply a fresh coat of paint. Now when you do, how many times have you done that? How many times have you said "Well, it's time to paint the porch railings or it's time to paint the fence or it's time to paint the trim on the house or what have you and it's kind of a pain in the butt and you have to go through all the rigmarole of the putting down the tarps and the taping things off and what have you but then once you've done it.
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When it's over with and you take away the tape and the tarps in the paper and what have you and you examine what you've done you think wow. Looks like new right looks brand-new. It's like a new thing a new whatever new house new porch new this whatever we can apply that same exact thing to our own lives. Every once in a while we examine ourselves. We examine Our Lives. We look in the mirror and we realize that we have to do a little bit of something extra.
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If you want to feel new again reinvigorated how many times have you found yourself? Whether it's in a work position or just as in life in general that? It's getting its kind of dull. That you're not excited. You're not invigorated. It doesn't you don't your life doesn't seem new or fresh anymore, and how can we calculate we bring that excitement that freshness that newness a little bit more back into our lives? Put a Fresh coat of paint on your life.
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Now women are really good at this. When women are feeling this way, what did they do, and when women are feeling I don't know that they need something new or be invigorated or what have you? What do they do? They go and they get a brand new haircut, right? They go in they get a brand new haircut or they get new clothes or new shoes or a new coat or new something or other. They go and they do that and that's like putting a new coat of paint on their lives, it makes a change.
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It's an improvement. Men, not so much. Men, we really get stuck in our ways, don't we? Yeah, we do. I do, I don't know about you, but I do we really get stuck in our ways and often men because we're we're male animals where we put our heads down and we just press-, we're like a bull in a corral and we just put our heads down and we push against the fence and it doesn't give but we keep pushing and pushing and pushing hoping that eventually it'll give and it doesn't. But we just do it because we're men. How can you put a new coat of paint on your life men?
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Now, men, I'm not telling you that you have to go to the hair salon and get a brand new haircut because it's probably not going to happen. I haven't had a new haircut in 40 years. Well, okay 35 years, maybe a little bit less than that. But 30 years, at least I've had the same haircut and I'm not going to get a new haircut now, but what can you do? What can you do to put a Fresh coat of paint on your life? Well, you could explore a new skill.
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Is there something you've always wanted to do but you just out but you talked yourself out of it. You're like, well, I always wanted to learn how to blank fill in the blank, whatever. Play the guitar, play the piano, I always wanted to learn how to snow ski, water ski. I mean, it's just I don't know who you are fill in the blank. But first, whatever reason you always put it off and you made her an excuse you like. Well, I'm too old or I'm to this or I'm too busy or what have you maybe now's the time maybe now is the time to decide.
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You know what? I'm all done waiting, I'm all done making excuses. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to try this new thing. Whatever happens to be. Every once in a while, you have to take out take the time out and put on some new paint and make things fresh. Again. Dave Thomas knew it and those of you who read Dave's Way by Dave Thomas, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for today. Thank you. Once again for being a part of the Morning Mindset audience. I am your host Paul Markel, I'll talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM196 - The Importance of Thanks

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Thanksgiving or the idea of thanks is critically important for the development and maintenance of productive and positive living humans. We teach our children to say “thank you” to teach humility and appreciation.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Welcome back to Morning Mindset, thank you very much for your patience, and I hope that you used this last week to catch up. Yes, we were dark last week the week of Thanksgiving. I took the time off. I took that week off because every once in a while, I need some time off ladies and gentlemen, I need to stoke the fires and recharge the batteries and all the other colloquialisms that we use to figure out how it is. We're going to come up with even more Morning Mindsets. Alright today, I'm going to talk about the importance of thanks.

Yes, we are just coming off of the Thanksgiving weekend, and yes, and I also understand that you may be listening to this in the distant future but it still applies Thanksgiving or the idea of thanks is critically important for the development and the maintenance of a productive and positive living human. Yes, think about it. Hopefully, if you had children when you were raising your children, you told them to say thank you. You taught them to say thank you when grandma gives you a gift or present you say thank you. When you take them trick-or-treating they say, “Say thank you.” Now, why is that? He's like, well, it's because it's polite and it's good manners. Yes, you are. Correct. It is polite and it is good manners. But why do we have a season of thanks? Why is it important for us as a culture as a nation as human beings to take the time to give thanks and who are we giving thanks to.

See that's another thing that has been lost. Thanks to the commercialization of our modern world. As we who are we giving thanks to and what are we thankful for everybody and maybe not everybody but it's a tradition. Normally. I think that most people on Thanksgiving they take a moment, and they say what they are thankful for that year and it's typical, you know, I'm thankful that my family is healthy. I'm thankful that I have a job. I'm thankful that we have this food to eat and that's good, but the entire concept of Thanksgiving or giving thanks, is a very valuable lesson and it's a productive tool for humans and human development because you see ladies and gentlemen when you give thanks.

You have to be or you're demonstrating humility and appreciation. You're taking a moment to say. You know, what? I couldn't have done this or made this happen all on my own through the sheer power of my own will and desire. Giving thanks and demonstrating thankfulness is a sign of humility. Yes, when you thank someone, you know, let's just go back to the, you know, you receive a gift when you thank someone for a gift you are showing humility and appreciation because a gift is not something that you can Demand right a gift is something that is given to you from the benevolence of The Giver.

They've decided that you are worthy and they will give you this gift and there's nothing that you could do or say to force that it just happens because that person cares enough about you to do it. We often find in our lives and we see on display very unthankful unappreciative ungrateful humans. Who inhabit our world those who through their actions and their words behave as if they believe that anything and everything that they want and desire at any moment in time is their right to have they demand it. They feel they deserve it and anything they want no matter what it is day or night, they should have it.

We view these people only think men that person is one ungrateful SOB. That person is one arrogant SOB. Right, and why do we feel that way? Why do we see that, and why do people behave in that manner? Why do people behave in public in front of our own our eyes in an ungrateful and selfish fashion? That's because they were never taught or they did not grasp the concept of thankfulness. The meaning behind Thanksgiving because if they did if they understood thankfulness, then they would understand humility and appreciation. How to appreciate things that are given to you as a gift that you couldn't demand and you couldn't get without the benevolence of someone else.

That's why the season of Thanksgiving is so important. That's why it's important for us as adult human beings to take the time out once in a while to give thanks to genuinely take a moment out of our day out of our week month year, whatever to step back and to be contrite not will not actually contrite but to display humility and exhibit genuine thanks. Because when you thank someone when you are thankful. You are humble. Yes, because you have to be there, you know, is that you don't thank someone. Say "Well I'm going to thank you, but I just deserve this and I should have had it anyway, so regardless" now that's not genuine thankfulness.

If we hope to live productive and positive lives if we hope to live productive and positive lives with other people. Because how do you feel when you encounter someone that is ungrateful and selfish. Do you want to be around them? Do you want to spend time around them? Do you want to work with that person? You're probably thinking no. No, I don't want to work with selfish ungrateful a-holes. I want to stay away from them. So you want to be the person that others want to be around you want to be the person that sets the example, correct?

I'm hoping that you do that's why you're here. So I just wanted to just take a moment and touch on the importance of Thanksgiving in the season of thanks and why it is that as humans. We teach our children to say thank you. We teach them to do that because we're trying to teach them humility, and sometimes it sticks. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes it doesn't. Teach your children, well teach them to say thank you and as an adult human, every once in a while, it's good for you to step back and say thank you, right?

Now I had a question during our off time that actually arrived via the email, and someone said how can I get a signed copy of the Morning Mindset book did I miss it? The answer is no you didn't miss it. All you have to do is go to MorningMindsetPodcast.com, that's right. MorningMindsetPodcast.com, that is the official website of this show, and if you go there, there will be a link that will take you to the store and you can get a signed copy of the Morning Mindset book.

You can get an official Morning Mindset coffee mug, in regular or extra large size and I have an extra large cup of coffee in my hand right now. Hmm, or you can get a motivation poster. Yes, my son Zachary who's also the store manager. He came up with the coffee mugs and the poster and what have you and if you don't want to get a signed copy if an autographed copy of the book is not important to you.

You don't need my scribble on it, you just want a copy of the book to give to a friend or relative or someone that's cool, too. You can go to amazon.com and type in Paul Markel. That's Paul Markel. That's me, and the book is called Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life. Alright, that's it. That's all I got to say for you today to you today. I am your host Paul Markel, talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM195 - Repetition and Redundancy

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Although they are often used in a negative way, both repetition and redundancy are both important concepts when it comes to learning and keeping the system running.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*
Hello, welcome back. Yes, indeed I welcome you every day, and are you glad that I welcome you every day or is me welcoming you every single day, every single episode has that become redundant? Today's episode topic is repetition and redundancy when I was a child, I remember my father scolding me for being redundant, said: "You're being redundant". But let's examine both of those Concepts when it comes to education, and learning, and expanding our brains.
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Repetition. How do we learn to do things? Well, how do we learn physical skills? For instance? How do we learn to play the piano? How do we learn to throw a baseball or catch a baseball or a football or what have you or play the guitar? Through repetition, right how many folks are so gifted and so talented that you can hand them a guitar and a pick they will look at it and immediately be able to play a song or a millet e how many people sit down in front of the piano put their hands on it and are immediately able to play the piano.
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You say well obviously just about no one. I mean there may be in history a couple of crazy prodigies who are listening to music and they just sit down and immediately take to it. He said but the rest of us, what do we have to do? Well, we have to engage in the process of repetition. If you've ever listened to it's not fun to listen to a child practice the piano or the trumpet or any musical instrument really it's not fun to listen to them.
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Why? Because they go back over they start and they make a mistake they go back again and make another mistake. We make a different mistake and they go again and again and again and again, but eventually what happens. If they're dedicated eventually their fingers learn to go where their brain needs them to be, right the brain knows what to do, but it has to convince the fingers to do. That's repetition, repetition and redundancy. Both of those are used as pejoratives or they can be used in a negative connotation. You know, if we're talking about, oh I don't like that blank because it's just a bunch of repetition.
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Alright, I don't listen to that guy because he repeats himself or becomes repetitious. You when it comes to education that's something I've been involved in for. I don't know 25 years or so. Educating individuals educating people training them. I've done physical training lots and lots of physical training teaching people to master a physical skill, and I know how to do it and I can teach you how to do it. As a matter of fact, I can sit down with you and over a period of a couple of hours I can show and demonstrate and explain to you everything that you need to perform a certain skill.
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But just because I explained it just because I demonstrated it just because I broke it down step-by-step doesn't mean that in a period of two hours you are going to have mastered that skill. You probably won't have. You'll know how to practice, but in order for you to achieve competency and you know some modicum of skill. What you're going to have to do is you're going to take what you were taught and you're going to have to engage in repetition.
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So repetition isn't necessarily a negative thing, and when I do educational- when I perform, whether as a coach or as an instructor or a teacher or if I'm writing, and I'm creating some type of educational or instructional material. I deliberately build repetition into that work, and the reason I do it is that it has to be reinforced. That is how human beings learn. I know I know that it's easy to say all this is repetitive. This is just this is just a repetitive exercise. Yeah, and sometimes repetitive exercises are good, and sometimes they're very important now, let's examine redundancy.
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What is 'redundancy'? Now if you're using it in the negative, if you're using it as a pejorative being redundant means you're just doing something that someone has already done or you're just repeating or you're following or you're you're doing something that doesn't necessarily need to be done because it already has been. Now when we talk about other things such as Engineers, if you are an engineer, you know that redundancy is not a negative. It's a positive. It's a very important positive for instance an aircraft, an airplane, a jet airliner has numerous redundancy systems.
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So that if one wire breaks, can you imagine if you were on an airplane and you probably never thought about this, but if you are in an airplane, and there were wires and tubes and hoses and you know, all these things, you know, a hydraulic system and a pneumatic system and electronic system. If one screw came loose or if one wire broke or if one, you know pneumatic line broke if that one line breaking would bring down the plane how dangerous would that be? If everything had to work, absolutely 100% all the time, you're probably sitting out there. You're like do you mean that's not the case Paul like an airplane night every piece of every airplane isn't perfect every time it takes off.
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I don't want to scare you but the fact the matter is when Engineers design things like. They put in multiple redundancy systems so that if one fails or if there's an error somewhere the entire system doesn't crash. On ships on Military warships, they build a numerous redundancy system so that if the ship takes damage in one area, it doesn't take down the entire ship if the bridge is hit. I was actually stationed on board an aircraft carrier for two years as part of the Marine Detachment and I learned a lot in two years and one of the things that I learned as they had this thing up on that building like thing on the flight deck, you know, you guys all know what an aircraft carrier looks like, right?
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It's got a big flat top and then it has this building scooted over to the side, right and that's where the steer the ship and that's where the captain is in the slot stuff happens, right? It's like a control tower. Well, I learned when I was on the aircraft carrier that there were numerous redundancy systems built into that ship and that even if during a time of war that the superstructure so they called it if it was completely destroyed. We could still steer and navigate the ship from a different part of the ship because they had built in redundancy systems. Redundancy systems are critical when it comes to emergency things such as firefighting or medical, you know, emergency medical gear.
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You always want to have a redundant system for that. So the words repetition and the words redundancy, they're thrown out and often. They're thrown out in a negative light. They're used negatively. But the fact the matter is, repetition and redundancy are both very important and they can be very important positive Concepts. So think about that next time someone says oh this is just repetitive or oh, this is just redundant take a moment to think.
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You know, what sometimes repetition is very important for Learning and skill maintenance and redundancy can save your life. Yeah, how about that? Alright, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Once again for being a part of my audience, part of the Morning Mindset podcast audience. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

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*Alex*

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MM194 - Active Mind and Strong Body

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

We consider the words of General George Patton. What did he have to say about having an active mind and a strong body?

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset, and I've got a topic for you that ties in with my other show. The other show that I happen to do. I was researching And discussing General George Patton's principles for life and Leadership and I was referencing it on the other show and I came across something that I thought would work very well here on the morning. Mindset show I had to be careful when I use the same studio and the same microphones in the same everything to do both shows, and yes every once in a while I slip up and I thank you for being a member of the other audience.

I know that you guys are members of the Morning Mindset audience. Yes indeed. What did Patton have to say about an active mind and an active body or a strong body and this chapter? The title of the chapter is an active mind cannot exist in an inactive body, and I've got some quotes from General George Patton here. The first quote is Wars are won by men with strong Wills to win and with strong bodies and then he continued.

He said "A strong will to win is more important than a strong body" men have won battles when totally exhausted and near death from injuries. However, that will to win did not get into the brain without having a strong body. You have to keep the body active to keep all the juices running into the right places. General Patton never stopped stressing physical fitness and if you know anything about Patton, you'll know that even into his 50s, he would go out every morning and run and he made sure that his troops knew that he was running because he set the example.

He led by example. Nobody made him do it. He didn't have to do it. No one was going to go to his tent and say Hey general you didn't go out and run a mile this morning. What's up now? He did it because he knew that he needed. Into we got another quote here from actually Napoleon Bonaparte and it said Napoleon said it takes The Sword and the spirit to win in war. The spirit is most important in our world today.

We seem to believe that we are more enlightened and intelligent than our forefathers or our ancestors were we like to believe we like to deceive ourselves into believing that because we have smartphones and access to the internet and what have you that we've got it all figured out in those old guys. Didn't know what they were talking about. For instance. We see a diminishing role or diminishing stress on the importance of the or of the importance of physical fitness. I witnessed this for a long time.

Now several years numerous years, probably 10 or 12 or more where we're diminishing the importance of physical education with our children and one of the things that we should be doing is increasing or. Proving the physical education of our children because the mind and the body work in consort. Your mind cannot be strong. It cannot be well trained all well fueled by oxygenated blood if your body does not support it.

Basically your body is the support system for your mind, and when it comes to being positive and productive leading productive and positive lives, we cannot ignore that fact and even Napoleon Bonaparte understood it General George Patton understood it, and here we are in our modern era believing that because we have access to the internet and we have smartphones and we have apps and we have all these things that we can somehow shortcut the system.

That we can have strong intelligent well-functioning brains without feeding them the proper nutrition and without exercising our body, and it just doesn't work that way. It really doesn't I've told the story on my other show, but I'll tell you guys one of the things that I had in my old Studio. We used to have a studio and Training Center. We had a fitness center training center, and then we had our recording studios in the other half of the building.

So half of the building was for physical training and the other half was for making the radio and the TV and in the radio Studio television Studio side of the building. There was a great big whiteboard, a dry erase board as you guys know and quite often. I would be in the gym part and I would be either on a treadmill or I would be punching the bag. We had a lot of heavy bags and so forth. I'd be doing that, and I would have a thought, and I would have an idea for the rather the TV show or the radio show or a new book or an article or whatever.

I would have an idea and I would run all sweaty from the gym side into the other side and I would grab a dry erase marker and I would put notes on the on the board. I tried to take a regular notebook with me into the gym and I found that I would constantly sweat all over it, and I know you guys like you need one of those, right? In the rain tablets man, one of the ones that you can sweat on and it won't mess them up. Yeah, that's probably true. I probably should have had a right in the rain notebook in the gym with me so that I could rain sweat down on it wouldn't ruin the pages.

But I realized, you know, that was one of them many times in my life that it was a firm to me that I realized that when I physically exercise when I worked when I sent. You know heavy oxygenated blood flowing through my body up to my brain when my brain was flush with that oxygenated blood that I was able to think clearly and I was able to come up with new and different ideas. I would hope that you have experienced that for yourself if you have not, and I will say this if you are in a position right now in your career or your job or whatever it is you do the where you are stumped.

You've been looking for a solution. You've been looking for an answer. You've been looking for a different way to attack a problem or what have you, and you don't feel like you're getting the answers that you need. Get your butt up out of the chair get away from your desk and go. Go stimulate some blood flow go do something physical, to get the oxygenated blood flowing and pump into your brain, and help your brain and your mind to be active.

You can't just sit in a chair constantly staring at a computer screen. You got to get up you gotta move around you got to do something physical. Your strong body supports an active mind they work together in concert. Alright in concert. How's that sound so I'm good you guys are leading gentlemen. I am your host Paul Markel. I thank you for being part of the Morning Mindset audience, and I remind you that as Christmas fast approaches.

If you would like to give the gift of motivation and inspiration to a friend or relative a loved one, you can get the Morning Mindset book. It's called Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life. You can get it at Amazon.com or if you'd like a signed copy, yes indeed. If you'd like a signed copy go to MorningMindsetPodcast.com and follow the links from there. Alright, that's all I've got to say to you guys today and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM193 - Context, Yes it is Important

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Before you hit the send button for any type of digital message, take ten seconds to re-read what you wrote and consider the context. You might be glad that you did.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset. Today we're going to talk about context. I'm going to start with a short personal story as you guys know, I've been writing professionally for 25 plus years now, and I've had a number of editors, and with the Advent of the internet, I was able to communicate with my editors via email. They were able to communicate with me their wants and desires and needs they were able to communicate those with me via electronic mail, and I had one editor who I thought must have really hated me.

You say well if your editor hated you, they wouldn't buy stories from you. They wouldn't print your stories if they hated you, but I thought he must have thought I was a jerk or a not nice person, and I understand this is family friendly. Because the emails that he would send me were always very, let's say curt, borderline rude. Borderline sarcastic and I thought man this guy must really think I'm a turd, or a jerk or something. Because every time I get an email from him, it's just the most curt, short, rude thing that I could imagine reading or writing.

Well, I thought that until I got together with some other fellow writers at a writers event, and we were talking about writing for this one particular magazine and this one particular editor and I said to him "I've got to ask you guys, when he emails you, just to see you know, how are his emails?" and a friend of mine. He said "Oh, he's terrible. He's the worst email writer in the world" and I said, "Thank the Lord I said, I thought it was me. I thought he was angry at me or that I was a jerk." He didn't like me, nope.

He said "No, no, no, we all get those emails. The emails that we get from him are all short, curt, rude and like he's angry at us and here's the thing. He really wasn't here, and he really wasn't a person who was trying to be rude or short or curt or discourteous or what have you. It was the fact that he did not understand the way that his emails and his messages were coming across to other people. He knew what he was trying to say, he knew the information he was trying to convey, and he just assumed that that context would be conveyed to everyone else who was reading it.

But it wasn't, what it came across as is he came across as like he was a jerk, and we were butt heads and needing like us it was kind of was very rude. Now today here in this Modern Age, this wonderful Modern Age that we have how much of your personal interactions in your conversations. Let's say in the course of a week how many of your business conversations take place face-to-face or via telephone?

Mmm, and you say if you're like most people I would say probably less than half and maybe even a smaller percentage of those of those conversations that you have with people of your interaction with others probably less than half of all of it is either face-to-face or verbal via a telephone. Most of them are what? their via email, or text messages or direct messages or if you have one of these. These when it caught the inner office software programs where everyone works through sent.

There's one called Basecamp where everybody works under the same base camp dealio. So you've got all the employees using the same channel and interweb if you will. So a great deal of your correspondence a great deal of your interaction with your peers and friends and business associates, and so forth are via digital message, right? So there you are you compose a digital message but really touch send do yourself a favor? Before you hit the send button, for an email or a digital message via text or basecamp or whatever it is that you're using to transfer your words in a to the eyes of someone else take 10 seconds and reread it, and think about the context think about what you wrote and consider the context and whether or not the people on the other end.

Are going to be required to assume or guess your feelings, or whether it is implied? Because you may and this is all you know Morning Mindset is all about leading a more positive and productive life, and sometimes you may alienate other people. You may cause hurt feelings for no reason other than the fact that the messages that you send seem to be rude or Kurt or just short you're being short with them. Or sarcastic or what have you. Sarcasm does not transfer well through digital messaging.

Alright, so stop or use it very sparingly use it very sparingly. Often we were being sarcastic in our emails and our messages and we think that we're being funny. But it doesn't come across to the receiver as funny. It comes across to the receiver as we're being a jerk or condescending, and you might say no, that's not what I meant at all. I didn't mean for that to be condescending. I hear the reality of it is this when you send that digital message, it's not like a sentence that you say to someone over the phone if you're on the phone with someone and you say something or face-to-face and they give you that weird look or they say what or understand or whatever.

You have the opportunity to clarify whether it's on a phone call or face-to-face, you can clarify your point. You're like, oh no this I want to talk about at all what I meant and then they go. "Oh, okay. I see, I understand what you meant by that and we're good." But you can't do that with a digital message, can you? No you can't. Because what they're going to do is they're going to read that sentence over and over and over again with no context from you.

No explanation from you, and they may come out thinking this guy is an a-hole. This guy's a jerk. This guy is a smart alec and he thinks I'm stupid, and you might say "No, that's not it at all. It doesn't matter, right? So. If you want to lead a positive and productive business relationship with other people before you send off and I've done this and I know I've been guilty of doing it and I try to go back and always reread, you know, my messages, especially emails. I'm composing an email to someone I try and go back and reread them, and think about like that. I'm reading it from their perspective, whether the context is there whether they understand it will they understand the context of what I'm saying?

Because if they don't then and what's worse is that they come back they're like they may come back to you and say what or I don't understand or can you explain that a little better? But most people won't most people just read it and think what a jerk or they'll forward it to someone else there other co-workers say. Am I wrong or is this guy jerk? It just seemed like he's a jerk and they're like, yeah, he is a jerk. You may not be a jerk. You may not want to be a jerk, but it's coming across that way because the context is being lost.

So ladies and gentlemen, you can take one piece of advice from me today before you send another email before you send another message another base camp another whatever take 10 seconds reread it. And consider whether or not the person on the other side, the other side will understand it and realize what you meant. And if not elaborate or just make a phone call. Okay. All right. That's all I got to say about that tub subject. Thank you very much for being a part of the Morning Mindset audience. I'm Paul Markel, I'll talk to you guys again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM192 - A Life Well-Lived

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

With the passing of Stan Lee, we consider life and how we live it. When you depart this earth will others be able to honestly say of you that you led a life well-lived?

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel, Thank you once again for taking the time out of your day to join me here for the Morning Mindset podcast, as I sit in front of this microphone and record today's episode. I was just recently, or just I don't know an hour or so ago, made aware of the passing of Marvel Comics Stan Lee.

Stan Lee was 95 years old when he passed away. I think that we can all say that Stan Lee probably lived a very, very full life. He was not taken from us in his prime, he wasn't taken from us too early. But regardless of that the fact the matter is when someone an icon like Stan Lee passes when he leaves this world leaves us all behind and makes us feel sad. I mean, I feel sad obviously, I didn't know Stan Lee personally.

I never met Stan Lee, but that really doesn't matter because Stan Lee has been a part of my life since. I don't know. I was since I was old enough to walk into a comic book store and give them 35 cents for a common core 45 cents or 50 cents. I don't remember what Comics were, how much they were when I was a little kid when I was 10 11 years. But I spent a lot of time in comic book stores.

There was one comic book store, in particular, that was located a few blocks, I don't know quarter of a mile from my house when I was growing up in Detroit and I would walk over there with you know, 50 cents or 75 cents in my pocket, and I knew I could only afford to buy one comic book that day.

You know, I had just enough in my pocket to buy one, and if you want to do a comic book shop in the 70s or 80s, there were hundreds literally hundreds and hundreds of titles available to, you know the Spider-Man and the X-Men and the Hulk and the Fantastic Four and the, you know, of course, I'm trying to keep it all Marvel. But of course there is Batman and there was all the other stuff. So there I am agonizing over which comic I'm going to buy with the 2 or 3 quarters. I don't remember what they were.

They were definitely way less than a dollar when I was buying comic books. But what was I going to buy was I going to take home with me? What story was I going to keep up with what storyline and I used to go back and forth between storylines like I would get hooked on whether it was a Spider-Man 1 or whatever and I would follow that story for a while and then I would get interested in something else get interested in.

I was very big into the X-Men comics when I discovered those, and I follow the X-Men story, The Saga of the X-Men. Angel and you know Cyclops and Wolverine, of course, Wolverine, maybe not of course, but Wolverine was my absolute favorite I think is probably most young boys young men as we were growing up. They idolized Wolverine because he was he was a sassiest smart-aleck, but he was he was strong and he you know did his own thing and he was his own boss and all that and how did.

This all became part of our lives. How did in a lot of you guys who are younger you 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds? You may not have ever hung around in comic book stores or comic shops, but the Marvel Universe was made real to you. Thanks to cinema, thanks to Hollywood. I think that we can all say that when we examine the life of Stan Lee that he lived a life. He had a life well-lived, and he left a legacy behind for millions of people now expect that you will be the next Stan Lee or anyone like him, but when someone like Stan Lee departs from us when they leave this earth and they leave us all behind we were in obviously we're sad we're glad for what he has left us.

You know, we're going to continue to enjoy. The heroes and the stories that Stan Lee created and he helped bring to life. You know, my grandchildren will probably be enjoying that you know, when they come around I don't have any grandchildren yet, but my son and his wife need to work on that, but I'm just saying the same thing as we examine a life well-lived. This gives us an opportunity for introspection that gives us an opportunity to look at our own lives and when it is time for you to depart from this earth when you have departed whether you depart early or late or meat medium or middle time or whatever.

It is Will others be able to honestly say about you if they were to describe you. Would they be able to say that you led a life well-lived? It's not that hard of a question. Not that difficult of a question. But it's a question. Nonetheless that we should all consider, you know when you leave this world will people be able to say about you that you know, if you leave early some people leave us far too soon Bruce Lee, you know Bruce Lee was in his early 30s when he left us. But even though he didn't live to you know, Stan Lee lived three of Bruce Lee's lifetimes, but both Bruce Bruce Lee and Stan Lee and they were not related by the way.

I don't believe they were related in any way, but we can say about both those individuals that they low they lived a life well lived before, how'd you take some coffee or something? So when it's time for you to go? And and you depart and leave all of us behind will people be able to examine your life and honestly be able to say that you lived a life well-lived you had and you led a life well lived in shape all you know, you can't expect everyone to be Bruce Lee or Stan Lee or and I didn't mean to just pick out those to lie people there, but just jump to the Forefront of my mind.

Do you expect that? No, I don't but what we all have the opportunity to do now, you know when someone like that passes is to look at our own lives and think about you know, when we go, what are we doing with our lives today, and it's a serious question. We're talking, you know Morning Mindset, we talked about being positive and productive leaving leading positive and productive lives. So as you go about your day as you go about your week as you make your plans think about that.

Are you making the most of the time that you have available to you? And I'm not talking I'm going to tell him you that you can never watch television. I'm not telling you that you can never relax and just do nothing and veg out now. I'm not saying that at all, but what do you do with your creative moments? What do you do with the time that you have available to you?

This question the only you can answer but. When I when someone like this, you know every once in a while and we lose someone, you know, last year. We lost Gene Wilder and I was a huge fan of Gene Wilder's films and we lost him but we could say that he lived a life. Well, let he led a life well lived. So that's all I've got to say to you guys today. I just thought I would come to the radio come to the microphone and talk about my own personal feelings and how I am glad that Stan Lee was in this world.

I'm glad that he produced what he did it gave me a lot of joy in my youth and of course as I became an adult I was able to take my children to see the film's the Spider-Man films the X-Men films, you know, the Captain America films and all of that and it's something that I've enjoyed with my children basically their entire lives. So thank you, Stan Lee. Thank you for everything you left behind for us. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that's all I have to say today. I truly appreciate you guys being a part of the Morning Mindset audience they don't forget there is actually a website.

It's called Morning Mindset podcast.com, and if you pop over there, we have a couple of items that you can purchase. My son. Zachary is the use of the guy who takes care of the store. They have been we have an official Morning Mindset coffee cup in two different sizes. If you'd like to Avail yourself to one of those we have posters and of course we have the books. Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life and Christmas is coming up and starts the season for giving and if you want to give something to someone that you think they might be able to use to improve their own life. You can either go to the store our store and Morning Mindset podcast, or you can just go over to Amazon and pick one up there either way. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Paul Markel. I'll talk to you again, real soon

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM191 - Defeating the Darkness

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Every year as winter begins, we are treated to advice as to how to keep our minds and bodies active and healthy during the cold and darkness of the season. Most people will also experience and emotional darkness or winter in their lives. What can we do to get through the dark emotional times until the sun comes back out?

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[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to morning mindset, and if you're listening to this in the morning, either the sun has just risen or you're waiting for it to rise and hopefully, you're drinking a delicious hot coffee beverage. If that is your bag man. If it's not your bag man. Well, then I don't know what else to tell you, drink some tea or something.

Welcome to the morning mindset podcast, and today we're going to talk about defeating the darkness. Yes, as I sit down in my studio to record this episode. We just had the rollback of the clocks weekend. We just fell back to Standard time. That's where we were on. I know that not everyone on planet Earth and not every state but.

Where I live we do daylight savings time and whether or not you're in favor of it or it doesn't matter the fact that matter is we just roll them back and we're back on Standard Time and also in the northern hemisphere in the United States of America. We're on that Journey that annual Journey around the Sun and what does that mean?

It means that the days are now shorter and the Darkness is longer and in the northern hemisphere as I'm speaking the words into this microphone every single day gets shorter and shorter and shorter until we change seasons and they start getting longer again. But what do we do? What is a natural Human Condition every year in the winter time as the days start to get colder and the night's get longer?

What do we have? We see the local channel news, you know NewsChannel5 does a how to survive the winter doldrums and so on and so forth and that is important. It is important that we physically. Take care of ourselves that we get enough nutrition that we get enough Vitamins because you know, we're not seeing the Sun as much it's cold our bodies and when the temperature is cold, it's harder for your body to physically fight against the illness Isn't So horse.

You need to keep yourself warm. You need to keep yourself healthy, hydrated, make sure you drink enough water and so on and so forth and that's something that's pretty common every year. You know we do that we talk about how to survive in the winter survival plan from tonight it on news channel 11 or when you know, what have you news Channel 12 tight 11 how to survive the winter doldrums and and basically it's the same advice that they regurgitate every single year if you if you've been on the planet as long as I have you know, that your local news channel 5 on your side.

They have seasonal stories and every year they Trot out the same story. They might have a different person deliver it and they might you know put in a pop culture reference or something. But basically it's the same story like for instance the daylight savings thing since I was in high school there have been op-eds and opinion pieces and so forth every time we change the clocks.

They roll a story they run a story about isn't it time to just go ahead and eliminate daylight savings time or you know daylight savings time was an idea invented, you know concocted by Benjamin Franklin to save whale oil and we don't use whale oil anymore. So who cares and you know or daylight savings time was put in place for farmers and most people aren't Farmers.

So who cares every year. The same story over and over again and that's the same thing we get every year when it starts it's darker. Now you may live in the south where it's not really that cold but it's colder, you know, I've lived in the South and it gets down into the 40s and 30s sometimes and but the days definitely are shorter and it is darker, and so we talked about you know, what can we do? How can we keep ourselves physically? Healthy during the winter during the darkness. This is another type of Darkness that enters Our Lives. It's an emotional Darkness. Now, like the winter, like the actual genuine season of winter, that is dark and cold.

It's not there forever. It doesn't last all the time. Eventually in and it's not Game of Thrones where we're going to have, you know, 18 years of winter. I don't know what planet they live on in Game of Thrones, but it's obviously not planet Earth because they have Winters that last for decades. No, our winters don't last that long.

Even if you live in the in the north and even if you live in the mountains, it still doesn't last forever even though it seems like it might but we also experience on occasion. We experience an emotional Darkness. We experience Dark Times. In our lives where we feel internal that we're living in darkness whether or not there's actually visible light in front of us here and the sun is out or what have you, we feel like we're living in darkness and the truth of the matter is some of the advice.

That is given to us every fall when we change the clocks and the days start getting shorter and the night's get longer. We give we get the advice about, you know, take vitamins, take multivitamins, you know to use a tanning bed go to the gym and do things like that, and the truth of the matter is if you're experiencing a time of emotional darkness, which is very natural and it happens to just about everyone some point in time in their life.

I'm sure it happens to everyone and may not be happening to you right now or it may you may be in an emotional winter. Now tell you this at winter doesn't last forever even in the north even in Michigan even in Montana. It doesn't last forever, but we still have to deal with it. Don't we just because Winters not going to last forever.

We can open our windows and turn off our heaters and say well in three months this will be over. So no big deal. We still have to deal with it. many of the same techniques. That people talk about for dealing with the physical realistic seasonal winter and darkness will help you if you're going through in a period a period of emotional.

Darkness, for instance, one of the things that we have myself and the other the shows that I do when I say we have suggested is keeping your mind active and strong and how do we keep our minds active and strong? Well, we don't keep our minds active and Strong by sitting in front of the television and letting it talk to us.

We keep our minds active and strong through education. We keep our minds active and strong through Reading. We keep our minds active and strong through exposing ourselves to information and ideas that we may never have before. To new ideas to new information reinforce old ideas and old information that we've known strengthening your mind through Reading. Strengthen your body through exercise legitimate real physical exercise and no walking back and forth to the kitchen to get coffee is not exercising.

Okay, exercise has to be really planned and deliberate. It has to be something that you're doing other than your normal routine getting up from your desk walking to the break room pouring coffee and walking back to your desk seven times during the day, is not exercising. So stop trying to tell me it is okay. If you're experiencing emotional Darkness or emotional winter, make sure that you actually are consuming good food. Not a bunch of carbohydrates sugar and crap make sure that you have enough protein in your diet.

Make sure that you have enough fiber. I know I sound like a commercial but the truth matter is you needed. Make sure your diet is good, make sure you're doing things and I know you may not want to you know that and that's the hardest thing about winter in the cold and the Darkness is, you want to wrap up in a blanket lay on the couch and just stay there until the sun comes back out again.

But laying there under a blanket isn't going to make the Sun come back out. It's not going to help you. You're going to have to make yourself do it, you know, if the make yourself do the physical exercise you're going to make yourself stimulate your mind through Reading. Or whatever we talk about winter projects and hobbies occupying your hands in your mind through projects through physical activities doing things.

I don't care if it's knitting, sewing, building model airplanes. I don't care, do something. Do something deliberate and before you know it and that's a great thing about winter projects and keeping yourself busy physically, and mentally if you do that pretty soon. The winter will be over the darkness will be over and the sun will become will come back out again.

So you can defeat the darkness and it's not there forever. Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for me. I went just over 10 minutes today. I hope you will forgive me. I am your host Paul Markel, I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM190 - Gift of Education

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 10:00:00 +0000

How can you help someone that you care about to educate themselves and broaden their horizons? The season of giving is fast approaching. Perhaps instead of purchasing an object that will be quickly discarded, you could give the gift of education.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Welcome back to Morning Mindset. Yes, indeed. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you for joining me today, I truly appreciate it. Today I'm going to talk to you, let me give you a hint, a secret a trick. I'm going to help you to trick your friends or family members or people that you really care about.

I'm going to teach you and we give you a little hint on how to trick them into improving their own lives, and you say "What? You shouldn't have to trick people into improving their own lives." No, you shouldn't, but this little trick actually came to me from a friend of mine.

A few years ago, he sent me a message and it was a picture of his father and his father had a book in his hand and he was reading it. He said "My father asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year" and this is a grown man, his father's a grown man, and he said "What I told him was for my birthday, I want you to read this. Look, I don't want you to buy me anything. I don't want you to give me anything. What about your gift to me? We'll be reading this book."

Oh, yeah. I know how many people in your life that you care about, you really, whether they're children or parents or spouses or whatever. People that you're close with and you've suggested in the past. You said "I read this book and I really enjoyed it, and I think you'll enjoy it too" and they come back with "Hi, I don't have time, I'm busy, maybe someday" yadda-yadda and he said "Well Paul, if you want to read the book, then you just give them that book as a Christmas gift." Ha ha ha you can do that.

But how many times have you given a book as a Christmas gift and it doesn't get read how many times has someone given you a book as a gift? They wrapped it up and they handed it to you and they said happy birthday Merry Christmas. Whatever Happy Guy Fawkes day and they gave you a book, and you say thanks.

You took the book, and you said it down and put it on a shelf and it's still there and one of these days you're going to open it. You're going to read it, but that isn't today. That is how we normally do that. That's how we normally encourage other people to read something that we think will benefit them something that we got a lot out of or we enjoyed or whatever and we think that they will too as we wrap up a book and we hand it to him we say.

Merry Christmas, happy birthday. Happy Hanukkah, whatever, you know, Happy Leif Leif Eriksson day and they don't read the book. Do they know if they don't they don't read the book? If instead what you do is you say to them this is my copy of this book I read. But I really think you will get something out of it.

I think you will benefit from it, and this is you know when people ask and I guess this is really good, it's a good way to gut check people because when people say to you, well, what do you want for Christmas? Yeah, we get that all the time right? Well, Dad, what do you want for Christmas? What is Mom wanting for Christmas?

Ask your kids what you want for Christmas, you know people ask you. What do you want for Christmas, and if you're like a typical woman or wife, you'll say I don't need anything. I don't want anything which means you should have been listening all year long to all the things that I wanted and already have those written down and purchased for me.

Isn't that right baby? Yeah, but people will ask you they will say "What do you want for Christmas?" and what you can say to them in return is, if someone says "Well, what do you want for Christmas / Hanukkah / Guy Fawkes day", whatever you say. Can I have anything I want within reason and then they look at the Tilt their head and I'll say what if I want something that won't cost hardly any money at all or cost no money.

What if what if what I want for Christmas will cost you not one dime won't cost you anything, and now they're sitting there. They're like what? Okay. What's this? What does he want? He wants a coupon book for back rubs or something like that. I won't have you ever got those from your kids. You got the coupon book.

This is good for 15 minutes of silence or you know, sweeping the kitchen floor or whatever. Good for taking out the trash you ever notice how kids they'll make a coupon book and for a gift for you and the coupon book will have things in it that they already have to do anyway, like take out the trash or sweep the floor.

But you have to you have to exchange a coupon to get that I bet you that's somewhere in a box in my house. I still have a coupon book for my wife. That's what will stay good for one free back rub or something like that or but if they ask you that I okay and if you're sincere if you're genuinely sincere they say what do you want for Christmas?

You say I don't you spend any money on me, but I do want a gift, and then they say oh, what is that? Your gift to me will be reading this book and you hand them a book, and you say that will be your gift to me this year is if you read this book if you read the words that are in this that's all I want.

Now you may have a person in your life who will cringe and like can I just give you twenty dollars, or a card, can I just give you an iTunes gift card? Can I do that? Nope, nope. All you said what do you want for Christmas, and the answer is I want your gift to me is you reading this book and it kind of turns it around doesn't it has anyone ever done that to you.

Is that as anyone ever said hey you asked me what I wanted for my birthday and what I want is for you to read this book. That is your gift to me is to read this book, and obviously, it's a two-way gift. You're giving to them you're making them do something that they probably wouldn't do on their own if you just wrap up a book and hand it to him for Christmas and they open it.

They'll look at it and smile and say thank you, then. They'll set it aside and then they'll go put it on a shelf and then a year from now, it'll still be on that shelf and will be on red. So if you really if you read something this year that motivated you that inspired you that you think someone could benefit from but they're that person.

You know, now you may have somebody in your life that loves to get books as gifts, and they're excited to get books as gifts. Sadly, most people aren't. So how do you get them to do that? How do you give them the gift of Education or Enlightenment or what have you? Well, that's one way I just taught you.

I just gave it to you and thank you, Matt, for reminding me that that's what I could do, and that's something that people can do. So as the season of giving is fast approaching us. Someone says what do you want for Christmas from me and I like. Alright. This is what I want and you'll find out really fast whether they're genuinely serious about giving you a gift for Christmas or if they just want you to have what they want you to have and there are those people in our lives.

There are those people in our Lives who they're going to give us what they want us to have. Not what we actually want ourselves. Either way. It's going to be an eye-opening experience. I guarantee it just like that guy from the suit Factory. Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for another Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again hopefully real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM189 - Bohemian Rhapsody

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 10:00:00 +0000

The recently released biography film about Queen and Freddie Mercury will mean different things to different people. Paul will share what the movie meant to him during this episode of Morning Mindset.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back. It's that time again for Morning Mindset, and today I'm going to do something. That's a little bit topical. I know that I try and keep these Universal. I've always tried to do that so that no matter when you listen to it, whether it's sometime in the distant future or recent past or what have you. That it will apply and I'm taking a little bit of a risk because this is going to be a bit of a pop culture reference the movie Bohemian Rhapsody the movie by the title of that name was just recently released.

It’s a biography film about the band Queen and their lead singer Freddie Mercury who died in 1991, and that I took my son my son and I went and we watched the movie this past weekend and I really enjoyed it and one of the reasons I really enjoyed it or I believe I did was because the music of Queen was. Very very important in my childhood. It was very popular. They were at the height of their Fame right during my formative years the late 1970s on into the 80s and that's when they were they released.

We will rock you and news of the world and the game with another one bites the dust and under pressure with David Bowie and so on and so forth. A lot of big songs that obviously got a lot of AirPlay and if you're if you're anyone and I don't know about young people today, I mean, I guess they do but everybody since the invention of the radio has had a soundtrack to their youth.

Whether you know, I remember when I was a young child, you know in like elementary school early Elementary School. I remember my dad and my mom listening to what was called at the time oldies stations. That's right. You know my mom and dad I'm driving around in the car and the in the station wagon in the backseat and my parents were listening to them.

At the time was called the oldies station and what was on the oldies station music from the 50s and 60s. I don't have do they still have radio stations that they call the oldies stations. I don't know if they do. I think at the current thing is classic rock. Alright, classic rock is for people in their 40s and 50s and maybe even 60s.

So, you know Chuck Berry and basically the music you would have heard on the TV show. Happy Days. That was the soundtrack of my mom and dad's generation and my soundtrack included a lot included Ted Nugent and the romantics and The Knack and My Sharona and of course a lot of the big bands and so forth, but my soundtrack also included Queen now the movie is going to mean different things to different people a young person.

Who never knew the band Queen as an active band now, I understand that Brian May and Roger Taylor that they have done special concerts and they've done some tours and they put together some music. They worked with Paul Rodgers and some other artists, but essentially. After Freddie Mercury passed away after his death the original quartet the original four guys and the creative magic that they were able to, you know, put together ended with his death and if you're under 30, you never knew of him of queen or pretty Mercury being alive.

I mean, he's been dead for not quite 30 years now, so think about that. You're talking to somebody that's 28-29 years old. It's music basically to them its history in them and they'll they may see this picture and think that the picture somehow is a call for like, gay rights advocacy or what have you, and I'm afraid what's going to get lost in that is the fact that the band, like many of the great acts from the 60s 70s 80s.

I know like I still like a classic rock as 60s 70s 80s into Ding you. These bands it what there was no American Idol back. Then there was no Dancing with the Stars. There was no America's Got Talent or the there was none of that you had teenagers that that just had passion and drive and some of them have actually had genuine talent and some of these people with Talent found each other, and through that passion and drive and sacrifice, you know all the old bands that you consider to be of the super bands. If you look at their stories, they weren't handpicked by a studio Executives didn't go out and recruit all these people to assemble them as a band and put them out in front of the world.

Now, they did things like, you know, they played a gig at a nightclub for. You know fifty dollars and they had to divide the $50 for ways and pay their bar tab and pay for their fuel and gas and by the time they did all that they basically had played for free if you were able to watch some of these documentaries of the original bands, you know, rush or queen or you know, the who or you name it a lot of these bands these guys were just paying their dues they were struggling they were sacrificing and a lot of, for instance that in the band Queen all of the guys in the band Brian May, Brian May was like a physicist who studies like, astrophysics and I can't remember John Deacon was electrical engineering and then oh and Roger Taylor was studying to be a dentist. So they weren't idiots. They weren't bombs, but they sacrificed.

In order to achieve something that many people by will look at today and say it was pretty great. They put everything together and they became a talent that even though they haven't made our produce new music for 30 years or more. So almost 30 years people are still listening to and appreciating today, and that is what I would hope that people would get from the movie Bohemian Rhapsody the fact that I know there's a human drama, you know, there's the and you have to have that in movies. You have to have drama in the movies to keep it interesting for the audience. You can't just tell the story exactly as it was because most people story exactly as it was isn't that interesting but in this situation.

I really hope that the genius, the musical genius, and talent of Freddie Mercury and Brian May and Roger Taylor and John Deacon, but that's not lost. But it's not lost behind this Hollywood contrived, you know, political correctness. Shall we say or social Consciousness or whatever the fact that matter is it for individuals came together?

They had, they took their individual talents. They combine them with the others and they came up with something that was tremendous something that we can enjoy today and years and years and years later, I mean. Started in the early 1970s and here we are today appreciating and enjoying the music that they left us and one other thing that I came away with and many of you if you watch them.

If you listen to this program if you listen to Morning Mindset and you watch the movie, and then if you're a geek like me and after the movie, you went and watch the behind the scenes interviews with Brian May and Roger Taylor and you know the actors that were involved at and so forth and a lot of people are very sad that that. Freddie Mercury, he contracted he contracted HIV and he died of pneumonia in 1991 and he was only 45 years old and people feel felt.

It was a tragedy that we've lost him. So relatively early in his life and it was but Brian May and Roger Taylor are now in a position to do what. you know, they lost their friend. But they're here to tell the story. Sometimes you are the story and sometimes it's up to you to be the Storyteller right now.

You're drawn oxygen on planet Earth. You are working on your story and someday your story will be told and that was exactly what went down in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. So it's rated PG-13 if you're worried about I wouldn't take young kids to see it. Certainly teenagers Junior High and older kids, I would take to see it. I hope you guys go to see it and I hope you enjoy the music and the experience. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that is that I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM188 - Wholesome Family Entertainment

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 10:00:00 +0000

In this world of political correctness, censorship, and constant fear of offending, it can be extremely difficult to find some genuine wholesome family entertainment. We don’t have all of the answers, but we do have one suggestion for the upcoming Christmas season.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset. I am still your host Paul Markel. Yes indeedy do and I'm glad that you took the time out of your day to spend just a moment a few moments maybe with me and today we're going to talk about wholesome family entertainment. Yes, and. Eat if you're about my age, or maybe even older you remember a time in the United States of America when there actually was wholesome family entertainment, entertainment for the entire family that that moms and dads and brothers and sisters could all sit down and could enjoy together, and they could enjoy it without being preached to by liberal Hollywood insiders.

They could enjoy the movie without worrying that people were going to be offended or without watching a movie that had been sterilized. Because people were going to be offended or could potentially be offended. We had to look at that movie and decide whether or not there's anyone out there in the world that might be offended by it, and if so, it has to be sterilized.

It has to be centered. No, I was raised in a country where we had good wholesome family entertainment and it wasn't sterilized and it wasn't censored because moms and dads were just expected to know what was best for their children and something that I am very very grateful that I've been able to enjoy my entire adult life and well the entire time I've been a dad.

Now the movie was out before then I'm talking about A Christmas Story. A Christmas Story with Ralphie in the BB gun Randy and you know, Mama and Papa and Mom and Dad all that, you know, the old man, you know, that's that's Darren McGavin since title in the movie. His title as "The Old Man", but A Christmas Story actually came out when I was in high school, and I didn't pay a lot of attention to it because I was 16 17 years old and and there was only a couple of things in the world that I was really concerned about at the time and Christmas movies weren't one of them but as I grew older I grew to appreciate it and I essentially memorized the whole movie know by now, but I've had I have kids that are grown and they're adults and ever since they were little kids.

We've enjoyed watching this movie together and it's very it's very gratifying to me that I was able to do that and now my children who are grown and you know, some of them have their own families they can make that part of their own Christmas tradition. Now, the reason I wanted to share this with you, I know that you guys are like, "Yeah, okay Paul, we know that the movies out there you just telling us to go watch the movie." Hmm, kind of, but there's something else. There is this place that you can go to and it's called A Christmas Story house. Now if you guys are serious hardcore cinephiles or moving Geeks, you will know that the movie A Christmas Story was filmed in two locations.

It was filmed in both Canada and in Northern, Ohio. The school scenes were filmed in Canada and the outdoor scenes the Higbie scenes the house Ralphie's house walking up and down the street in the snow and all that that was filmed in just outside of Cleveland little suburb area of Cleveland. I'm not sure what the exact area of Cleveland is, but will the house.

It went up for sale a few years ago, or I don't know almost 10 years ago by now. The house went up for sale and a guy bought it a fan of the movie bought the house and he invested his own money in restoring the house, and not only did He restored the house to what it looked like in the movie.

There's also a Christmas story gift shop and Museum right across the street and recently I just discovered that he bought the house next door, and if you guys are fans of a Christmas story, you know that the who lived in the house next door 875 smelly hound dogs the Bumpus', the Bumpus' lived next door.

That's right, and they bought the bump his house. So now they own the Christmas Story house and it's been restored to look like it would have in the late 30s early 1940s. They bought the bumpers house and the bump is the house is a guest house you can go and you can stay there very very cool. Very cool.

So this Christmas season the reason I know all about this and I can speak so highly of it is because of my family and I the very first. That they open the Christmas Story house and it's actually probably been more than 10 years now, but the very first year they opened it. We went to Cleveland and we went to the Renaissance Hotel and they had an autograph signing and pictures with many not all but many of the original cast members.

They flew in. Some of them are actually still local and some of them just flew in from California or wherever they're from to do pictures and autographs we got. For the house and a good gift bag with all kinds of memorabilia and goodies and so forth and it was a wonderful family experience. There was no Hollywood political correctness.

There was no censoring there was no worrying about who's going to be offended by this or not. It was just literally one of those things that that. I knew from my childhood and we need to find as a nation again. We really do so if I can offer you one piece of advice this coming holiday season and when my family and I went when we visit it was the Thanksgiving weekend.

I think it was the Friday after Thanksgiving that we went and we toured the house and did our little. If I can make a suggestion to you, if you are in that area of the United States of America if you were in the Cleveland, Ohio area, or if you're within driving distance, if you're within driving distance of Cleveland, Ohio, I would definitely put A Christmas Story house on your list of things to do this holiday season load the kids up in the car and drive over there, and spend the day, you know get a hotel room or what have you and I know they're actually people that actually the fly in from all over the United States just so that they can do that.

But that is my suggestion to you. It's something in this world where we have acrimony and strife and terrorism and just all kinds of there are all kinds of horrible things in the world that are constantly clamoring for our attention. Every once in a while, we need to you know, push that away and it's going to be there the problems of the world will be there when we get back but do something wholesome do something with your family and I can think of right now in the United States.

There's only there's that many things that I would say are straight-up wholesome family entertainment, and that is the Christmas story movie and A Christmas Story House and Museum and so forth. So if that is you know something you would like to do great and it's really simple their website is a Christmas story house.com. So just Google it look it, and we're going to I'm going to try and I'm obviously I'm trying to keep it positive keep it productive and the holiday season is fast approaching us.

So yes chances are that are Morning Mindsets may have something to do with the upcoming Christmas season. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that is it for today. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you once again for joining me for Morning Mindset. I'll talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM187 - The “You Can’t” Crowd

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Let us take a look at the “You Can’t” crowd. How often do you allow the “You Can’t” crowd to affect your decision making? Is there a real difference between a practical reality and intellectual laziness?

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset. Let's strap in, strap on, let's get ready to do this. Alright, I hope you have a hot tasty beverage to sip or if you're driving your car. Just put your hands at 10 and 2 and look at the road, and listen if you're on the treadmill, that's cool too. Give me another five minutes.

Alright or 10 minutes. How's that sound? Give me the 10 minutes. Let's take a look at the "You Can't" Crowd. The "You Can't" Crowd, right before I sat down to record this before I entered the studio closed the door and turned on the black carbon steel microphones. I was reading an article online. I came across this article because someone suggested it to me. I saw the title and thought yeah, that'd be a good thing. I started reading it and it was full of good news. Basically, it was how it was talking about tourniquets and I don't want to get too far into that.

But it was a very positive article. Let's just say it was a positive article , and like most online articles and we do this because of SEO and because of system is sharing and you know, all that mumbo jumbo to get people to look at stuff, and I know why it is that people allow comments at the end of their articles online and understand that, whether I agree with it or not, I understand.

So in my perspective from my perspective and I think most people's perspective. It was a very positive article, right it wasn't you can't you shouldn't this is bad. This is wrong. Whatever was actually this is what we're doing and this is good and it's saving people's lives people's lives are being saved because of this, right?

Very first comment in the comments is Negative Nelly. Negative, you know, I don't know what. Norman I guess, an N-word. Negative Nancy, Negative Norman. So, Norman jumps in and writes a whole paragraph about how you people don't understand and blah blah blah and you can't and you shouldn't and you're going to get sued and then out of that.

Basically, the this is why you shouldn't do what's right regardless of the facts and the article I was reading it was it was in a medical journal and it was about a study that was conducted and so on and so forth. So regardless of the facts regardless of the demonstrated facts in the article from the research study.

The first thing this person had to say was you shouldn't or you can't. There you go, and it made me think our first of all it is that kind of nonsense infuriates me because we aren't talking about how to get red wine stains out of a dress shirt. We're not talking about the best barbecue recipe.

We're not talking about something simple. We're bad advice. Won't hurt anybody. If somebody gives you bad advice on barbecue sauce, maybe you know, your meal won't taste that great or whatever, but no one's going to die. You know, if somebody gives you bad advice on how to get red wine stains out of a dress shirt or out of your carpeting or whatever and it turns out not to work.

Well nobody died. Right? No one's going to get hurt. There's not going to be any lasting physical effect. But when it comes to things like this in this nature use of tourniquets and traumatic Medical Care and so forth bad advice can cause people to die to lose their lives and that it really infuriates me when people the "You Can't" crowd sticks up their lazy ugly heads and gives bad advice that net bad advice.

As I said, the bad advice is not like, you know, red wine stains or cooking recipes or whatever bad advice in this area can cause people to die. How often do you allow the “You Can’t” crowd to affect your decision-making? How many times have you wanted or thought about doing something new doing something adventurous doing something different doing something branching out or what have you and the "You Can't" crowd and the "You Can't" crowd could be one person or it could be multiple people or what have you shows up.

Tell you all the reasons why you can't now there is a real difference in Practical reality. In intellectual laziness for instance. I am over 50 years old right now. I will admit that to you freely, and if I decided tomorrow morning, you know what? When I was growing up I used to drink Tang and I used to watch movies about, you know outer space exploration so forth.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to get my car and I'm going to drive to the NASA headquarters, and I'm going to tell them that I want to be an astronaut , and I'm motivated and I'm going to do it and no one can tell me I can't is that really a practical reality like probably not probably not.

Let's say I started jogging and I feel like I'm pretty good at jogging I can you know, go a mile or two miles or several miles or whatever and you know, I can do it. So I get in my car and I drive down to Colorado and I go to the US Olympic Training Center, and I say hey, I'm going to try out for the Olympic long-distance runner team or the Olympic track team.

They're like, I'm glad that you're the best runner on your block, but you're probably not going to make the Olympic team that that is a practical reality. That's probably not going to happen. But more often than not how often when someone tells you shouldn't do that or you can't do that or don't even try that.

That's what drives me insane is the regardless of facts of evidence. What will Arab studies what we, you know, new information? So forth regardless of all of that. You should even try don't even try you can't you shouldn't and here's why you should. As I said, I'm not talking about being you know, 50 years old and trying to make the US Olympic track team.

I'm talking about people that are so intellectually lazy, and where does that we know where does the “You Can’t” crowd come from, and why is the “You Can’t” crowd even care? seriously, so the people that tell you shouldn't and you can't. How does your attempt to do something, to improve yourself, to change, to venture out, how does it actually affect them?

Seriously, how does it affect them? Why do they tell you that you can't you know, like well whether I try and succeed or whether I try and fail it doesn't affect you really at all. So where is this opinion coming from? I'll tell you a little bit of it is psychological it goes back to the C student, right the person who is who does just enough to get by so that they can get a see, you know, she's obviously not failing you're not failing but it's not the best grade.

It's not a good grade. It's not really something that you would brag about right, but it's just enough. Often the C students of our world, they don't like it when the B and A students show up because it exposes them as lazy. It exposes them as those who do just enough to get by a lot of these you can't you shouldn't people they're not even C students.

Most of them are D students. They're passing, they got a D, D's passing, right? You don't have to you don't have to repeat that grade if you Daddy, I mean it's not great, but you don't have to feed it. So here are these ambitious A and B students show up in there. Like I want to do this.

It's really kind of sick and twisted if you think about it. But yet how often do you allow yourself to be influenced? By the "You Can't" crowd. how often have you allowed yourself to be influenced by the you can't crowd because you read something you read a comment on an article or you saw a YouTube video or whatever and you are all excited to go take a training class or to do something new or something different or venture out and then, someone, you saw the "You Can't" video or the "You Can't" article or the "You Can't" comment and then you decided not to.

There is a real difference between practical reality and intellectual laziness and by far when you encounter the "You Can't" or "You Shouldn't" crowd, it's not because it's a practical reality or it's impractical most of the time it's because the "You Can't" people are intellectually lazy, and I'm not going to have any of it and you shouldn't either. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I'm your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM186 - Reputations

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 09:00:00 +0000

How do you build a good, solid reputation? Unfortunately, in our instant gratification world, it does not seem that young people are being taught how to build a reputation. Paul takes a look back at his career and relates some personal stories.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Alright, let's go ahead and begin this Morning Mindset episode. I'm your host Paul Markel as the lovely Miss Alex reminded you of at the very beginning that really cool motivating music that we started with. Yes. I'm looking at my coffee cup because and I'm thinking about how excited I am. My favorite local coffee shop Sweet Marie's Bakeshop, they moved into a brand new facility and they expanded.

So a larger building, so larger facility, more dining area, more choices and it's a good thing for them. But the bad thing for me was is in order for them to move into their new facility, they had to close down their old facility and they're closed for almost a month. I know, I was dying for Sweet Marie's hot coffee.

I had to make my own coffee, but I survived. I survived and what are we saying? Life is too short to be drinking bad coffee. But that's not what we're going to talk about today. We're actually going to talk about reputations. Yes indeed reputations and a lot the reason I felt the need to focus on this as you know, many of you might be thinking.

Well, I'm an adult and you know, I'm older and my reputation is already built or it's not built or what have you. But I know a lot of people in my audience are younger, and they may just be starting out in their careers. Maybe you recently got out of high school or you recently got out of college or you recently started a new job, and unfortunately, a reality of our current world is that everything is based upon instant gratification instant Fame instant everything. We have been taught by well, you name it whether its food fast food right grocery stores now Walmart grocery stores and so forth. You don't even have to shop for yourselves.

You can go online, tell them what you want to order it. They'll find it baguette put it in boxes or whatever you pull up out front. They load it into your car. You've already paid for it and it's ready to go. YouTube Facebook now whatever else Twitter Instagram, you know, but mostly YouTube and so forth is responsible for young people believing that Fame can be instantaneous and it should be instantaneous.

The Dancing with the Stars or you name it whatever reality TV show or Talent based TV show where you bring a bunch of people on and one of them is crowned the winner and their given instant Fame and notoriety. That's not really how the world works. I know you're like no, but it does Paul and I've got Amazon Prime shipping.

I order something in and if I'm within 200 miles of, you know, delivery center, I get it the next day instant instant instant. Everything is instant gratification. You cannot build a valuable reputation, A+ a good reputation. You cannot build a good reputation overnight, you cannot build it instantly because no reputation that is built instantly is going to last.

You have to build your relationships or your reputation one relationship at a time. Now I started doing that 25-plus years ago when I got into the writing world. I got into the outdoor shooting sports writing world, and I was actually writing for, paper magazines. Yeah, I know you're like "Magazines made out of paper and you know, like dead trees with ink and stuff, and you have to-" yeah those things those things.

No internet, yeah. I was, I started writing before there was an internet, and I had to build my reputation with several different. Groups or areas or of people I had to build my reputation with my editors. Because my editors needed to know that if I accepted an assignment that I was going to complete it.

As well as I could as close to their expectations as I could and then I was going to do it on time, and then I was going to give them everything they needed if they needed photos, you know, if they needed extra verbiage, you know, whatever it was that they needed. I was building my reputation one article at a time.

That was what the editors. How're the people that paid me those are the people decided whether or not my work went into print or whether it went into a file drawer and just sat there? But then I also had industry or commercial Connections in order to do my job as in an outdoor shooting sports law enforcement hunting shooting kind of a guy I frequently needed stuff right?

I needed things. I needed objects and you don't make any money as a writer. If you have to review gear you don't make any money if you go out and buy the gear and review it because the amount of money that you're going to get paid by the editor for writing that article and shooting those photos probably won't even cover the amount of money that you would have spent to buy the gear, and since I was not in the in the business of giving away my time or trying to lose money most of the time after I almost all of the time I would have to contact representatives from different manufacturers and say "Hey, can I have or borrow blank?" Can I borrow one of these going to borrow one of those, what have you.

Now, most of the time if it was a low dollar item like ammunition or holsters or you know product or parts or pieces or whatever. They just send it to me and they're like don't worry about it. But if it was an expensive piece, they would loan it to me and I would have to send it back, and every time I ask for something I was basically writing an IOU.

I was basing that individual article or review. I was basing my reputation on that, and people they needed to know okay if we send Paul this two thousand dollar item and tell him he can have it for 30 days. Is he going to get it back to us in 30 days? Is he going to be reliable, and I did and I knew what I was doing and I knew I was I was you know building my reputation one relationship at a time, and then the third group of people that I was building a reputation with was actually the audience the readership every time I sat down to write an article I had to think "Alright, I need to make sure that I am honest and reliable and trustworthy and that I don't reverse myself and if I ever have to reverse myself if I ever have to change my mind."

I need to explain why that is. Now, do I do things the same today, as I did 25 years ago? Some things I do, sometimes I don't. Do I use the same gear or objects today? As I did 25 years ago some yes, and some no and those that I've changed or things that I've left behind or disregarded or altered or whatever.

I have to understand that people are watching and they're paying attention and I should. As a service to them explain, why did that and what I've found over the period of last 25 years or so is that I was able to build a reputation to the point where people know, that based upon just my word alone not holding it with a credit card or mortgages or loans or whatever.

Just I, you know send an email or a call on the phone that I can be trusted to deliver and do what I said. I was going to do and ladies and gentlemen that takes time. Takes a long time. But it's worth it. Nothing good no reputation. That is worthwhile is ever gained overnight, and unfortunately, I think a lot of young people don't quite have that concept because everything they see, everything they touch, everything they are involved in today seems to be all about immediate or instant gratification.

They're frustrated because they're not a rock-star the first day they pick up a guitar, or they're not famous the first time they put out a YouTube video or their thought is if I can just get that one YouTube video. I'll be famous all the people that are famous today for YouTube video two years from now, you won't even know who they are.

Build your reputation one single relationship at a time and remember that as you're building relationships, it might you might think ah, this one guy or this one company. They don't matter then, I don't care. No, they all do build your reputation one single relationship at a time. It's like you've built the house. Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for today. Thank you very much for joining me. I'm your host Paul Markel. I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM185 - Have Some Fun

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 09:00:00 +0000

Can you have fun without being silly or wasting time? When is the last time you actually took the time to deliberately have fun? This may be the key to spicing up a tedious routine or to help you feel creative again.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Okay, it's time for another Morning Mindset. I am still your host Paul Markel, and today we're going to talk about having some fun. Yes, indeed. We are I've been involved in some very serious professions in my life. I've been a police officer. I started my military career as a United States Marine, in the Marine Corps infantry and the security forces Battalion and I've done all that stuff.

I've been a professional bodyguard which is obviously a serious task or job. I've done a lot of serious stuff in my life, and if you are serious all the time that you can get burned out pretty quickly. It doesn't take very long for you to get mentally burned out or mentally stressed out. If you are always serious and you say well, you know Warfare and law enforcement and keeping bad people from hurting good people.

It's a very serious task. It's a very serious undertaking. It is absolutely is and there's time for fun and there's time for silliness, and then there's also time for seriousness to be very serious. If you've ever spent any time around Infantryman, Marines, soldiers, what have you people who are involved in Warfare?

Or if you've ever spent any time around street cops, you know that that most of those people that I just described have a very sick and twisted and odd sense of humor. Sometimes they're accused of having gallows humor, and the reason that they do that. Is if you were to listen to a psychologist or psychiatrist would say that Gallows humor is a mental defense mechanism to keep them from actually breaking down and losing it after dealing with all of the serious things that they have to deal with in their lives.

But let's say you aren't involved in any of those things. You're just a regular dude or regular woman and you have a normal job. But your normal job has become very tedious. To you. It's everything becomes a job. We talked about this we talked about this last week. We talked about how people think that oh man.

I'd love to do blank. If I could do blank as a job, I would be happy all the time. It would be great. You are so lucky to have that job or that person is so lucky to have that job because it would be so fun and exciting and cool interesting, but eventually, everything becomes a job, and everything eventually becomes can become very formulaic and tedious.

If you're looking for a way to break up the routine if you're looking for a way to break up the tedium of whatever it is you happen to be doing. Maybe it's time to have some fun and I'm not talking about being a clown or being a goof but every once in a while, you just need to do something fun.

Now myself for my own personal standpoint. I have to or I'm tasked with creating content on a daily weekly basis, my job is to create content whether it's a video content or audio content or the written word or what have you and I have a formula and I have a routine and I know what I'm supposed to do and right now or recently, I guess I could say I found myself not being very inspired and everybody goes through this every writer every person who's involved in creating content of some sort goes through this is kind of a burnout phase like, I don't feel like this and I don't want to do it anymore, and it's not that I'm going to quit not doing any more.

But I feel like I've gotten into a routine a tedious routine with the content creation, and what I've done for myself recently is I've come up with some fun projects some kind of maybe a little bit silly a little bit unusual, but just fun and you know. When I haven't released them yet.

I'm still working on them. But the process of creating these fun projects has actually invigorated me. It's made me look forward to the process again. Because I was at a point where I was just I was creating content because I had to and it was something that was expected of me, but I wasn't really enjoying it so much and I realized recently that I needed to do something fun.

Not necessarily super serious. Not at all super serious something that would be entertaining but that I wanted to do because I thought it'd be fun. It'll be interesting and that process deciding. You know, what I'm going to have a little bit of fun with this doesn't always have to be 100% straight down the line by the book.

You know the formula how many of you have a job and in your job, you have the specific sop you have the formula. This is how we do this and we don't deviate from it. We do ABCD hit send were finished and move on again, and that's how we get things done, and a lot of people say well that that's how you're productive, is you have to have a plan.

You have to have a formula on you do that formula and you are productive. But productive is not always creative is it and creative is not always productive, and if we can marry those two if we can marry being productive and being creative together at the same time, then maybe we'll have something special maybe we'll have something super positive to offer to ourselves and to others.

I'm not saying you have to be a clown. I'm not telling you that you have to be a goof some people have a really hard time having fun or relaxing. Some people have too much time on their hands just grew around and other people get annoyed with them because it seems like all they want to do is screw around and have fun.

It's a balancing act right but I'm going to tell you this if you find yourself right now in a position with your career or with your work if you're a brain surgeon or a heart surgeon, I don't want you screwing around. Stick to the formula. Okay, but if you find yourself in a position where your current job your current task list has become very tedious very routine.

Maybe you've lost the Fire or the passion that you once had to do that job. Take the time to just have a little bit of fun, and you know make maybe you and maybe you'll be the only one having fun and that's okay. That is absolutely okay. If you're the only one that is having fun. That's okay because it's you who needs to be creative and it's you who needs to be productive, and if you can put those two together if you can put productivity and creativity together, then you've really got something and every once in a while.

You need to break the routine need to spice things. Up, and he'd have a little bit of fun and that's what I'm doing. Right now. I've got a couple of projects that I'm working on that I'm putting together that I'm hashing out in my brain and it's just for fun and I'm really looking forward to doing it and actually, the process of doing it has made me feel a little bit more creative and excited about what I need to do. That is my advice to you little look behind the curtain there. Alright, that's it for today. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you for making Morning Mindset part of your daily routine. I am your host Paul Markel, talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM184 - Productive Meetings?

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 09:00:00 +0000

As someone who has attended thousands of required meetings, I have come to loathe them. Meetings are often a necessary evil. Are there ways to ensure that meetings are productive and positive and not simply monumental time wasters?

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back. It is time for another Morning Mindset podcast. I am still your host Paul Markle in case you were wondering and if this is your first one if someone recommended this to you and said hey, you need to listen to this guy and listen to this topic today. Congratulations, and I'm glad that you're here.

I'm betting that many people in the office, work environment will come across this and I'm like, yeah tell me about it. Today's topic productive meetings question mark productive meetings like Ron Burgundy there. That's right. Why did I put a question mark behind it? You're like well, we'll Paul your meetings are all about productivity.

That's how we have and develop productivity is through meetings, right? I'm in my fifth decade here on planet Earth, and I have been to I think safely over the last 30+ years, literally thousands of meetings and we had what was called formations. In the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps, you had Daily Formation.

Now you're like what formation is where everybody stands there, and listens to the first sergeant or the XO or the Gunnery Sergeant or whoever they listen to them talk. They have a clipboard and they go over the topics of the day and then at the very end, they open it up for questions and so on and so forth then in the obviously the working civilian world.

I've been to innumerable meetings, and I will say this. I'm guessing that the majority of you out there who have been in the professional work world for any length of time have come across the meeting that is you're sitting there and you're thinking okay. This meeting is just a meeting because we had to have a meeting.

Or do you have meetings to schedule meetings? We need to have a meeting. I really everybody needs to go to the conference room where we need to have a meeting weekly meeting morning meeting afternoon meeting whatever. Many of them these gatherings of individuals rather than being productive end up being monumental time-wasters.

Have you ever gone to a required meeting? I'm not talking about voluntary. I'm talking about it was required for your job. You had to be there you had to sit quietly and listen to someone drone on about a topic of which you had either had no interest or already knew everything about but you listen to that person drone on about that.

Again, and again and you leave thinking wow, thanks for wasting my time. Thank you very much for wasting my day. I could have been doing something productive myself. But instead, I was sitting in a conference room listening to you go over all of the stuff that we all already knew. Yes, so. Do I still have meetings?

Yes, yes I still do have meetings. So how can we and it doesn't matter what your profession is or what you're doing.?How can we? Have positive and productive meetings that are not time-wasters. Now, I understand if you are low on the totem pole or if you're a worker bee or what have you may not have any input into how or when the meetings are scheduled how often they happen what goes on during them.

You just have to be there and you just have to sit and listen and maybe interject once in a while. But if you are one of the people who have some say in the meeting, and when it happens and what is discussed and how long it takes and so forth step number one before you schedule a meeting before you just need York to react and have everyone stop what they're doing and I'll Gather in the conference room or you know, like wow Converse longer all the guy we don't conference room anything anymore.

We have GoToMeeting apps. Alright. Here's the thing a GoToMeeting app where everybody turns on their the cameras on their laptops or everybody turns on the cameras on their phones or their iPads or whatever and everyone sits there and you're in Chicago or New York and LA and Atlanta and we're all having a meeting at the same time.

Isn't that wonderful and isn't technology great. It's still a meeting. It still is you know after the after your very first teleconference meeting after the first one when you're all excited because it was super cool because you are using the internet to do it after that newness wears off. It's still just a meeting.

So if you are in charge or have any say in it step number one before you schedule a meeting to ask yourself. Is this something? That we actually all have to be present at the same time in order to do we really have to have it? Is it a requirement? Well, what do you mean? I mean we did have a meeting because that's how productive your productive meetings.

Now is this something that could be done via memorandum? Is this something that could be done via email? Do we have to have this meeting, and if your answer is yes we do. Before you have the meeting have a real legitimate agenda. Alright during this meeting. We need to discuss these topics.

Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom, have an idea of how long you want it to be. You don't just want to have an open-ended. Well, it's just going to go until it ends and 15 minutes half hour 45 minutes. Alright, I don't know what's gonna go and go and go no. Don't do that. Do not waste people's time if you can help it.

Don't waste your time. Is it going to be an information only or you going to be seeking feedback? because if it's in information only and you don't want the participation of anyone else. You probably don't need to have a meeting to do that. If there aren't going if it's not going to have two-way communication.

If it's one-way communication. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, and that's it. You may not need to have a meeting. Now. Keep in mind that if you're having one of these you need to have some type of structure and order you cannot let people go off on story time, story hour. When I call our story time if you allow them people will take the meeting Off Track by telling personal stories.

We don't need that. You don't want that you need to nip that in the bud because is interesting is that story is you can tell that story later on your own time inner need to be rude about it, but you need to have certain phrases like let's stay on topic. I think everyone understands let's move on to the next topic.

We have a limited amount of time. Let's make sure everyone has an opportunity to speak. What have you, all those things are, you know telling people to shut up without actually telling them to shut up. So when you're going to have a meeting number one, does it do we need to have this or we just have it out of habit.

We're just having a meeting because that's what you do, and if we're just doing it because that's what you do. You're wasting people's time. Don't do it. If you decide that you're going to have a meeting have the agenda ready and prepared know what you're going to say and the questions you're going to ask.

Have a time limit in mind. I'm not telling you that every meeting has to be exactly 10 minutes or exactly 14 minutes or exactly 30 minutes or whatever, but you should have an idea say, you know, look at what you have to say and realize that okay all of this material here. We've got three items on the agenda.

It's been 5 minutes on each no more than 15 minutes moving on with our lives. Do not deliberately waste people's time ensure that everyone understands take the opportunity to make sure that everyone has Clarity and understands why you did what you did and what you were talking about because there's no point in having a meeting.

If you're going to close the meeting leave and you know, 25% of the people there have no idea what they're supposed to do with that information that they just. Make sure that you check for clarity. Now a lot of professional people say are you start ever meeting what the joke I start every speech with a joke livens people up and that that's that's you can do that if you want and what I find is when you do that when you put that pressure on yourself you put pressure on yourself to come up with a joke and then you don't or it doesn't really matter if it's funny or not.

But if your people respect you. You shouldn't need to trick them into having meetings and the more productive short concise to the point meetings. You have the less likely people will be to want to avoid them. So don't get in the habit or you know, get in the habit of having productive meetings and avoid the habit of monumental time-wasters.

I'm not going to waste any more of your time because I see the clock on the wall says I've been talking for a little bit more than 10 minutes. So that's it for today's Morning Mindset. I hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you share this with other people. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM183 - Forced Blackout

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 09:00:00 +0000

Recently, we experienced a forced Internet blackout day. The Internet for the entire city was out. But, that was not such a bad thing. Consider scheduling an Internet blackout day for yourself. You may be surprised at how productive you can be without access to the world wide web.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you, once again for making this show a part of your day. At least five days a week. I'm hoping that you're listening five days a week because we're delivering it that often except it's if it's a holiday or if I'm on vacation, but it's not a holiday and I'm not on vacation.

So congratulations to you. I had kind of a holiday. Last Friday a week ago Friday, I got up and I was having my coffee and sitting at the table and I usually check you know, I do like probably the majority of you do I'm sitting there at the at the table waking up drinking my morning coffee and I pick up my phone and I want to check my emails and notifications and all that stuff before I start the day, and my phone is running really super slow.

Like it's I look at it. Like how come I can't pull up my email and ran really slow. I was like, okay, so I look of course I look up in the corner and it's just I have no ice is I have no Wi-Fi connection or says the Wi-Fi connection. Is there meaning that my phone is reading the router right?

I know. Techies are probably gonna say that's not a router. It's it's the modem or the whatever my foot point is this so the internet was not working at my house. The Wi-Fi isn't working thousand my okay. Well, I'm gonna go to the office anyway, so I get dressed and I go to the office and get into the office turn on the computer and I realize there's no internet there at the end so fortunately, Where I am in town, our office is walking distance to our internet providers office.

Like it is literally like three businesses down the street. So I just walked out walked over and went into the internet providers office and I said, hey, good morning, and she says yes, it's down. I said, oh, I'm not the first one. She said and this is the quote. She gave me she said a third-party contractor was Excavating or something and they cut the lines.

She said a third party contractor cut the lines and they're in the process of repairing them now. This is about nine o'clock in the morning on a Friday. Okay. So what did I do? I went back into the office and our know it was Thursday, whatever. I went back into the office, and I recorded some but of course, I couldn't put them I couldn't put them up for you guys because why because you need the internet to do that and I wasn't able to do our group show notes because we share those with people that are in multiple States via the Internet.

So I did things around the office. It did not require the internet and then I went home and while it's always like well, I don't have to do internet work for business now. So what I'm going to do, what am I going to do? Why did physical things and physical things I did laundry? Thank you very much for asking washed it and folded it all myself come because I'm a big boy.

I sat down and I played my guitar because guess what I have a guitar and an amplifier and I have a plastic pick and none of those things require a Wi-Fi connection. I read a little bit. Yes. I did. I read a little bit and essentially and I did some other things I prepare some projects for the TV show and some videos that were going to do, but the forced internet blackout.

Was actually it was kind of great because no one expected me. Now, of course, I had phone service, you know, I had my normal phone service, but if you guys are like anybody else or like me or what have you. You don't want to be surfing the web all day long with your phone service unless you have unlimited, you know, 4G or whatever if you have unlimited 4G go ahead rock on but I.

So I don't want to be using my phone connection to surf the web or whatever. I just sent out a message to everybody who needed to know. Hey, and it wasn't and here's the thing like where I am the entire city. I had no internet. It wasn't just like oh we'll go over to the go to the cafe go over to the coffee shop and use there's no there was Zero none nada the entire the entire Valley where we had no internet.

So I just did physical things. As I said, you know I went out and I did some inventory stuff. I worked on some projects. I worked on a new project a new that we're doing for our other show and it was good. It really was and I would suggest it kind of like, you know, we talked about the 24-hour blackout while taking your phones and all your Wi-Fi things anything.

It's electronic just turning it off. For 24 hours read books do chores or catch up on projects that you've been meaning to catch up on but you're constantly distracted by this or that or whatever and the great thing, you know the forced internet blackout. It wasn't like people like, hey, man, you're just you're just slacking off today and you need to get on it.

You know, I sent a message. I'm like look don't ask me to answer anything via email or whatever because I can't do it. It's just not going to happen. No one expected me to be there. No one expected me to be on my phone or on the laptop or whatever and because no one expected that I just took care of business.

I took care of what I needed to take care of. I think I might have taken a nap that day out naps are good, though. Naps are good, though, especially if you're training. I trained that day. Oh man, I forgot so I had weight training that day, and in addition to my normal programmed workout, I went ahead and I why put more weight on the squat bar than I ever have and I got underneath it and I squatted down I stood back up and I said a personal record for squatting so and I misspoke myself.

I said Friday, it was actually Thursday. So it was a very, very productive. Now obviously I had to come back on Friday and take care of things. You know, we had to make sure that everything was scheduled in and what the weird irony of the internet being out and maybe it was just a trick played by somebody that didn't want to work that day.

But when I got to the office around 9:00 or so in the morning, it was out and then my son Zachary, who actually puts the show up. He sent me a message about five 35 35 or something like that and said, hey the internet just came back up. So during the entire workday during the entire workday. The internet was down and I know you might be sitting out there.

You're thinking dude it where I work if the internet were to go down, that would be a catastrophe. Could be a catastrophe would it really be a catastrophe or could you use that opportunity just to do something else if you have never I had a forced internet blackout day, but if you've never had an actual deliberate blackout day a 24-hour blackout where you just tell people look I'm not going to use my phone.

I'm not going to text. I'm not going to email. I'm not going to do anything electronic. No phones, no laptops. No TVs anything. I'm going to read books. I'm going to take care of I'm going to do projects. I'm taking a nap. I don't want to do whatever I want to do. You should do that put that on your list of things that you should do and you'd be amazed at how wonderful of an experience that can be to just unplug from everything electronic.

I'm not telling you to be a Luddite and I'm not telling you to you know to go back in time or what have you but. Just once in a while give yourself an internet blackout day. Just an Electronics internet, whatever you want to call it blackout day and relax and you'd be amazed. How much you enjoy it?

Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for today. That's it for today's morning - oh, thank you very much for joining me. Make sure that you're leaving a review so that other people will know and if you have read the Morning Mindset book, and I know a lot of you have because we went through the whole thing, and we did a book study. Please feel free to go to Amazon and leave a review. Alright, I'm your host Paul Markel. I'll talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM182 - Get your Hands Dirty

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 09:00:00 +0000

My wife, son and I drove up into the mountains recently, and our mission was to fire roast coffee up there. You may say “Why couldn't you just do that in your backyard?” Because it's not the same. We went out, did it in the wild, and we got our hands dirty, and the coffee tasted so much better.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Whatever time it happens to be when you're listening to Morning Mindset. If you're listening to this with your morning coffee, fantastic. Good morning. I am your host Paul Markel and we're going to talk about leading a more positive and productive life, and if you have purchased the Morning Mindset book, good.

Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life. If you purchase the book, if you enjoyed the book, if you would recommend it to others, please let other people know. It would be fantastic if you would leave a review of the book on Amazon, whether you got it as a Kindle or paperback version so that other people could understand.

The fact of the matter is, third-party reviews matter a lot when it comes to promotion and people obviously know that I want to promote my own book. But if you recommend it, it may mean something else. I let's talk about getting your hands dirty. Now during a previous episode, maybe more than one, I talked about you cannot find inspiration sitting behind a desk. Right?

You're can't find inspiration sitting behind a desk, and matter of fact that phrase maybe on a coffee mug that you could purchase and sip your morning beverage out. So I took my own advice often. I need some inspiration to come up with new topics for this Beast that we call Morning Mindset podcast because you know, I'm doing it five days a week which means that five days a week.

I have to come up with a new Fresh interesting topic. Hopefully, it's interesting for you to talk about. So, what did I do? Recently recently. I went up into the mountains. Yes, I kind of live in the mountains, but I live at 7,000 feet. But technically the 7,000 feet that I live at is considered a valley because we are between two large mountain ranges.

So my wife and my son and I we drove up into the mountains and our mission was to fire roast coffee and you say “Why couldn't you just do that in your backyard?” Because it's not the same. Now, actually, what we want to do is we wanted to record it on video and I wanted to record it in an attractive setting.

What we did is we took green unroasted coffee beans, and a cast iron kettle basically a dutch oven and a hand grinder. Yes, an actual hand grinder for coffee. You pour the beans in it and then you work the crank around. It's a little box. You probably have seen him in old-timey western movies people were sitting there by the campfire and they were grinding the coffee and then a percolator.

That's right a coffee percolator, which is actually invented around. 1880 time frame. So what we did my wife and my son and I we went up into the mountains. It was pretty chilly was in the upper 30s or so, but we found a spot where the wind wasn't bad and we lit a fire, and we roasted the coffee beans now have to admit that roasting coffee beans over a fire in a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven basically was something that my wife came up with it was an idea that my wife had that she wanted to do.

She had been the manager of a coffee shop. She'd actually run a couple of different coffee shops, and she was she was very much into coffee in the process of making coffee and where it comes from and how its roasted and so on and so forth and she studied in research and she actually visited coffee roasting houses and talk to them to see how they did it and so forth and she decided that she was going to roast her own coffee and so sued trial and error she figured it out and it was time for me to actually do it.

So we did now the reason this is called getting your hands dirty is because what we actually got our hands dirty and had to light real actual fire in Asheville campfire, and there's there's soot and smoke involved you end up when you leave your clothes and your hair smell like smoke your hands are dirty from the soot from the bottom of the pan or what have you but we roasted the coffee.

Then we took the beans the freshly roasted beans dark almost black a very dark brown. Like I'm a hug any brown poured them into the hand roaster. I sat there on the ground or I'm sorry, the hand grinder ground them up, then put them in the percolator, put the percolator on the fire, on the edge of the grill.

They're boiled it up pour it into a couple of canteen cups and set by the fire and drank our coffee. Now the entire process probably took around 30 minutes, maybe a little more maybe close to 40 minutes by the time we got the fire going roasted the beans ground the beans boiled the coffee and drinking like now that's a long time.

There is no way you're sitting out there you're thinking there's no way in hell, I would invest 40 minutes in making a cup of coffee now admit that you know, that is a pretty good investment. Now the actual being roasting. From lighting the fire to getting the beans on the fire destroying them and then getting them out and cooling them took about 15 to 20 minutes or so.

So those but if you're going to do that, you could do a whole bunch of beans store them and then grind them at your leisure and Brew them as coffee. The coffee was delicious. It was wonderful one of the best cups of coffee I've ever drank. My wife agreed so it's not just me. But we got our hands dirty.

We didn't use any Electronics. No batteries. No apps no plug in anything everything we did was manual. It was old school, and we drove home. We know we spend a few hours up in the in the mountains, and yes, we videotaped it. I had my son along as a videographer and he videotaped the how to what we drove back down out of the mountains got home and that evening both my wife and I we had a really satisfied feeling.

We had that feeling that we had accomplished something, that we'd actually done something worthwhile with our time. Now, you might be thinking that's silly ball. I can just go to the store by pre-roasted beans pre-ground beans. I don't have to undertake to grind them in order to roast them. I just buy them in a bag throw them in a pot hit start and it goes and you can do that.

That's fine. I'm not telling you that you have to go out and roast your own coffee or grind your own coffee or whatever, but there's something cathartic there's something very very. Spiritually Worthy. Of getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself. How many of you had mothers or grandmothers who planted Gardens Every Spring, and they harvested the vegetables throughout the summer and into the fall and they cook those vegetables and those vegetables were tomatoes or carrots or you know corn or beans or whatever. They meant a lot to them, because they didn't just go to the store and buy them. They actually went through the real process.

They got their hands dirty planting. They pluck the weeds, you know, they tended to them that they watered when this when it wasn't raining enough, and they grew those themselves and they were very proud of that and it was something that made him feel good something that made him feel worthy and in our digital age when everything appears via the push of a button and most of the well all of our entertainment whether it's music or video or whatever or the written word in many cases, it's all notional, It's all digital.

It's not real. It's not a thing you can put your hands. I would recommend to you if you want to live a positive and productive life every once in a while. You need to take the time to get out and very very deliberately get your hands dirty. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm your host Paul Markel that will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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MM181 - Wrestling with the Cynic

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 09:00:00 +0000

When we grow older, we find ourselves having to Wrestle with the Cynic, and I'm not talking about wrestling with an external cynic. I'm talking about wrestling with the internal cynic, the one within you.

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Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel. Thank you one more time, yes, once again, thank you for joining me today. I hope that you're having a wonderful day so far whenever that happens to be I know many of you listen to this on your morning commute or while you're sipping your morning coffee, which is a great way to consume this.

But if you have to listen to it in the evening or the afternoon, that's cool, too. Let's talk about Wrestling with the Cynic. Now, what does it mean to be a Cynic or Cynical? A Cynic is a person who has lost their faith in their fellow man, and they believe that all people are motivated by greed or self-interest and that's really not untrue.

The human animal is motivated by their needs and desires, right? Human beings are animals and they need water, and they need food and they need shelter and they need, you know, basic human requirements. But they also need psychological requirements as well. They need affirmation, they need love, they need acceptance.

But when we grow older, or the older we grow- and I find myself having to wrestle with the cynic, and I'm not talking about wrestling with an external cynic. I'm talking about wrestling with the internal cynic. It doesn't take very long or doesn't take very many experiences where you are abused or you were burned or you were used or you were tricked or you feel like someone just used you for what they could get and then they discarded you and left.

It's pretty quick, or it's pretty easy to become a cynic, very rapidly I should say, and that's natural. It's a natural human response and I suppose that one of the things that I wrestle with on a daily basis is how to keep that cynic in check now, I guess they you can say that there is a healthy cynicism.

I don't know if you've ever heard of that person has a healthy dose of cynicism. That is they are wary of the wants or desires or matching nations of other people before they just jump in with both feet. They said back and say "Hmm, is this a good idea and is this person really have my best interest at heart, or they only thinking about themselves and to hell with me?"

That's a great question. I've had that in my life, I've had people who you know, came to me and it seemed as if by their words that they wanted to assist me or aid me. Be my friend or be my business associate or what have you and then as time went by I discovered that they were all about what they could get whenever they could get it and the hell with the consequences and to hell with me.

I think many of us, I would be surprised if there's someone in my audience is listening that has not had a similar experience. So, how do we deal with that? How do we not become completely and totally cynical? Think, it's a good question. One way, and I believe that this is a very positive way, when you are when you're a cynic, often the thing that is made you a cynic or made you feel that way has been either betrayal or the fact that you were lied to or that you were used or that someone whether they lied to you or not.

Basically, they took what they could get from you and then you discarded you personally or your feelings or what have you, and when that happens after that happens? How do you feel? How does it make you feel? It makes you feel, well, generally poorly about yourself. You're angry at yourself, you think “How could I allow this to happen to myself?”, and you develop a poor self-image. It's very easy to develop a poor self-image after you have been used after you have been taken advantage of.

You feel like "Well, maybe I deserve to be taken advantage of" or "Maybe I'm just a dummy" or "Maybe that's all I have in my life" or "That's all that I have come to me, is to be used or taken advantage of" and I'm telling you that doesn't have to be the case. If you find yourself, falling into that cynical trap or if you are wrestling with the inner cynic.

One thing that I would suggest to you is that you focus on your own development. You're like but isn't that selfish pole? I'm not telling you to focus on your own personal development at the expense of others. I'm telling you to focus on your own self-development by your own investment by your own effort.

Whether it means going to the gym more often or starting to go to the gym, whether it means eating better, or eating more healthy, or more sensibly. Whether it means investing your time and effort in a new Talent or skill. You may have always wanted to learn how to, Blank. Fill in the blank, to do woodworking, or to do needlepoint, or you remember when your grandmother we used to sit as a child and watch your grandmother knit and it seemed like there wasn't anything that your grandmother couldn't make out of, you know, with two needles and yarn or crochet hook and yarn and you always wished you would have learned how to do that.

Well to start, say that you always wanted to play an instrument, whatever that instrument happened to be. I don't care if you're 52 years old, I don't care if you're 60 years old. I don't care if you're 48 or 39 or what have you, if you're living and breathing you can do that. Instead of worrying about other people or investing your mental energy worrying about others and how others are seeking to take advantage of you, or take advantage of a situation or what have you.

What I want you to do instead is I want you to focus on self-development, not self-development by taking advantage of other people were cheating or lying or what-have-you. I'm talking about self-development through actual effort, whether it involves reading or study or physical exercise or physical movements or learning new skills.

Do it, pick one. Choose it and learn it, and you'll find that you're not so much concerned with what other people think and say and do if you are pleased and happy with your own progress and people will see that in you. People will see that self-confidence, they will see that and they're probably less likely to try and take advantage of you.

It's difficult to wrestle with the inner cynic. Everyone does, I do and I would be surprised if you don't as well, but we can't let it win. If we're going to be living in this world, if we're going to be occupying space on planet Earth we need to do so in a positive and productive fashion and sitting around thinking about how the world constantly is trying to take advantage of it is not a way to do that.

So, next time you find yourself wrestling with that inner cynic you're feeling cynical. Take some time, think about working on yourself your own personal development your own achievements. You're still alive. You're still taking in oxygen you're moving around on this planet. You can achieve you can do new things.

You can learn new skills new talents do it. Stop worrying about what other people have done or will do because you can't control that but you can't control yourself. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I am your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

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