Perseverance

It is hard to persevere sometimes. We all have bad days that make it hard to stay true to our goals and can make us lose our focus in what is important to our future. When we persevere, when we keep our focus on the future goals, we achieve amazing things. When FDR said that Americans in the 40s would build 50,000 planes by the end of the year, everyone told him he was out of his mind. No way could Americans do that. And they were right. We built 100,000 planes and gave the Army an air armada that would block out the sun. We stayed focused and achieve more than what was asked of us and did it with people telling us it couldn't be done. We persevered. When Michael Jordan got cut from the basketball team his sophomore year, he didn't quit. He went home and practiced hard and continued to practice that hard up until he retired. He persevered. You can too. You have to stay focused and have people around you to cheer you on honestly and give up constructive criticism when it's need to go beyond and above.

Evil and why it's here

Evil is a choice. People aren't born evil. They learn it through a lack of comfort, love, and understanding. Those feelings and needs are replaced with a feeling of suffering, anger, and hate. We want to blame others, make others feel like we do inside, and project our pain on those we feel are weaker them us. Evil exists only so long as we allow these feelings to occur and fester. Evil will also exist if we do nothing about it. If we stand by and allow it to occur with no resistance. We must take a stand and change those that would do evil. By starting early with understanding, love, and genuine caring for others, but by also enforcing tough, just consequences for breaking those rules and be stern and firm about following through with those consequences. Evil is a choice and we can change the world by stopping one evil act and unifying together to not allow evil to take root in our community, city, and country.

Joy

Joy cometh in the morning. Think about that statement. No matter what happens today, when you wake up tomorrow all of that will be behind and you have a new day that you can choose to fill with joy. It is a choice. You can choose to dwell on something you can't change because it's in the past or focus on something that hasn't happened because it's in the future or you can choose to fill your day with joy by spreading joy to others in your life. You can yell at your kids or fill their day with joy so they have an amazing day. You can be grumpy at work and have a miserable day or choose to smile and be glad you get paid to be at work and thank people for being there with you. You can get mad at your significant other for something small that you won't remember in a year or let them know how much they mean to you. It's all a choice. So I say to you remember. Joy cometh in the morning.

Patience

This is the hardest thing for me to have and yet teach my children.  It is patience.  Patience is the ability to wait for something you are working towards but don't have immediate access to yet.  Patience is the ability to work and work towards a goal by taking it slow and building towards it, while not always having success in every battle, keeping your eyes on winning the war in front of you.  I think that patience is something that we, as a society, are losing in our everyday values.  With online streaming of videos instantly, news traveling around the world in a matter of seconds, social media allowing you to keep up with friends and others half the globe away, our world has gotten smaller and more impatient.  We crave satisfaction now and we demand it now.  Fast food restaurants, delivery everything, and video games give us instant satisfaction while we have to wait for the next thing to distract us from our long term goals and our ability to teach patience to our children.  We can distract them with TV or video or computer games, while we are on our tablets or cell phones.  Gone are the days when we tell our children stories and show them that constant hard work towards a goal will benefit them more in the long run and that patience is learning to delay satisfaction in the moment to reap greater rewards later on in life.  Teaching our kids that playing outside and using their imagination, and learning to be patient at times, can give them more blessings and a deeper meaning in life than a life of instant gratification and a longing loneliness that eats at their very being and soul.  A life that is going from one instant satisfaction to another is just shallow and ultimately boring and wasted.  Make your life mean something and remind yourself that patience is a virtue that we all need and should make sure children must possess.

Honesty- How hard is it?

Well folks, I know I haven't posted in a while, and for that I am sorry. I was struggling with fitting posting into my schedule, because I wasn't scheduling my time properly and I have been fighting to overcome years of doing absolutely no planning ahead and spending more time watching television then I was doing things that can truly matter and hopefully change lives.  In my few weeks away, I have done some soul searching and re-evaluating what really matters and deciding to set some personal goals for myself and figuring a personal mission statement for me and my family.  I will tell you about my personal goals.  I have set 7 different goals for myself so that my life is in balance and them by setting these goals, I have had to figure out what obstacles are in my way and what changes need to be made in my life to overcome those obstacles.  I based my 7 goals off of the teachings of Zig Zigler, and if you listen to his podcast, he does have an inspiring podcast and advice.  While I don't see eye to eye with everything Zig has to say, I respect his opinion and he does make some wonderful and life changing points.  If you haven't heard of Zig before, he has a podcast called Inspiring Words of Encouragement.  It is something good to listen on the work, to the store, or a walk around the block.  So here are my goals and I will also put which part of my life they pertain

John's Goals
1) Financial- Be debt free by 2014
2) Social- Take Brandi out with a new couple each month
3) Physical- You should know this but get my weight down to 240
4) Intellectual- Read one non fiction book each month
5) Spiritual- Read one chapter of the bible each night and prayer more
6) Family- Spend 3 more hours outside together and reduce TV by 5 hours per week
7) Career- Write my book by next year while being the best GM for CNW

My Personal Mission Statement- With the love of my family, friends, and God, I will inspire hope in others to help change the world for the betterment of all

Hopper Family Mission Statement-  Thru love, understanding, and genuine care for others, we will change the world one person at a time.


Now while this may seem silly or pointless to some people out there, I believe in changing myself for the better and by writing down my goals and the statement that I and my family live by, I can always refer to it when I make a decision about anything that would reflect on myself or my family.  I have found that it is the first step to being honest with yourself, which leads to be honest with others.  Now I understand that telling "white" lies to spare someones feelings can seem like a good thing, it never is at all. I have told my share, actually more than my share of white, black, little and Huge lies in my life trying to spare feelings or to do my best to keep my own butt out of trouble.  The problem with the lie is that you have remember the lie, remember every detail and prayer that no one ever looks into the lie.  If they do, then you have to  lie to cover up that lie.  Your stress level goes up and your health goes down quickly.  Stress will drag your health to the gutter faster than eating fast food will because it causes sleeplessness, binge eating, and just poor decisions overall.  Trust me, it is not worth it.  By being honest and truthful up front, you never have to stress about being discovered, don't have to remember the details, and you won't lose sleep, because the truth is just that freeing. You tell the truth and you can just relax

Honesty is not only telling the truth, but also respecting others for their opinions and having an agree to disagree mentality.  You can't change what others change, they can only change for themselves.  While some people are so far out there with their belief systems and values, we do live in the land of the free where the brave fight and, if called upon, die to protect our freedoms and our lives.  That is the truly beautiful and awe inspiring thing about our country.  We don't believe just one thing.  We accept many different beliefs and use those that we agree with to form our own, truly individual belief system and our own values.  We can also change our values and beliefs as our lives change and we adapt to new situations.  Now tell me, what other country can you live in with this kind of freedom to live your life?

So in being honest with you, my readers, I can tell you that I find inspiration as I am writing this, and I have figured out how to write my blog 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), write 2 pages a night on my book, and exercise.  I can walk and do my cardio workout before typing my blog and then use my weight lifting time to focus on my book.  While it may not be the world's greatest book, I find the writing of it liberating and I hope it will help me start to lift people up.

So tell me honestly, Do you find this blog help to you and what other topics would you like to see me help search the lost truths for you in your life?

Changes part 2

So as I was reviewing my last post, I realized I didn't put my weight on here. I started Monday weighing in at 321.2 lbs. as of this post I'm at 317.6. I figure if I'm going to ask people to answer questions and post comments then I better step up and commit to this process myself.

Changes

Well. I know I haven't posted in a while. I have had a lot going on so I'm going to budget my time better to get 2 posts a week in every week.

Today I am going to talk about changes and changing ourselves. The hardest thing we have to admit to ourselves isn't that we are perfect. We all know that we are not perfect and can easily admit that to everyone. The hardest part is that we do have control over most areas of our lives that we aren't perfect in and we just don't want to spend the time to fix it. The reasons we come up with are many, such as, it takes too much time, I can't afford it, there is no point in starting now, I'm too old, or I can do it later, just to name a few excuses. I can give you an example from my life. Currently I'm overweight. For years, I have said that I didn't have time to do it, I had to work or sleep or spend time with the kids or my wife, or any one of hundreds of excuses to justify to myself not making the time. Well not making the time earlier in my life means I have to spend more time on it now. So each week I am going to post my weight on here as a motivator to lose the weight and get back in shape.

We have to make changes

We need to make changes in our lives so we can change the world around us. It is the only way to move the needle. Changing is not easy. It requires a focus on a long term goal with several smaller shorter goals along the way. So set a big goal yourself and find ways to break it down smaller goals so you can keep the big goal in your sights. My big goal is to lose 70 pounds by December. So my smaller goals is to lose about 15 pounds a month or 3-4 each week.

I am now going to poses a couple of questions for you to post about. The first is what changes would you like to make in your life? The second is, how can the people reading this blog help you to achieve a goal and make that change?

Purpose Driven Life

Ok, well here comes post three for all those who are reading this blog.  Last time I talked about having a purpose in life, and my friend, Matt Riggins, posted a comment about when he goes to work, he has a sign saying, "All it takes for evil to succeed, is for good men to do nothing."  That is so true. When we walk the path of apathy, we allow evil to succeed by not standing up and stopping it in its tracks.  So how do we stop evil from happening, we lead a purpose driven life.

A purpose driven life is not easy and is not always fun, but it is rich, fulfilling, and you can change, not only your life, but life of your children and your grandchildren, by treating them to live life doing what you do best and how to best benefit all people everywhere.  Just because you are in your 20s and 30s, and you aren't doing what you feel is a purpose driven life, doesn't mean you are a failure or that its too late to change your stars.  Abraham Lincoln was a failure at business, law, and had a failed run for senator, before he was elected President.  Dr. Albert Schweitzer was still helping in Africa with diseases well into his 80s.  Albert Einstein failed 8th grade, and yet was able to express the theory of relativity.  Michael Jordan was cut from his sophomore basketball team, yet is one of the most prolific players in NBA history.

This purpose of those examples is to show that setbacks aren't the end of a journey, but the thing to make you push and want it more.  I'm not advocating quitting your job, and pursuing your dream because it will probably lead to disaster.  You must be prepared to achieve your dream.  First, you must find out what it is that makes you jump up and happy to do for everyday forever, and something that you would do for free.  The reason I say that, is   because if you are willing to give your time away to do something, just for the joy of doing it, then you are on the right track to chasing your dream into a career that you will want to do forever and love doing.  The average worker will have over 20 jobs and each job will last only about 2.1 years.  That doesn't sound like the average person is living a purpose driven life.  In fact, it sounds like the average worker is lost and is aimlessly searching for some meaning in life.  So you must find what you love to do, and what you would do for free.  This is how you start to find the purpose that drives your life.

So start with things that bring joy to your life and start to form a plan of how to get to a career on that line of work.  Start small, and do it on your terms.  Don't compromise or make little of your dream.  Try things out and take it step by step.  If you don't like something, or the outcome is not what you were expecting, change your dream little by little, until you achieve the vision and goal that brings you true happiness.  As you dream grows, it turns into a vision, then a goal.  Don't get overwhelmed by this.  State to yourself what you want, and how you want to achieve your goal, and what it will look like when you have reached that goal, and stick to it.  While it was ideal to start this 5, 10, or even 20 years ago, don't let another day go by without making it mean something.  Start today.  As Chaucer said in a Knight's Tale, " Days like these are for to rare to cheapen with heavy handed words."  So go out find your dream, form a plan, chase it, and live a purpose driven life.  Don't let setbacks stop you and don't let average people bring you down.  Raise above and change your stars.

Purpose

Well folks.  Here is post number 2.  I am hoping to do a couple of these a week.  Please feel free to leave a comment or email me to let me know what you think.

So next, let me explain the purpose of my blog.  I'm not an expert in anything, but these are just my observations of life and where we were as a society and a people versus where I believe we are heading in our future.  Now some people will not agree with me altogether, and others may agree on some points and not on others, and that is perfectly fine.  My goal to not to change minds, but change the way we act on things we disagree on and stop blaming each other for things not being accomplished.  I would rather compromise on our disagreements in order to solve the problems we face as a society, than just blame the other people who disagree with me for not changing their minds to my view and my view alone.  That is one of the main problems we face a society and as citizens of the world.  We have the ability to solve most of the problems in our world, (i.e. hunger, pollution, lack of water to those less fortunate) we simply lack the leadership to agree on how to best achieve these goals.  If our leaders could compromise, rather than cast doubt and worry about their own legacies and future elections, we could have taken care of these problems years ago.

 

To best explain how I see us as a society are moving, I see 3 paths in front of us.  One path is the path of justice, freedom, and goodness.  It is a very narrow road to walk, one that our forefathers walked, not without some stumbles, but always with their heads focus on the distance goal ahead them.  The last path is the one of tyranny, oppression, and hate.  This is the path of dictators, bigots, and the scum of society.  It is a dark path that those who wish to only further their own goals and agendas walk, and the trample others on their path to what they view as ultimate power over others. The third path is by far the widest and easiest to walk.  It is the path of apathy, uncaring, and the "if it doesn't concern/effect me, leave me alone".  It is easy to walk this path, because if it doesn't personally affect you or those to love and care about, then you don't care to help solve the problem.  The main problem with walking this path is that while you are a good person, who does good sometimes, the times you don't, the people on the evil path grow strong, and we weaken those on the good path.  We don't want to report abuse, cause its not our problem.  We don't stop to help people on the side of the road cause we don't have the time.  We stare at people going through disasters all over the world, and switch channels to something less troubling or that we enjoy more.  The problem with this path is that it has no view of a future and it is the easiest path to walk.  We, as a society, have to get off this path and change the world for the better, not react to it when it suits us best, or we are forced to do something by a grave act of evil.

We have to change ourselves, and have the patience of allowing change to happen slowly, instead of trying to force it, or getting discouraged when it doesn't happen instantly.  Time and effort by others and keeping our eyes on that goal in the distance will allow us to change for the better and no longer walk the path of apathy.  Knowing that evil will always exist in a world of free choice shouldn't be discouraging, but rather a calling to stand up and be ready to face it when it comes to fight, not letting it take root and ignoring the problem until it affects us personally.  

Well thats all for today. Let me know what you think.

Welcome to my blog

Hello everyone,
Welcome to my blog.  Let me introduce myself.  My name is John Hopper, and I am 29 years old. I am married to a wonderful woman, who has given me 3 beautiful and extraordinary children.  They amaze me daily with their ability to adapt, to learn, and to overcome obstacles in their way.   I am writing this blog as a testament to the truths that they teach and remind me daily and the lessons I have learned or am in the process of learning as my life goes on.  This blog will serve as a written record of the events and lessons in order to help others discover lessons I learned the hard way or how I paid attention to those who went before me down those winding and troublesome paths and how they showed to how to best navigate my way through those dark and troubling times.  I am not a perfect person, and most of the time I have made mistakes.  I own those mistakes, for they taught me lessons that I wish to pass on to others.  I am going to try and post at least 2 times a week and introduce to the wonderful people who have made up my life.