*this blog is a condensed transcript of the video and my conversation with my friend Derek
I want to talk about a mindset tool I never talk about enough. When someone asks me a question, my first thought is always, “Are they asking me the right question?”, so I don't waste any time on the wrong question. Think about how fundamental that is, especially when you're getting yourself into a spot where people want to argue.
I never hesitate when someone asks me a question to say, “Hey, man, I don't even think that's the right question”, especially regarding what I'm doing when it comes to the Mayhem Mindset process. I understand the Mayhem Mindset process, so when someone's asking me questions, I can be like, “Nah, here's the way forward. Here's what you should be thinking about.”
For me, in politics, this is a valuable tool. I didn't vote for Trump; I didn’t vote for Biden. I was sure I wasn't interested in left-wing politics. I agreed more with Trump’s politics, but I'd like my President to be more presidential and articulate. If we're going to do the right thing, I believe we should do it the right way. I care about that. I think the only way forward is a return to the character, and our leaders need to demonstrate character, especially on the public stage in front of the world.
I think many of our problems exist in part because people don’t understand and cannot articulate their core values and their identity as an individual. There is a culture war being fought every day, for sure, a meaningful war of values waging around us every day. There are very well-defined people on the far left and very well-defined people on the far right, and they're battling each other. I think most Americans' beliefs are somewhere in the middle. Most Americans believe in common sense. Their political views are not way out on the fringe of either side.
Many of us feel helpless. We don’t know what we can do about the division, we’re not sure who is telling the truth, and we don't know who the hell we are as individuals, especially when the pressure is turned up. Many of us don’t know how to live free or understand what freedom really means. When put under pressure, many of us don’t have a working idea of our core values, and we haven’t developed the mindset tools to apply them. We are not critical thinkers. As a society, we are confused or arguing about the values and principles that made the United States of America the freest country in human history.
Many people don’t understand that as a culture, we must organize around shared values and that we collectively have to agree on which values and principles will guide our society. For starters, who we are as individuals must to be clear first. For example, the value of Freedom must be exercised and put to work at the individual level first. Freedom can’t exist effectively in our families on our teams or communities if we don't even know what that means as individuals first. It has to be something each one of us owns first, and then we move forward from there, and then we can organize our society around the value of Freedom.
So, when Americans no longer understand the principles our nation was built on, there's no way to use those values as our guardrails; we get stuck trying to answer the wrong questions. We all need the ability to stop and reason, think about who we are and what we believe as an individual. Then, think about what we believe as a community so we can ask our leaders the right questions and avoid the trap of wasting time trying to answer the wrong questions.
How do you develop this ability? Where do you start? Right now, so many people are certainly overwhelmed by the momentum of life. If life were a river, your raft is being overwhelmed by the rapids, and you have been swept into rushing whitewater. If you aren’t prepared and haven’t developed the skills to survive in the rapids, you are in grave danger. If you use all your energy trying to swim to the river bank, you will soon be exhausted. The current's too strong. You have to know out how to handle yourself in the current until you get to a place where you can get out.
Start by owning yourself and living it with your family and in your community. If what you say you believe is an underdeveloped ideology, you won't be able to rely on it in the face of real adversity. If it's not authentic, you will continue to waste your energy trying to answer wrong questions, and we will all continue to be divided.
Own yourself! Do the work to establish your personal identity, organize your core values and write it into a code you can use to make solid choices for your life intentionally. That’s what the Mayhem Mindset online course is all about. S&H!
Keep Coming Forward
Jim Hensel
