Live Life Fearlessly

Living life without fear is like breathing without air. It is not possible. Fears will come. Fear shows up when the bill money is low but the bills are high. It's there when the doctor says she's sending your x-rays to a colleague to take a closer look. It rears its ugly head when the layoffs you have heard were coming...arrive.

Fear accomplishes many things in the lives of men, women, and children: anger, resentment, disobedience, violence, greed, theft, adultery, jealousy, hate, and a multitude of other destructive emotions. Our lives and relationships are damaged - sometimes beyond repair - when we allow fear to have free rein; to go unchecked. But it does not have to be this way. There is a way which leads to peace in the midst of even the most pressing and immediate fears.

That way is anchored in your faith in God, but there's more to it. I know plenty of God-'fearing' folks who are as tormented by the fears of this world as anyone. What separates my life and view from theirs?

The answer is found in the sure knowledge of WHY am I here on this planet. Fortified by my faith in God, I have taken the time to dig deeply into what makes me, me. Long sessions of self-examination successfully enabled by a foundation of prayer have revealed my design. Design? Yes...design. You see we are more skillfully crafted than anything we ourselves are able to design and manufacture.

Amazing software powering programs we call artificial intelligence are yet primitive when compared the brilliant complexity of the human being. The part of you which is not defined by your skin, eye, or hair color; your height or weight; your education or beliefs (or lack thereof), is unique to you. In teaching my D.E.E.D.S. curriculum I point my audiences to an undeniable fact - there is a reason there aren't six billion doctors on the planet. Not everyone wants to be a doctor!

We are all unique, masterpieces of design. Some of us are designed to be doctors, others to be pilots, still others to be movie critics. What is your design? What activity has always fascinated you? What were you known for as a child? What did you want to do no matter what other children wanted to do?

In my book, Be Known For Your DEEDS, I provide seven case studies of individuals who enjoy varying levels of financial success today (and nine traits they share), but who are all living a satisfying life based on following their intrinsic design. Back to the interplay with faith in God....

When you come to the realization there is a concrete reason why you are on this planet, and that you are uniquely designed to achieve the destiny for which you were created, there is little that will scare you away from so important a mission. Those who try to dissuade you based upon their own ignorance, and attempt to de-value your existence are to be ignored. YOU are created in the image of God, and are not the result of freakish, random chance!

YOU are here by plan and design. But why? Only you can discern that, and it is vital that you do. Destiny and a life to be lived fearlessly are waiting, but what about those nasty fears lurking in the mailbox, on the job, in the economy, not to mention the phobias which can paralyze us (fear of heights, confined spaces, the dark, death, snakes, spiders, etc.)?

Fear, no matter the name we assign to the symptom, stands in the way of your destiny and provokes you to turn back. Fear stands in the way of a life with great meaning, value and quality. It will be faith in the God who created you, and the will you demonstrate to define your passion in life (intrinsic design), that will eradicate fear as a threat. It may still rise up, but it will be ignored, dealt with, and/or handled because it no longer controls you. You now control your emotional responses and have become free to live the life to which you are called and were born!

Fearlessly,
JD

Be Known for Your DEEDS is available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com

The Recording Studio

Recently, I set about a plan to record devotionals.  I don't have a recording studio I can access, nor do I have a so-called desk studio in my home.  The high-value, low cost shock mount mic is still at the local music store.  My subscription to Voice 1-2-3 remains fun to watch, and the only mixer I have access to is made by Sunbeam.

What's a speaker and budding recording artist to do??

Use your imagination.  With that very thought in mind, I picked up my smartphone, swept my app screens to the left and stopped on the Voice Recorder.  A gentle tap, the app opened, I tapped record and started talking.  Problem was...I was in the house.  Family, neighbors, animals and all manner of noisy life tend to ignore the sign on your head that says ON AIR.

I was forced to retreat to the only available haven for peace, the only retreat for solitude...my Bronco.  That's right. A classic, 1995 Ford Bronco (351 V-8, Cleveland Block, just sayin') was calling my name and beckoning me to slide behind the wheel and go for a ride.  Don't know if you've ever sought peace and quiet in a Bronco.  I'll say this:  Peace - a state of mind - is possible.  Quiet - a state of noise - is not.

This is where imagination came to the rescue.  My thought was why not make this devotional series real and raw?  Forget the sterility of a studio with its sound engineers and 256 track board!  Forget the desk studio and the eggcrate cone of silence!  I say give me hundreds of ponies under the hood, and ambient sound that would make Mad Max proud!

My first Bronco Devotional turned out to be quite a success.  The mic on the smartphone (samsung, android) is actually pretty good.  There was never a time that I had to wonder what it was I said because the entire 12-minutes was clear as a bell!  I converted it to MP3 and had a keeper.  The road noise actually added an interesting backdrop and lent an edge of authenticity to my remarks.  No script while driving.  You either know the material or you don't.

Recall when those TV shows began to use a camera that seemed to move all over the place?  I think it was NYPD Blue that broke the ground for that trend.  After feeling an initial irritation, I realized the genius behind the ploy;  I concentrated all the more on the center of the frame.  And so it is with the Bronco Devotionals - listeners pay close attention to the 'center' of the sound.

Want to record for an audience?  Want to podcast?  Want to burn to CD for giveaway or sale?  Get your imagination involved and create opportunities!  If you want to succeed, you will.  If you want to make excuses...you will.  Don't make excuses, make successes.  The recording studio is where you choose.  Turn on your mic, but first turn on your imagination.

Fearlessly,
JD