(For those who are not familiar with Hardscrabble Farmer, you're in for a treat. There are very few genuine from-the-heart writers out there who are also an enjoyable read. There are even fewer who will expose in raw detail their trials and tribulations for all the world to see. Hardscrabble Farmer is one of them. There are two ways to learn in life. Either you listen to the teacher talk the walk, or you watch the teacher walk the talk. Please invest a few minutes and watch Hardscrabble Farmer walk the talk. - Cognitive Dissonance)
Watch your thoughts, they become words;
watch your words, they become actions;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
—FRANK OUTLAW
Late President of the Bi-Lo Stores
Every Summer we are approached by the sons of neighbors, or their mothers, asking if we have work on the farm. For some it is curiosity, for others a desire to earn a few dollars doing something other than sitting around playing video games. Sometimes they work out, others times they don’t, but we almost always give them a shot if we are asked and in some cases it becomes an annual ritual that ends when they go off to college. As a practice I send them off to the chicken coop with a pitchfork and a wheelbarrow and after a brief period of instruction leave them to clean it out. If they return the next day we’ve got a keeper and we move on to other tasks, if not we save each other a lot of time and frustration. Continue reading 5 Keys to a Self-Efficient Life→
A few months ago someone asked me to point them to everything I’ve written about patience: what it is and how to develop it. I don’t think I’ve ever addressed the topic directly, even though I’ve danced around it a lot.
I now consider patience to be a pretty fundamental life skill, one which directly determines whether a particular elevator ride, social event, drive home or post office visit is an easy experience or an awful one. Whether we can be patient or not is a high stakes matter, because life is at least 90% those kinds of experiences.
I guess some amount of patience develops inevitably, as you get older and gradually realize how self-defeating it is to revile the present, since you spend every instant of your life there. Continue reading How to Be Patient→
In our world, spiritual elderhood is a rarity. Since birth we are conditioned to believe that money, power, fame and success will bring us happiness. But eventually we realize that this is a grand delusion. Even the richest, most respected people continue to suffer from emptiness, depression, drug abuse and meaninglessness.
Yet somehow, many of us still feel pressured to continue our soulless pursuits, always chasing for the next “fix” and next temporary stimulation to fill our inner voids.
