MM#324--Sowing Seeds of Knowledge for a Harvest of Insight

Transcript

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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.

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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

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Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.

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This week we are diving into one of my favorite books of all time, and the reason it's one of my favorite books is because it was my first book back at age 35.

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Not my first book I've ever read that would be silly but my first book when I started this quest of personal development and intentionally reading on every subject and topic.

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I could find and think of all in the pursuit of truth, could find and think of all in the pursuit of truth what is real, what is not, and how can I improve myself, my community and the world around me.

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This was the first book that was given to me back in April of 2009, and it kicked off the whole reading thing.

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What has been happily, I might add, reading thing, what has been happily, I might add, an epic quest of reading, reading the good books, the great books.

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So it was my first book, age 35 years old when I read this book, and I've been reading differently since then.

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15 years of reading every single day, well, almost every single day, reading books.

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I know for sure, when I was down with COVID in September of 2021, I didn't read every day because I didn't read for about five or six days, but I most likely have read almost every day for the past 15 years.

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But, as is our custom, I will stop babbling and we will move away from this introduction and grab our first pull quote.

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Go on to the book.

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There is a natural progression in life you plant, then you cultivate and finally you harvest.

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In the days when we were in agrarian society, everyone knew this.

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It wasn't something anyone had to think about, it was self-evident, just the way things were Plant, cultivate, harvest.

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But that's changed Today.

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We have to learn it and that, my friends, comes to us from my first love book called the Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.

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Like I said, it was given to me back in April of 2009 and it started me on this quest of reading books, intentionally reading the books.

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And now our first quote says there is a natural progression to life you plant, you cultivate, then you harvest.

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I have to agree.

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We in our modern, post-christian 21st century America no longer are an agrarian society and so those seasons of planting, cultivating and harvesting they don't come easily to us.

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It actually takes us the virtue of patience to plant and not have something growing within a day or two, we begin to get frustrated.

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In fact, some folks wanted to grow within a few hours, such is our limited attention span these days.

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But let's keep going with this nugget of wisdom, because I think there's a solid thread to pull on going back to the book.

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Because I think there's a solid thread to pull on Going back to the book.

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In today's world, everyone wants to go directly from plant to harvest.

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We plant the seed by joining the gym and then get frustrated when a few days go by and there's no fitness harvest.

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Hey, we joined a gym, right.

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We put in the hours right, all three or four of them.

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Why shouldn't we be looking more buff?

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But that's the logic of the lottery.

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Why should I have to build the skills, the relationships, the experience it takes to earn the money?

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Why can't I just buy a ticket and have it?

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The step we've lost touch with, the one where the real, though invisible, power lies, is the step of cultivating, and that step, unlike planting and harvesting, takes place only through the patient dimension of time.

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Ah, the power of time, the power of cultivating, or how does, uh, how does jeff say it?

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Let me find it here.

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The step we've lost touch with, the one where the real power, though invisible, though invisible, the real power lies is in the step of cultivating, and that step, unlike planting and harvesting, takes place only through the patient dimension of time.

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So good, because it is invisible power.

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That's very true.

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Let's keep going.

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Because we are a culture steeped in generations of movies and television.

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We've gotten a little confused about the reality of time.

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We don't understand time anymore.

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I'm not criticizing television or films.

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Film is an amazing art form.

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Television is a powerful medium in the hands of true artists that can both teach us valuable.

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They both can teach us valuable lessons about life, which is on a side.

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That's very true.

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We Americans, most especially, are confused about the power of time.

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But let's keep going.

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Through a great film, you can experience the triumph of the human soul over adversity, the drama of a struggle between doing what's right and succumbing to the temptations of the world, a moving encounter between generations, the flowering of a powerful romance, the struggle and birth of a nation.

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But it is all finished in two hours.

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All in two hours, that sounds about right, doesn't it All done in two hours?

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Can you imagine a nation being born in two hours, meeting the person who will become the love of your life, the dating, the courtship, the romance, the struggle, the triumph, the wedding and the happy life thereafter.

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In two hours, of course not.

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After in two hours, of course not.

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We expect to put out the effort of a 30-second falling in love sequence or a fighter in training sequence, or a crazy idea turns into a million-dollar business sequence and get that same heroic ending.

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In a world filled with instant coffee, instant breakfast, instant credit, instant shopping, instant information and 24-7 news, we have come dangerously close to losing touch with reality and believing we have access to instant life.

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There is no instant life.

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Life there is no instant life.

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That's the nugget of wisdom among the many, many nuggets we have found here in the gold.

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Nugget of wisdom is that instant life is a mirage, doesn't come into focus as we peer out over the sand landscape in the desert looking for that treasured watering hole.

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Instant life is not true.

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We have to understand the seasons, the planting phase, the cultivating phase, the harvest phase, most especially that cultivating phase.

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So in today's Mojo Minute, let us love the cultivating phase, let us look for it, let's cultivate a love of reading the good books, the great books, the books that changed history, the books that changed people.

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Let's ultimately find those best ideas, those nuggets of gold.

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Let's find those nuggets.

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Let's live by those nuggets and those nuggets when you find the really good ones.

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You know there's nuggets of gold, some of them over time, with good cultivations, they turn into diamonds.

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Diamonds are precious.

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Those are the best ideas, those ideas that have shaped and motivated, inspired hundreds of millions, if not trillions of millions, of people throughout human history.

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They're universal.

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Find those diamonds and live by them.

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But it doesn't happen in an instant.

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There's no instant life.

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Slow down, cultivate it and start by reading, reading the good books.

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When you begin reading and cultivating a love for reading the good books, you will be on the road to a flourishing life, and I'll see you on that road with high fives all around.

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Thank you for joining us road with high fives all around, as well as other great resources.

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Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.

MM#324--Sowing Seeds of Knowledge for a Harvest of Insight

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