Who Do You Listen 2 Consistently?
Filtering through the constant barrage of Instagram, Facebook, advertising, television, news, family, friends, and co-workers and focusing on what is relevant and worthwhile can be a daunting task.
Which of these are having the most impact in a positive way, and how much time and value are we placing on them are essential questions that we should be asking ourselves if we want to have control over what our lives are like and what they will become.
If we do not stop and think about and adjust accordingly, then we are just being led by the intentions and desires of others. No one can predict where that will put us in five, ten, or twenty years down the road.
Bottom Line- It will serve us well to stop and consider who and what we are listening to regularly.
Good News, You Are In Control!
The good news is that you and I are in control of our future if we choose to make use of our minds to control our brains and bodies so that they are our servants.
If we do not take control, then our lives will become the result of everyone else’s schedule for us. What is more, any of the mentioned areas can mold and shape our minds in very negative, false, and destructive ways.
They all can be useful as well, but the proof is in the pudding as they say, and we all must evaluate how each may be affecting our lives because no one else is going to.
That is not to say we should not listen to anyone who has a different opinion or who views things differently than we do.
What I suggest is that we take control of our sources of information and who we are listening to, what we are repeatedly doing each day, and how much time we allow specific platforms to take up in our daily lives.
- Bottom Line – You make the decisions of who influences you the most in your life
Listening To The Wrong Voice
Marriages can fail because wives or husbands chose to listen to their friends and spent all day listening to the wrong voices, telling them that they deserved better.
It is a recipe for disaster when we allow a friend to have that kind of influence over our most intimate relationships and especially the one person in our lives who have committed to us,” forsaking all others, till death do us part.”
Perhaps it started slowly and seemed innocent enough, but somehow blew up into this massive habit of seeing everything your partner does in a negative light to the point they can do nothing right in your eyes.
Instead of honoring their husband or wife, they have chosen to spend their time listening to someone outside the marriage.
(This doesn’t refer to getting advice or counseling, but even then, you had better be careful when choosing who you go to for information. All counselors, just as with anything else, are not right.)
As a consequence, they now justify sneaking around and seeing other people until finally there is nothing left and the marriage is over.
While this may seem like an extreme example, it happens all the time. And, unfortunately, it will continue to go on in our society.
- Bottom Line – If you listen to the wrong voices, it can have terrible consequences in your life.
There Are Agendas Behind The Words And The Actions
The intentional agenda of extreme minority groups in this country to normalize every sick and perverted act under the sun may feel suitable for the moment. But this country is morally slipping into the point of no return.
Repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes routine. Get our clueless liberal government to back it up, then force it down the throats of young children.
In one single generation, this country is upside down to where good is evil, and evil is good. No rules, no laws except what the most liberal and extreme members of society decide.
We see it in politics from the extreme liberal left, which pushes socialist views and ideas by using the ignorance of the youth and the greed of adults to accept their bribes to give them something for nothing blindly.
- Bottom Line – There is a plan behind the things we see happening, and they will eventually rip this nation apart and bring us to our knees.
Just Be More Tolerant
Those demanding tolerance have no intention of being tolerant towards anyone who does not entirely accept and embrace their views.
What utter hypocrisy this is when those who push this are the least tolerant toward any opposition.
- Bottom Line – the idea of tolerance nothing more than a tool being used against society to push someone’s views and beliefs down our throats.
Tolerant of This?
Take out the bible, enter condoms and transexual show and tell for the kids. What an improvement! But soon, the day will come that freedom of speech will be for those in power, in some specialized protected group, or only to be used in private. And folks, we are dangerously close to that point now.
We hear something from multiple sources and assume it must be factual and accurate. It plays over and over like a broken record aimed at changing minds and opinions, and it works far better than even they thought it would.
Technology is the tool for spreading mass deception quicker and more efficiently than at any other time in history.
Exceptions in our day have somehow become the new standard in everything, and because someone has some rare exception to the norm, we throw all rules out the window so that no one feels wrong about anything they do.
Yet we look in shock when someone commits the most horrible crimes with no remorse.
- Bottom Line – Those pushing tolerance are hypocrites and do not tolerate anyone who opposes them.
Be Aware Of The Dangers And Protect Your Dreams
We must be deliberate in how we spend our time so that we reach our goals and dreams.
We must make good choices on who we spend our time with and who we listen to because these have an impact on our lives far more significant than we may realize.
The more time we spend with someone, the bigger their influence will become. The more time we listen to or spend on a social network, the more it will influence and impact our lives. You and I are not robots, and so we are not immune to the opinions, stories, images, or movies that we see and hear.
If you laugh about something enough times, you will likely never take it seriously. Hollywood has numbed generations of viewers by mocking morality, joking about immorality, and normalizing things that are not normal or good for anyone.
Vegetate on the garbage that fills the airways today consistently, and you will lower your standards of morality, become numb to violence, normalize profanity, and begin to accept every single type of illicit sexual behavior and suggestion as merely someone’s preference.
- Bottom Line – Be deliberate and careful with your entertainment choices because the movies and programs available today are lowering our moral standards by desensitizing us through repetition.
No Standard Is The New Standard-More on Entertainment
The myths that there is no right or wrong, that you and I are not accountable to anyone, and there is no God since we cannot see Him, all get drilled into our minds. I used to watch every movie that came out religiously with high expectations.
And while I realize there are some good movies out there, I made a choice several years ago to not allow the constant attempt from Hollywood to dumb down society for the sake of entertainment, to continue its effect on me and my views.
Hollywood is so out of touch with mainstream and is so progressive and biased with their liberal views that I turned off their voice and influence in my life. Unfortunately, the majority of the mainstream has drifted more and more towards progressive and immoral ways of thinking.
I have to tell you that I love watching movies, it is an excellent form of entertainment so long as I do not have to be shown a steady supply of violence and vulgarity or listen to someone speaking in Cuss-a-knees ( i made that word up ) for three solid hours.
- Definition of cuss-a-knees: One who speaks profanity fluidly in all situations and at all times.
And I promise if you keep hearing filth, it is going to spill out of your mouth sooner or later. If you keep seeing violence glorified and the immediate retaliation and revenge that takes place and is often the central theme in films that you watch, it will change you.
When you get angry, you will tend to think about violent responses in your mind based on what you have seen a thousand times.
Bottom Line – We cannot take in all the movies, media, and shows that we do and not be affected by them.
Well, That is Just Being Legalistic and Overly Cautious, Right?
Your subconscious mind just took all those movie scenes you watched, not as a movie, but as information to be stored the same as any other information. What is worse is that often the information in a film has the added sensations we experience, which make for a vivid memory.
The special effects, the emotions, the lighting, the perfect bodies, and all the things that go into visually stimulating us as we view movies make the impact that much more intense.
Your subconscious stores it all, and it becomes part of you now. One movie may not have much effect on your life, but how many movies, t.v. Shows, comedies, Facebook images, and Youtube videos do we see in the course of one month? How about a year or throughout our lifetime.
To think that these powerful, emotional images and voices do not drastically affect us is to ignore science, how our minds work, and common sense.
When you watch over and over, in movies, where every date ends in sex, then sex outside of marriage and with a virtual stranger becomes completely normalized in your subconscious mind.
And what you think in your conscious mind becomes more and more irrelevant as your subconscious now has files full of information that may say otherwise, no matter what you consciously believe is right or wrong.
Bottom line – We can be programming our minds to change things we do not want or need to change.
Who Is In Control Now?
You and I have the control until we give it to someone or something else, and then they have the power to place in our minds what we will sit there, listen to, and watch.
Not too many years ago, I began to see a marked difference in the work environment concerning language and values. Things that previously were not considered acceptable were becoming more and more commonplace.
I could see where my standards and habits were sliding downward, and it wasn’t just everyone else.
And it is funny how we all like to compare our shortcomings and mistakes with someone who may be doing things a little worse than we are.
We puff our chest out slightly, lift our chin and say, “at least we are not like them.”
I was lowering my standards and accepting what I should not.
It is easier to stay quiet while offensive people blatantly make everyone around them uncomfortable until it becomes normalized and a new standard is in place.
Working for the Sheriff’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee years ago, I witnessed how quickly an environment can change.
When I worked at the Offender Reentry Center, where inmates we locked up but released to work, most inmates behaved because they were one step away from getting their freedom back.
However, when they began transferring inmates from the nearby prison into our pod, immediately the entire unit changed.
Suddenly, their hardcore influence began to rub off on those who were doing well, and every kind of illegal activity began tp run rapidly, and the standards changed.
It wasn`t until those inmates were removed and sent back to prison that things calmed down and inmates could again get their focus back on the right things.
Bottom line– A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
We Must Speak Up!
Not that we have to be overly confrontational either. But when no one speaks up or walks out, the madness just continues, and we adjust to lower and lower acceptable behavior over time.
Hollywood and television have played a significant role in the downward trajectory of morality and sensitivity to things once considered out of Line and inappropriate, which now are generally accepted and tolerated.
Assuming full responsibility for who we choose to listen to and then becoming more selective in your choices will make a difference in your life and will influence those around you as well.
At the very least, we must quit thinking that these types of entertainment that we allow in our lives, often on a daily or weekly basis, do not affect our beliefs, views, and behaviors.
- Bottom Line – We cannot control other people or society in general. What we can control are our own decisions. Be proactive in your life and not just a spectator by speaking up when someone is offensive and bringing about harm.
Dreams Without Goals = Disappointments
Dreams without goals, failing to make plans, and never taking actions to achieve them deliberately, will only lead to disappointment and even bitterness.
The real blame and responsibility must be placed squarely on our shoulders, and we must first own up to our decisions as being the knob that either turns the faucet on or off when it comes to our time and influences and who we are listening to continuously.
If you were to walk outside, hop in your car, and start driving while paying no attention to where you are going (somehow I know my car would automatically take me to work), just following whatever looks good, then you cannot predict where you will end up.
So, say you continue to drive for hours, then days, then weeks before finally stopping. Where do you think you will be?
Besides out of gas and on the side of local milk cartons, there is no telling where you will end up.
It could be the right place, or it could be a horrible place, but most likely, you are just someplace lost and confused.
Would you then begin to wonder how in the world God would allow you to end up in such a place? Or, resent your friends for failing to inform you or protect you from yourself?
Finally, you conclude that life is not fair, and no one else has to experience this feeling of being lost and alone the way you do. After all, the only thing you did was go for a ride.
Sounds quite ridiculous, I know, and yet, that is precisely what many of us do with our lives. Maybe not in every area of life, but overall, we give little thought to living with intention and focus, or to the consequences of our decisions and actions.
We must be very intentional with our lives and realize that all roads do not lead to the same destination.
If you want to do anything in life, even if it is to have a fulfilling life with your family, it will take effort, sacrifice, planning, and perseverance.
Just make sure to think, plan, and set the right course so that you get there.
I will stop here but there is more I want to share and the remainder of what I want to share is more encouraging but we need to understand what we are up against and where we may be off course before we can stop, turn around, and get on track.
See you in the next post!
If you are looking for some good resources to hear new voices in your life that can be very helpful and provide good positive advice and information, here are some you can check out.
YouTube Channel
In the meantime you can read this one if you like: “My Top 5 Places to Know and Grow”
Or, check out this short video about who you listen to by Kevin Trudeau.
Michael
Wow, such incredibly great advise in this article. Thank you, Michael.