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Podcast Opening:

Welcome to Do The Hard Thing Episode 6. I am Jason Archer… creator, freedom seeker and leader of self | full time student and part time teacher of self mastery, and today’s theme is “Trump And The NFL Are Proof Freedom Is Ugly”…

So, turn up the volume, put down the distractions and let’s kick this off…

[NOTE: Insert some intro music here | Insert brief description here]

Summary Description:

Have you ever started a project that you felt held a great deal of meaning for you, and then for whatever reason you could not move toward the outcome you wanted to create. Whether it was a Mental, Physical, or Spiritual target you sought, it didn’t matter… there was some part of you who refused to move. This podcast is born out of that specific idea. Do The Hard Thing is an exploration in human movement.

Podcast Content:

Well, seemingly a firestorm of rhetoric and facebook vitriol was unleashed today, as NFL players took a knee for the National Anthem in response to Trump’s remarks calling for owners to sack up and get rid of players who disrespect the symbol so many men gave their lives preserving.

In what basically amounted to a contest of “fuck yous”,  people both pro and con picked up their phones as they sat lazily enjoying their free time within the borders of the US to “virtue signal” and/or shout “patriotism!” between grabbing for that next chicken wing and trips to pisser to return that beer they rented to the sewage pipes from whence the filtered water it was made originally came.

As comments racked up, and no progress was made by either side… It was clear that the only winners in the exchange were the media who grasped at the opportunity to boost their ever sagging ratings by exacerbating the conflict.

While self proclaimed patriots vowed to never watch the NFL again… Those in support of the kneeling players began to chime in with their belief that the NFL wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon and scoffed at the notion that some would keep themselves away from football on any level; completely ignoring and uncaring for the cries of those who frequent the game and patronize the stores that carry the overpriced NFL licensed product.

The die had been cast so to speak.

You were either a patriot who supported the troops who “gave us our freedom” or you were an unpatriotic spoiled athlete making more money per game than the average person will see in a lifetime.

And, who could forget this: no matter who you talked to, their side was 100% right and justified in their beliefs and actions.

But how can that be? You have 2 diametrically opposed sides who firmly believe they are correct in their stance.

They all saw the same series of facts take place, so why did opposing sides develop in the first place? Why didn’t everyone just arrive at the same conclusions and move on?

Well, if you remember from the previous episode… we jumped into worldview and beliefs. And, this happening couldn’t be a better illustration of the idea that we create our stories around factual happenings based on our worldview… our beliefs about our understanding of “the way it is.”

Every serviceman and every child of a military family within my timeline on facebook, saw the kneeling as a direct slap in the face to those who’ve served in the armed forces. Many had lost friends and family in war. And, the way they look at the flag and the anthem is that it’s a symbol of the freedoms that their loved ones fought and died for.

The opposition, of course, believing that the various historical atrocities happening under the flag and the anthem preclude the need for any respect or shows of patriotism… many of whom feel they or their ancestors suffered under those symbols and that suffering continues today.

Who’s right?

It just comes down to your worldview and the stories you make up around the facts.

And, this is the hard thing… first, to recognize that the significance you assign to a particular event: like standing for the anthem in this case. It’s just that. It is the significance YOU’VE assigned. And, you’ve done this based on your view of the facts… your truth, if you will.

Which brings us to the point of today’s lesson: Freedom Is Ugly.

Freedom means that no matter what side you come down on, your view is your view and anyone opposed to your view has to just deal with it. In a free society, you don’t get to force your beliefs on another individual. And, that is how it should be.

If a man chooses to exercise his freedom, and it has no bearing on your physical safety… in other words you are not being threatened to comply by force with the actions another takes, then you have an obligation to live and let live. To simply move on. To allow that circumstance to exist.

However, there is more to it than that. With freedom comes responsibility… In an environment where you have the ability to exercise your free will, your freedom of expression or speech in this case, you are also obligating yourself to accept whatever consequences your expression generates.

Put another way, being free to express yourself does NOT give you freedom from the consequences of your expression. Just like Karma… when you put something out there, it will find a way back to you. And, that you are responsible for.

In this scenario, which started with Kaepernick taking a knee way back, you have players and some observers who are legitimately shocked that there were any repercussions as the idea spread and grew. They expressed genuine disbelief that this simple act would create such a firestorm of anti NFL sentiment from other players and fans. Many of whom support Trump.

So Trump fired back and took a shot at the owners saying they should get those sons of bitches out of there!

Not a very presidential thing to say, and at the same time he used his platform to express the thoughts of many of those in opposition to the kneeling during the anthem…. calling the action disrespectful to the men and women in uniform.

The fact that the president took time out of his day to call out the protesters, created a new set of protesters who spend most of Sunday September 24th dreaming up ways to respond in kind. And they did… either by not taking the sideline for the anthem or by getting groups of players to kneel to drive home their “fuck you” to the president.

So this basically devolved into a situation where it was tit for tat… Some players chose to complain or protest, Trump chose to respond, the players responded to Trump, then Trump responded to the players and owners.

Such was Sunday Wordy Sunday.

Neither side acknowledging their roles in escalating the problem, neither side truly taking responsibility for what they created… But they were responsible nonetheless. It got ugly.

Freedom can be that way. Freedom can be chaotic… and most people do not want to look at ugly. This is why we have things like HOA’s who guarantee your neighbor doesn’t paint his house florescent pink and green and plant a junk car on cinder blocks in the front yard.

At the end of the day, a little bit of free expression… even when it’s ugly has the power to spark debate. To make people think twice. Today’s events pushed thoughtful people into doing some soul searching, into really diving deep into what it is they believe around the power of the symbols used in American culture, and in a few rare cases they bridged a divide when those thoughts were shared in debate.

All because the freedom of expression largely still exists in the US, despite efforts to kill it when it doesn’t fit the leftist narrative by media and large IT companies like Google and Facebook.

When things are hard, when disagreements come about, freedom to discuss and express the hard things is paramount. The founders understood this and wrote it into the Constitution… but they were hardly the only ones to recognize the importance of protecting the individual.

Lord Acton wrote the following on the topic of individual liberty:

“The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather if that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.”

(And of course, the smallest minority is the individual.)

He went on to say this about the founding of the US:

“Washington and Hamilton…Their example…teaches that men ought to be in arms even against a remote and constructive danger to their freedom, that even if the cloud is no bigger than a man’s hand, it is their right and their duty to stake the national existence, to sacrifice lives and fortunes…to shatter crowns and scepters and fling parliaments into the sea.  On this principle of subversion they erected their commonwealth, and by its virtue lifted the world out of its orbit and assigned a new course to history.”

I won’t cop out here and leave you wondering what my opinion is.

Today’s exchange was juvenile at best, yet it served a purpose… it got people talking, thinking, looking up information. All in an attempt to understand the ugliness that was today’s freedom of speech. And, that is a good thing.

Personally I fail to see how protesting, destroying, or removing inanimate objects serves any purpose. For the reality is this: both good and bad has happened under all symbols. To focus on and give power to a symbol from only the negative it has seen is foolish. If the symbol in question has any negative significance, then by default it must also have positive significance… You can’t separate it without being logically inconsistent.

And, because all significance is assigned, you get to choose what any symbol means to you. Do that. It’s where your power lies.

Podcast Closing:

That’s it for today! Thank you for listening, and if you found value in this message be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google, Castbox, or Stitcher  | Share this with those you know need to hear it on social | And I’ll see you back here in the next episode | This is Jason Archer signing off | Now… go, and DO THE HARD THING.

Listen at dothehardthing.net

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Podcast Opening:

Welcome to Do The Hard Thing Episode 5. I am Jason Archer… creator, freedom seeker and leader of self | full time student and part time teacher of self mastery, and today’s theme is “All Significance Is Assigned”…

So, turn up the volume, put down the distractions and let’s kick this off…

[NOTE: Insert some intro music here | Insert brief description here]

Summary Description:

Have you ever started a project that you felt held a great deal of meaning for you, and then for whatever reason you could not move toward the outcome you wanted to create. Whether it was a Mental, Physical, or Spiritual target you sought, it didn’t matter… there was some part of you who refused to move. This podcast is born out of that specific idea. Do The Hard Thing is an exploration in human movement.

Podcast Content:

As I sat finishing up a 7 day leadership course near the wine country of Northern California, out on a 2000 acre ranch that was so isolated by the surrounding hillside I had about half a bar for cell service, tight living quarters spread among 80 or so individuals on a similar path, and no outside modern influences like TV or internet as a distraction…

Nothing but time with my thoughts and an experience that would cause a great deal of thought and change in my life.

In this place I heard what would become one of the most impactful sentences I would ever hear uttered by another individual. The phrase was short and sweet and it burrowed deep into my core the moment I heard them.

Those words were simply this: “All significance is assigned by people.”

On the surface it may not seem like a very powerful statement, however when you go deep with concept it becomes apparent pretty quickly that these words express a profound idea that ultimately puts you in charge of every aspect of your life.

Let’s unpack that… it’s a big stoic philosophy based claim.

I’m sure you’ve spent time with someone who seems to be upset or put off their game by the slightest thing, or maybe you have that one friend who leaves the house seeing racism in every act, or that guy at work who thinks the boss hates him because he hasn’t gotten the promotion he thinks he is due… the list goes on and on.

People of all stripes and backgrounds and success levels who have emotional response, after emotional response to some some factual happenstance in their lives, and rather than seek to understand why they have that response or why they hold on to their reactions time and time again they simply fall prey to they way they see it. To their view of the situation. To the significance they have assigned to the facts they observed.

What you have to realize though is that the facts are not out to get you.

I’ll give you a concrete example. My father was diagnosed with polio when he was 3 months old. He grew up in rural Georgia and as a child largely lived a very normal childhood from the standpoint of enjoying playing with his cousins, hunting, fishing, and being outdoors.

And, the way his polio manifested itself, it basically attacked his right leg. So he grew to rely on his left side… he played softball and basketball with his circle of friends in various leagues… I remember as a kid going to watch a softball game. He would pitch and then when it was his turn to hit, he would hit and someone else would run for him. He was and still is very good with people. And, largely his polio didn’t really prevent him from doing many of the things he really enjoyed doing.

He was quite the inspiration for a lot of people who spent time with him.

And one day he was telling me a story about looking for work… He and my mom, along with hundreds of thousands of other people where greatly impacted by the recession that happened here in the US due to the financial crisis of 08 09. He was out of work and needed to earn money to pay the bills, yet he couldn’t seem to find a job. And, after each interview he felt worse and worse. He work in corporate real estate, so his job didn’t require him to do any physical labor as it was his responsibility to negotiate leases and location for the companies he worked for.

So when he was denied employment… the significance he assigned to that fact what that it was because of his leg. He felt the interviewers, some of whom flew him across the country, got one look at his limp and assumed he would not be able to or up to the tasks they would assign him.

Now, notice the facts he was working with. He applied for work: fact. He interviewed with various people: fact. He was not hired: fact.

There is no disputing the facts… there is only the significance we assign to them.

As he continued his story, he told me about applying for work as a young man in local stores or shops in his home town. When he would go into these local businesses and speak to the managers or owners, they would take one look at him and tell him to his face that he couldn’t do the work because he had a bad leg… that they wouldn’t hire him because of it.

He continued on telling me he preferred it that way, because in the modern world with the discrimination laws and the ADA laws being what they are, he could never know for sure why an employer wouldn’t hire him. Legally, they couldn’t say “you can’t do the work because of your leg”… and, so as a grown man remembering those people who had shunned him as a little boy, the significance he assigned to not getting work was that his leg and limp caused the decision makers to pass him up.

The thing is though… he can never know if the significance he assigned to these events is actually true.

He may have been passed over, because there were other candidates that were more qualified or who may have had closer ties to the markets they were seeking to fill.

So as man who needed to provide for his wife and pay the bills, and as the savings dried up, and things got harder and harder he clung to that idea the he wasn’t going to get work because of his leg. So rather than seek ways to make himself more valuable to the marketplace and learning to way to bill himself as an expert, he effectively externalized his failure based on a story he made up about not being hireable.

This made him a victim of his own making. The significance he assigned to the facts kept him fearful and worried… and how could they not? Because his story was one in which he had no control.

The significance we assign to anything we experience GIVES meaning to what we experience. NOT the other way around. Nothing means anything until you give it meaning… until you assign significance.

So my question to you is this: Where in your life have you assigned a significance to a set of facts, and then allowed that significance you assigned to create a situation where you see yourself as not having control… as a victim… as someone who has no power to chance their circumstances?

Go back and look at the facts. Just the facts and ask yourself if the story you decided to accept as significant is absolutely and 100% true. Can you even know?

If the story you chose requires you to know what happened behind closed doors, or it requires to the know the mind of another individual as in the case of all the “isms”… just pick one racism, sexism, etc. Chances are your significance around that topic is just that… YOUR Significance. It does not give you the gift of omniscience.

All the great teachers gave us this gift… The most famous example in the way of Jesus was this idea of turn the other cheek when he said. “But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Jesus was teaching this concept. That if someone strikes you or insults you, you get to choose your response based on the significance you assign to the event. Most of us run a story in our heads that says if someone hits me, then I have to get angry and strike back…

But what if you don’t get angry… and what if don’t strike back…  What if you have the mastery of self to Do The Hard Thing and keep your cool. De-escalate. Understand that another person lashing out is not about you. What might that look like when you experience what you perceive to be a slight… Someone talking bad about you, or not inviting you to the next night out. How much lighter would you be, if you didn’t carry the weight of a negative story you decided to make up around those facts?

Podcast Closing:

That’s it for today! Thank you for listening, and if you found value in this message be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google, Castbox, or Stitcher  | Share this with those you know need to hear it on social | And I’ll see you back here in the next episode | This is Jason Archer signing off | Now… go, and DO THE HARD THING.