Accountable Citizens Updates

A Story of Advocates For Truth From T.O. Illustratio

The creative mind of T.O. Illustratio weaves a story of a graduating class of advocates for truth to paint a picture of our role as accountable citizens.

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The Right To Freedom of Speech Can't Be Wasted By Fear or By Deceit

Making good choices is part of being a responsible adult. Our right to freedom of speech is useless if we remain silent to injustice or if we spew dishonesty.

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Learning the Art of Listening Through Some Common Sense Methods

Mastering the art of listening is the most effective skill in bringing about positive change.

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The Power Of Your Words Has A Lasting Impact. Make It Inspirational!

The question hit me like a slap in the face. "You have no idea of the power of your words do you?" A powerful life lesson changed me in such a positive way.

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Continuing To Eat That Frog

Welcome back to part two in our short series about the tremendous advice contained in Brian Tracy's book, "Eat That Frog." This is a follow-up from yesterday. If you missed it, you'll find part one just below in the blog lineup.

Some might be wondering what all this has to do with developing leadership skills and accepting personal responsibility. The skills in this very short book will supercharge your efforts to become a better leader.Procrastination is a symptom of bigger challenges. Fear, lack of belief, and lack of specific knowledge invite procrastination. So let's jump right back into the next section. We've defined the "frog" so now lets get to the next steps from Brian Tracy.

"Stop Looking for Shortcuts

There are no shortcuts to lasting success.

No matter how many blogs you read, YouTube videos you watch, or podcasts you listen to in an effort to find a quicker path to success, big wins come to those who are patient and take the time to become a master.

Practice is the key to mastering any skill. Fortunately, your mind is like a muscle. It grows stronger and more capable with use. With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit that you consider either desirable or necessary.

Once you put in the effort it takes to eat that frog, you may also soon discover a preference for tackling your most important task first and getting it out of the way. The positive consequences are extremely rewarding!

Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.

Failure to execute is one of the biggest problems in organizations today. Many people confuse activity with accomplishment, though. They talk continually, hold endless meetings, and make wonderful plans, but in the final analysis, no one does the job and gets the results required.

Ask yourself, 'If I could only get one thing done today, which one would make the biggest difference or get me closest to achieving my goals?'

You Can Eat That Frog

What is your “frog?”

What is the one task that you despise doing but it needs to be done?

What task is going to propel you farther and faster toward overall success?

Once you have chosen your “frog,” make it a habit to wake up every morning and do that task first. In other words: eat that frog!

Remember, it doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going!"

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"Eat That Frog"

Today we'll be tag-teaming part one of a short series on being more productive through planning and positivity. This is also a sort of confession as one of us loves the planning part and another thrives on positivity and fun. Neither of us is quite as strong as the other in the parts we don't embrace. Or at least didn't until we began to collaborate on this website. I'll begin and then hand it off to a co-editor after this next paragraph.

We're drawing our information from the mind and expertise of Brian Tracy. I was able to hear him speak in person and have also read some of his books. My favorite is titled, "Eat That Frog." His message resonated with me because he was so strong in teaching the discipline of planning and goal setting.

And now as we tag in and out, I will tell you I also liked, "Eat That Frog," because it has very short chapters. And Brian Tracy emphasizes the end results of tackling big problems right away. Positive feelings and self-confidence are two results and for my personality, that means more fun. We'll include part of the expert teaching from Brian Tracy in this page and continue tomorrow with part two.

"Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that it is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

Now that is one interesting inspirational quote.

But don’t worry, you don’t really have to eat a real frog to be successful!

In reality, your 'frog' is your biggest, most important task. It is the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.

So, 'eat that frog,' is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.

Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.

The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of 'eating your frog' before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.

This habit is well-adopted among successful people, so much so that I consider it an essential leadership quality for any person who intends to accomplish great things."

Tomorrow we'll go into some steps described by Brian Tracy in this way. "Now that you know what a 'frog' is and how to identify it, here’s how to, 'eat that frog,' in the most pleasant way possible."

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A Hole In Our Soul (Part Two)

Today we're picking up where we left off yesterday in our commentary about the hole in our collective souls. If you are back, we either didn't totally push you away or you're wondering what we could be adding today. So here it is.

Over 60 million innocent humans have been killed in the last 50 years in America because they were deemed to be an inconvenience or expendable. So the hole in the soul allowed them to be killed and thrown in the trash.

The baseline truth is that we have a hole in our soul.

A pastor in Chicago has chosen to stand up for baseline truth. He recently called out the mayor of that city and the governor of his state for caving in to the political machines, all while hundreds of people in his city have been killed.

New laws won't fix it. There are plenty of laws already. They aren't enforced as felons are turned back on to the streets with no penalty because, "It isn't their fault. They are victims." The baseline truth is that the cure to the disease is understanding the effect of government-sponsored irresponsibility as a means to pander for votes. The cure is a return to personal accountability and responsible citizenship in America where human life has value.

The cure is to stand up for truth and defend the defenseless. The cause of our dangerous cities is weakness and greed in public positions and apathy in personal citizenship. The effect is seen daily, including Minneapolis and Chicago, just recently.

The baseline truth is that we need to use the ballot box to fire the incumbent conspirators who get wealthy off the taxpayer-funded trough they created. We solve the problem by treating the cause. The effect will be a safer world.

It won't be easy. This evil is entrenched and determined to stay around. "Not my fault" is not only a metaphorical get-out-of-jail card, it works in real life.

When you kill an innocent human, it is your fault. It doesn't matter what happened to you in the past. When you commit a crime, you will pay for it. Cause and effect.

When we fall for the siren song of socialism which is proven over and over to be a failure, we get what we voted for and socialism will fail miserably again. And some innocent people will pay the price.

When we vote for the same old, tired story, we get the same failed results. The baseline truth is that responsible citizens built this nation and responsible citizens will get it back on track. That's the big difference. Responsible citizens don't pass the buck or cry that it's "not my fault."

They get to work and fix the core problem. It's just common sense. Check out our page about common sense not being all that common.

Common Sense Is Not Common

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A Hole In Our Soul (Part One)

We normally don't do this. Our web host restricts these blog pages to 500 words, so we'll break this up into two segments.

We make it a point to avoid joining the chorus of self-serving blather that draws focus away from the important baseline truth of any event or circumstance. We'll hold true to that sentiment in this commentary that centers around the "news" stories and soundbites following the tragic events in Minneapolis Minnesota a few days ago as we type this page.

Students in a Catholic school were attending Mass when a deranged individual opened fire through the windows killing two children and wounding many more.

Not too long ago we wrote a page about cause and effect. The link to that page is just below. Keep that title, "Cause and Effect" in mind as you follow along.

Cause and Effect

Once again we're hearing calls for tighter gun controls. "Surely that would stop this type of atrocity from ever happening again." Although gun control laws have done little to stop the flow of ghost guns. And in this case, the guns were legally purchased.

We also hear that if a trained, armed citizen was there, he or she could have stopped this criminal before any innocent lives were lost.

Neither argument address the baseline truth.

There are columns written about the manifesto of the shooter and the motives behind this unwarranted attack. It seems as though there is always a manifesto and the shooters are always "victims" in some form or another and that caused their heinous action. Cause and effect.

None of that addresses the baseline truth. All of these episodes are symptoms. Every supposed "solution" is merely an attempt to treat a symptom. The baseline truth is ignored or just misunderstood.

Our website came about to face up to baseline truths. We have a hole in our souls. Personal accountability for our actions as responsible adults in America has been traded for "Not my fault." Victim mentality absolves all blame. "I am a victim of the system so I'll shoot some innocent children. It's not my fault."

These outrageous events are the most noticed, but the process of ignoring personal responsibility and in fact encouraging that mindset begins in much less deadly instances, but still points to the same core problem.

Government handouts, are a cause and there is an effect. "Forgiving student loans" is a cause. In both cases more irresponsibility is not only accepted but encouraged. After all, it isn't their fault. There will be an effect. The taxpayers are still on the hook for those loans and the universities have already cashed the checks.

Tomorrow we'll go deeper into this baseline truth and the corrupt system that supports it, as well as the apathy that protects it.

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How Do You Show Gratitude? Here Are Some Solid Action Steps

How do you show gratitude? We'll give you some positive actions that will lend a helping hand and also increase your own health and happiness.

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We're Holding Out For A Hero But That Hero Is Closer Than We Think

Who will be the next great leader? Who will come forward to right the wrongs? We're holding out for a hero, all the while unaware the hero is already here.

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A Reader Shares Part Of Her Grief Experience

Today we're sharing part of a letter from a reader. She actually used her message to bring up two separate points. As we describe on our contact page found in the right margin of every page, if you have a specific question and don't want your name shared on our website, we are happy to personally answer. We were given permission to share part of her comments as you will read in this post. Her comments will be in italics. They are broken down into two sections.

Our responding reader writes, "I read your page about the 5 stages of grief. I want to thank you for sharing your experiences. Our family has been going through the same thing. Maybe not exactly because I don't know your specific situation, but in reading your story, I can sense the same emotions and the same pain. I think it's important for people to read the truth about these situations.

Your story gave me what I wouldn't call comfort because nothing seems all that comfortable now, but at least a small degree of confidence that I wasn't being weak and selfish in my wide range of emotions. It was okay for me to feel this overwhelming anger at God, and everyone else for our loss of such a kind, wonderful person who didn't hurt anyone and always had a kind word. This is my way of paying it forward.

I'm not angry with God anymore and probably never was, but I just needed a release valve. I think you mentioned something like that in your story? We need to release the anger. Depression is still with me. Every day. For anyone reading my story, please believe that there are better days ahead. I'm hopeful that those days will come sooner and last longer, but as they say, 'Life goes on.' I'm betting whoever said that never experienced a crushing loss.

I think it will help anyone reading my story and yours' to know they are not alone and there are people to help them. Thank you for sharing and thank you for listening to me and allowing me to share part of my story."

The link to that page about the 5 stages of grief is just below. After that we've included the second part of our reader's letter about another topic or rather how that topic relates to this subject matter.

5 Stages of Grief

"I also read your shorter column about the AI experience. I agree with your sentiment and think your story about your grief experience points out how AI can never share the human emotion and human caring that personal writing conveys. Please continue to write from your heart."

I will tell you all that the column about AI came from the creative mind of another of our co-editors. We are committed to always writing from our own thoughts, emotions, and desire to make a positive difference.

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The Unsung Hero Impacting American Legacy

Guest author T.O. Illustratio delves into the contributions of the unsung hero and the importance of remembering those contributions.

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A Diary of Gratitude Will Become One of Your Best Leadership Tools

Sometimes opportunity comes from unexpected places. Read how a diary of gratitude would become an effective leadership tool born out of an example of kindness.

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The Bus Stop Gave Him A Lesson That Came Back To Him

Guest author T.O. Illustratio offers a fable about how an experience at the bus stop changed several lives through an act of kindness

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"Video Killed The Radio Star"

Way back in 1979 Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn, and Bruce Woolley wrote a crazy little song titled, "Video Killed The Radio Star." The song had a pretty successful run and then became the very first video shown on the new network that would be called "MTV" in 1981.

The lyrics centered around new technology of that era and how it might render obsolete, some of the iconic personalities of that time period. I suppose the appearance of this song as the inaugural video on this new network dedicated to staged videos, was in fact art imitating life. The lyrics of the song offered a cryptic preview of what could be coming next.

This old song flashed back to my current mindset because of a forum discussion among owners of information-based websites, like our own. This time the new kid on the block is artificial intelligence. The discussion focused on whether or not AI would be the death knell for our type of websites.

It was accurately pointed out that when someone types in a question, the immediate pop-up is usually an AI-generated answer. So would this mean our visitor counts would crater? My glass far-beyond-half-full mentality suggests otherwise for a few reasons.

1.) Artificial intelligence can showcase answers, but it can not convey the human experience and the emotion of personal interaction.

2.) If you look closely AI responses are beginning to include a small disclaimer reporting that the answers might not always be accurate.

3.) Radio stations are still belting out song after song, old and new. Airplay is still a huge factor in songwriter success.

I believe it all comes down to doing the work with integrity, honesty, and a desire to provide a service. Our website is about promoting accountability and renewed responsibility among the citizens of America.

We're committed to bringing our readers quality content from the heart with a passion to make a positive difference. Video didn't really kill the radio star. It changed some methods of operation, but it still comes down to quality work. It will be the same for our website model in relation to artificial intelligence.

For the curious types, we're including a video of this song. It's ironic that the version you will see has been "digitally remastered." Technology is always advancing. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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