Ep. 486 - The "Me-Centered" Society

“From a broad societal standpoint, one of the greatest (and most observable) effects of digitization is the emergence of the "me-centered" society – a process of individuation and emergience of new forms of belonging and community.  Contrary to the past, the notion of belonging to a community today is more defined by personal projects and individual values and interests rather than by space (the local community), work, and family.” - Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Tune in and listen to the irony as Rob shares his thoughts on what "The 'Me-Centered' Society" means to him.  This is the audio of the most recent LIVE STREAM from Sunday, 01/08/2023 at 7:30pm EST.

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Discussion Links:

1)            The Pathway to Blessing in a Me-Centered Society - https://www.reviveourhearts.com/blog/pathway-blessing-me-centered-society/

2)            ME-CENTERED SOCIETY - LEARNING TO BE ALONE - Cargo - http://cargocollective.com/criscabana/ME-CENTERED-SOCIETY

3)            Me-centered society headed for disaster – Northern Star - https://northernstar.info/10674/opinion/me-centered-society-headed-for-disaster/

4)            Contrasting a “Me-Centered” Society | DaveTrenholm.com - https://www.davetrenholm.com/sermons/837/contrasting-a-me-centered-society/

5)            Why is society becoming self centered and lavish? - Quora - https://www.quora.com/Why-is-society-becoming-self-centered-and-lavish

Read More here: https://presearch.com/search?q=me-centered%20society

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:10

Alright, well, welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser, and I am your host. Today is Sunday, January 8th, 2023, and this is episode number 486 of the show. A show where we talk about a variety of topics, generally focused on what I call all around growth. Topics that include anything from uh the world of financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, career, uh, anything and everything, as far as I'm concerned, that's what all-around growth is all about. And uh to the topic of today's show is something that is collectively referred to as the me-centered society. And this topic is one that has been weighing uh heavy on my mind for quite some time. And for those of you who are not familiar with this term, the me centered society, uh in today's show, you will have a much better understanding of it as we proceed throughout the course of the show today. And now, I was first exposed to this term sometime um last year in a book titled The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Uh, this is a book written by Klaus Schwab. And before we dive into what my take is on this term, this me-centered society, and what that means to me, I think there is some value in providing a bit of insight about this book for those who may not already be aware of it. So, to effectively do this, what I'm going to do is simply read to you the text from the dust jacket of the book. And the dust jacket, sometimes referred to as the book jacket or the dust wrapper, or the dust cover, is uh this thing, the uh detachable outer cover, usually made of paper printed with text and illustrations. You know, the outer covers got folded flaps that hold it to the book itself, uh, the front and back book covers. And now the back panel or the flaps of the dust cover on most books are printed with biographical information about the author, a summary of the book from the publisher, known as a blurb or uh a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work in which this is. And um, so you know, now that we're all in the know of what this is and what I'm about to read from, I'll just go ahead and read it to you. Now, world world-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, founder and economic or executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolution, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope, and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries, and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already around us. From supercomputers, drones, and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wearable sensors, and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning. Nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair, and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine smart factories in which global systems of manufacturing are coordinated virtually or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant and its ramifications more profound than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, businesses, civil society, and individuals. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future, one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them. Progress serves society rather than disrupts it, and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frameworks that advance progress. And indeed, we all do, excuse me, we all we all do have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frameworks. And whether or not these new frameworks will actually advance progress is debatable. But what follows in today's show is my contribution to these developing new frameworks. So, as previously mentioned, the title of today's show is The Me Centered Society. And what I just read was from a book titled The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Again, you know, right here, uh published on January 3rd, 2017, a little over six years ago today. Now, the book is broken down into three primary sections. The first section of the book introduces and provides the historical context of the fourth industrial revolution. The second section of the book provides information about the various drivers of the fourth industrial revolution. And the third section of the book details out the impact of the fourth industrial revolution, specifically the impact on the economy, business, national and global impact, the impact in society, and lastly, the impact on the individual. Now, we read about all of this before the conclusion of the book titled The Way Forward, along with a comprehensive inclusion of appendices ranging in topics from implantable technologies, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, designer beings, neurotechnologies, and more. The uh all all of these appendices, uh, or these appendices, if you will, um, they're they're they're quite lengthy, and they make up uh probably one third of the book. So, you know, the book itself is really not that long, and um, I don't know if you can see my bookmarks here for those of you who are watching. Uh, this one indicates uh, you know, I've basically read everything in the book, but uh I got hung up somewhere, and I'll get to that in a second. So if any of these topics, implantable technologies, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, designer beings, neurotechnologies, if any of this is of interest to you, then I would highly recommend reading this book. And you know, the the the technological aspect of this book, including but not limited to artificial intelligence intelligence or machine learning, that is of great interest to me, but the focus of today's show is going to be on what is referred to as the me-centered society. Now, like I said, I first heard this term or read this term rather while reading this book, and it was mentioned on page 94 in section three, where we read about the impact the fourth industrial revolution will have on society. Or I guess in this case, we read about the impact that the fourth industrial revolution is having on society, seeing as this book was published over six years ago at the time of this recording. And at the time of this recording, if I failed to mention that earlier, uh it is Sunday, January 8th, 2023. All right. So the content that is driving the show was published over six years ago and was written likely seven years ago or more. Um, so you know, keep that in mind as we are experiencing a lot of that which I've already discussed, which this book is all about. We're beginning to see that become more and more mainstream now. But these technologies aren't anything new, they've been around for quite some time, and um, you know, six years is a long time. Uh, you guys, anybody out there who is listening to this now in the future in podcast form, we are also streaming right now. If you are out there streaming or if you're out there watching, feel free to drop in, drop a comment, and uh let us know where you are watching from. Scrambling out there is welding. This is perfect. Thanks for chiming in. I appreciate you listening. And real quick, you know, we'll mention show sponsors later, but Food Forest Farms is sponsoring the show, they're making streaming possible. So um I'll talk about all of the sponsors more towards the end. But check out foodforestfarms.com, check out all the cool things that are going there on there. If it wasn't for them, this wouldn't be happening. But, anyways, back to the show topic. Now, we understand that the fourth industrial revolution is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds, right? And by the time we get to page 94, we've already covered the impact that it will have or is having in this case on the economy, business, the national and global arenas. And on page 94, we are currently reading about the impact that the fourth industrial revolution will have on society. Now, the dialogue is largely focused on what is referred to as digitization or the process of converting information into a digital format, and the result is the representation of an object, image, sound, document, or signal obtained by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of points or samples, all right. And that description of digitization is what we read on Wikipedia. So digitization is basically taking uh things and turning them into data sets, if you will. So in a sense, you could look at digitization uh as being the translation of reality into sets of data. Now, in chapter 3.4.2, titled Community, the chapter begins as follows. Quote, from a broad societal standpoint, one of the greatest and most observable effects of digitization is the emergence of the me-centered society, a process of individuation and emergence of new forms of belonging and community. Contrary to the past, the notion of belonging to a community today is more defined by personal projects and individual values and interests rather than by space, the local community, work, and family. Now, when I initially read this, like I said, this was weeks, more like months ago. I completed the chapter, inserted my bookmark, and this book has been resting on my desk or on the table in the background. It's been resting there since then. Uh, to be completely honest with you, that statement resonated so deeply within me that I've found myself unable to continue reading the book. I've been running this paragraph through the mental digester, if you will, ever since I've read it. And quite frankly, I've been unable to collect my thoughts and move forward with the rest of the book until now. I needed to take, I really did. I needed to take this amount of time, collect my thoughts on these words because of the profound impact they had on me as an individual. All right, so before I expand upon my thoughts and what is called the me-centered society, I want to go ahead and read that paragraph again. All right. Quote From a broad societal standpoint, one of the greatest and most observable effects of digitization is the emergence of the me-centered society, a process of individuation and emergence of new forms of belonging and community. Contrary to the past, the notion of belonging to a community today is more defined by personal projects and individual values and interests rather than by space, meaning the local community, work and family. Now, the last sentence really hit home with me. When we read that in our society today, the notion of belonging to a community today is more defined by personal projects and individual values and interests rather than by space, like the local community, our work and our family. That that that what that means to me is that perhaps for the first time in human history, the entire dynamic of what society means is changing. The concept and dynamic of society likely changed as well. But you know, the ability to connect and engage in new forms of community to experience the completely human experience of belonging, that's changing. All right. And while that's not evil or bad in and of itself, I do believe it's worth thinking about. And that is exactly what has led to this episode today. And this podcast, this personal project of mine has been defined by my individual values and interests. And in a sense, it's also led me further away from the local community, my work, and my family, which were the very drivers in making the decision and taking action to return here to my home state from California, where I was living, uh just about 10 years ago. And so accordingly, when I read this and subsequently began thinking about it, I began questioning everything that I was doing, including the show, which is why today's episode may potentially begin the conclusion of it. But we'll talk more about that later. For now, what I really want to focus on is the topic of the show, and the topic of the show is this me-centered society or this me-centered culture. Now, as I do with many topics that I wish to learn more about, I search the internet for information. All right. So all articles that I will reference here shortly are already linked to in the video description below, along with the show notes for those of you who are listening to this in audio format via podcast in the future. I started diving into this in depth in New Year's Eve, assembling these topics, and I don't know. Perhaps the stress of thinking about this in the way that I was thinking about this was a contributing factor to the seizure that I had later that evening on New Year's Eve around 10 p.m. I'm not sure. Um, but either way, that was a most interesting way to ring in the new year, but but I digress. But real quick, for those of you who don't know, I have epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder. Um, and I've had this since the age of 13 when I experienced my first seizure. So seizures aren't anything new to me, and I've never been able to, we collectively, family, neurologists, all of the all of this stuff, never been able to figure out what's going on. And at this point in time, uh, my epilepsy is considered intractable or untreatable by medications, so on and so forth. But again, I digress. We're not talking about that, we're talking about the me-centered society, and in a sense, maybe I should talk about that. I don't know, because me, right? Now, before we dive into the results that were delivered when we search for me-centered society, I'd like to point something out. Okay, what's interesting is that more than half of the search results in the top 10 uh or more than half of the results in the top 10 listings were focused on or around the topic of God. Now, this is a topic that uh many people, including myself, struggle with. I've struggled with my own thoughts and ideas about God my entire life. Not to mention my thoughts and ideas about religion. Uh quite frankly, just like government, I believe religion and government are human constructs designed to control, designed to control people, thoughts, ideas, and simply dominate us as individuals. Not everybody shares that opinion, but that opinion is mine. And um I point that out because what I'm doing in this show, what I'm about to do is simply share with you the results of my search. And for those of you who are watching, um, what you can see on my screen is the um are the results of this search. And you can see that all I did was simply search for uh the me centered society. And let won't do that. Let's uh it is what it is, but you can see the search results that I'm gonna talk about, and it that that that's it this isn't this isn't my bias trying to put a godly spin on this topic of the me centered society i'm just gonna cover these one at a time starting with this one the pathway to a uh to blessing in a me centered society sec followed by an article titled me centered society learning to be alone then we'll get into me centered society headed for disaster uh there's a video which is actually this video which previously didn't show up in search results but it's showing up now we've got another article that I'm going to touch on called Contrasting a Me Centered Society by Dave Trentholm on davetrentholm.com and last but not least we're going to touch on the question why is society self-centered and lavish all right so let's just get into it now like I said these are the top five search results that were provided when I searched for Me Centered Society initially on New Year's Eve just over a week ago if you go ahead and search for this you will see this video in conjunction with those search results and that makes me happy I hope that anyone who's interested in reading about this learning more about this will watch this and it will provide some fodder for uh some mental fodder food for thought so over the past week I've I've written about and expanded upon each of these topics each of these articles in depth in order to provide the content for today's show. Now again I wanted to make this very clear to ensure to you the viewer the listener that I'm not putting any kind of personal spin or bias on this episode because like I said I've struggled with my own thoughts and ideas about God. Quite frankly I I I don't really like the way a lot of people talk about God. And moreover I I have an even lesser view of many organized religions. And to to to further reiterate that my my views on organized religion have historically been very similar to my views on government. I view it as little more than a system of control to keep populations oppressed. We can and maybe should discuss that in detail another time but today's not that day. Today we are discussing the me centered society and like I said I wanted to preface this entire discussion with this little disclaimer because some of the articles that we are going to talk about may be off putting to those of you who are listening and before we really got into the show I want to excuse me I want to encourage you to listen to what I share with an open mind and an open heart. All right so let's take a look at the first article in the search results now like I said the first article that came up in the search was an article titled uh the pathway to blessing in a me centered society now as you can see um this article is quite lengthy and we're not I by no means am I going to read this whole thing but it's a long one and a lot of these are um the so I'm not gonna read it in its entirety entirety but there is one sentence that the author wrote that stood out to me and I can't find it in there but it's in my notes the the sentence that stuck out to me was self-centered thinking does not lead us to God and therefore such a lifestyle will not give us the fulfillment that we are seeking all right the author continues with uh some simple suggestions in the article which are love the word of God be thankful always pray at all times remember your purpose and worship the Lord your God again I understand the word itself God makes some people cringe and if you are one of them like I said I would encourage you to listen to all of this with an open mind my objective here is not to preach or quote scripture or try to convert you to what I believe is right not at all. What I'm doing here is making observations and what I observed is that searching the internet in the most unbiased way I know utilizing a decentralized search engine powered by blockchain technology a search engine called pre-search that led me to the results that we're talking about right now. And the very first search result provided was an article emphasizing the importance of the inclusion of God in our lives. Now for those who simply cannot get past the idea of or the word itself God let's examine the other suggestions that the author makes with regard to addressing the me centered society which include two key points be thankful always and remember your purpose regarding being thankful the author writes quote thanksgiving leads to a proper perspective and perspective gives way to praise praise allows for humility humility extends to obedience and obedience leads to blessing yes I know that many may find even this statement cringeworthy and at one point in my life I would have also obedience never me I am obedient to no one never never will I act in a subservient manner or subject myself to someone who might dominate me right I mean let's let's look at the let's look at the word obedience noun an act or instance of obeying the quality or state of being obedient for example children should learn obedience and respect for authority also a sphere of jurisdiction landowners within a king's obedience you get the point all right now in addition to the concept of always being thankful the other point that the author made that stood out to me was remember your purpose now this stood out to me because finding your purpose has become a key component of this show over the past few years yet the more I talk about it the more I seek the more the more lost I feel the more the more lost I've become I I feel that the author's perspective with this article is is not only spiritual but it it is christian and if you read the article it's very clear that that it is and I've always been somewhat reluctant to talk in depth and at great lengths about this due to the inherent friction that it seems to cause with many people that listen to the show but I mean look we've all got opinions about religion regardless of our faith or lack thereof but I find it interesting to read what the author has to say in this section titled Remember your purpose when she writes quote the believer's purpose is to bring glory to God through our words and works so that others might see God in us and come to saving faith in Christ as well this line stood out to me the most because it makes me think of the line or phrase faith without works is dead what's important to understand is that the author not only emphasizes our words but our works and the objective with all of it being that that other people might see God in us and come to saving faith in Christ as well. Again author's words not mine now despite the fact that I previously stated my objective here was to not preach or quote scripture or try to convert you to what I believe is right I do believe that there is absolutely no harm or wrongdoing that can come from trying to live a life where we shift our perspective regarding finding our purpose what so what do I mean no matter what your understanding of God is and even if you question the existence of God I think there is tremendous value in thinking about our purpose by thinking outside of ourselves and making a concerted effort to move away from this me centered society. And like I said this episode is part of my efforts in doing exactly that I've decided to take an entirely different approach to not only understanding what my purpose here on this earth is but I've also changed the manner in my approach towards understanding my purpose here on this earth. Personally I'm moving in a direction and living my life that is less me centric and more God centric. And what I mean by that is while I may not be able to understand God or the infinite creator spirit of the universe whatever it is that you want to call it while I may not be able to understand that and how this world actually comes together and where it's going what I can do is think outside of myself and try to better understand how I may be of service to my fellow man. And I also believe that a life of service may help me better understand what my purpose actually is. So you know I think being of service to others especially doing so anonymously can be of tremendous value. So what does that even mean I I think that being of service can include anything from opening doors for people to performing volunteer work in your community in your spare time without saying anything to anyone about what it is that you're actually doing just be a good person engage and don't be braggadocious about it. Just do it in a sense I believe that we can more effectively find our purpose by doing one simple thing and that is simply doing the next right thing and being more mindful about living a life where we do exactly that so again if you want to read more about this article I've linked to it in the description below you can go ahead and check it out and like everything else that will be discussed it's linked to in the description of the of the video now and it will be linked to in the show notes of the podcast when that is released tomorrow morning. Now again as I collect my thoughts and as I collected my thoughts in preparation for this show I just thought it was really interesting that the very first of all of these articles that came up regarding a search on the Me Centered Society was an article that quite simply encouraged seeking God. Now the second article that we come across is an article titled Exactly That the Me Centered Society and Learning to be alone all right and this article is from the website cargocollective com and that is a part of a series titled Learning to be alone which is also of interest to me now this article was written by a millennial self-proclaimed millennial generation Y uh someone basically according to them who was born between the birth of AIDS and 911 give or take so you know we've all got our opinions on the generation of millennials and and and and and I know that many of those in the audience are not millennials so of course we're gonna have our opinions about them and uh you know I can't speak for you I can only speak for me because hey that's what we do in the me centered society right I I talk about me but look I'm turning into one of those crusty old farts that in youth I used to have so much disdain for well here we are but I think what's uh what's interesting is that the author makes some observations in this article that millennials make up one third of the adults in the entire world population uh whether or not this is factually accurate or not I'm not entirely sure and you know like I said I'm not gonna read this article in its entirety it's many of these articles most of these articles are long and lengthy I am going to link to them in the show notes so you can read them yourself at least the ones that interest you but um I'm reviewing the articles that ranked the highest in the search results regarding the Me Centered Society and this article provides a vastly different perspective from the first which is why I want to hit on it so in this article the comment that stood out to me the most is when the author writes we are hardly criticized in the workplace we are just uh we are described we are hardly criticized in the workplace we are described as entitled lazy spoiled with poor work ethic with little or none respect for authorities this is totally a misconception as the biggest dilemma results in the lack of intergenerational communication all right in this regard I would agree completely I also believe that the biggest dilemma with regard to the misunderstanding of millennials and the generational misunderstanding of society and humanity in general in the 21st century is exactly that the lack of intergenerational communication now it's my belief that the lack of intergenerational communication is also a direct result of the me centered society in large part because I whether we no longer understand the value of it or there's just a decreasing understanding of the value of intergenerational communication I don't know I think the increased digitization through technological innovation allows it to be easier and easier to communicate with our peers in the manner that we are all accustomed to doing so you know text social media online presence all of that stuff right and the fact of the matter is that older generations simply do not engage in these technologies in the same way that many of us do and without a doubt many of the people in the millennial and genuine uh generation Y populations do. And the resulting impact on society and culture worldwide is something that we really are only beginning to understand and is also one of the reasons why I decided to cover this topic in today's show. The importance of intergenerational communication is not being discussed as much as I believe it should be and I don't think many people are taking active steps to change this. Why well quite frankly not engaging in communication with other generations especially generations older than us it's challenging it requires work you know oftentimes work that does not include technology and because this technology has become such an integral component of our lives we continue to disassociate from the very thing that makes us human which is the actual interpersonal connectivity with other humans and this is something that I am taking action in my life and changing it's something that I've been increasingly aware of for the past few years and well I ultimately culminating in this episode. So my hope is that with this show today and everything that I'm talking about and the way in which I'm talking about it my hope is that it provokes thought and encourages you to do the same so you know consider finding ways to engage and improve upon the lack of intergenerational communication what do I mean how can you do this all right volunteer in your community social fraternal groups um you know opportunities exist to engage with retirement homes nursing homes reading to older people just just just engaging engaging in your community and surrounding yourself at times with people older than you outside of your family just consider it all right the author concludes the article by writing we are still growing up our methods of socialization and work is bound to change as we will get more life experiences now one thing that's worth pointing out is I I'm not entirely sure that the that this author is a native English speaker. Some of this is hard to read and uh but you know if you've got half a brain you know you can get through it and understand the point that the author's trying to make now and I think the point that the author's trying to make here is without fully understanding the ramifications of the Me Center Society and the actions that we can take to address that we're never really going to be able to fully experience life which includes the energy inner in Intergenerational communication, easy for me to say that the generation of the author claims to be lacking. So again, if this is a challenge, and the author believes that one of the biggest dilemmas is the lack of intergenerational communication, then do what you can in your life to improve upon that. And uh if you want to learn some more about some of the ways in which I'm doing that, then check out the Telegram group, t.me slash allaround growth. Oftentimes we talk about these things, and I think that would be a great place to engage in some further dialogue about this, specifically with regard to the lack of intergenerational communication and what we can do to actively improve upon that. All right. Moving on, the third article in the search results is an article that is titled The Me Centered Society is Headed for Disaster. And what's interesting about this is that this article was originally published in the Northern Star, which is the Northern Illinois University student news organization, which has been around since 1889. And um, this article was originally published on October 21st of 1991, over 30 years ago, all right. And because this well, everything that the author wrote 30 years ago, everything still rings true to this day, and because this isn't a long article, I'm gonna go ahead and read the article in its entirety. So here we go. This is an article written by Eric Kroll, published October 21st, 1991, and it reads as follows Falling from the top of a building is a very free feeling, at least until you hit the ground. And that's where our society is headed. The ground. Yes, everything is so out of control, we're all gonna crash and crash hard. Everywhere you turn, society is crumbling. Gang shootings, crack deals, and corrupt business practices are commonplace. Our government will stop at nothing to advance its own interests, not even the senseless slaughter of young men in pursuit of oil and new free markets to poison with its capitalistic philosophy. The only thing that matters in this country anymore is the first person, me, myself, and I. If the 70s was the me generation, then our current generation is the me only generation. In other words, who gives a damn about anyone else? The goal of this uh the goal of life in this society is ostensibly to pile up as many material possessions in the 75 years or so of life that Americans average. What's scary is this warped society rewards it. Look at television and advertising. The image that the extremely sexist but all-powerful MTV portrays has become the new golden rule. Do unto others before they can do it unto you. That is, get the latest toys and keep up in the mad race to better yourself without any regard for others. The most pathetic part is just about everyone accepts the message our advertising world gives them without questioning it for truth or justice. The reason given will inevitably be I don't have time. But why don't you have time? Because you're too concerned with yourself to stop and see what a sad place this world has become. Nothing is sacred. You think the media are informing you of what's going on in the world? The media are only telling you what they want to. Do you have any idea of how much violence, crime, and starvation is going on in most third world countries? No, not at all. Because the media isn't telling you. Why? Because the media are owned by big corporations and all they care about is the bottom line. Money. And public relations people, well, they're the worst ones of all. They cover up and sugarcoat all things detrimental to big business, the capitalist juggernaut that is raging out of control. They're kind of like the dirty oil that keeps the machine running. Oxymoron of the week. Quote, journalism with a public relations emphasis. Public relations is not journalism. But hey, it doesn't matter anyway, because even if there were no PR shills, journalism is still part of an industry and tainted by the capitalistic machine which has caused the world to go to pot. The fact is, people have lost sight of what life is for. It's not about piling up material items and pursuing your own self-comfort, despite the justification that Locke gave in his philosophy and Jefferson gave in his quote pursuit of happiness rhetoric. The capitalists are wrong. It's about helping other people and leaving the world a better place than when you entered it. It's about abandoning the me-only viewpoint and regaining our balance before we really do hit the concrete ground. Now, the article concludes with the statements, it life that is, is about helping other people and leaving the world a better place than when you entered it. It's about abandoning the me-only viewpoint and regaining our balance before we really do hit the ground. So, how do we exactly go about abandoning this me-only viewpoint and regarn our balance? Well, I think we begin with bringing awareness back to this topic in the first point in the first place, and then secondly, we engage in discussion about it, much like this. Now, if you find some of these topics of interest, and maybe even have or share some of the concern that I do about them, then consider sharing this episode with people in your social media circles, with your family, friends, loved ones. Watch it together, talk about it. You know, pause the video, examine my viewpoints, see if they align with yours. And if not, why not? You know, we must not fear the digitization and the technology that is available to us, but we must embrace them for the powers of good. You know, these tools that contribute to the very things that concern us are also the very tools that we can harness to overcome the obstacles that lie right in front of us. Don't you see? This, my friends, is how we leave the world a better place than when we entered it. Turn it around, redirect. It's simple. If we live in fear of the things that we engage with on a daily basis, it benefits no one. But if we can utilize them, like I said, for powers of good, we can change it. All right. Moving forward, the fourth article that appears in browsing the internet for content on the Me Centered Society is an article titled Contrasting a Me Centered Society that was published on um May 14th, 2018. Now, like other articles previously discussed here, this article is part of a series, and the series written by Dave Trendholm is titled Kingdom Living, where the author, a pastor by the name of Dave Trendholm, writes about the kingdom of God. And I know some of you are thinking, uh, more God-centered content, but hang with me on this one, guys. All right. I believe that there's a theme regarding why God continues to be present as we dive into this topic, because this is also the case with the next search result, but it's also from a very different perspective, one that comes from the Kabbalah. Okay, so this isn't strictly just Christian people talking about the Christian God. No, it's talking about God, the infinite creator, universal spirit, nature, what whatever you want to call it, man. But the thing that's out there that's bigger and greater than ourselves, that's what this is talking about, and that's what it's encouraging us to speak about. Now, in this case, um, you know, I mentioned that because before I dive into this article, I want to make sure that the understanding is there in the audience that again, this isn't just my bias and me putting uh you know articles out there that I think are appropriate to this topic. This is just a topic on me centered society, and I'm literally taking these from top to bottom, you know, one, two, three, and now we're on number four. I'm just going down the line, I'm just telling it like it is, and these are you know, I'm not putting in my my my bias, my spin, I'm just sharing information. And scramlin's right, we absolutely can change it one square foot at a time. And guys, if we want to change the world, we got to start by changing our world first and foremost. All right. So, back to this article contrasting a me centered society. Um, you know, I make a point to mention that the next topic, the next inquiry search result, mentions God in the context of the Kabbalah because, like I said, I'm not here to preach, man. I'm not here to quote scripture, proselytize, or anything like that. I'm just sharing results of the research that's been provided to me from a decentralized search engine based on blockchain technology, which is as far as I can tell, the most unbiased way to have search results delivered to me. Or anyone for that matter. So check it out, pre-search.com. I'll link to that in the show notes as well. Uh, I'll probably forget, but I'll do it in the podcast. Um, pre search.com. Check it out, it's very cool and it is a valuable search engine. Now, let's get back to this um to this article, right? Titled Contrasting a Me Centered Society. Again, part of a series called Kingdom Living, where the author writes about the kingdom of God. Now, to provide a bit of context about how this pertains to the me-centered society, I want to expand on what the author is talking about and what he means when he writes about the kingdom of God. Now, the author mentions that the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is mentioned well over a hundred times throughout all four Gospels, where Jesus shares all sorts of different parables and examples of what he means by this, because the fact of the matter is it truly is difficult to understand this conceptually, and the kingdom is different than what we might generally think of, right? The word kingdom. Now, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, kingdom is a politically organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of government headed by a king or queen, often capitalized. Now, let's just to show you what I'm reading, you know, um, and where I pulled this from, this is where I pulled this from. Um, a politically organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form uh monarchical form of government headed by a king or queen. You know, that's oftentimes what we think of when we read the word kingdom, all right. Um often talks about the kingdom of God, uh, or a realm or region in which something is dominant, right? An area of or sphere in which one holds a preeminent position, and then also we've got you know one of three primary divisions into which natural objects are commonly classified, for example, the animal kingdom, mineral kingdom, plant kingdom. Um, you know, in the world of taxonomy, we have to use words like this to better define what it is that we're talking about. All right. So, you know, when we get back to this article, the author further clarifies by saying that the kingdom of God is a different kind of kingdom. In fact, when Jesus was on trial before the Roman governor governor Pilate, Pilate asks him, Are you a king? And Jesus says in John chapter 18, verse 36, My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not of this world. Now, as the article continues, Jesus was saying that his kingdom was very different than the kingdom of Rome or any other kingdom that we might be familiar with. You see, unlike most kingdoms, the kingdom of God is not centered around some physical location like a city or a castle or a country, the kingdom of God is centered around God. And of course, God is not limited by location, right? He's omnipresent and he's present everywhere, all the time. So God's kingdom is not defined by a physical location, but it is defined by the people who carry out the will of their king. Now, as the article continues, again, this one is quite lengthy, and I've linked to it in the description below, I've linked to it in the show notes. You can check it out if you want, but um, you know, you might be wondering how this ties into the idea of a me-centered society, much like I was. And trust me, we'll get there. But this one's a little bit more in depth, it's a little bit more complicated, and so to clarify a little bit further, I'm going to read one more paragraph from the article. And um the article continues when the author writes, we've talked about how the kingdom of God is very different from the kingdom of this world. In fact, that's probably why Jesus talked about it so often. If we are going to live in the kingdom of God, then we need to be prepared to live very differently, different from how we used to live, different from around, different from the world around us lives. And so that's what we've been talking about for the last few weeks as we've been going through this message series, which we've titled Kingdom Living. All right, so at this point, we've got a little bit of context about what this series is all about, right? The author, Pastor Dave Trendholm, is writing about living in the kingdom of God. But what about this article? All right, how does kingdom living, as he puts it, contribute to or contrast the me-centered society? That's a good question. It's a valid one. It's one I asked myself as I read this. Because it wasn't really clear to me. But if we continue to read, we get a better understanding of this when we read: you don't have to hold a theology degree to know that God wants us to love one another. We should be honest, we should care for those in need. We should be faithful to our spouse. We should strive to see justice be done. We shouldn't steal from each other or take advantage of one another. And these aren't crazy new ideas that are hidden away in some obscure part of the Bible. In fact, Western society was originally founded on many of these principles that are laid out in the Bible that show how God wants us to live. However, as our culture drifts further and further from those founding biblical principles, it's become more and more important for us to go back to the word of God and to remind ourselves this is how God wants us to live. This is his good and pleasing and perfect will for us. And as we do that, more and more we're going to find that kingdom living is very different from world we live worldly living. All right, we get it, I get it. But how? All right, like I previously said, it's it's it's oftentimes difficult for many of us to understand. Maybe you have a clear understanding of what he's talking about, but I struggled with this, all right. Like I said, I've struggled with my own thoughts and ideas about God my entire life. Not to mention my thoughts and ideas about religion, which I've previously said, and I'm gonna say again, which I believe is largely a human construct designed. To control you, me, our thoughts and ideas, and quite frankly, simply dominate us as individuals. And like we see in the very word kingdom, we see that word dominant, right? So this is kind of why I struggle with this. So to better understand kingdom living, which I think is critical and how it ties into the me-centered society, I'd like to share with you an example from this article linked to in the description that the author provides. And um, I'm gonna go ahead and try to pull this up and share my screen with you because I think that this is good. And like I like I said, guys, this is a lengthy article, and um if I can find it, great. If I can't, uh you know it's tough, but that's why I I prep these notes in advance. So it okay. This is this is where he's talking about a specific example, okay. Um and I've got this on the screen for anybody that's watching that wants to, you know, kind of follow along as I read. Excuse me. Now, to provide a better example of kingdom living and how this ties into the me-centered society, he references a passage from the Bible. Specifically, he's looking at Acts, the book of Acts, chapter two, verse 42. All right. Now, in Acts chapter 2, we get one of the first snapshot snapshots of the early New Testament church. This was just a short time after Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension back into heaven. The Holy Spirit had just come upon that initial group of believers, and they were learning how to live in the kingdom of God for the very first time. So in Acts chapter 2, we find a summary of how the Bible describes that very first group. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. Quote, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in all meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all while praising God and enjoying the good will of all the people. In each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. We read that in Acts chapter 2, verse 42 through 47. The author continues, Now there is a lot that could be said about this passage, but for today I just want to make one clarification and one observation. First of all, the clarification. And this passage isn't intended as a here's what they did, so here's what you need to do. So you don't have to worry. It's not telling us to sell our property and possessions and give the money to the poor. It's not telling us that we need to meet and have church here seven days a week. This is simply a description of what happened. Now, that being said, I think they did a lot of things right. I think there are a lot of things in here that line up really well with what the rest of the Bible teaches about how we are to live in the kingdom of God. And that brings me to my one observation. Now, as I've said, there's lots of good stuff in here, but I can't help but notice how communal this group of believers was. They did everything as a group, as a family. It sounds like they were together all the time. They ate together, they worshiped together, they shared their homes, they shared their meals, they shared their wealth. Everything about their faith and everything about their life was shared. Now, four times in this passage, we see the word shared or sharing. These guys were serious about living life together. This communal kind of life is a stark contrast to our North American culture today. We are completely an individualistic society, almost to the extreme. We promote self-expression and self-fulfillment and self-identity. We are so wrapped up with ourselves that in 2013 the word selfie was named the Oxford English Dictionary's Word of the Year, and it's no wonder. I read that in 2016 we took 93 million selfies every single day. I read in 2016 we took 93 million selfies every single day, and that's about 33 billion selfies that year, and that's 2016. Just so happens the year that this book was written, the fourth industrial revolution. All right. Now, our obsession back to the back to the reading. Our obsession with self is having a profound impact on society. Many, if not all, the moral issues that society is wrestling with today, like abortia, abortion, euthanasia, gender issues, parental rights in school, and even the legalization of marijuana, they all stem from a me-centered individualistic society. The question is always, what's best for me? Never what's best for us. And of course, this me-centeredness impacts all of us, even Christians. Now, I read an article, or I read in an article this week by Joseph Hellerman, who wrote a book called When the Church Was Family, and the author wants to share what he read with us. So I'll go ahead and read that with you. We are a radically individualistic society, and uh, we are a radically individualistic society oriented towards personal fulfillment in ways profoundly more me-centered than any other culture or people group in world history. It's our individualism, our insistence that the rights and satisfaction of the individual must take priority over any group to which one belongs. And that has seriously compromised our ability to stay in relationship and grow with one another as God intends. The author writes, I think that's so true. When we insist that our rights and our satisfaction take priority over our family, over our church, over our community, that seriously compromises our ability to stay in relationship and grow with one another as God intends. One of the hallmarks of Christianity, one of the most distinct characteristics of God Himself is self-sacrificing love. It's putting others before ourselves. In other words, what Jesus is saying here is that one of the ways that the kingdom of God is radically different than the kingdom of the world is that in the kingdom of God we live for the good of others. We sacrifice for someone else's benefit. We give up our rights and our privileges for the sake of someone else. That's certainly what Jesus did, and that is what love is. Now, again, this is a long article, and one thing to take into consideration is that this isn't really an article per se, rather, it's a it's a published sermon that this particular pastor gave to his church on Mother's Day in 2018, right? Now, accordingly, he draws some law, uh, some parallels between the love Jesus had for all the people in his in the world and the love a mother has for her child. Now, he does make a point to include dads in the conversation as well. And um, you know, for example, he writes, Mothers are the prime example of living for the good of others, of sacrificing for someone else's benefit, or giving up their rights and privileges for the sake of someone else. Mothers do that all the time. They give up sleep, they give up incredible amounts of time. Many sacrifice their career and personal ambitions to raise their kids. They change dirty diapers, they wash mountains of laundry, they cook and clean. And I do recognize that dads do a lot of that stuff too. But today's Mother's Day, so we'll focus on them today. But why do they do all that? It's easy because they love their families, and when you love someone, you live for their good, you sacrifice for their benefit, you give up your rights and your privileges for their sake. So when you love someone, you want them to flourish and to prosper and to have every possible advantage, right? And that's why moms willingly sacrifice so much, they want what's best for their kids. And dads, you're in this, you're in this, you're in this too. All right. But again, for context, this was written on Mother's Day, so that's why the focus is on moms. But parents sacrifice so much because they want what's best for their kids, and it's God's good and pleasing and perfect will for us to show that same kind of love for others. People should be able to tell that we are his followers, that we live in the kingdom of God because of our self-sacrificing, almost mother-like love that we have for each other. And this love is exactly the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated for all of us. It wasn't for Jesus' benefit that he came to earth as a man, it wasn't to his advantage to be arrested and beaten and mocked and spit on. It wasn't in his best interest to be nailed to a cross and die an excruciating death. That was all for our sake. He willingly endured all of that because he loved us, he was willing to make that sacrifice because he wanted what's best for us. Again, you may be wondering how this ties into the topic of the me-centered society, and I promise you, we're almost there. All right, we are almost there now. Finally, the author starts to tie it together when he writes In an In our individualistic, me-centered society, it's hard to give up our rights and the things we're entitled to in order to put others first. It is hard to put the needs and and the desires of others ahead of your own. Now, granted, mothers do a pretty good job of that when it comes to their kids, but God calls each one of us to do that, and not just for our kids, but for one another. That's why when we read in that Acts passage about these guys who were selling their possessions and their property and giving money to those in need, well, that sounds pretty crazy in the kingdom of the world, but that's not surprising in the kingdom of God. All right. Now think back to when you were growing up. If your family was in a financial crunch and you didn't have money for food, wouldn't your mom be willing to sell some of her stuff to feed you? Sure she would. That wouldn't be surprising at all. You'd almost expect that. No loving mother would allow her kids to go without food or clothes while she had plenty. In fact, most mothers I know would go themselves without food if it meant providing for their kids. And that's exactly what these guys in acts did. They did the same thing because they had a self-sacrificing love for the family of God. It was a no-brainer to sell some of their stuff to share with those in need, not because they were told to, but because they loved those guys. They loved each other. They were not about to let them suffer and go without while they had plenty. So this morning, I'd encourage you to have the same attitude that those guys in Acts had, the same attitude that moms have, the same attitude that Jesus Christ had, and live for the good of others. Be willing to give up your rights and privileges for the sake of someone else. And that is kingdom living. All right. The author goes on and continues to clarify with a little more writing that reads, Moms don't just sacrifice money and stuff for their kids, they do all kinds of things out of love. For example, moms give their time. How many times a day do moms interrupt whatever it is that they're doing to apply a band-aid or look at some scribbled crayon artwork or drive their kids to dance or soccer practice or whatever else? A mom's day is constantly interrupted, and that's how it works in the kingdom of God, too. We willingly allow interruptions to our day and our plans to serve one another. Maybe we give up our golf plans to help a buddy move. Maybe we miss that hockey game and go to part of a town event. And maybe we give up our time and come to experience fellowship together. All right, now in the context of this article and the sermon, the author is talking about the fellowship that we receive when we go to church. But I most certainly believe that this type of fellowship is not only limited to the church. Like I previously mentioned, through some through simple things, like I said, opening a door for someone or giving someone a ride somewhere if they don't have the ability to drive for whatever reason. Anything you know, service work allows you to engage in fellowship, just like the author who is a pastor encourages fellowship at the church, but you don't necessarily need a church to engage in this fellowship which facilitates kingdom living, right? So what's the point? What am what like what am I talking about? Why do all of this? We do, or rather, we don't do this because it's necessarily for our benefit, but we do it for the benefit of others. And this, my friends, is the point of the article and the point of his sermon. He concludes by sharing as you go home this afternoon and go into your week, you're once again going to be immersed in the me-centered world. But I would just encourage you to remember that your king loves you more than you can imagine, and he will happily supply your every need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus, leaving you completely free to mimic those guys and acts, mimic our mothers, mimic our fathers too, and mimic so many of those people in our church and our community as we all mimic our Heavenly Father and give generously, love lavishly, and serve sacrificially out of love for one another. All right. I understand that I went more in depth with this article than others, and I'm gonna tell you why. Because I think another way to read the conclusion of his sermon is to reframe it and read it in a way like this. It's Sunday night, and as you go into your week, you will be immersed in this me-centered society, and one of the most effective ways that we can combat this way of thinking is to give, love, and serve for no other reason than out of love for one another, leave your bias aside, leave your thoughts and opinions about God and religion, leave all that aside, table that okay? Take away that message because whether it's today, Sunday, January 8th, 2023, or whenever it is that you're listening to this in the future, or at any given point in the future, whether you're listening to this or not, all of us will be immersed because we already are in this me-centered society. And I think one of the most effective ways that we can combat this way of thinking is to do exactly that, to give, to love, and to serve freely for no other reason than simply love for our fellow men. Acts of service, like I said, especially anonymous acts of service, giving freely, loving everyone, especially those we resent. When we do that, we cannot help but focus our time, effort, and energy on others instead of ourselves. And that, my friends, is the point. You know, this is a time and a place. I'm sorry, there is a time and a place for us to focus on ourselves, but we live in a society that has become increasingly me centric, right? And um, and this uh, you know, this This very podcast, even the show, is a prime example of what I'm talking about for months, even years at this point. I put a considerable amount of time, effort, and energy into figuring out what my purpose is, what my passion is, and sharing what I perceive to be wisdom with you. And when I began to think that this was somewhat problematic, I began speaking of the show as one where we work to determine what our purpose is, where we try to better understand what our passion is. And even then, I'm beginning to believe that my approach and doing so has been somewhat misguided. And I'm changing, I'm changing the approach and understanding my purpose and my passion. And uh much of these recent changes have been inspired through the goal setting guide, which I've talked about at great lengths in the show in past episodes, and have linked to in the description below in the podcast show notes. This goal setting guide is available to download for free using the link I've provided. So, you know, if you were feeling discouraged in life, miserable in your job, or just feeling lost, like a ship without a rudder, then check it out. My thoughts and opinions about this goal setting guide have not changed. Um, I think it's awesome. I think it got me moving in the right direction, and I think it gave me a new beginning. And I would definitely encourage you to give yourself a new beginning if you're feeling any of that discouragement, misery, just lost. Just check it out. It's in the description below, it's in the show notes. Download it, you won't regret it. Um, all right, moving on. Now, we we've covered a lot with regard to better understanding this me-centered society and and and and the issues with it, right? And much of this has involved discussion and the inclusion of God with regard to the perspective of this understanding, and especially God as perceived and seen and understood by those of us who are Christians, right? Now, the first four search results we talked about at great length, especially this this third one, um, or fourth one rather. And um, I'd like to begin concluding today's show with reviewing the fifth search result, which provides a question on um Quora. All right, so let's take a look at that. And um, if you guys aren't entirely sure what uh like what Quora is, um, because I I wasn't really familiar with it. Yeah, I've looked at it in the past, you know, not real sure what it is. Quora is a social question and answer website based in Mountain View, California. It was founded on June 25th, 2009, and was made available to the public on June 21st, 2010. That information comes from Wikipedia. And um, you know, as we look at all of these uh these these search results from pre-search, we can see that you know, down here we've got the first one we covered, the second one, oh crepes. Uh, we've got the first one, the pathway to a blessing in a me-centered society, the second one we covered, me-centered society learning to be alone, the third me centered society headed for disaster, which we read in its entirety, the fourth, contrasting me centered society by Dave Trentholm.com, and finally the fifth, which is why is society becoming self-centered and lavish? And the question is quite simple, uh, or the answer rather is quite simple. And it was a question that was posed by Chris Jennett and answered by Mary Meeson, who is apparently a student of the spiritual path of wisdom of the Kabbalah. And I don't know what that is. I've heard about it, you know. Maybe you have to. Uh, certain celebrities have kind of gone this route, studied this, but what is it? All right, now the Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging eternal God, the mysterious and soft, or the infinite, as it's uh known in Hebrew, and the mortal finite universe, God's creation. And this forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. Okay, so that's what Kabbalah is. It is it's it's a set of teachings to explain the relationship between God and God's creation. All right. Now, by no means am I some sort of Judaic scholar, and I know far less about the Kabbalah, but there sure seems to be a theme regarding God and this topic surrounding a me-centered society. So let's take a look at what the answer to the question is. All right. And the question is why is society becoming self-centered and lavish? And uh Mary writes, being self-centered is not new to mankind. Perhaps living lavishly is. The human ego drives us to act in ways that fulfill our every desire, even when doing so harms others. I think that living a lavish lifestyle is one in which we take from the environment and give nothing back. And there are millions of examples. And she go ahead, she she provides a couple. Now, a toll is paid when we do not maintain this cycle of giving and receiving, and we have today's global chaos as a result. All right. Now, while the spiritual foundation and understanding between those that study the Kabbalah, traditional Judaism, or the other Abrahamic religions like Christianity, Christianity, and Islam may differ. The one common ground that they all seem to share is the fact that each and those that participate in each seek to better understand and or worship God. Now, three of the five search results dive deep into the topic of God, and when we seek information on the me-centered society, I just think it's incredibly interesting and telling that perhaps an indicator of why the me-centered society is what it is, is perhaps due to the fact that culturally we have strayed from God. So, you know, like I said, the topic of this topic, this me-centered society, has occupied my mind and my thoughts since I first read that phrase in this book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, months ago. I thought so heavily and deeply about it that I couldn't even bring myself to finish reading the book until now. Over the course of the last week, I assembled these notes on this issue, and um you know it really got my gears grinding, thinking about thinking about the nature of the all-around growth podcast, the recent changes made to the show, and quite frankly, everything else in life. And in the beginning of the show, I made some mention that I'd begun questioning everything that I was doing, including but not limited to this show, and that today's episode could potentially begin the conclusion of the show. And the reality is I'm not sure. I don't know. So we'll, you know, as as we continue to go on, that may be a part of the show, is wrapping it up. Because perhaps part of God's plan for my life includes this show. Perhaps not, but you know, that's not a decision I'm prepared to make today, let alone act on. I've got a lot invested into this show. Time, effort, energy, the relationships that have been cultivated with all of you out there, the relationships that have been further cultivated in the telegram group. And if you want to check that out, you can learn more and join us over at t.me slash allaroundgrowth. And um, you know, speaking of the telegram group, the like that group in and of itself and and everything else that stemmed from this podcast is like the very thing that was the driver of this show topic in the first place, right? You see, that the group on Telegram and all of our groups on social media are communities defined by personal projects and individual values and interests rather than by the space, the local community, our work and our family. I mean we read it right there. This is where this is this is where I got hung up. It was just, it was such a big deal to me that I underlined it. I highlighted it. And I realized that one of the very problems that was identified in this book is an activity that I'm engaging in on a regular basis and have been for several years now. But like I said, I'm not gonna get hung up on this today. There's been far more pros than cons that have resulted from the work that goes into this show. The relationships we have together online and in the real world. I'm blessed to be able to say that I've met some of you guys in the real world, and that is that's awesome. Uh, it makes me very happy, and I'm extremely grateful for that. And my hope is that no matter what happens, we continue to do this in light of what we've read. And again, what we read, the big hang up, was quote, from a broad societal standpoint, one of the greatest and most observable effects of digitization is the emergence of the me-centered society, a process of individuation and emergence of new forms of belonging and community. Contrary to the past, the notion of belonging to a community today is more defined by personal projects and individual values and interests rather than by space, meaning the local community, work, and family. Now, I'm hopeful that this show provokes thought within you to not simply dismiss the communities that you participate in digitally, but that it encourages the importance of belonging to a community that is defined by space, your local community, your work, and your family. I mean, I also fully understand that many of us have jobs that we don't like, jobs that you know force us to be in environments that many would consider toxic. And I'm also a firm believer in the fact that when we work to better understand our purpose in life utilizing tools like the previously mentioned goal setting guide, which is linked to in the description below and in the show notes, and also something I would definitely encourage you to download because you can do so for free. I believe that when we utilize tools like that, we can find hope that we previously didn't have. Oftentimes through something as simple as acceptance. Personally, I've come to learn that acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, or thing, or situation, some fact in my life unacceptable to me. Right? And when I equip myself with the tools and resources necessary to deal with that thing in a healthy and sane manner, I cannot and will not ever be unhappy. So if you find yourself feeling anything remotely close to, you know, just get lost and in a toxic work environment, don't lose hope. The fact of the matter is that we need to understand that we cannot change the world, but we can change ourselves and our own attitudes towards the life that we live, and we can do so on a daily basis. The goal setting guide in the description below in the show notes, it's a great springboard to find a better way to live, and in my opinion, is perhaps the best tool and resource I have to offer to those who are interested in what I perceive to be and call all-around growth. So I hope that you'll check it out because it's made a tremendous impact on my life, it's changed the entire direction the show has gone from when it first started. And you know, you've got nothing to lose except the time you invest in simply clicking that link, downloading it, and giving it a read. Nothing to lose and everything to gain. And if you don't do it, then you'll never know. So with that, guys, that about concludes the show today. I want to thank you for tuning in. Uh, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen, to participate in this, to be a part of for being a part of the community that that makes this all possible. And with that said, this is the time that I want to give a shout out to the sponsors. Like I said, Food Forest Farms, um, the home of Air Rosta's specialty coffee, a fun hip camp, and a cozy Airbnb. They make this possible streaming in the way that we are now. I'm supremely grateful for the help and support that I've gotten from Brian over there for encouraging me to do this, encouraging us at York Meadow Farm to take our products online, just like everyone else in the Telegram group. You know, with the support and encouragement from you guys, that's exactly what we've done here on the homestead. And um, you know, you can learn more about what it is that we're doing here on the homestead by checking out Yorkmeadowfarm.com, which is also a sponsor of the show. And this is where we produce handcrafted batches of probiotic-rich fermented foods and natural bath and body products scented with pure essential oils. So if you're listening to this show, the discount code still applies, guys, and are all around growth at checkout, and you'll save 25% off your order, which is a pretty fat discount. Um, and basically what that means is you get better pricing than you would get at the farmers market. All right. So if you want to support us, support me and this show, the best thing that you can do is check out those two vendors, foodforestfarms.com, yorkmeadowfarm.com, and um, you know, just pick up products that you likely already use or consume on a somewhat regular basis. Uh it's a win-win-win. Um, you know, I I can't express enough gratitude to the sponsors that we have because they're the ones that make this possible. And if you're interested in sponsoring the show, then reach out. Let me know. Allaround growth at gmail.com, hit me up on the telegram group, we can work something out. Now, as far as next week, what are we going to talk about? Don't really know. I haven't committed to a topic at this point, but I'm always interested in feedback from you. So if you've got something that's on your mind, something that you want to hear me yammer about, then let me know. And uh, because we will be doing another live stream on next Sunday, which is going to be January 15th, 2023. And really the best way to get involved, get engaged, input your feedback on anything and everything is join the Telegram group. Like I previously mentioned, you can find us online at t.me slash allaround growth, and uh let me know what you'd like to hear. Uh, collaborate with other people, and you know, let's keep this good content coming. So, you know, I look forward to seeing you there. And guys, I I really sincerely hope that you have a wonderful week ahead. And um, this is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.