3 MUST HAVE Life Skills

Hello, everyone. Simon Jacobson here. I will be speaking about three essential life skills. This program, this class, is dedicated in memory of Miriam Lea Bass, Yisrael Nissen Sofer, David Elio Ben Avram Yitzchak, Danish Goetzel Ben David Elio, and Carmen Mordechai Ben David Elio. If we were able to distill all the skills in life's tool chest, the tools we need to cope, to survive, to thrive, to grow, if you were able to distill that into three key elements, what would they be? And I actually went and looked around to see how different schools of thought approached this question. What are the three most important things in running your life? And I'll tell you things that came up in the Google search and different ways that I looked for it. Just a list. Focus, self-control, perspective, objectivity, accountability, communication, effective communication, the ability to listen, listening, connecting, relationships, empathy, taking on challenges, courage, initiative, self-directed, motivated, self-awareness, critical thinking, creative thinking, decision making, and problem solving. That was like the list of, what is that, the top 20? I didn't even count them. Something like that. What I found interesting is that, as we know, there's always symptoms and there's the root. How many of these things are subsets in a larger skill set? How many of them are outgrowths of another principle? So I decided to do exactly that, even though it's very difficult to say they're three most vital or three vital life skills. Nevertheless, at times, it helps when we're able to focus and be able to define certain key elements in a person's life and what defines and what causes success. But we have to begin with, of course, a bigger question. When someone says a sense of life skills, life skills for what? Or better put, what is life? If, for example, someone says life is about making money, so then you have to figure out, what are the skills to make money? If someone says life is to be happy, so what are the skills or the tools to be happy? So it doesn't begin with the tools. It begins with the objective. And that is the most important thing of all. So that will be our first principle, which is the objective of life, the mission of life. And let me explain. Because if you don't know your mission, then all the tools that you have may be great tools, but they may be for the wrong mission, as I just pointed out. So you have to begin with, what is the objective? So I would say the most single, most important life skill. Even though we're calling it the three essential life skills, it doesn't mean the only life skills. One of the most essential is the purpose and mission, because that's where everything begins. In business is the mission statement. In any organization, in any creative project, is the vision. It all begins with an objective, what do you want to achieve? So we will be discussing, how does one come to discover that? The second thing is going to be initiative, taking the initiative, that you have the power to initiate, which means not to react, not to follow, but to be proactive and generate something happening. And the third one is going to be persistence, persistence. Now there are many, many more. I read a list, but I'll show you how all these items on the list that I read at the outset here, and all others that you may come up with, really fall into the category, subcategories, or subsets, skill sets, of these three primary forces in life. There's no question that a person needs to have courage. There's no question that we need to be creative. There's no question we need to be able to take on challenges. But as you'll find, very often, we get stuck. So it's true, we can learn these skills. That's why I begin with a mission. The first, the most important thing to remember is that you're here for a purpose, and your purpose is unique to you, and you're given all the tools, and skills, and faculties, and resources necessary to fulfill your mission. So the first thing is, how do I find that calling? How do I find that mission? Because when you have that, everything else flows and follows. So I'm not going to go now into a long course, which we're actually developing, of how to find your mission. But I will give key pointers and refer you to some articles that I've written on the topic. To define your mission means redefine yourself, because a mission is a very nice thing. It's not something that just comes up to you. Each of us has a unique personality. We each have unique pathology. We have unique opportunities. And these are the things that define who you are, as opposed to what you do. Very often I speak about, you ask somebody, who are you? They give you their business card. But a business card is not who you are, it's what you do. And often the response is, well, what I do has become who I am. Think about that. Who you are should define what you do. But what we do defines who we are. Really going the reverse. So finding a mission is really finding yourself, finding your unique voice, your unique song. And to do that requires several items here. Requires, first of all, having people around you from young age that support and reinforce and validate and nurture your self-confidence and self-esteem, which allows you to explore, to discover who you are. When you don't have that, you often are copying somebody else. You're following. It may be your parents, it may be friends, it may be fantasies. So it's vital to identify in a very direct way, what are your strengths? What makes you unique? Some of us have creative strengths. Some of us have people strengths. Some of us have cerebral strengths, strategic. Some are very good in implementation. It's important to define that. And that's the first life skill that we're going to be speaking about now. The first life skill, that's essential. Because when you have that, as I said, so many other things fall into place. When you don't have that, so many other things fall out of place. And we're chasing our tail to find our calling on what we should be doing, why we should be doing it. Because remember, when you have that confidence, that this is my strength, and this is what I want to actualize in my life, what does that do? That gives you that clarity and focus to pursue it. If you're constantly second guessing yourself and questioning, is this really what I should be doing? Is it not? Do I like doing this? Do I not like doing it? Did I just fall into it? Is this a result of someone else pressuring me? So of course, that means you could spend hours and hours on the agonizing with determining whether this is for you. So that's a vital component. And that is the element of recognizing the objective. Now, the earlier the age a person can come to this, the better. Because once we get caught up in the merry-go-round of life, in the roller coaster of life, it's very difficult to just stop and say, one second, why am I doing all of this? What you're doing, why am I doing all of this, is overwhelmed by what you're doing. And it's very difficult to stop what you're doing to get back to the why, the purpose of it all. So the earlier we can begin, the better, which is why we should be nurturing and educating our children and inspiring them in this regard. But no matter when you're in life, you can always stop and pause and step back and write down on a piece of paper, why am I doing what I am doing? You could say, I'm doing my job because I need income. This came my way. I may not love my job. I may not hate my job. But it brings in adequate income. Why am I in this relationship, in this marriage? Why am I living where I'm living? Just begin with asking yourself those questions. And write down whatever comes to mind. You may find, it may even be laughable sometimes, the why's, why you ended up doing this. You may say, it was completely from the, I fell into it backwards. I never planned it this way. This doesn't mean, by the way, that it's the wrong thing to do, but it's important to just step back and look, why are we doing what we do? Because that will put things into perspective. If your answer for the why is because this is what my soul craves, this is what my heart desires, this resonates with me, it reflects so much of my innermost yearnings and aspirations, then you're talking about a voice that's coming from your unique self. Most people will not answer that. They'll say, so that's why you have to find that answer. If you answer that, you're very well off to a very clear, focused approach. This doesn't mean it's the only skill, but it's a critical one. If your answer is that the why you're doing these things is not because it's necessarily reflecting the innermost view on who you are, then ask yourself, if you were reflecting, if you were doing something that reflects that innermost view, what would it be? This is more than once has happened when I've spoken to somebody, I ask them this question, they say, I love to play music. When I was a teenager, I used to play music. I love music. What's happened? I got so busy, making a living, I don't have time to do that. When I do it, I feel like a fish in water. Interesting. So that means there's something that's suppressed, waiting to be expressed, and there's no way that it's not eating at a person, even if you're not conscious of it, because the fact is it does resonate with who you are. Now, you'll say, okay, so what am I supposed to do next? Quit my job? No, be creative. Find interesting ways, maybe you can incorporate your musical skill, your musical aptitude in your work. You'll say, one second, my work is, I'm sitting at a desk. I'm entering data. I'm a programmer, I'm a salesperson, I'm an analyst. Everything has a music to it. Everything has a rhythm and a rhyme. Everything has music. It doesn't always mean pure music from an instrument, but it's harmony. A person who knows music, feels comfortable with music, look for the harmony. Try to create harmony in your environment. Try to get harmony at home, harmony at your workplace. Look for the poetic elements in what you do. So in other words, don't just write yourself off and say, okay, I have to do this, and my musical side disappears. Be creative, because this is, your calling has to do with your strengths, the things that resonate with you. That was just one example. Someone may have a completely different example. My point that I want to make is that no matter what you're doing, you can introduce into your life the unique elements that define the unique you. Now if you're having difficulty defining the unique you, so there's another subset skill, and that is that we're all subjective human beings. And as subjective human beings, we need objective opinion, because we can have blind spots both directions. One, we overestimate what we can do. Two, we underestimate what we can do. Sometimes we paint a very rosy picture, and we think it's much better than it really is. An objective person who cares about you, who you can trust, will point out, no, you need to do a few things to adjust. Sometimes the other way around, and very often the other way around. We underwrite ourselves. We underestimate ourselves. We write ourselves off, I was going to say, which means we feel it's lost for me. I'll never end up really expressing my inner self. Nobody's interested. I can't survive on that. So there you also need an outside party who'll say, one second, why are you saying that? And you'll be surprised how this objectivity of a mentor, of a friend, can be critical in helping you define your mission and pursue it. I was thinking to myself that really, that should be a life skill of its own, having a mentor, finding someone like that. But because we're limited to three, I said, you know what, let me put that as a subcategory in actually all three, as you shall see. So that covers the first one. We'll go back to it perhaps. Let me, I want to make sure I cover all three and then I can elaborate some more. Number two, I said, was initiative. You can have a mission, you can have a calling, you can be focused, but you know what, you can be also frightened. You can also not have what it takes to initiate. And then what happens is that as much of clarity you may have, it doesn't get, doesn't surface, doesn't get actualized because you don't initiate. Now what does initiate mean? So let's talk about the difference between reactive and proactive behavior. Reactive behavior, and again, take a piece of paper and write down the things, as things come your way, circumstances and day, do you react or are you proactive? What's reactive? Something happens, you respond. Defensively, or another form of reaction. Proactive is you don't wait for someone to do something and you respond. It's not defense, it's offense. It's proactive, it's like saying, what can I do to fulfill so and so? Let's go back to the music example. What would be reactive? Reactive would be that suddenly your boss tells you, you know what, we're doing a party. Anybody here plays an instrument? And you'll say, yeah, I do. So I'm not suggesting that's bad, at least you volunteered. So even though it's not your job, so you are playing an instrument, but you reacted. You didn't look for an opportunity, you responded to an opportunity. Initiating means that you go over to your boss and say, maybe we should do an event and I want to play some music. I'd like to play some music. Or as I mentioned earlier, finding musical harmonies, finding the music in life. And that can be even walking down the street or at work. Initiate, why is initiating so powerful? To use a Talmudic statement, a person has more pleasure, one measure that they earn on their own than nine measures that's given to them as a gift. Though gifts are beautiful, and you can do a lot more with nine than one, or 9,000 than 1,000, or nine million over one million, but they're not generated from within you. So you don't really own it, it's not your baby. So though it has power, but it's also easy to blow. It's easy to lose because you don't really appreciate it. That one measure, that one dollar, that one initiative that comes with your effort is your effort. It's you at work. So it brings out the best in you. It brings out something that's coming from within. Try it. There are people who really, unfortunately, have never been encouraged to initiate. It's one of the most powerful educational tools is sitting with students and saying, I'd like you to write an essay on something, or I'd like you to come up with an idea to write an essay about, or make a presentation, or some other initiative, do a presentation, a video, a little skit. What happens when you do that is, besides the fact that you bring out of the woodwork that person's talents, another thing happens. You build confidence. I mentioned it before with the mission that in order to find your uniqueness, you need confidence, you need nurturing, you need support and validation. But initiative is you are lighting your own flame. Again, does not mean that you don't have mentors, that you don't have friends and parents and others that have given you, that have spurred you on, that have motivated, inspired. But when that moment comes, that you do something that you've done, there's that deep pleasure. You see it even with young children. Look at the smile on their faces. Look at the glee. Look at their inner satisfaction. I did something. Come home, little arts and crafts, little paintings. Doesn't matter what it looks like. They did it. I made this. That I made it takes the person from being a receiver to being a giver. From being a creature to being a creator. And never underestimate the power of that. The power of initiating. Initiating has nothing to do with quantity. It's all about quality. So find ways to initiate. Now initiate even if you don't have the first item in place, the mission, the calling, still initiate things. Initiate good deeds, some volunteer work, a good kind word to someone, graciousness, gratitude. Things you initiate, not just respond to. And you'll be surprised what it does for you. So take a piece of sheet of paper and write down, I'm going to initiate today so-and-so. And every day try to initiate at least one thing. It has a dramatic impact of empowerment, building confidence, and above all getting secure with what you're able to give and create in this world. And number three I said was persistence. Now persistence is basically the opposite of persistence is giving up, trying something. If I have a setback, it's not going so quickly, you're not meeting your deadline. You're feeling down because you don't feel you're ever gonna get there. Success always has persistence. It means that even when there's a setback and even when there's a curve ball, a twist and turn, you continue, forge ahead. You do not give up, you forge ahead. So here again, look for things that you have perhaps, projects you've begun, and identify what happened to them. A resolution, what happened? So you may have good excuses. It didn't work out, and there are obviously things that we start that if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, but you wanna make sure that you stop doing it out of strength, not out of weakness, because you realize this is maybe not the place to invest, or you can do something far better. But if it's a pattern of just finding excuses of why you're not initiating, I'm sorry, why you're not being persistent, then it may be yourself. So here again, you need an objective voice that can help you determine that, and determine that perhaps you're procrastinating, perhaps you're a fear of failure, fear of commitment, and many, many other factors that go into why a person will not continue to persist. Now if you had clarity in your calling, and you initiated, and you were persistent, you tell me what it would do to your life. Just imagine, even if you're not there, what would it do? It would change everything. It would basically create an umbrella that everything else you do falls under, because you have this calling that overrides everything, this is what you're doing, there could be many ways to fulfill your mission and vision. You have the initiatives that you initiate, that doesn't preclude talking to other people, and building a team, and having others do different jobs. And you have the persistence that fights any type of resistance or challenge that may come your way. So these I would identify as being the essential life skills not just three essential life skills, but the essential life skills. Now does it eliminate others? Obviously not. As I prefaced by saying, there's no way you can just say three and that's it. But if you're able to take and distill all of the tools that we need in life, these three would stand out as being primary. And just to go through some of the lists that I have seen, and I'm sure there's other items, let's for a moment talk about focus. Okay, focus. How do you focus on something if you don't know what you're calling? How do you focus on something if you don't know what's the objective? If you know you need to reach there, you make a beeline toward it. So focus is an outgrowth of calling. That's what focus is. So focus is no question is an important life skill, and definitely something we should be looking for, but I want to address why would you have focus and why would you not have focus? Let's take the next, self-control. So here comes the question, why would you want to have self-control? You know, have self-control only if it's necessary. Why not just follow whatever your desires are? Why the need for discipline and self-control? The answer is because there's an objective. That objective means that if you want to reach that objective, you're going to need discipline. You can't just be scattered and go a million different directions. It's a focal point. Perspective. Okay, that's a good one. Perspective is definitely an important one, and you could even see it as a separate entity, but what is perspective? Perspective is not getting caught up in a detail and recognizing there's a bigger picture. There's a bigger objective. Recognizing there are many forces at work and don't get trapped in one detail. It also is a part of persistence, because when you have perspective, then you also have persistence. You don't allow a setback or a shortcoming or a hiccup to throw you. So perspective is also an outgrowth of these three, one or two of these three. Objectivity. Okay, so I spoke about that one. I see that as a support to anything you want to do. Because if you only have objectivity, but you don't have a calling, you don't have persistence, you don't have initiative, you don't have persistence, so good, you'll have an objective picture, but what's next? So objectivity is necessary, but objectivity actually helps you get perspective. Accountability. Oh, that's a big one. Totally necessary. But again, accountability without some calling, without some objective, you start saying, why should I be accountable? For what purpose? If you're running a business and you know if you're not gonna be accountable, the business won't succeed. If you're a person in the military and you know the objective is to achieve A, B, C, D, and if you don't have that type of accountability, you're not gonna achieve it, then you'll have accountability. But if you don't have that, you say, why should I be accountable? Everyone understands accountability creates efficiency, but you want to have the force behind it. Because many of us gravitate, even with a mission, we don't want to be always accountable. I like to just be free. Why should I have to always answer to someone or to myself? Some people associate accountability with a little guilt. But accountability, again, is a critical component in the three I've mentioned. Again, mission, initiative, and persistence, M-I-P. Okay, communicate. Yes, communicate is vital, and I would actually put that as a number four if I were to go, oh, more than three. But communicate also has a purpose. What's the value of communication? So communication is vital for relationships, whether it's a working relationship, whether it's a friendly relationship, whether it's a romantic relationship. Without communication, you don't have that connection. So connection. So there, you can say, everything I described, what about the relationship part? Isn't relationship so important? It's true, relationship is important. To me, a relationship is part of one's mission. Everyone's mission has to include relationships. But if you're going to break it down, relationship is a vital component because relationships nurture us. It allows us to nurture another. And it creates a symbiosis. It creates a networking, a synergy is the right word, where we complement each other. So I would suggest and submit that relationships are part of calling a mission because a mission means you're calling, but you're calling is part of interacting and networking and relating with other people, whether it's a personal level or it's a professional level. So yes, it's a vital component, and I would not disregard it. But again, I'm talking about the three, the three, what do you call, mother categories. And the others are so-called the children, are the offshoots and the subcategories. Listening is connected to communication. I think that's pretty clear. It's also connected to objectivity, to being able to listen to someone and hear their position, even if it's not yours. And it's also sensitivity, which leads to empathy, the ability to simply recognize there's another person's set of narcissism. So in every type of success, self-contained element usually closes you off from any type of growth. So it also fits in there, but I just wanted to put it in that context. Connecting, okay, connecting and relationships go together, and I'm not gonna elaborate on that, taking on challenges. So here's where the persistence comes in, and as well as initiative, because initiative with persistence is an unbeatable match, an unbeatable two-punch, because when you see a problem and you have the persistence that you're gonna forge ahead and you use your initiative, your creative elements to find solutions to the problem, then nothing can stop you. So calling a mission with an initiative and persistence are really unbelievably powerful. Courage, we'll go into that. Initiative I actually mentioned. I'm not gonna go through the rest of them because I think pretty much you can understand how they fit in as well. So now we talk about creative thinking, critical thinking. To me, those are tools, correct, but they're tools that serve a purpose. Why does one have creative thinking? Because you wanna accomplish something, so you need to be creative of how to accomplish, or you have some obstacle, so you wanna be creative how to resolve it. Critical thinking is to make sure that you're doing the right thing. So you really look at something from all different angles. You look at the pros and cons. So it goes hand in hand, but those are part of the tools necessary to achieve something. To use Kabbalistic terms, terminology, and before I get to that, let me just say decision-making and problem-solving. I think that all fits into this structure as well. I'll say now the following. To put this in Kabbalistic context and perspective, you're probably familiar, you may have heard from me or from other places, the idea that we have 10 faculties. 10 faculties, three intellectual ones, seven emotional ones, three cognitive, seven emotional. Now, they are like tools in a tool chest because without a purpose and calling, why would you need to use your mind? You use your mind to conceive, to analyze, to develop, to comprehend, and to come to a full-blown plan to achieve something. That's why you use your mind. Find these analytical elements in the mind that analyzes this abstract thinking, a thinking of ideas in their purest form, but all that is a tool. It's like think of a hammer. I don't want to compare the mind to a hammer, but you get the idea. What would you need a hammer for unless you're going to build something? Instead of say, the only way to build it, I need a hammer and nails. So though the captain of the ship, meaning the mind is the captain, so the mind is a mind, a tool to achieve something. Another element the mind serves is, of course, this itself, the process of finding your calling. You need a mind to say, okay, what are these skills that I need and how do I find them? So the mind serves two purposes. It's the beginning of every process. You don't do anything without some type of strategy, but at the end of the day, that itself is because you're seeking something. Why would you use your mind? Because you're seeking something, some objective. Same thing with emotions. Emotions are a critical part of a person's life, but they're not directed or guided somewhere until you have a calling where to guide them to. So that's why I focus not on the faculties per se, on the skills that we have. We all have skills. We have mind, we have heart, we have arms, legs. We have many other talents, but on what to do with those talents and how to make sure that they are lasting, sustainable, and really create transformation in our lives. That's why you have the other two besides mission and calling, you have initiative and persistence. Those three. So, my friends, what do we take from this? We take away from this the following. All of us have tremendous amount of resources in our arsenal, more than we'll ever imagine. Someone said to you, how much percentage of your mind are you using? The real answer would be, I have no clue, because I don't know how much there is. You can only say, I know I'm using my mind, but I don't know how much percentage. You say percentage when you know what 100% is like, then you could say, I'm using 5%. But we have no clue. Nobody's ever seen and plumbed the depths and went into the deepest recesses of the mind. Same thing with your emotional, your emoting, your emotional tools. How much? Again, I don't know. So there's no doubt that there's a tremendous amount of resources beneath the surface. Education and upbringing at home and nurturing environments teach us how to express those resources. We're trained, we train through language, through communication, through analytics, through critical thinking, creative thinking. And we train ourselves to do what? To draw out the resources from within us. So if I were to tell you that here are tools to draw the most you can possibly, think of it like an oil well. You wanna draw the oil out, you don't want it to be buried all the time. And you need tools to do that. You grab them in a moment, tell me what it is. These are where the three things come in. Your calling creates a sense of urgency. I have a talent, I have skills, I have a purpose that I and only I can fulfill. That's a great motivation to go ahead and figure out what's inside of me, what am I capable of? Take that away, then there's a lack of sense of urgency. I mean, we all have a need to express ourselves. We all have a certain desire to self-actualize. But when you know there's an objective, you know there's a deadline, you know there's a goal, you know you're going to run this marathon toward a particular destination, then it creates that ultra-focus, laser-beam focus that helps you actually bring it out of yourself and express it in the fullest possible way. But you'll need the other two, initiative and persistence, because without that, you can easily, the passion and the inspiration could subside, that's where the persistence comes in. And the initiative is necessary because it's yours. The more you initiate, the more powerful you are, the more leader you are. So many ways you can say mission, leadership, persistence, is another way of calling initiate as leadership. And you'll see any success story has these three at work in a full sense of the word. Objectivity, mentorship, friends, support, always necessary. But it's these three that really shape and define it all. So when you really think about it, it's really about becoming the best you can be, actualizing the real you. I mean, what greater goal, what greater mission is there than doing that? And the beauty here is that you don't have to stop everything that you're doing. I'm not suggesting quitting your job. I'm not suggesting getting out of your relationships, moving, it's looking deeper and then incorporating it all with that perspective into the things you're already doing that you're involved in. That's the key, not stopping at all. Now, if you find that you're involved in things that don't belong on your plate, don't belong in your repertoire, by all means, you're free to free yourself from them. But do that only when you see this perspective. Now, it may sound easy when I describe it. It's hard because to actually do it, to sit down and actually do it. So that's why it may need a little effort. You may need help. But the rewards will be far outweigh any investment you make in this. It's really a very powerful way to assess your life and to redirect it or enhance it. Maybe it's enhancing and sharpening the focus, sharpening the output, and above all, actualizing the reason you are here. I find that it's gratifying, more than gratifying. There's a remarkable bonding effect when you do this with someone you love, a partner, a spouse, a friend, a student, a child. When you do it with someone you love, it becomes a labor of love. Because what we're doing is we're figuring out what we're capable of, why we're here, how we can take our energies, our unique skills. Sometimes together in the synergy of them and build something greater. You'll be surprised what kind of revelations and epiphanies even will emerge if you apply yourself. It sometimes just comes down to awareness, applying yourself and being aware of what is going on. So much is happening that we just disregard because we're distracted. But then you look a little closer, you say, hey, this man in front of my nose, I didn't even know it was there. And that's when the light shines in. You suddenly say, whew, it's like the aha moment. Wow, that's what happens when you begin doing this. And how do I know? Well, I've seen it happen with myself and with others. And it's not something that's a one-time effort, this is an ongoing journey in life, an ongoing effort to identify these three powerful approaches to life. Mission, initiative, and persistence. Master those three and integrate them into your daily life, you have a different life. I often talk about when you wake up in the morning, it's a great time to actually establish that mission. Thank you for returning my soul to me. Thank you for giving me an indispensable mission. Thank you for making me unique with a particular voice and song that's unique to me, exclusive to me. That's like focusing on a mission. Then come number two, do something, initiate something. Maybe the first email you send out in the day should be a kind word to someone that's in need before you get to business and before you get to entertainment or socializing. And number three, be persistent. Something didn't work yesterday, try it again. Do it more than once. And interestingly, help inspire another to do these three things and that will come back to you. As I said before, a great way to do this with someone you love, but even with a stranger. Advice to strangers are often easier than giving advice to ourselves. But it comes back, it bounces back because you see its impact and it helps you achieve the same thing. So really it's a daily exercise, three daily exercises that remind you. Maybe put it up on your wall, on your desk, on your refrigerator, mission, initiate, persist. Calling, initiate, persist. And remind yourself all the time. You'll see yourself gravitating to doing that because all three things that I mentioned are all very enriching and rewarding experiences. They're not like pulling teeth. They're not like saying do something that is so hard and so on. It's just being aware. And doing this and having these reminders and acting on that is a great part to create a routine. And that's the routines necessary and it becomes part of your integrated, part of your life habits, your life patterns and so on. Now, I have not spoken about this topic in the past quite this way. I have spoken about mission, I've spoken about initiative, about persistence. You can find more resources on these topics. This is what Meaningful Life Center is all about, a meaningful life, a purpose for life, a life of meaning, which includes finding your calling, finding your meaning, which is so much the passion of myself and our staff and team to help you do that. As I said, we're developing now a very exciting course, which will soon be unleashed, launched, and look forward to that. Initiate and persist. And if need be, reach out to others. If you'd like, we'd be happy to help in any way we can. Search on our website, meaningfullife.com, these words, and you'll find more materials. And you can always feel free to write to us. We're here for you. We are focused and dedicated and completely committed to helping you find your calling and to help get rid of the obstacles and impediments. Because the key thing is to remember, if you keep that focus on these three elements, don't allow yourself to get distracted or hijacked by all other seducing, seductive elements, things that, temptations, and all kinds of other things that cause us to digress and to diverge from our path. We're here live every Wednesday, 8.30 p.m. But this program, of course, is archived and really timeless. Please share it. Please communicate with us. Please help us in every possible way. We rely on your support, your financial support as well. Go to meaningfullife.com, slash sponsorship, or slash donate, and you'll find ample opportunities to dedicate the program or class in honor of a loved one or in memory of a loved one. And everyone be blessed in uncovering your song, your unique song, making sure you sing it, making sure you initiate singing it, and being persistent through the process. Be well, and we're very blessed. Thank you.