Take the Ice Cube Challenge

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Take the Ice Cube Challenge

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This is a topic of interest to you — you.

While I don’t expect to gain much useful wisdom from hardcore rap, Ice Cube did hit on what is recognized as one of the most beneficial practices a person can do.[/fusion_text][fusion_text]

“You better check yo self before you wreck yo self”

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Now the rest of the song, including shotguns and so-on, may not apply to most people’s lives, but the main premise of Ice Cube’s song is solid and ubiquitous – to ensure you are heading towards what is best for you, you need to run checks.

Running necessary and appropriate checks help ensure we are on track to reach the results we expect, and keep irreparable, unexpected consequences from occurring: airlines run comprehensive checks before each flight; we run checks through periodic health exams, I am actually going to the dentist today, and I hate it, but recognize the need, and would hate even more what follows from not running the dental check.

The same serious need to run proper checks is true in any area of life where a choice you make brings consequences, and your beliefs are at the highest level in that category. Every day you have an outline of how to run your day and life, and it comes from the priorities, objectives, etc., which follow directly from your worldview map. Once we become comfortable with our beliefs, our map, it becomes a matter of habit using them to outline our day and life. This is normal, but makes it especially necessary to run checks, and keep oneself aware for warning lights.

Sometimes life gives you warning signs of needed checks. The check engine oil or temperature lights in your car, for example, have saved many from expensive oversights. We have had a number of patients with tumors reaching the size of softballs, or skin cancers after growing into something prompting un-asked questions, such as, “What were you thinking? How could you have possibly kept dismissing all the warnings you were given?” Sometimes the warning signs are ignored until it is too late.

It is your choice to either run the periodic and appropriate checks of your beliefs, or choose to do what is comfortable to you now, and ignore the long-term overall results. I think we all have observed and/or experienced what going with comfort over good thinking will eventually bring. For example, ever see someone in a long-term dating relationship, which they should leave, but instead choose to stay in, due to the fear of discomfort that comes with not having the relationship? It is amazing the serious long-term discomfort such a choice brings to themselves and others, which is so much worse than short-term discomfort of leaving a bad relationship.

When a dearest friend asked me to stand with him at his wedding, I said I would be honored, and would fully support him if he chose to marry, but first had to say something. I proceeded to say why I thought marriage for this couple would be an extremely harmful decision. He is an intelligent guy, so he said he would consider it, but after being knocked out with a table leg and dragged, along with his belongings, out into the street by his would-be spouse, he then made the reasonable choice.

Now, the exercise below might feel more painful than getting clubbed unconscious by your fiancé, however, this exercise is important to do, and has value because: How often have you actually stated and supported YOUR beliefs? It is easy to think you know your beliefs, yet putting them concretely on paper not only solidifies where you stand and where you are heading, but also establishes how well your beliefs are supported – making you, maybe for the first time – consider how solid your current understanding stands.

If you believe in God and a purpose to life, why? If not, why? If you believe you cannot know, why? What supports your path and your avoidance of the other possible paths? Some try putting off the choice, which is itself a choice and path. Many others simply start down one of the paths with little guidance or assurance it is the best path for them. Traveling without necessary thinking brings consequences, you become an infant toddling into a busy street.

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Check Yourself – What map are you following?

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This section is about a topic of interest to you – you. You are currently standing on a specific foundation (or following a specific map), and counting on its accuracy. So, below are two straightforward questions with room for your answer & provide the positive support you stand on to verify your belief’s accuracy over all other options. As noted in The Truth about Truth section, you are not being arrogant in showing why your belief is accurate against the others, just realistic and rationally ensuring your belief is the one able to hold up when reality exposes the foundation of all beliefs. If you want ideas of what sources of evidence are available and how reliable these sources are, see the How Can We Know section.

A final note before starting, if you hesitate before starting this, cannot just start putting down well-established evidences or support, are going through any of a list of excuses or defense mechanisms why you shouldn’t do this, or simply cannot do the exercise, then . . .

• The good news is: you are not alone.
• The bad news is: you and the others in this situation are currently on very unstable and unsafe ground.

But there is further good news: you have an opportunity to add something of permanently lasting value and benefit to your life. Whether life has been very hard, or very good up to this point, adding more stability, confidence, knowledge of what reality will bring, beauty, love and a host of other benefits, which inherently come with standing on known stable ground, is something which will add greatly to anyone.

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If you could not provide answers, that is a very clear warning sign you most likely have barriers in your life hindering you in this area, and you have a choice to make as noted in the previous article.

If you think you have a handful of very solid, positive answers why your belief is true, and your belief differs from mine, then please send in your list as I always seek the best answers from opposing belief systems.

If you believe in basic Christianity, but couldn’t come up with solid answers, that is a problem with a clear warning sign, but easy to solve in the next section of resources.

The two questions asked on the previous page are enough for our purposes now, but if you want to be thorough, on the back of this paper you can write the detailed map, which are the “big questions” everyone in every belief system must answer. Even if you do not answer these here, we will provide the answers in the Worldview Beliefs Cage Match section, which will make very clear what you are entirely buying into for each belief system option.

1. Origin: Where did it all come from?
2. Meaning: Why are we here, what is the meaning/purpose/value of my life?
   What four things are the most important in my life?
3. Cause: Does God exist? If so, what God is it, or is there no god (atheism), or is the answer unknowable (agnosticism)?
4. Current Situation & Choices: What is my current relationship with God, and what is needed for it to be best? If there is no God, what does this mean for my life, my purpose, and what is needed for it to be best?
   Is there true right & wrong?
5. Destination: Is there something after this life?
   If so, what is it & how do I reach what is best for me? If not, what does this mean for my purpose and choices in life?

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What’s next?

a) If you recognize the absolute significance of your worldview beliefs, and

b) Realize truth exists, and truth can be known with common tests we use since childhood, and

c) Understand there are barriers, which allow emotion and volition to overwhelm correct thinking, but you choose to go for the long-term, best overall results that only come from standing on an accurate belief, and

d) Have identified where you currently stand, and what support it has, then

Time to start looking at some of the most interesting and important areas of evidence, and the evidence starts right at The Beginning.

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