You’re enmeshed in tubes, breathing shallowly, preparing for the bright light.

Your teary-eyed children shuffle into the room.

You have one final chance to convey the most valuable lessons you want them to remember.

What would you say?

That’s the scene I envisioned when I wrote the “Live Extraordinary” manifesto.

“This, my dearest children, is how to live the masterpiece life. This is how to look yourself in the eye without regret at the end of each day.”

Don’t wait for your deathbed to inscribe these consequential lessons into their souls.

Purchase the 16″ x 20″ manifesto now and display it prominently in your home.

Let it saturate their subconscious mind. Watch with pride as it manifests in their actions.

Product Details:

The typographically-designed print is printed on high-quality, non-coated poster paper and fits a 16″ x 20″ frame.

Money-Back Satisfaction Guarantee:

Dissatisfied in any way with your print? Return it for a full, no-hassle refund.

Complete Manifesto Text:

“Trust your flashes of intuition. Ignore the clamoring of crowds. Don’t
drudge through a job. Devote yourself to a Mission. Make every day an adventure. Don’t be a slave to unconscious reaction. Consciously choose your actions. Keep your word, no matter the cost. Who you become tomorrow is determined by the books you read, the friends you keep, and how you spend your free time today. The time to be most vigilant is when no one else will ever know. Privately fix your own heart before marching in public protest. Plant seeds for others to harvest. Choose long-term growth over immediate gratification. Your character is revealed by how you treat those weaker than you and from whom you have nothing to gain. When you’re discouraged, forget yourself and uplift others. Don’t gossip about people. Discuss great ideas. Be an initiator, not a criticizer. Be a player, not a spectator. Above all, keep moving forward, no matter what.

(© Copyright 2012 by Life Manifestos, LLC.

Shun mediocrity. Live with extraordinary passion, principle, and purpose.

And teach your children to do the same by displaying the “Live Extraordinary” manifesto in your home.

John Adams sums it up nicely:

“If worthless men are at the head of affairs, it is because worthless men are at the tail and the middle.”

No, I haven’t disappeared.

And yes, I’ve still been writing.

I’ve been devoting all my spare time to Life Manifestos, which I launched just recently.

I’ve been writing a weekly newsletter for Life Manifestos subscribers.

Check out the archives and subscribe (on the left-hand column) here.

My recent newsletters have included:

• Why Passionate People Suffer
• What My Irksome Shower Door Teaches About Extraordinary Living
• Why the Family Manifesto Almost Got Hijacked by the Past

Enjoy, and be sure to subscribe to get new articles every Monday morning!

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every American citizen should read this book.

Wow. What an incredible, inspiring story.

In her closing paragraph of her acknowledgements, author Laura Hillenbrand writes,

“I come away from this book with the deepest appreciation for what these men endured, and what they sacrificed, for the good of humanity.”

Yes, as do I, Laura. And I thank you for bringing this story to life.

This book is a searing, unforgettable reminder that our freedom, comfort, security, and prosperity are a sacred trust, given to us by the incomprehensible suffering of brave men and women who have gone before us, never to be taken for granted.

View all my reviews

These are ranked in order of what I would recommend to a general audience.

You can see how I ranked them on Goodreads here.

I’d be curious to learn your favorite books from 2011 (comment below).

(These links are Amazon affiliate links, meaning that if you click the link to purchase, Amazon will give me a few cents but it doesn’t cost you any extra.)

1. FreedomShift: 3 Choices to Reclaim America’s Destiny by Oliver DeMille
2. Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
3. L.I.F.E. Living Intentionally For Excellence by Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward
4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
7. Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie
8. Aspire!: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words by Kevin Hall
9. Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE by Orrin Woodward
10. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zuzak
11. Prentice Alvin (Tales of Alvin Maker, #3) by Orson Scott Card
12. Alvin Journeyman (Tales of Alvin Maker, #4) by Orson Scott Card
13. Heartfire (Tales of Alvin Maker, #5) by Orson Scott Card
14. The Crystal City (Tales of Alvin Maker #6) by Orson Scott Card
15. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
16. The Way of the Wild Heart: A Map for the Masculine Journey by John Eldredge
17. What difference do it make? – Stories of Hope and Healing by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
18. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
19. The Grace of Great Things: Creativity and Innovation by Robert Grudin
20. Beyond Capitalism & Socialism: A New Statement of an Old Ideal edited by Tobias Lanz
21. The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc
22. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin
23. One Second After by William Forstchen
24. The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg
25. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
26. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
27. The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks
28. What All The World’s A-Seeking The Vital Law of True Life, True Greatness Power and Happiness by Ralph Waldo Trine
29. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
30. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
31. Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative by Ken Robinson
32. The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1) by Suzanne Collins
33. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) by Suzanne Collins
34. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3) by Suzanne Collins
35. There Is No Death: The Extraordinary True Experience by Sarah Lanelle Menet
36. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
37. Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1) by Frank Herbert
38. Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2) by Isaac Asimov
39. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
40. Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
41. Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
42. The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money by P.T. Barnum
43. Fire in the Soul: 100 poems for human rights edited by Dinyar Godrej
44. Poem a Day Volume 3 edited by Retta Bowen
45. Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner
46. The Intentional Family: Simple Rituals to Strengthen Family Ties by William J. Doherty
47. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
48. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
49. Room by Emma Donoghue
50. The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First
51. Century by James Howard Kunstler
52. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
53. Unzipped: A Portable Guide to the Anatomy of the Female Customer by Michele Miller
54. Fascinate: Unlocking the 7 Secret Triggers of Influence, Persuasion, and Captivation by Sally Hogshead
55. The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells by Robert Bly
56. The Zigzag Principle: The Goal Setting Strategy that will Revolutionize Your Business and Your Life by Rich Christiansen
57. I Don’t Want to Talk About It by Terrence Real
58. Sudden Fiction edited by Robert Shapard
59. Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg
60. Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg
61. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
62. Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed by Jakob Nielsen
63. Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets From the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization by Michael Tierno
64. Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen

My friends, William and Vernie DeMille, owners of C’est Naturelle Farms in Oregon City, Oregon, were just featured on CBS News.

(William is Oliver DeMille’s brother.)

The story asks, “Should government subsidize crops used in junk food?”

Of course, you know my answer.

Check out the video:

*If you’re reading this in an email or RSS reader, you may need to watch the video on my blog.

Anyone who claims that your one vote really makes a difference in national elections is delusional.

They’ll be quick to point out the handful of close elections in history, such as the 2004 Florida contest between Bush and Kerry.

But that brings me to my point: Would our nation really be that different today had Kerry won instead of Bush?

Would Kerry have eroded our freedoms and spent our money more than Bush?

I highly doubt it — at least not in any substantive way.

Status-quo Republicans and Democrats are virtually indistinguishable.

As political economist Gunnar Myrdal stated,

“Political parties . . . have to take up a fighting position at least at election times when they have to stimulate the lazy and undecided voters to vote, and to vote for them. All politicians . . . have, however, an interest in preserving favorable conditions for the normal day-to-day cooperation and collective bargaining among them all.”

He added that,

“We tend to arrive at a situation where there is a large measure of agreement among all the political parties. They sometimes even compete in propagating new and constantly more sweeping redistributional reforms as levels of income rise.

“In any case, we have seen very few examples, if any, where the coming into power of a more conservative political party has meant a substantial retraction of reforms previously carried through by a party which was further left.”

As long as you vote for status-quo candidates, your vote doesn’t matter. Regardless of party, you’re still going to get the same things: unsustainable debt, overblown spending, more inept bureaucracy, more global intervention, less adherence to the Constitution.

The current debate among the GOP is which candidate has the best chance of beating Obama.

I’ve heard countless people say that any of the current GOP candidates would be better than Obama.

Really? Based on what version of history and for what reasons?

Both sides of the aisle gave us the TARP bailouts. Both sides passed the Patriot Act. Both sides vote for entitlements. Both sides give lip service to cutting spending, while our budget and debt continue to balloon.

Republicans: If you vote on the basis of who is most likely to beat Obama, you’ve already lost the battle and your vote is pointless.

This is yet another example of freedom-lovers fighting election-cycle battles, rather than a 100-year war.

To restore our freedoms, we must break free from our current partisan gridlock, where our freedoms are eroded year after year regardless of which party is in power.

In short, we need more Independents and less party loyalists.

Freedom-loving Republicans must stop focusing solely on trying to beat Obama, and instead must shift their efforts to winning a 100-year war for freedom.

Furthermore, all citizens must realize the limitations of elections and put their right to vote in context.

Yes, the right to vote is important. But it’s mostly symbolic of deeper issues.

Freedom isn’t preserved by citizens who do little to preserve it outside of elections, then show up angry at polls.

It’s preserved by citizens who build families and small businesses. Who educate themselves and their children about freedom and the Constitution. Who deeply understand the issues rather than accepting the talking points and 30-second media sound bites from status-quo politicians.

All the populist rantings about beating Obama and the dangers of “splitting the vote” are deceptive distractions blinding voters from the real points:

1. Vote status quo and you’re going to get status quo — regardless of party.
2. The impact of your vote is limited and must be put in context. Far more important than voting is how you educate yourself, raise your family, become a producer, and serve your community.

On October 3, 1789, President George Washington signed the following decree titled “General Thanksgiving.”

While there were Thanksgiving observances in America both before and after Washington’s proclamation, this represents the first to be so designated by the new national government.

General Thanksgiving
By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION

“WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me ‘to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

“NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

“And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

“GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

*Thanks to Shanon Brooks for bringing this to my attention.

As I was watching the movie “Sarah’s Key” tonight (which I highly recommend), this question settled on me like grim ash from Auschwitz:

Who’s more culpable and responsible: the Nazis, or common citizens who stood by and watched the Nazis rip their neighbors away without saying or doing anything?

I think it’s easier to bear the guilt of a perpetrator than of a bystander.

Bystanders will watch atrocities, and try to convince themselves that they’re good people.

Right.

That’s exactly why they’re more culpable than perpetrators — they know better.

Defending compensation he received from Freddie Mac, Newt Gingrich said today,

“It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington. We just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn’t work very well. So, having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing.”

I’m not nearly concerned about the Freddie Mac compensation as I am with Newt’s attitude that we need a Washington political expert running the White House.

This is precisely the attitude that has robbed our freedoms over the past century — that centralized planners and experts out of touch with real Americans ought to be in charge, and empowered to get ever deeper into our lives.

Obama’s failures haven’t resulted from his inexperience with Washington, but rather from his attitude that America can be managed from Washington — and Newt Gingrich obviously shares this attitude.

We don’t need someone with the ambition, experience, and skill to navigate Beltway politics and finesse new bills through the bureaucratic system.

Rather, we need someone who understands what it’s like to run a small business in small-town American while daily running the gauntlet of federal regulations.

We need someone who understands how excruciating it is to operate a small, local, organic farm while competing against industrial farms who receive government subsidies.

We need someone who understands how to touch the heart and impact the mind of a child on a personal level, not someone who thinks they know how to administer public education from a remote office 3,000 miles away.

We need someone who understands that the real economy-saving innovations will come from entrepreneurs, not technocrats.

We need someone who understands how to raise a family, not someone who knows how to raise campaign funding.

We need someone experienced with voluntary, heartfelt charity on the ground, not someone experienced in spending other people’s money from high-rise buildings and cubicles.

We need someone who understands how to balance a household checkbook, not someone who understands how to balance macro liquidity and inflation.

Washington politicos may think they’re the head of America and that they’re in charge.

But the heart of America carries the real power and the true solutions: regular citizens going to work, paying bills, raising families, building businesses, educating children.

Washington is getting increasingly out of touch, incompetent, and domineering.

Washington insiders may be able to work the system, but rarely see the system for what it is.

So, Mr. Gingrich, as proud as you are of knowing Washington, I’m looking for someone who knows America.