Pay it Forward this Holiday Season: Help a Family in Need Today!

Every year for years for years we would get the name of a family in peril, a family who sought help from the system just a bit too late…and the system had nothing for them.

We always sought out families who contacted United Way or the Salvation Army but were unable to be helped because they were too late and the cupboards were bare, so we would step in.

And then we became one of those families, at risk of homelessness, and worse. It was terrible!

The empathy and compassion I feel is real and you can experience it too, it will rip your heart out and reward you all in the same moment!

It is not too late to do the right thing this holiday season, to Pay it Forward, to help a family struggling, with nowhere else to turn!

ACT TODAY!

Call your local church, Salvation Army location or United Way Hotline at once and get the name of a family with children, a family that may not have a Christmas if it were not for your intervention…and help them!

Thank you in advance…for them!

Merry Christmas and God Bless You!

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (bus)
Skype: johnzajaros1
excellencepaidforward@gmail.com
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Freak Storm! Blizzard Strands 3 in Lakewood, Ohio: Puggle, Sheltie & John Zajaros

Just thought I’d share a nice moment with my buddies! Cheesy headline… But hey, I need the traffic…NOT! I just thought I’d give you yet another window into my life after neck pain, back pain, sciatic nerve pain, osteomyeltiis, and some really fun disease and illnesses.

There is life after profound and catastrophic illness. It is all about having a wonderful support network and making a decision that you aren’t going to miss any more moments like this one!

I am so blessed and I appreciate each and every one of you for stopping by and sharing in my new life!

John

216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (office)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

The Meaning of Life? Sorry, Take a Number! But A New Perspective Based on What Matters Now and the Do-Over!

I was taking a shower and it hit me! As a kid when things didn’t go just right we would always call for a do-over…the chance to do a retake because the results weren’t as we had planned or as we would like them to be. The do-over is the classic little kid, “I want a second chance” phrase.

Interestingly, we get do-overs all the time, we just don’t recognize them for what they are…do-overs!

Here are some of the do-overs we get and my take on some of them:

Grandkids are the ultimate do-over!

You get to rethink and do-over all of the “if only I had” moments you screwed up oir simply missed with your own kids.

A new job is another wonderful do-over!

Many people view a new job with a sense of apprehension, when in fact it is actually a chance to get things right, to do things differently…to do things over.

Remarriage, while beginning on a negative note for many, although certainly not all, is another wonderful do-over!

Talk about taking a terrible experience and making it better. The ironic part of this particular do-over? We fall into many of the same traps and habits that screwed things up the first time around…thus the divorce (read: failure) rate for this particular do-over is an astounding 70%!

The “surprise” package, the child later in life when we really weren’t expecting to be expecting is an awesome, albeit totally unexpected do-over!

This particular do-over allows you to have the control you don’t have with the grandkids, with the grandkids it is not unusual to have to watch your own kids screw things up from a distance…while remaining quiet about it!

Going back to school is a fantastic do-over!

“Education is wasted on the young” is a corruption or an expansion, a do-over in the grammatical realm, of a quote by the famous, some would argue infamous, Oscar Wilde: “Youth is wasted on the young!”

In either instance, there is more than a little bit of truth to be had in both of these statements. Education the second time around is a wonderful thing and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination…and incredible do-over I have experienced first-hand! It is not surprising that at many colleges and universities, it is the nontraditional student that leads the pack when it comes to GPA and to applied research and experiential education opportunities.

Getting back into shape can be an awesome experience and a wonderful do-over!

We’ve all heard the story about the overweight so-and-so who barely made it out his front door on his first jog only to run the Boston Marathon a year later! Or how about the story of Marva Hooks, the story Tony Robbins mentions in his book Awaken the Giant Within and in the episode of Power Talk, the episode when he also reveals is concept of constant and never ending improvement, CANI! Marva Hooks is a 67 year young lady who at the age of 92 climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji! Talk about a do-over!

I could go on for days, literally, as my life is filled with do-overs…as I am certain yours is, as well!

But what I’d really like to do is turn this over to you. Think about the do-overs in your own life and either link back to this post or comment below, adding experiences of your own for others to take in as they consider and plan their own do-overs!

BTW, if you sign up for my newsletter, using the opt-in box on the side panel, you will get a copy of Seth Godin’s new ebook, “What Matters Now!” It is absolutely free and will put you on the path to a brand new day in a altogether different mindset…the ultimate do-over, a reshaping of the mind!

Have a wonderful day…yet a new and exciting do-over each and every time you wake to begin again the experience of life!

Life!

Many would argue life, in and of itself, is the ultimate do-over…but then we won’t know for sure until we get to the end and perhaps face an altogether different sort of do-over!

Don’t forget Seth Godin’s ebook, it is amazing!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (office)
Skype: johnzajaros1
email: johnz@johnzajaros.com
email: excellencepaidforward@gmail.com (personal, anytime!)

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Making Decisions and Success: The Single-Most Important Step You Should Make in the Decision Making Process!

We make hundreds of decisions a day, everything from when to get up in the morning to when to go to bed; and, to reduce this to the ridiculous, we even decide when to close our eyes and go to sleep! Everything we do in the course of our lives involves a decision making process, conscious or unconscious…and some would add subconscious to this.

So, how do we train ourselves to make the best decision possible in each and every instance?

Well, some people would say we can’t, that there are simply too many decisions in our lives to monitor and direct the implementation of each and every one, and they’d be right…sort of!

“Sort of!” being a technical phrase only used by the most precise and discerning of scientists and statisticians…and a few bloggers with too many ransom thoughts of their own to deal with. And that’s another decision: Which ones to share with others?

The fact is, we cannot hope to make every decision made on our behalf by our brain during the course of a day, we turn it over to our mind, our collective consciousness, or our subconscious. We also trust our experience in such matters, and this is a good and a not-so-good thing, because experiences can be deceiving.

Experiences are shaped by our perceptions which are shaped by past events and our responses and decisions to those events. That’s not a scientific definition, that’s my own. This is the scientific one:

Experience as a general concept or construct includes knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment….The concept of experience generally refers to know-how or procedural knowledge, rather than propositional knowledge. Philosophers dub knowledge based on experience “empirical knowledge” or “a posteriori knowledge”. (Source: Wikipedia).

Keep in mind that even this definition is based on someone’s experience, in fact it is contributed by an individual, or the collective experience of a group of people, as is referenced by the philosophers’ take on the definition and application of experience.

The essence of decision making, its foundation, is rooted in experience, whether good or bad, correct or incorrect, right or wrong. As we seek to make decisions concerning issues or situations we are unfamiliar with we seek out information, either directly, as in word-of-mouth, first hand experience of others or through information and experience passed down from others and progressively reshaped and reformed by the experiences of each individual in the chain. The problem with the former arises when the person consulted is wrong or has faulty information and is not in a position to be an authority. The issue with the latter is one of misperception, second-hand knowledge, and the bias that comes along with it, and error through misapplication or misunderstanding. In other words, in either event, the experience you draw upon to make a decision, if it is not your own, and even if it is, may be faulty and inaccurate…thus leading to erroneous decisions.

So how do we avoid making error after error in our daily lives, particularly when it comes to the really big decisions?

Part of the answer rests in our own trial and error experience. we usually stumble upon either the correct response or at least one that is acceptable over time; again, our experience. The difference between being good enough and being an expert may be significant enough that good enough is acceptable for many tasks and applications. However, for those tasks that require a correct response, when good enough simply won’t do, what do we do then?

Well, when it has to be right, when we are starting something that matters to us and/or others and we must get it right? We usually call on a trusted authority for help, generally someone we know, like, and trust. But who qualifies as a trusted authority, number one? And, if we don’t know of one, how do we establish whether or not someone has the reputation, and the street credit, the business sense or the personal integrity, to have faith in and for us to put our trust in them and their experience?

This is often done on what is called blind faith! Often, if we choose correctly, we get a combination of two phrases that have grown out of such expressions of trust over time:

Blind faith! and Blind, or dumb, luck!

Really, why?

Think about it!

In most instances we place our complete trust and faith in someone else’s experience and how they’ve shaped their decision-making which is based on experiences unique to them, their lives and their personal experiences, not yours. So, if you aren’t dealing in something that is exactly and appropriately applicable, the decision may be based in incorrect or misapplied data, theirs not yours!

How do we rectify this? How do we resolve this without going through life blindly following experts with experiences that simply don’t translate well, if at all, to your situation?

Three words: Know, like, and trust!

But is that enough?

No!

There is another ingredient and it takes us full circle back to our decision-making process:

Experience!

But how do we get experience with someone to base our experience with that someone?

Here we have what Yul Brenner, The King in The King and I, would call a puzzlement!

Like every other experience and every decision we make on autopilot every day, it is done incrementally. Or, as Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus would have said in What About Bob?

Baby steps!

We give people a little bit of our trust and we incrementally allow them a little more and a little more until we “trust them!” And, their judgement!
This is how we learn absolutely everything from crawling and walking to talking and speaking a foreign language…incrementally. We also allow others into our lives and allow them to shape our decision-making incrementally. To do otherwise is folly!

And yet, we do just this every day on the Internet, in our businesses, with our money, with our very lives. We turn over the reins to others on basically nothing more than a say-so, our gut, because it feels right, instinct! This is incongruent and flies in the face of everything we have learned, everything we know. It is contrary to sound knowledge and our own experience! And yet, it happens time and again!

I often hear things like:

“Well, he had a great presentation.”

“Jim is going with it and he is almost never wrong.” (almost!)

“I’ve been reading their material for weeks now and it feels right!”

Or the best one of all:

“What do I have to lose? It seems like a no-brainer!”

Decisions, experience, and the antithesis:

Impulse!

Marketers thrive on it, they live for it, they feed on it, they depend on it!

Experience and well-thought-out decision making:

The antithesis of impulse and the real secret to prosperous living!

This is incomplete! The fact is, I could go on for days. But if you take away anything from thins I hope that it will be the following:

Only base decisions on sound experience, either yours or that of someone you know, like, and trust. Additionally, make sure it is someone who has earned your trust incrementally and over time! Be wary of anything that happens quickly, depends on a deadline, a limited supply, or anyone who insists on your trust before you are ready to give it.

Never do anything unless it can be done incrementally, and then test, test, and test!

No matter how good the deal and no matter how great the price, there will be another offer along in 5 minutes, so never jump at scarcity and a deadline!

If it can’t wait, it can…permanently!

Whatever goes around comes around and if an offer is that good, it will be just as good next week, next month or next year…or you can do without it! Trust no one that tells you anything different! If someone has a quality product and is part of a reputable firm, they will withstand scrutiny and they will offer their wares on a continuous basis. The rest is flash and it is designed to rid you of one thing…your cash!

This started as a blog about decisions and experience, it grew outside the framework of my outline into something even more important, something that affects all of us in one way or another: Impulse!

Once again, impulse is the enemy of experience and flies in the face of sound decision-making!

If you are pressed into a decision and you don’t have all the facts. If you are pressed into a decision and you lack the experience to make a sound evaluation and decision. If you are pressed to making a decision and you lack the experience; and, you don’t have access to someone you know, like, and trust, and has been a confidant over time, pass!

Experience is a great teacher!

Unfortunately, bad experiences are the best teacher!

Make sound decisions based on the above and avoid impulsivity and you you will prosper!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (bus)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

From The Zajaros Family to Yours: Across the USA and Around the World!

John Zajaros and Family

Happy Thanksgiving from The Zajaros Family

Regardless of where you are in the world, there is something you can be thankful for on this day!

Even in the depths of despair and depression, there were things I could focus on, things that would remind me of why I was glad to be alive, and so I pressed on! More times than not, my family was my focus, it is what defines me and keeps me going when every fiber of my being wants to say…

“Uncle!”

We have all had moments when we are tested; and, those moments may range from seconds to weeks, months, and in the worst cases, years. Times and challenges may come when were feel more than a bit like Job.

And yet, if we persevere, if we press on and do not give up all hope, things turn and our lives become amazing…again!

Amazing!

The other day I was walking my Little Big Dog. For those of you who have watched Little Big Man (1970), with Dustin Hoffman, you will understand why I refer to him in this fashion. I swore I would never own a “little” dog, a “yappie” dog, and yet here I am with a 15 pound “little-yappie” dog who thinks he’s a cross between a Bull Mastiff and a Doberman. We inherited the puppy when my son-in-law and daughter had to pick up their household and move south for his US Army Reserves commitment, his second call-up.

I am a disabled veteran and am proud of him for serving. I hate war…I love my country!

Interestingly, our other dog, a Shetland Sheepdog, was also inherited through the same daughter when her boyfriend, another soldier (go figure!), was shipped off to Iraq and needed a home for his puppy. AJ never came back for the dog! He would have had a very hard time getting him back anyway.

Anyway, back to the Little Big Dog, dog number one…in his mind, anyway. This “Little Big Dog” has the perfect name, a name he earned after surviving terrible illness as a puppy, TuffGuy! TuffGuy is indeed tough. Yes, I do know we have played with the spelling, but once again that was a name we had no part in selecting. In retrospect, how could he have been named anything else?

Interestingly, that little dog, that tough little dog, TuffGuy, nursed me back to health very much in the same way, and at the same time, I was nursing him back from the grave!

So, there we were the other night, 3am in the morning actually, walking down the street as we do every night or early morning, both happy to be alive, healthy, and each other’s company! The ultimate Odd Couple, an Internet marketing entrepreneur reborn and a Puggle…Mutt and Jeff, just happy to be alive!

It’s funny how life often brings us back to certain points again and again. I can remember driving down the street in 1983, again in 1987, in 1993, and once again in 1998 (just before I got sick); and, in every instance I had the music up loud, the windows of the car open, and the wind in my face, literally and figuratively, just happy to be alive. Ecstatic, actually! These moments were all attached to specific events and/or periods in my life, periods of super achievement, living with a sense of what is possible. In fact, with a very real sense that all things are possible! There have been many more throughout my life!

That was the feeling the other night…that all things are possible!

As Yogi Berra would say:

“Deja vu all over again!”

It is the most amazing feeling in the world, it is better than any drug, it is a natural high…the likes of which you have got to experience to understand!

It is on that note that I say I am thankful, not simply because it happens to be a day earmarked by our government years ago as a time of celebration, but because it is a time in my life for celebration, for a victory dance of sorts, for being thankful, and for thanksgiving!

I have a wonderful wife who has stayed with me through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, until death do us part…through years of being in the hospital 2 of every 4 weeks, for months on end. I have 4 wonderful children whom I love dearly and would sacrifice my life for. I have two of the most amazing little granddaughters a grandfather could ever brag about…and I do! I have amazing friends, a few and I treasure them, and I have met a few new ones. I have Bart, a wonderful, quiet, and very special Sheltie we just paid over $6,000 to “save,” after he broke his leg. And I have TuffGuy…or he has me!

I am an extremely wealthy man!

Interestingly, I had a YouTube viewer comment that a video I made showed a lack of material possessions and that it must say something about my financial status.

In fact, it said more about his!

We have been to H#ll and back over the last few years…and I have survived, we all have. I have survived because of the wealth I have that has nothing to do with a bank statement and everything to do with the true value of life and the real measure of a man’s place in it…his family, his friends, and the things he holds dear!

And yes, sometimes that is a “Little Big Dog” named TuffGuy!

I am rich beyond words, beyond description, and it has nothing to do with my bookshelves or the background in my videos or the balance in my bank account.

Sam Walton, the story goes, was on his death bed and uttered these words:

“I blew it!”

I intend to say the following on mine:

“I did it!”

In the mean time, I will simply say:

Thank you, one and all for taking the time to be a part of my life, for reading my thoughts and feelings, for sharing your own. I am richer for the exchange, and I am wealthier for the knowledge you have shared with me.

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving…each and every day!

John

Family First Entrepreneurship Isn’t Just a Catchy Phrase, It’s A Commitment to a Way of Life that Provides so Much!

Today I share what is possible when your family comes first, in all things!

The remarkable thing is that a year ago, had someone told me I would have had the kind of day I had today? I would have questioned whether they had been into my pain medication…or worse!

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed making it. Well, most of it. Connie helped with the ravine stuff, I was kind of busy! I thought I would give the ravine a shot. It looked a lot more precarious than it was. The sack of potatoes, Kailyn, loves being thrown around and has complete confidence in my ability to keep here safe. I don’t know the same was true of Connie?

Once again, and I can’t state this forcefully enough, Family First Entrepreneurship isn’t just a catchy slogan, it’s a life commitment, and a way of life, every day!

This is just a short note to mention we took Sunday off and spent the day with our two little granddaughters, Kailyn and Brynn, and it was wonderful!

If you would like to share a moment with the Zajaros/Purdy Family, there are other moments on my YouTube Channel and I am currently building my channel at isofa.tv, a really cool video platform.

Ultimately, the rewards of a Family First lifestyle are myriad!

If you haven’t read the book ONO: Options not Obligations pick up a copy today, you can find it at bookstores or there’s a link to it on many of my blogs! It is a fast read but you will want to read it more than once. It will change your life!

Another great book, along the lines of accumulating wealth in a responsible manner and not through any of these new wave, hyped methods being espoused of late, is The Millionaire Next Door, while a bit dated the principle and concepts are as robust today as they were in the mid-1990s.

Apply the above works to your life and you will have charted a course to a life of successes. Apply the Family First Entrepreneurship ideal and you will be a complete success!

Contact me anytime!

John Zajaros
216-712-6526 (HOME)
216-539-7412 (BUS)
johnz@johnzajaros.com (contact me anytime)

It seems like only yesterday and it’s been over 5 months already! Time flies by, particularly as we age!

I treasure every moment I am able to spend with my grandkids. The silver lining in all the health issues I lived through was that I was able to spend a lot of time watching my kids growing up and being a part of their lives. Now, I get to do it again with my grandchildren! Talk about an awesome do-over!

Nothing big here, just a very special moment and a proud grandfather showing off his newest addition to the Zajaros Family! Actually, The Zajaros/Purdy Family!

New blog post later today on a more serious note…shifting perspective. I hope you enjoy both this one and the one to follow!

John

John Zajaros
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

You may or may not be aware of the fact that almost two months ago I initiated a marketing campaign based on my passion to help people suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. The marketing campaign has been quite successful for a variety of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with leads generated and sales made!

The biggest benefit derived from the marketing campaign has nothing at all to do with income. The most significant payout has been in terms of life-shaping energy, in fact a whole new perspective on life, including my firm belief that I am indeed the captain of my own ship.

I have also come away with a new and very powerful commitment to my burning desire…my life goal(s)!

If you subscribe to The Internet Marketing Quest Revealed, The Ultimate Internet Image and/or the Ultimate Internet Marketing Newsletter(s) you know my formula for success. If you do not currently subscribe to one of them or this one, please do so today, particularly if you hope to make a living, or simply supplement your income, online. I can assure you it will be well worth the effort (i.e., typing in your name, email address, phone number [optional] and then confirming it, that’s it!).

BURNING DESIRE + EMPATHY + DETERMINATION = PROSPERITY

Well, something very remarkable happened once I started my most recent marketing campaign. Actually, quite a few somethings occurred!

The marketing campaign, still running actually, deals with how anyone (man or woman, young or old, working or disabled), regardless of the severity of previous neck pain, back pain and/or sciatica issues (e.g., I’ve had 14 spine operations, a compressed vertebrae in my neck, a rebuilt shoulder complete with plates and screws, insulin dependent diabetes, and a myriad of other health issues and complications, including being overweight) can, if properly motivated and equipped with the right knowledge and advice, change his or her life!

In fact, he or she could, in short order, live a relatively pain free existence…just as I do!

So, on June 29, 2009 I initiated a program that has changed my life. And, from what I am told, it has also transformed the lives of many other chronic pain sufferers who are following me in one way or another as we take back our lives. Some people who started walking with me, even if it was only to the end of their respective driveways, have achieved neck pain, back pain and/or sciatica relief for the first time in years! How exciting is that?!

Talk about amazing, albeit intangible, results!

Yes, the results are anecdotal and difficult to quantify, much less track, and there are no metrics (to use a Goobledygook term), yet they are so rewarding that being paid with a piece of paper pales in significance. How wonderful to not only be able to transform my own life, but the lives of people who are, or were, suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica just as I was! There isn’t a check you can write that will pay me like the last 59 days have…in every conceivable way!

And yes, I have made money!

Want to know something? The money doesn’t matter, it simply isn’t as important as the intangibles are. The intangibles provide meaning, as well as real and lasting value here…everywhere! The intangible rewards are where the true meaning of success is to be found!

Why am I telling you this? Well, there are myriad reasons. However, and let’s get this one out of the way right up front, it is not to toot my own horn!

One of the primary reasons has to do with the fact that I am in a business that equates success with million dollar days, fancy sports cars, and mansions. Just recently several of the main guys, the “gurus” in the field got together and during a video equated the first million dollar day online with Sir Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile. I suppose in one sense they’re right, or rather Tony Robbins is right, he made the analogy. Yet, when you think about it, does making a million dollars in one day online come anywhere close to breaking a record that stood from the beginning of recorded time? I suppose it is a reflection of priorities and perspective…two things I am big on!

Another reason is that the marketing campaign has had such an incredible life of its own, I had to tell someone, so I decided to tell everybody! The premise behind the campaign, initiated as a way to reach out and help people with their neck pain, back pain and/or sciatica, while making money at the same time, is not a new one. I suppose other campaigns have had an equally profound impact on both the marketer, in this case yours truly, and the target audience, those of you who read the blog posts, the articles, watched the videos, etc. It’s just that the results have been so amazing, utterly unexpected, and have benefited me to a far greater degree than those I was trying to help…I have indeed received my efforts back ten-fold! In every way but money! Yes, as I have already said, the money came too…but this is about so much more than just money.

The real payoff? The real payoff has been in the area of what I set out to do, help people suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica! I had one gentleman with arachnoiditis call me from across the country, in California, to tell me what an impact my videos had on him. I had a sciatica sufferer from Florida email me and contact me on twitter to tell me how much my message had helped her. I had a facebook friend tell me about her experience with the right shoes for walking with neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica, and so on.

There are many others who have contacted me. Many more who just dropped me an email, called and left a message on my voicemail or Skyped me! Talk about getting paid!

I saved the best for last! Here are just some of the many benefits I have experienced personally as a result of my marketing campaign to help others overcome their neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica!

1.) I have dropped several inches off my waste. I actually had to buy new belts, pants, underwear, and even shoes! Dropping over 20 pounds in 59 days will do that to a wardrobe. Must have had fat feet too!

2.) I have incredible energy and work and play for hours each and every day (18 to 20 hours a day)!

3.) One of my doctors, the one I’ve consulted the most, for a variety of issues over the last four years, said last Wednesday that he has never seen me look and sound better.

4.) My blood tests came back perfect for the first time in years, I am illness free for the first time in forever. Some of the people I have mentored over the past year know just how much of a victory that is…it is nothing short of a miracle! An absolute miracle!

5.) Having been diagnosed diabetic in the early 1990s, I was put on insulin in 2004 and had to test myself 4-5 times a day. I took 8u of Novolog before every meal, plus a sliding scale (you diabetics know what I mean, I was sick!). I also had to take 30u of Lantus, a long lasting insulin at bed time every day, just so things would stay regulated over night. I no longer have to take insulin at all and my blood sugar stays right at 100 plus/minus 5! For the uninitiated, that’s very, very good…in 59 days!

6.) I now walk over 5 miles a night with TuffGuy, my walking buddy and second-best friend! Connie and the kids come first in all things!

7.) I workout every day or every other day, depending on how I feel and what the demands of the day are, I hadn’t picked up a weight in years!

8.) I ride a recumbent bike up to 65 minutes a workout, in addition to my weight training. This, after a total shoulder replacement/rebuild in 2007, and a pulmonary embolism that almost took my life…on top of the 14 back surgeries and the osteomyleitis (staph infection in the vertebrae and much of the surrounding tissue from T-12 to S-1) that almost did me in too! I think I am running low on lives!

And many, many more benefits…but that will do for now. Once again, the purpose of this post/article is not to toot my own horn but to give you an idea of just how successful one can be…way before money every enters the equation. In fact, had I been fixated on the money, I doubt I would have realized that the true potential for success here was as much about what it was doing for others, and for myself, as for how much paper I could accumulate per transaction.

I hope this provides a window into the true possibilities, way beyond those we traditionally think about and fixate on. In other words, it ain’t always about the money! In fact, it is rarely about the money! In this case, while attempting to put my passion into action and help people suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, I helped myself in a way money never could have! Ever!

Now that is real success! That, and the 4 minute mile! Tony Robbins et al. notwithstanding!

Best wishes always!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

I have witnessed a shift in our society, in fact around much of the globe, a transition from what was once considered too much, to the same subject matter now being considered mundane, even comical. The shift has been slow and steady, shaped in large measure by the media at all levels; print and video, books and newspaper, television and the silver screen. As a society we have become used to the horrific and seek constant stimulation, ever pushing the bounds of what is appropriate. This article is simply my look back across half a century, from what was to what is, fearing what may be to come. Violence, horror, titillation, and the grotesque are no longer viewed with they eyes of innocence but with a calloused, almost jaded sense of reality, a perspective shaped by increasing levels of violence. Yet we continue to push the boundaries…to what end?

I was watching the show “Criminal Minds” the other evening. The episode was about the Catholic Church and exorcisms, basically a good versus evil story line, and it made me think. I was taken back to 1974 and the premier of the movie The Exorcist. I began to think about the story line in the television show and how the movie had affected me so many years ago. I was immediately struck by how things have changed over the years, how desensitized we have become, not only to certain subjects but to the level of violence and the horrific nature of some movies today. We’ve become immune in a very real sense to the violence and horror in story lines, both in print and on video. It’s disconcerting and almost sad how as a culture we have changed so much in such a short period of time. What was once unacceptable is now commonplace and what was once frightening is now often comical. The interesting thing about this transition is that it seems to affect and impact virtually everyone, from the smallest child to the oldest adult, everyone in between, and throughout most of the developed world.

There was a time, not too long ago, when movies like Frankenstein and Dracula were about as frightening as you could get, frightening for young and old, alike. The first time I watched an episode of the Twilight Zone, I bribed the babysitter to let me stay up and see it and the story scared me half to death! I remember the episode quite clearly, it was about an airplane that somehow went back in time, at first just a few years, ultimately to the age of the dinosaurs. I had nightmares for weeks. I remember it to this day.

Next, Alfred Hitchcock came along and thrilled and frightened us with movies like Rear Window and so many others. I can still see Jimmy Stewart falling from the window at the end of the movie, broken leg and all. Hitchcock then moved from the silver screen to the television and thrilled us weekly for years, is still in syndication to this day. A few years later, Rod Serling took us into the Night Gallery with even more frightening stories of the paranormal and the macabre. Millions sat on the edge of their seats while the master storyteller, a professor at Rutgers and author extraordinaire, prepared us for another journey into the Night Gallery. I can still remember the story of “The Sin Eater,” it has remained with me for decades.

Then came 1974 and the movie The Exorcist. The exorcist was very controversial, a major media event. People were lined up around the block to get into the Colony Theater, Shaker Heights, Ohio, for The Exorcist’s premier. The movie scared me half-to-death! The Exorcist, based on “true story” that occurred in the Washington, D.C. area some years before the movie, is a peak into a deep and dark secret the Catholic Church would have been just as happy to have remained secret. The real controversy was in how truly frightening the movie was, at the time anyway. Now the movie has been done to death, a ridiculous sequel with Richard Burton, and a mediocre film to make at trilogy with George C. Scott. Additionally, several movie and television parodies even poked fun at it, everyone from Saturday Night Live to Linda Blair herself included. But at the time, The Exorcist frightened people in a new and very profound way, it was truly a watershed for pictures, socially and culturally.

There has been a definite shift in what was acceptable and what was frightening, the limit being pushed with every new film. As time progressed we witnessed movies like Poltergeist, Amityville Horror, all the more frightening for being another “true story,” and a myriad of others, all made to scare us even more. The progression has been toward ever more frightening, more intense and graphic movies, each stretching and pulling at the fabric of our minds, desensitizing us at every juncture. Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the whole slasher genre took this progression to the limits of what our minds, and the critics, could and would bear.

It was in about 1992-1993 when my kids and I began the ritual of popping popcorn and watching American Movie Classics (AMC) on Saturday afternoons, every Saturday at 3pm. They always had a “horror” movie on like the old Frankenstein, Wolfman, and Dracula movies, every week and we never missed! My girls love them and we would eat popcorn and laugh. Even then, in the bright daylight of a Saturday afternoon with the girls giggling and laughing, I would think back to that first Twilight Zone episode and marvel at how much things had changed.

My reasoning here, the main point I guess I am trying to make in all of this reminiscing? We have become so desensitized to the suffering and the tragedy, and even the horror, around us every day. We have gone from Frankenstein and Dracula scaring us to Saw IV and more gore to follow. I guess my question is where does it all end? More than that, I wonder what happened to take us down this path to begin with. Isn’t there enough real evil and suffering in the world or is this possibly a deflection, a dog and pony show engineered to draw our attention away from the very real horror that exists in the world today? I wonder. More than that, I wonder, as we all do, if this sort of desensitization isn’t the root cause of much of the violence we see in our society today. I am not a prude and I am not some nut screaming censorship at every turn, I am simply raising a question, one I hope is food for thought. To what end? Where does this lead and is it healthy, not only personally, but socially and culturally? I wonder?