Yesterday, I had an informational interview with a gentleman from Tableau Software.

He mentioned how he believes it is so important that we follow the scientific method’s means of determining what you suspect to find – i.e. the hypothesis – and then test for the “null hypothesis.”

In theory it helps people to overcome one of the greatest “weaknesses” of the brain – implicit bias.

Now, I must concur with respect to law land because I find it abject balderdash as to lawyers producing all the “relevant facts.”

Instead, we should probably freely acknowledge that the very act of advocating involves “cherry picking the data” if only unintentional – which as any jaundiced seasoned attorney knows is perhaps the only truth that is absolute in court.

The saving grace of a trial then is that both ideas clash and the judge – though likely not craning their brain – instead cranes their cranium to determine which way the facts appear to shake out most reasonable.

Judges simply apply the law to the facts … right? Wrong again! Remember, judges are also humans subject to their own implicit bias and thus view a matter whatever paradigm with which they view the world.

The best that we can expect to do then is to have a group of people – each with their own implicit biases (though nevertheless undergirded by the overall cultural zeitgeist) to hash things out in order to determine the facts.

This is why we have “juries of our peers.” These fact-finders serve to anchor reasonableness to that which is presented and determine the validity of the “relevant facts.”

Now here’s the question. What happens when the culture becomes warped in its views of people on the peripheria?

At some point a line has to be drawn as to who’s in and who’s out … right?

Well, perhaps it would be most appropriate to be a little – or actually a lot – more generous as to where that line is drawn.

Especially now that technology has allowed us to be anywhere and everywhere throughout the world, perhaps we should really start to explore very carefully our own hearts as to who is our “neighbor.”

I don’t know that a purely scientific approach is appropriate.

What I do know is that the maxim “love your neighbor, as you would yourself” is a lot better than the alternative in which folks project their worst fears upon “the other.”

When the later happens, we are reduced to our very worst form … and that’s not good.

Photo Credit: http://latinalista.com/columns/blogbeat-columns/implicit-bias-shapes-our-views-without-us-knowing-it

A day or two ago when I was watching the live stream of Bob Proctor & Sandy Gallagher’s “The Art of Goal Creation,” I was directly reminded of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

The basic idea is that prisoners are sitting looking at the back of a cave not only transfixed by that which is projected upon it but also physically bound.

Behind the prisoners there is a fire and a place in between where people puppeteer that for which the shadows are cast upon the that screen which everyone is bound to regard.

Every once in awhile though there is someone who breaks away and stumbles to the exit of the cave where very faint ambient light from outside shines.

This person – if sufficiently courageous – is curious enough to follow this light to the outside and at least for a time is blinded by that which is real.

It’s not pleasant at first, but in time this freed prisoner becomes accustomed to the light and is marvelled by how fantastic the real world is.

Now, here’s the thing. In due course the freed prisoner feels obligated to go back into the cave and free as many people from their bondage as they can.

So, what happens? The people in the cave, who don’t have any other knowledge to the alternative, think that the person is an absolute kook!

In fact, it’s rare that even if they are unshackled that they will look away from the screen. Why? Because it is all that they know!

These prisoners might even get surly if not downright violent if they are shown the light.

Well, guess what. I’m one of the people who has “seen the light.”

Justice Smiles represents positive neighbor law. Imagine that!

Photo Credit: https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm

It’s most a beauty … eh?

Well, this house sits right next to the Magnolia dog park.

This week it was again tarped. They did a great job of tying this turd down.

Yeah, this double barraleed gabbled monstrosity had a blue tarp upon it which fluttered in the wind.

Now, let me ask you this. Do you think it is worth $1 million. That’s the price at which it was most recently listed.

You know what? With the right zoning, I bet this nonsense could be worth no less than ten times that value.

But, it will take political persuasion!

I’ve sought to “seed” some interest very recently.

I’ve already got some positive voices from people who are interested in a change.

If you are a neighbor wanting to make a change too … by all means reach out.

We have an opportunity here … our community is not going to take this stink any longer. Cheers!

All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind waken the dday to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did. – T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

This is one of the quotes which Bob Proctor has identified as essential. It is placed on page 45 of his workbook for “The Art of Goal Creation.”

Now, I find this incredibly interesting for a number of reasons. First, apparently like Bob Proctor, I absolutely love Lawrence of Arabia.

It is a movie which stars Peter O’Toole as Sir Lawrence as well as Omar Sharif, perhaps best known for his role in Dr. Zhivago, and Alec Guiness, who starred in both of those movies as well as A Bridge Over the River Quai before taking on the role he is probably best known for throughout the world today as Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Bob Proctor is basically telling attendees whether they are in the room with people like producer Phillip Goldfine and tech giant Whitney Johnson or outside of the room anywhere else in the world through live stream that we all can realize our dreams … if we only wake up enough to make sure that they come to pass.

Throughout the presentation, he has indicated a number of times in which there have been serendipitous events in his life.

But, he indicates clearly that this is all due to “laws”. Miracles then are events which “[t]he information’s unavailable to the mortal man” – just like Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away”.

Except one thing. This isn’t about the tragedy of life as felt from that song, but instead much more like what I find to be Paul Simon’s most happy song – Kodachrome!

Returning to Lawrence of ArabiaI have also had a tie which I have shared with only a few people along the way. But, now I simply don’t care and will let it all out.

There is a scene in which Lawrence has brought two differing tribes across the desert at night. I don’t know recall if these were two factions of differing Bedouin tribes or if there was an even more pronounced difference.

At any rate, someone had fallen off his camel in the night. Everyone else knew he was already extinct. Not, Sir Lawrence! He rode back into the desert and miraculously both found the man and brought him the rest of the way of the journey across to safety.

But in a scene or two there was some sort of an uproar. There was a dispute between the two tribes which created a bind.

See someone from one side was accused of a crime – my memory was of some sort of theft. But, justice had to be meted out.

Yet, the tribe from which the accursed had affiliation simply could not allow the man to be vilified and certainly not to pay for the accused crime … even if as it seemed to be assumed as a fact that it was accurate.

This was a real conundrum because both tribes needed to be united to make an appropriate raid in the morning.

So, Lawrence who had no binding affiliation to either tribe volunteered to adjudicate the dispute.

They through the man accused of the crime at his feet.

Who was he? The man Lawrence had just saved from the desert.

Lawrence shot him. Not once, not twice, reluctantly … which did happen at first. But then he fully emptied his chamber … and then he dropped his gun in horror!

I watch that scene and realize that Lawrence is both disgusted and excited by “the thrill of the kill.”

Now being a boundary dispute attorney does not involve killing people.

But, it does involve “helping” people to make an extreme mental adjustment.

Sometimes that is necessary. In most cases it is not and it is a completely inappropriate strategy.

I never wanted to help people “kill” their neighbor. But, it is so seductively fun to consider … especially when the neighbor is represented to be a complete jackass.

Yet, I can’t help to remember that this is all because of a very simple and solvable legal dispute.

Then, I feel like absolute hell. How can I charge people money to do this type of work.

In most – not all, but certainly most – cases the fight makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I’m either a really great lawyer who cares so much about my clients that I won’t let them  get crushed by their neighbor and their own immediate fears, or I am an absolutely horrible attorney who won’t simply go in and gut the neighbor like a fish!

What I have realized is that I am a great diagnostician and I want to bring peace to neighbors.

Because of this I am turning my focus to helping people to get some perspective on the issue … and then to quickly outgrow it.

I think that is adding the greatest value to any client’s life that I can possible give.

If you have a boundary dispute and want an honest attorney to help you think through if you need to take the next step and how to do it, by all means give me a call.

I want to help. I also want you to come up with a victory which is appropriate for both yourself and your neighbor.

In most cases a settlement is the most appropriate, but in others it’s a no holds bar death match.

Know which one your getting into and whether it is something that you are really willing to fight.

I wish you and your neighbors peace … and realize there are two very different paths to get to it.

But in no case should you dream of destroying your neighbor when there is so much other positive things that you can accomplish.

Hire a lawyer to take the burden off your mind or put it out of your mind if you can’t afford the cost.

If you can’t, will you ever be able to have a dangerous dream? You should certainly hope not!

Ph0to Credit: https://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/dec/18/rants-and-raves-peter-otoole/

Yesterday evening and all day today, I have been live-streaming “The Art of Goal Achieving” by the Proctor Gallagher Institute.

So far, it’s been a spectacular presentation … and we are not even half of the way into it.

It’s been extremely thought provoking for me. So, I wanted to share some thoughts and decided to find an image to focus upon.

While I was originally thinking of something with a target, I found the image above and knew that it will work well.

It is a quote by Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Mount Everest followed it would seem only moments later by his Sherpa and friend, Tenzin Nogay.

They succeeded on May 29, 1953 after two previous attempts in the two years preceding failed.

I look at these three sunlit peaks and I imagine that the first on the left and middle can be analogized to their first initial tries and the one on the right is the final success.

The reason for this is because even though they failed twice before, within failure is the seed of success.

When defined this way, failure isn’t bad. It’s simply an attempt that didn’t yield success … yet!

But each attempt serves as a means of getting closer to one’s dreams.

Then of course, there is the quote. This is the essence of the program being put on by Bob Proctor, Sandy Gallagher, et al.

It’s the inner game that is at play and the external environment is just a reflection of the success you are having in that “inner game.”

Now, looking at this from the perspective of boundary dispute law, it makes so much more sense.

I’ve been on to something all along. Why?

Well, because for the longest time, I have realized that whenever there is a conflict between neighbors at least one party and in the worst cases both are experiencing …

“An external manifestation of an internal problem.”

That’s a line I have been saying for years.

So, then as the attorney, I have been charged to take care of a situation that has been at least a decade in the making.

Now, I prefer to sort things out diplomatically if at all possible.

The alternative of litigating against a neighbor for “Five Blades of Grass” has always seemed like that old saying about the Vietnam war:

“We had to destroy the village, to save the village.”

I never felt good about doing that type of work. I didn’t feel that I was making a positive contribution.

The result often would be that I just could not bring myself to putting together the accounting an presenting the bill.

In my mind, the work was unjustifiable.

Well, the reality is that sometimes you do need to stand up against someone who is trying to bully you, but be certain that you can do it if that is going to be your attempt.

Now is that something that I will be able to help you with? The answer is, only in a very limited way.

If you want to have an attorney who really knows this area of law to help you decide if it is even worth considering, I will readily help.

But, I am not going to prosecute cases for people. That’s something in my past now. I’ll refer you to someone who can do the job appropriately.

So, instead of focusing on the legal work of doing boundary dispute law. I am now seeking to help people conduct the work to do boundary breakthroughs.

As someone who has made some transitions in my life before, I look at these three peaks and think.

Oh right, the one on the left is me as a “China Hand”; the one in the middle is me as a “Boundary Dispute Attorney”; and the third one.

One for which I have just recently decided to ascend is helping myself and others to make a “Boundary Breakthrough.”

Wonderfully, I believe that I am going to soon be working for and with the Proctor Gallagher Institute.

There are a lot of signs of serendipity which demonstrate this to me.

The most pronounced is that I received a follow-up message scheduling a morning call tomorrow with the man who I had signed up for this live stream and the Bob Proctor Coaching seminar – Arash Vossoughi.

I think that I was likely his first sale of this year because, I wanted to get to get on board as soon as I could in 2019 and I received a call at 10:00 AM on the first day of business – January 2nd.

Now, when I compare that to the reception that I received recently from another company who didn’t seem to care 2¢ about whether or not I could provide value and I think you can be darn sure which company is the one that I have a higher regard for in my heart.

So far the program has made me realize that I have allowed my head – which is highly self-judgment due to paradigms I gained in childhood – to veto that which my heart demands.

I must say, I have learned a lot as a result. I also probably wouldn’t be as ready to freely take this leap of faith into a realm that seems – at least from a rational POV to be so opaque – but my heart is ready.

I have always wanted to help people. And to be able to use my creativity, my developed intellect- just as lawyer Sandy Gallagher is doing with hers – and my heart to make money at the same time … now that is really a great way to live.

I will never have the time back. I not only lament that, I have deep seated grief. But, I think that somehow it all has come together for this one point in time and space.

If at all possible, I will soon be helping you and others to get a vivid look at their dreams and get on the chase after them.

Arash, I’m really looking forward to your call. Let’s begin. Cheers!

Photo Credit: https://leadershipfreak.blog/2018/06/04/i-wasnt-very-proud-of-my-feelings-sir-edmund-hillary/

Jacob’s ladder is a reference to a dream.

According to Genesis 28:10-17 [NIV] …

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b] 15 I am with youand will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

I don’t know what to make of all that other than to say that it’s an idea (of many) which has captivated the Western culture.

At my gym there is an exercise machine called “Jacob’s Ladder.”

Very simple – but certainly not simplistic – in its design it has a series of rungs which continuously roll so long as a cable attached to one’s waste by a belt is sufficiently taught.

However, if the cable doesn’t remain taught, the workout discontinues and the rungs will slowly stop.

I had made a goal of going for 40 minutes straight on this machine to no avail over the last two or three weeks.

But, with persistence today for the first time I succeeded!

Is that important? Yes, I think it is. Every chance one gets to chalk up a “victory” on the scoreboard is a boost of confidence which can be lent to other endeavors.

In essence, big wins are a culmination of many smaller wins. They all aggregate in time.

If you are seeking to secure a big win in a dispute with your neighbor, take three minutes to start the conversation by sending in this free, initial assessment [HERE].

Hope you are well on your way to achieving the victories you had set for yourself this 2019. Cheers!

Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LZB_in_Flensburg_-_Niederdeutsche_Lutherbibel_von_1574-1580,_Bild_11B.JPG

Yes, faith provides for persistence which is key. In fact, Calvin Coolidge might have an even greater perspective on persistence. He is noted for this quote:

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Yet, if you are considering pursuing litigation with your neighbor in a boundary dispute, the best play is to determine if your case has strong merits before proceeding.

If it looks like you have the upper hand, then by all means apply the iron will of persistence and you are almost assured victory.

The wages of that persistence are likely to be huge. Is it worth it? Blind faith probably isn’t a good idea.

In my opinion, the worst thing that an attorney can do is lead their clients into a war that they do not have the ability to win.

To assure this doesn’t happen to you, take a moment to make an informed choice by taking 3 minutes to fill out this free assessment [HERE].

Then as may be appropriate, you can be confident when you decide to pile on all the necessary persistence. Cheers!

Photo Credit: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1216303

So, coming full circle on this Original 13 of the United States, above is a more distinct idea of what each state claimed.

As far as why then, though Britain was giving up. France provided the backstop at the Mississippi River.

But for France’s involvement as the “higher authority,,” as can also be demonstrated by the fact that this Treaty was signed in France’s capital, exactly what America owned might not have been settled.

Upshot of all this as related to boundary disputes between neighbors is that “yes, there are times when it is appropriate to fight with your neighbor.”

But, do your absolute best to determine before getting involved whether you are going to win.

That determination is based on two principal factors – merit and the will to win. Of these two, it is generally the later which carries through to victory.

So, make a decision to go all in … or realize that not all of life’s battles are worth the fight.

I know that can be an extremely difficult decision.

If you need help unpacking the various factors so that you can best go forward, please take 3 minutes to fill out and submit answers to secure an Initial Assessment [HERE]. Cheers!

Photo Credit: http://freedomenterprise.org/treaty-of-paris-1783-map/the-treaty-of-peace-1783-beauteous-paris-map/

The American delegation to the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, were from left to right are: John JayJohn AdamsBenjamin FranklinHenry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin.

Above is American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Agreement with Great Britain by Benjamin West.

It’s not finished though. Why? Well, it is reported that the British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.

This might seem almost trivial, but think about it for a moment.

If you had just been defeated by some far-flung upstarts, would you want the event memorialized. The answer almost calls for itself, right?

Well, that seems to be exactly what happened above.

At the Treaty of Paris, the British officially ceded victory to America from the east coast to the east bank of the Mississippi River.

So, it’s clear that the land from the Appalachian Divide to the Mississippi river were considered to be that of America after this Treaty.

But, this still leaves some confusion as to who owned the land between the Appalachian Divide and the east bank of the Mississippi River from the time of The Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Who owned what during those two decades and how was it that it all became clear in the end?

We should answer this question before following through with the original question posed three days ago as to what were the western boundaries of the colonies (and then states) which did not adjoin another on its western front.

The search for answers continues. Cheers!

Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1783)#/media/File:Treaty_of_Paris_by_Benjamin_West_1783.jpg

Above is a map which depicts the Louisiana Purchase which was signed on April 30, 1803.

There is plenty of treatment on this which I decide not to relate in this post.

What is important is to ask what happened in the interim between the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and this purchase.

Is there an important date in between? Yeah, of course there is. There is the Declaration of Independence. There is also the Treaty of Paris in 1803.

Before going back to that event, what is it about this map that is similar and that which is different from the map from the previous post?

First, the map extends all the way to the west coast. Second, there is not a distinct depiction of the Appalachian Divide (at least that I can discern).

So, what does this say about the effectiveness of the King’s Royal Proclamation?

It seems that many people disregarded it. But, something doesn’t quite compute.

How is it that the King would forbid people from living west of the Appalachian Divide yet the United States have a boundary which extends to the east bank of the Mississippi?

Is there anything here that boundary disputants can learn from this history? It seems like we’re going to have to keep at this. Cheers!

Photo Credit: http://werehistory.org/louisiana-purchase/