Common Sense from the Common Man: A Common Man's Survival Guide for Common Men

By Dan Bael

With the many trials and tribulations that we face in our world, learning how to navigate through life can be a major challenge for everyone. Common Sense from the Common Man offers itself up as a compass that will help the modern man find his way through the convoluted muck. Additionally, its lessons are presented not through the disconnected perspective of a doctor or psychologist, but by an author who himself is a common man; someone who is going through the same plights and experiences that all the other average men are going through today. By taking a common-sense approach to life, this book will open your eyes to what's right in front of you, allowing you to adapt, learn, and grow helping to make life's many obstacles a lot less overwhelming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452077369

Dan Bael

Dan Bael is a new author on the scene. Common Sense from the Common Man is his first published work, but he has many other works to follow. He enjoys spending time with his wonderful wife and two dogs.

Book preview

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Why Listen To Me?

Common Sense Isn’t So Common Anymore

Know Thyself

It’s All About The Attitude

Understanding Your Val-You

Can You Hear Me Now?

Getting Good At Oral

Validity Through Fluidity

The Ladies, Man Part 1: How Not To Be a Playa

The Ladies, Man Part 2: Bust a Move

The Ladies, Man Part 3: Be a Smooth Operator

So What Are You Gonna Do With Your Life?

Don’t Be A Sheep

Ten Things I Like About You

We’ve Only Just Begun

INTRODUCTION

We live in a fast world full of people, and everyday we’re faced with decisions – decisions ranging anywhere from the trivially minute to the enormously life-changing. With all the intricacies and numerous paths that each and every one of our lives presents us, it’s difficult to know what path to take and how that path should be traveled. Given the plethora of consequences that can come about from our single decisions, it’s definitely stressful trying to understand how each of our decisions should be made – but it doesn’t have to be.

If we take a step back and utilize common sense to assist us in our decision making processes, we’ll find that all of the calculating and stress that we waste on mapping out our life’s journeys do nothing but overcomplicate the matters at hand, taking away the focus from our true directives. I wrote this book to help you understand that life doesn’t have to be as complex as we make it. I also want you to learn how understanding your true self will clarify your way of thinking so that your life can flow more naturally and easily.

The subjects that I discuss are facets of my own life that I’ve personally experienced. I’m not trying to pass myself off as an expert in anything, especially topics in which I have no personal experience so you’ll see that some major life events are noticeably missing between this book’s covers. Additionally, I’ve left other aspects of life out for the simple fact that there are just some parts of our lives for which there can be no handbook. Even still, there are chapters in our lives that would probably need entire books dedicated to them. I didn’t dare try and touch on a subject that I wasn’t willing to discuss in total detail, so I figure it best to leave those for another time and maybe another book. Despite the fact that there may not be a section in this book dedicated to a particular aspect in your life that you may find problematic, I’m certain that the core lessons and values that I present can be applied to whatever is thrown your way. The reason that I’m presenting this assistance to everyone so willingly is because I believe that knowledge is meant to be shared. Additionally I’d like to provide help to anyone who may have trouble overcoming the same obstacles that I’ve faced in my own life. Good luck in all you do.

-Dan Bael

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CHAPTER 1

Why Listen To Me?

Okay, so I have to bring this to the front burner first and foremost. Why should I listen to this guy? will probably be the first question that comes to your mind. Well, for starters, the book is entitled Common Sense From The Common Man and that’s exactly who I am: a common man. The next thing I’m sure you’re asking yourself is, So if this guy is so common, why should I listen to him? The answer to that is simple. I’ve got knowledge and I’m willing to share it with you. If you want to take said knowledge, act on it, and maybe better yourself in the process, then good for you. If you choose to do nothing with the knowledge that I’m offering – well, you already bought the book, so no skin off my back.

I’m not trying to be condescending at all. I just want to take the nuggets of wisdom that I’ve stored in my big head and pass it along to others in the hopes that maybe it will help one, some, or all of you in some way or another. One would think that with all of these useful tidbits that I would be a success story of Tom Vu-like proportions. However, I’m exactly where you guys are right now … just the average man hoping that he can muddle through his life somehow and turn out to be somewhat of a success.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Red Flag! If you’ve got such useful advice that can change the course of my life, then why are you treading water in the same desolate pit of a swamp that I’m in? I’m sure you’re saying to yourselves right now. Well, the simplest answer is this: I’ve got no motivation. Think about it, even without inspiration, the most skilled carpenter with the most expensive tools in the world isn’t going to build anything. That’s why I’m writing this book right now; this is me starting to get motivated, and the first step is to realize the fact that I actually have the tools and the skills to be successful. Now these useful pieces of advice aren’t anything mind-blowing. I haven’t been given any special signs from above (or below for that matter) and I’m certainly no guru when it comes to – well, when it comes to anything. The one thing that I have excelled at is being able to think analytically and break things down into their simplest forms – or to put it in another way, I’m a practitioner of common sense. Surprisingly, common sense just isn’t that common anymore. In our society, we tend to complicate situations by over-scrutinizing them, over-clocking our minds on different scenarios of how a situation can play out. In my experience, 99% of the time, people will succeed if they take a step back and just think simply about the situation. This is exactly what I would like to share with you all because I’m just a giving kind of guy – which leads me to my very first piece of knowledge, which I’ll call The Bael Formula:

SUCCESS = MOTIVATION x (KNOWLEDGE + SKILL)

I promise that this is the only math that’s going to appear in this book. However, this is probably the most important thing that you can learn, so if you take away only one thing from this book after reading it, it’s the formula above. So what exactly does The Bael Formula mean?

If we take a look at the formula and break it down, we obviously see that it’s a formula for success, or rather the chances of it. Success is never guaranteed. However, take a look at the right side of the equation in a mathematical sense. Firstly, let’s measure success in numerical terms, meaning the higher the number, the greater amount of success. By taking that concept, if we were to say that you had no motivation, that would mean that your motivation=0, and no matter how much knowledge or skill you have, if you multiply them by zero, you still get zero. With that being said, if you have some motivation and some degree of knowledge and/or skill, then you’d have some degree of success. Now according to this formula, the more motivation, knowledge, and skills that you have, the higher your rate of success will be. Never forget, all of the brains and skill in the world mean nothing if you don’t have the motivation to apply them. So then what exactly is motivation?

MOTIVATION

Webster’s defines motivation as The act or process of motivating. Okay, technically that’s a correct definition, but not the one that we’re looking for. So let’s take a look at the second definition that they list: The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal. Now when we consider that definition, we have to focus on the phrase desired goal (although some of you are focused on the word arouses – perverts). Why? Because before we can start our path to success, we need to know exactly what it is that we want. Remember: a journey without a destination is just walking.

So how can you determine what your goal should be? Well, only you can decide that. Remember first that every day we all have myriad goals ranging from the very minute to the haltingly unattainable; from deciding what kind of breakfast we’re going to have to how we’re going to end up marrying Angelina Jolie. The goals that I’m talking about are those of the higher caliber: romance, careers, general well-being, etc. If you need assistance trying to decide how you want your eggs in the morning, then I suggest that you close this book, return it, and then use the money towards a good therapist. Once you determine what it is you want to accomplish, then hopefully there’s a section in this book that will aid you in your quest. What I present before aren’t any lessons based on a new and innovative way of thinking. I’m dealing strictly with common sense, and the reason I’m doing so is because common sense is a tool that we all have access to because it lives inside of us. Sometimes we just forget that it’s there.

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CHAPTER 2

Common Sense Isn’t So Common Anymore

What exactly is common sense? It should seem simple enough – the name in itself seems to provide the definition: common, meaning something that is shared by the many and sense, meaning (in this light) judgment. It would seem that the two words together describe a sound judgment that is agreed upon by all. However, it seems nowadays that common sense is no longer as ubiquitous as its name would imply. I’m not sure if it was ever as prevalent throughout the world as I’d like to believe, but I have noticed a decline in the utilization of it as of late. I’m starting to notice that some people have totally lost an understanding of what the phrase literally means. I actually heard a manager at my old job responding to one of his employees who was debating that the manager’s decision wasn’t right, and the opposite of his decision was just common sense. Can you guess what the manager’s response was? He actually said, "Well, one person’s common