Captain of the Ship: A Book on Living an Exciting and Unusual Success-Filled Life

By Mark Montanus

We live in this beautiful world where opportunity and abundance exists for all. Wouldnt it be great if you had everything that you need, with a loving wife or husband, happy, growing children, all provided for by a dream job that paid well and was the object of your passion? How nice it would be to have good health, with ample financial resources, with a great feeling about yourself. Seems like utopia, doesnt it? How close are you to this utopia?

Strange, that we live with the possibility of a truly fulfilled life, yet only a small number are able to fully accomplish it. We experience bits and pieces of this utopia, but the greater success seems to escape us, and for some, there is only misery. Opportunities are plentiful but so are the pitfalls. What gets in your way?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jan 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504372831

Mark Montanus

The author is a retired college teacher with the title of Professor Emeritus. His study of the attributes of highly successful people provides great insight to anyone wanting to find a high level of success.

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Copyright © 2017 Mark Montanus.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7251-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7283-1 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/27/2017

CONTENTS

Chapter One

Where is My Utopia

In the Beginning

Some of the Pitfalls

Independence—The First Magic Word

Responsibility—The Second Magic Word

A Deeper Look at Responsibility

Avoiding Responsibility

The Third Magic Word—Commitment

Ready for the World

Websites on Being Responsible

Chapter Two

Financial Responsibility

What responsibilities do I face?

Ability to Save and Invest Dollars

What is Compounding

Dollar Averaging

Basic Investing Knowledge and Terminology

General Rules for Long-Term Investing

P/E Ratio and Yield

Income vs Growth Stock

Reviewing Your Budget to Start Investing

Honest Budgeting

Expenses Balance

Summary of the Action

The Bank Account

Accounting for the Various Investment Funds

Making Your First Investment

Life Insurance

The Nature of Life Insurance

Buying Your Home

The Final Word

Epilogue

Websites on Financial Success

Chapter Three

Physical Health—Eating Right

A New Approach to Diet

A Perspective

Personal Diet

Kidney Failure

Understanding the System

Food Label Evaluation Tool

Calories

Salt

Sugar

Potassium

Calcium

Phosphorus

Understanding Food Groups

Animal Meat

Sea Food

Beans, Nuts, and Other Choices

Helpful Hints in Choosing Proteins

Protein Summary

Carbohydrates

Complex Carbohydrates

Carbohydrate Intake

Dietary Fiber

Fats

Cholesterol

Vitamins

Putting it All Together

Finding Healthier Foods

Your Complete Food List

Starting Your New Eating Program

Final Thought

Food Label Evaluation Tools

Section 1 - Daily Caloric Intake

Section 2 - Content of Salt Sugar Potassium Calcium and Phosphorus-Your Pantry

Section 2A - Searching Store Products

Section 3 – Protein Table

Section 4 – Carbohydrate Table

Section 5 – Fat Table

Meal Planning

Breakfast Meals - Section 1

Lunch Meals – Section 2

Dinner Meals – Section 3

Additional Nutrition Studies

Nutrition Websites

Chapter Four

Fitness through Exercise

Are you willing to take on this responsibility?

Aerobic Exercise

Fitness at Home

Exercise—Home or the Gym

Aerobic Fitness in the Gym

What is Strength Training?

Warm-up and cool-down stretches

Anaerobic Fitness at the Gym

Final Notes

Assignment

Websites on Physical Fitness

Chapter Five

Keeping Mentally Strong

Summary on Innovation

Curiosity

Appreciation

Perspective

Life-Long Learning

Becoming and Staying Mentally Strong

Websites for Further Study

Chapter Six

Seeking a Spiritual Life

Organized Religion

Meditation and Prayer

Websites to Help in Your Spiritual Journey

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would be in remiss if he did not identify and say thank you to the friends and colleagues who assisted in the development of this book.

Thanks to an old friend Dick Huesby for critiquing much of the writing. Thanks to certified nutritionist Rachel Goodwin for providing her expertise in the writing of the chapter on healthy eating. Thanks to Mark Foshee a talented friend and author who provided expertise in helping find the many websites that were used to verify the data presented in the book. His library and computer expertise were critical to the completion of the work. Thanks to my retired Kodak photographer brother, Neil Montanus, for the photo of my boat to be used for the book cover. Many thanks to my wife Charlotte for all of the editing help, for providing ideas in the writing process and for her constant support in the writing process. And last, thanks to my eight children, their spouses and my many grand and great-grand children for supporting me in my work.

Mark Montanus

PREFACE

The captain and his crew sail out to sea not knowing when a storm might hit or the doldrums set in. They will not know of other boats that may cross their path or the location of ice bergs in the north. They will depend upon maps to show the likely areas of danger, but maps will also show the way. The ship will not arrive unless the captain studies the maps and directs the crew to properly set the helm and the sails throughout the entire voyage.

And so it is with you—Captain of the Ship. Your life will be faced with all kinds of peril, and, unless you take full responsibility, the trip will be fraught with all manner of difficulty. Study the maps included in this book to navigate through the myriad of experiences that you will encounter in this life. Just as the captain must be knowledgeable, skillful, aware, and dependable, so must you. Set your sails now and take charge of the helm.

The ideas presented here are the maps to help you travel the great and exciting journey.

Good luck Captain!

CHAPTER ONE

Where is My Utopia

We live in this beautiful world where opportunity and abundance exists for all. Wouldn’t it be great if you had everything that you need, with a loving wife/husband, happy, growing children, all provided for by a dream job that paid well and was the object of your passion? How nice it would be to have good health, with ample financial resources, with a great feeling about yourself. Seems like utopia, doesn’t it? How close are you to this utopia?

Strange, that we live with the possibility of a truly fulfilled life, yet only a small number are able to fully accomplish it. We experience bits and pieces of this utopia, but the greater success seems to escape us, and for some there is only misery. Opportunities are plentiful but so are the pitfalls. What gets in your way?

The purpose of this book is to help you understand and overcome what gets in your way. So much information is available to help people find their way through the maze of decision making to live a better life. In fact, this material comes at us from all directions and as we study and try to understand, confusion results. It is this author’s premise that the majority of self-help books are overwhelming which makes it hard to focus. Much written material will provide recipes and guidelines on how to do it right and most folks can make that work for a while, but success soon fades. Why?

The truth is there are three words that must become part and parcel of your very being in order to find ultimate success. Without any one of them, you cannot achieve a balanced, successful life. In this book, we will take these three magic words and weave them into your psyche until they become part and parcel of who you really are. At that point, you will be able to overcome any obstacle and become what you want to become. You will find your utopia!

In the Beginning

We are born quite helpless and dependent upon someone taking full care of us. The newborn can solicit attention by crying to let others know of his/her needs, but that’s about it. So the process begins at zero for the baby. From that point on, there is a steady development that will take the baby from zero ability to care for herself/himself to full growth and independence. By independence, we generally mean that a person is free from the societal pressures that might direct his life. This wonderful process, provided by society, has developed the various structures and systems to help people reach maturity. We are not so much interested in how this maturity process works, as most of the people reading this have supposedly reached maturity, and by society’s definition should be able to provide for their own care. The real question is, are most people successful in this process, each fully capable of providing for themselves? As one looks, reads, listens, or watches the news, or just looks around a bit in their own community, one might suspect that a large segment of our society is having difficulty in taking such care.

As we examine the everyday issues that each person faces, two in particular stand out. The first is the issue of personal health. Improper eating habits and lack of exercise are taking an awful toll on society. The obesity problem alone affects over one-third of our society and renders many to an almost helpless state. One can hardly gain independence with such a health problem. Another issue has to do with people’s ability to live a sound financial life. It is estimated that about one-third of our society has very little investments and less than $1,000 in the bank. This means that so many live from paycheck to paycheck, completely unable to face problems such as a job layoff or the inability to pay off a large credit card balance. This hardly represents independence.

While health or fiscal problems can easily render a person helpless, our society presents very little opportunity for people to master the understanding and the skill necessary for success. If you find yourself with problems that have kept you from gaining your independence, it is not too late. This book is designed to gird you with the understanding and skills needed for you to become an independent person.

Some of the Pitfalls

The single largest pitfall is that of becoming conditioned by messages from advertisers and others who would like you to do whatever they ask of you. Keeping up with the Jones is the perfect example. Advertising has convinced us to become unhappy with what we have, especially if