Sunday Service: Practicing Temperance

In Proverbs, 2516, if you find honey, eat just enough, too much of it, and you will vomit. What does that mean? How does it apply in your life? If it even does at all, that’s what we’ll explore today. Welcome to our Sunday service. Too much, too much, too much, too much, too much drinking, too much eating, too much TV, too many video games, too much Netflix scene and chilling, too much pizza and ice cream, too much social media, too much screen time, too much, too much, too many meetings, too many things at once, too much politics, too much work, too much play. Opportunities abound, to go a little too far, to overcook things, to apply too much gas, not enough breaks, or too much breaks and not enough gas. Oftentimes you think that moderation and the idea of Temperance is to quell excess, but certainly possible to be excessive with your frugality and excessive with your just really everything you can go both ways, both ways. Both are not good. I used to joke when I was in my 20s and not a very good example of moderation or temperance in really any aspect of my life that I take my moderation in moderation, and that’s, of course, something that somebody who is practicing excess would say, and so is appropriate take my moderation in moderation, but in some certainly, at some level, it’s true, and there’s wisdom there, because none of us are perfect, and the fact that we are imperfect is a feature, and it is not a bug of human beings. It is what makes beautiful art and pushes boundaries and and the envelope and creates innovation and breakthroughs. If everybody was just lukewarm, we wouldn’t get anything done. So we need frenetic human beings, and for lack of a better term, crazy people, to make incredible music and arts like I’ve just been talking about, and to take what most people would consider to be over the top and unnecessary risk. To show people what’s possible running the four minute mile, no way anybody can do that until Roger Banister did it, and then everybody does it, even I’ve run a four minute mile, that’s not true at all. I’ve never run a four minute mile and never will run a four minute mile. For that matter. You get the idea I’m going through and listening to Elon Musk’s new biography by Walter Isaacson. And like all of Walter Isaacson’s work, it is incredible the amount of risk that that human being, that that man, has taken and every single one of his endeavors is extraordinary, his courage and his tenacity and grit and obviously intelligence. So nothing moderate about Elon Musk, and he’s pretty open about his struggles with depression and mania and bipolar and everything else. So I’m not saying it’s good, I’m just saying it is. So just like I was not a monk in my 20s, I am not a monk in my 40s, and I am not standing on a soapbox telling you that I am perfect and you should do as I do, because that is just not the truth, but trying. I am striving to live a more temperate life, striving to realize my ultimate potential. What I believe that I am here to do as a human being, amongst many other things, my prime directive is the realization of my potential. I don’t want to leave anything on the table. And when I drink too much on a Friday night and feel like garbage on a Saturday, that’s not getting me any closer to realizing the best version of me doesn’t mean I don’t still do it, but I tried to do it less. Try to do it less. So what I work to do is measure myself based on yesterday. And that is kind of. A key. I think that in a lot of ways, and I talk a lot about this, I think a lot about it, we’re looking for just right. We don’t want to be too hot, we don’t want to be too cold. You want to find that just right. And the term for that, the virtue that we were looking for, is temperance, and it’s the practice of self control, restraint and moderation, and mostly in regard to our desires and our pleasures. So while it’s true that we need temperance on the really good things that we’re doing, it’s more let’s try and temper a lot of the bad things that we are doing. So those four cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. And again, Temperance is all about controlling our appetites and our passions and our excesses, like what we’re eating, what we’re drinking and what we’re doing. So living a temperate life. It it’s all about living in balance, which is a tricky thing, I know, but it’s about avoiding over indulgence and deprivation. It’s all about practicing self discipline, having control over our impulses. We want to control our impulses, resisting the temptations that we all feel, maybe even all the time. They want to eat the best food we’re interested in, in sex. We want fun. I want happiness. I want bliss. I want all these things. I want good feelings. I do I know. Am I able? How? How do I put a mechanism in place to be able to step back from the table, to put my fork down, to say, You know what I’m I’ve had enough to drink. I’ve had enough Twitter for today. It’s enough politics for me. Um, I’ve been watching enough TV, whatever. How do I know? Do I know when to say when it’s a tricky thing, and of course, we do, but in a lot of ways, if we can create some structure around helping us to do that, then I think that that’s the trick. If left my own devices, I’m going to eat all the ice cream, I’m going to eat the whole pizza, I’m going to drink the entire bottle of whatever it is that I’m drinking, so need a little bit of an intervention before my life spirals out of control, or I go past the point of no return. You understand what I’m talking about. So how do I do these things? How do I help myself to to do a better job with this. So Aristotle, he talked about finding the golden mean, and that is another way of a much more a better way of saying just right. So finding that golden mean between excess and deficiency. So it’s striking that balance it’s finding just right. So how do we find that? And it’s not just great philosophers, it’s not just the Bible, it’s every major world religion talks about and puts an emphasis on moderation and temperance. The wisest people that have ever walked the face of the earth want to pass on wisdom, and we do that through these ancient traditions, through the religions of the world. The Quran tells people, tells us to be moderate in your pace and to lower your voice. Indeed, the most disagreeable of sounds is the voice of donkeys. It is, for sure, don’t run your mouth. Be temperate in your behavior and your speech. Buddhism teaches the Middle Way, and it’s all about avoiding extremes of self indulgence and self mortification. Buddha explored everything he explored. He was born in massive privilege, extreme privilege and abundance, and went on to practice asceticism, which is the opposite. So it’s extreme deprivation, and realizing that neither are the answer back, the answer is a balanced, more moderate, tempered approach. Taoism talks about the importance of balance and harmony in all aspects of life. The Tao Te Ching tells us to fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. So going too far one way or another, it’s not a recipe for success. So how do we know? The reality is that most of us don’t know. And when I say most of us have talking about myself for sure,

from my experience, my personal experience of not knowing and understanding my cash flow when I was a younger person and now professionally, I understand that most, most of us do not have really very good idea. How much money we have coming in and how much money we have going out. We don’t have a very good idea of how much time we’re really spending on certain things. We don’t have a really clear idea. We don’t have a really clear idea of what we’re giving our attention to consistently, it’s estimated. That our minds wander around half the time. So if you’re somebody who says, you know, there’s just not enough hours in the day, it could be and the reality is for most of us that we’re just not very focused. So to be more temperate with my attention and to find more time, to get more time, need to be a better steward of how we’re spending these things. And same goes for our energy. Like, what am I giving my energy to? So it’s a really, in some ways, an unpleasant exercise. And the idea of of putting a governor on how it is that we’re using and spending our time, attention, energy and money, I bristle at that, because I don’t want to be told what to do. That’s probably you also but the only way to know how we’re using our resources is to know how we’re using our resources. So we have to audit we have to audit our time, we have to audit our spending. We have to audit our attention. We have to audit our our energy. What am I giving these things to do? I have any idea how much time, how much how many calories I’m eating? Do I have any idea on a daily basis? Do I have any idea how many steps I’m taking? Do I have any idea how much I’m spending, how much I’m making? Do I have any idea how much screen time and social media time that I have now these things aren’t inherently bad. Again, nothing inherently bad. Screen time’s not bad if when I make a decision, so how do I know if it’s bad or not? That’s really kind of the deal here. What is it that I want? What is it that I want? And we make the decisions on this is what is of greatest importance to me, and then we can start making judgments on whether or not my allocation of resources is proper, good or bad, incorrect. If I want to be somebody who reads a book every month, well, I better be reading 10 pages a day. If I want to be somebody who is able to run a mile, who is a healthy person with a lot of energy could touch my toes and do some push ups? Well, I better know how many steps I’m taking. I better know how many calories I’m ingesting. If I don’t have a better relationship with my loved ones, I better know what their needs are, and then figure out, okay, if this is what they want, and this is the amount of time that I have. How can I reconfigure my life so that I’m giving them what they need, what they desire, because that’s what I want. I want to have a good relationship. So what changes do I need to make? And the answer all these questions demands that I understand what my current allocation is of these resources, time, energy, attention and money. Those are your most valuable resources. So whenever we’re saying yes and giving them to one thing, you know, we’re saying no to everything else. So we have to set clear priorities, identify the most important aspects of our lives, and then we allocate time and our resources based on meeting, exceeding or trying to get close to meeting those priorities. So how do we actually do that? Well, I think that the more we can think about and create a personal standard operating procedure or SOP, that that’s a really, really, really important step. Think about Okay. I need to, I need to honor my my personal desires. So what do I want? My hobbies, my personal development needs, my wellness. Needs, physically, mental, emotional. I need to, obviously, honor my work, my career. I need to pay attention to my finances. I need to I need to have my my things that are going to bring me peace of mind. I i need to have great relationships and have strong family ties and and honor my community commitments and obligations and wants. And if that sounds like a lot, you’re right, it is. It’s an enormous amount, which is why so many of us, including myself, consistently fall short of honoring all these two. Desires, commitments, wants, and that’s because we allow other things to fall out of balance. We allow ourselves to spend too much time, spend too many resources on things that aren’t necessarily aligned to that. I submit that this is the reason, because we’ve not created routines and schedules, habits slash routines slash schedules, which go into our standard operating procedure. I always think about and start with book ending the day. So really mastering and controlling how the day starts and how the day ends, you have more control over those things than you do most of the rest of the day. Once I’m out the door and the emails are flowing in and the phone phone is ringing, I have a lot less control over that, but I’ve got pretty good control over how the day starts and how the day ends, so creating habits and routines that are benefiting those things and my priorities that are most important to me, that’s going to position me for success, and keeping containers around these things, or creating containers around these things, it’s a giant key to all of it. So you can professionally put limits on when it is that you’re working, or put a better container around when I’m not working, and stick to that and honor it. It’ll be weird at first. I don’t answer emails past 6pm or 5pm whatever. I certainly don’t take calls past a certain time, whatever it is you get to decide, or you can negotiate that, or you can try and negotiate it, at least, not saying this stuff is possible, but it’s worth a try. And same is true of all of these things. Creating containers if you’re going to if you’re going to drink alcohol on a Friday night or Saturday night, I’d said containers are on that making a number of drinks or a certain amount of time. And when you’ve hit that stop, you need to be embedded a certain amount of time. Your sleep is important. So this is the time that I’m shutting everything down. I’m going to be in bed. You might not be sleeping at 10 o’clock at night or nine o’clock at night or 11 o’clock at night, but get in bed. Shut everything down, position yourself for success. So creating containers say, Okay, I’m going to eat this much. It’s okay to eat dessert, to eat ice cream, to eat pizza. Just can’t eat all of it all the time. It’s not a recipe for a temperate life. So a well structured routine, your standing operating procedure, helps you to better control all the things that you need to control. So understanding and knowing, putting a container around it. And I think that also we can, the more we can simplify our lives, the happier and the better off that we’re going to be. I did attempt to practice minimalism for a couple of years, and I think it’s a really worthwhile thing. And the simple act of quickly minimalism is the idea that the things that we own end up owning us and our possessions and our junk, and odds are, your house is full of in your garage. Maybe you can’t even pull your car into your garage, or your closets, or you have a storage unit, and it’s just all this crap that we acquire over time, but we don’t need and that drains resources. No doubt about it, you’re thinking about the stuff when you could be thinking about other things. So simplify things. I think exercising is a really important thing. I know it is, and I also know that there’s so much good stuff out there in the world, so many things that are pleasing and enjoyable from an entertainment perspective and a food perspective, and from just so many things to gratify ourselves with and there’s so much BS out there too. So much BS. And these days, there’s so many different entities and algorithms and advertisers and marketers that want to extract your most valuable resources. So we need to make sure that we’re paying attention to that. But the first step is that we need to decide what it is that we want. We have to decide what matters most to you. And I like to think about an ideal version of myself, and it’s a version that I aspire to be, and I’m constantly moving towards. Then think about, okay, this ideal version of me. How does that version of me spend my time, my energy, my attention, my money. And I tried to do that. I tried to do the things that I’ve been talking about today.

And while it’s not a game of perfect, I’m not trying to do it perfectly every single day. The idea is that I am doing my best and I’m measuring myself against yesterday’s version of me. I’m organizing my life based on that, and I’m moving in the direction of becoming more of that person than less of that person. So temperance, moderation, and take it in Take, take your moderation, in moderation, but be mindful and thoughtful of your temperance, be mindful and thoughtful of your feelings. And I’d never want you to not honor your feelings, but I just don’t want you to act on all of your feelings you feel, whatever feelings you’re feeling, recognize them. Let feel them. Let it flow over you, and then think about it rationally and logically and make a better decision on how it is you’re going to move forward as always, do your part by doing your best. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.