Help Vigorous Virtues Create the Change America Needs
Hi it’s Joseph again,
Last week I wrote you about the launch of my book The Vigorous Virtues, and there’s good news from the launch. Just a couple days after its release, the book was recognized as a #1 hot new release on Amazon.
This is a solid start but we need to build momentum so we can attain overall Amazon bestseller status. So if you haven’t already done so, I’m asking you to do the following:
Please:
- Buy a single copy or multiple copies of the book while price is discounted (Think about the holidays, book clubs, classrooms etc.)
- Share the book link with others – www.vigorousvirtues.com
- Take time to write a review on Amazon
As you can see from the headlines, our children and our communities are hurting. We have to look to tried and true methods to create change. Values that have stood the test of time, like compassion, integrity and perseverance. Something I know we all feel for the families suffering devastating loss and trauma, even as we go into this Thanksgiving season.
So, I need your help! Over the next week, let’s make The Vigorous Virtues an Amazon bestseller. Why? We can make this resource visible to more people and begin to make the impact and the change that we want to see in ourselves, families and communities.
Thanks for choosing The vigorous virtues and a stronger America!
If there’s anything I can do to assist you in adding the vigorous virtues to your life, don’t hesitate to let me know.
JH
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The Vigorous Virtues
I know it’s been a while since my last communication. I’ve been busy working on a project that I am excited to share with you now, something that I’ve been working on for so many years it seems like forever. As you know, I’m a firm believer that the choices of life determine the success of life; and those choices are shaped by our values.
My new book — THE VIGOROUS VIRTUES: DAILY SUCCESS PRINCIPLES FROM DIVERSE AMERICAN FOUNDERS (“VV”) — rises from that conviction. VV does offer 365 distinct entries for each day of the year, but it is a different kind of devotional book. VV’s goal is to help readers add 12 of the most important or essential virtues to their life over a 12 month period.
What distinguishes VV are its diverse, historical voices. Each principle-driven daily selection highlights unsung heroes as well as Founding Fathers. From the illustrative lives of these diverse figures over 600+ pages are drawn success principles, which guide the reader on an inner journey of character development.
Since you have been part of my network or a follower of my teaching, materials and resources, I wanted to do something special for you.
With the Christmas season coming, you are probably thinking about gifts for friends and family. If you are like most of us, you have resolutions or goals for the New Year. I think there is no better way to make changes in all areas of our lives, than to add Vigorous Virtues like Integrity, Perseverance, Civility and Compassion.
VV is a tool that has the power to change lives, by getting the reader to focus on the character traits that have been essential to the building of America.
As an incentive to get you to by the book now, and buy a few for others, I’ve created special pricing, with bonus materials; making it easy for you to add this resource to you library.
Click on the link below for access to information about the book, a short video and special pricing.
And here’s a link to my recent TV interview about the book:
https://www.nycreligion.info/joe-holland-journeytv/
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
All the best,
JH
READ MOREThe Power of an I AM Affirmation
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[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I returned to Ithaca High School on April 6th to facilitate Touchstone Tools for Teens (“TTTeens”) workshops in eight AVID classes throughout the school day. These workshops were the last in a series of events in a 2018-19 academic year TTTeens pilot involving Ithaca High School students in collaboration with Cornell University students.
The theme of the TTTeen workshops that day was the Self-Confidence Tool. The students were asked to write and then recite for the class an I AM AFFIRMATION at the climax of each workshop. One student wrote: I am a leader, goofy, energetic and kind and I will be the best me that I can possibly be. Another asserted: I am capable of making choices for myself to persevere through life and make a better future for myself and that no matter what I will always have myself and there is always another day to do better. A young man affirmed: I have a history of dealing with trying situations. I accept my shortcomings and I learn to develop my strengths as I become a capable, successful and fulfilled man. A succinct affirmation stated: I am my own person, I am unique, and I will not be affected by the world’s opinions. One of the most powerful affirmations shared these words: I am caring, charismatic, tenacious, intelligent, strong, honest, ME, and if I want to do something I can.
The Self-Confidence Tool is all about how you see yourself. You can’t value your life and be deserving of your dreams if you don’t value yourself and believe that you’re worthy of success. Don’t internalize the difficult realities of life that can bring down your self-worth, or fall prey to letting the opinions of others dictate how you see yourself. Instead, write down, then recite your own I AM AFFIRMATION; memorize it, proclaim it every day. This discipline will help you think in a more positive way — even a more powerful way — about yourself and your ability to handle whatever challenges lie before you.
You can find out more about about Touchstone Tools for Teens, Holistic Hardware and related products & programs at www.touchstonetools.com.
Let’s keep making a difference,
Joseph Holland
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Recognizing Reina
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In honor of Women’s History Month, the Touchstone Tools takes a break from its usual flow of newsletter topics to spotlight Nilza Oyola-Diaz (pictured above) and her dynamic ministry Reina. Reina uses the Touchstone Tools, in particular the Self-Esteem Tool, to fulfill its purpose of uplifting women of color. Reina imparts the 5 C’s of the Self-Esteem Tool: Connect, Conceive, Care, Commit, Carry to build self-confidence in women of all ages through workshops (pictured below). Nilza and the other workshop facilitators use these holistic principles to teach transformational values to the participating women. You can find out more about about Holistic Hardware, Touchstone Tools and related products & programs at www.touchstonetools.com.
Reina also offers opportunities for networking, community service/organizing, and a collaborative platform to address women’s justice and equality issues. During the past three years one hundred women have completed the requirements and have been crowned Reinas in special ceremonies.
On June 1, 2019, Reina will be holding a conference to reach more women with its inspirational messaging and fellowship. Information about registering for the conference is below. For additional information about Reina, email nodiaz.reina@gmail.com or visit the Reina Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/transformingbeauties4thekingdom
Let’s keep making a difference,
Joseph Holland
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Keynote at CFP Celebration
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On Saturday evening February 9th, I attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Community Faith Partners (CFP) in Ithaca, NY and gave keynote remarks. The event revealed to me the many lives that CFP had touched over the years using my holistic tools, especially my life skills workshop Holistic Hardware (HH). HH was CFP’s very first initiative when the organization started in 1999. I’m standing below in front of the CFP retrospective, which featured HH right at the beginning of its 20-year timeline.I’ve been an unofficial advisor to CFP, so in my talk that evening I offered the CFP supporters in attendance some unsolicited advice for the next 20 years and beyond.
(To see more photos from the CFP event, visit this link — https://bit.ly/2U5e38c)
I counseled them to take 6 steps – the 6 P’s: be paradigmatic — a model for others to follow; be programmatic — strategic in uplifting those in need; be precise — document the details of organizational impact; be providential — prioritize God; be prayerful — keep interceding for CFP; be prophetic — think outside the box. To listen to my CFP remarks, visit this link — https://bit.ly/2BN6QCM
Throughout the evening I was encouraged by the many who approached me to share testimonies about how they were using the holistic tools to empower their own lives as well as making a difference in the lives of others. 
One inspirational example was Patricia Pollock (She and I are pictured at right at the CFP event), who told me about her outreach to incarcerated women. She goes weekly into the local jail and uses Holistic Hardware to impart life skills to these women, helping to prepare them for successful re-entry. Stories like Patricia’s confirm the effectiveness of the holistic tools and have motivated me to innovate and extend the creative hardware to new groups. Touchstone Tools for Teens is one such application; you will be hearing more about it in future newsletters. CFP has some dynamic plans for the future.
Please visit the website (communityfaithpartners.org) for information and to find out ways you can support the organization. You can find out more about about Holistic Hardware, Touchstone Tools and related products & programs at www.touchstonetools.com.
Let’s keep making a difference,
Joseph Holland
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Timeless Tools Celebrate A New Year
When my first 2019 order for Holistic Hardware: Tools That Build Lives (“HH” — user-friendly video series featuring inspirational life skills for those most in need) came in, I was reminded that HH is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. That first order of this year was from Pastor Julie Jacobs of Choices/RCMI in St. Paul, MN and was accompanied by this note:
Frankly, several ministries are working together in St. Paul, MN to help people come out of homelessness. Holistic Hardware is one of the most effective tools we have in our war chest. Bless you for writing it.
I created HH while running a Harlem shelter for homeless men. I’m pictured below (far left) with some of the men of the shelter
Over the years I’ve received countless testimonies like the one from Pastor Jacobs. Two of the most noteworthy follow: the first from a homeless program in Wisconsin; the second from a re-entry program in Florida.
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I want to tell you that we are very pleased with the Holistic Hardware course that we are using for the homeless, and chronically unemployed here in Waukesha, WI. . . . On the day of graduation, we invite the businesses/organizations that we partnered with during the class to participate in the ceremony of thanking the class. Each of the graduates tells which tool was most helpful to them. Our last 2 graduations we even had the mayor come to give the welcome address.
Blessings,
Nancy DeSandre
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As a corrections deputy and a child of the King, it really bothered me that I kept seeing some of the same people return to our facility in St Johns County. . . . we got the Holistic Hardware DVD’s as soon as they were released. . . . I established a full time career center and continue to use Holistic Hardware for every student, regardless of their background. I took over doing the Holistic Hardware in the jail 2 nights a week, one for women, the other for men who were on work release. This is where I found fertile soul and the inmates were in for longer periods so they could get through it. Not only do I use the Holistic Hardware, I back it each week with a movie that reinforces the Tool that we are working on. . . . Our jail has really let me take many more liberties than the other programs get. And in return, they are seeing people getting out and staying out. . . .Your Holistic Hardware has touched over 200 persons through NewStart. . . . I encourage as many ministries as I can to invest in Holistic Hardware and use it to help those who are in recovery, struggling with employment or if they have homeless persons as part of their church. It is a great return on the investment of $99.
God bless you as you continue on until He calls us home,
Vikki Arneault, Founder and Director of NewStart
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In celebration of HH’s 20th anniversary, the original price for the 4-DVD set of $99 has been reduced to $59.95 — http://www.touchstonetools.com/product/holistic-hardware-tools-build-lives-dvd/
I’ll be preaching the Sunday morning message on February 9th at the 8 am service at Calvary Baptist Church in Ithaca, New York.
You can find out more about me at josephholland.com and about HH and related products and programs at touchstonetools.com.
Let’s keep making a difference,
Joseph Holland
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Recovering Hope for the Holidays
Amazon Publishing Marketing has selected The Touchstone Tools: Building Your Way to an Inspired Life (“TTT”) to be promoted via New Year, New You Reads up to 50% off in the US marketplace, starting 12/26/2018 and running through 1/31/2019. Your book will be offered at 7.99 USD during the promotion period. Beginning 12/26/2018, you will see the promotion here: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=11308639011
TTT author Joseph Holland was in Ithaca on November 3rd at the Cornell School of Veterinary to launch the Hope Saturday initiative. He is pictured above on that day with Hope Saturday team members composed of Cornell students and staff along with students and staff from the Ithaca School District.
TTT is pleased to introduce ReCover, a ministry of Jacqueline Catona, T.V. Host, Author and Singer, who has been committed to helping others recover areas of life that have been lost. Please visit her website — www.JacquelineCatona.com — to download her new song and pick up her 2019 calendar free for a limited time only.
We at TTT pray your blessings upon the holiday season and the upcoming new year. You can find out more about Joseph Holland at josephholland.com and about TTT and related products and programs at touchstonetools.com.
READ MORENew Website – Josephholland.com
The Touchstone Tools: Building Your Way to an Inspired Life (“TTT”) author Joseph Holland has launched a new website – josephholland.com. Visit the site to find background information on Joseph and his various projects and activities.
Joseph took some time off this summer to compete in the Mullaly Tennis Tournament in Harlem and earned a runners-up trophy.
He also traveled upstate New York to drop off his daughter Laura who’s starting Cornell University.
You can find out more about TTT and related products and programs at:
and about Joseph at:
READ MORESpecial TTT Promotion/Your Toolbox For Life
Amazon Publishing Marketing has selected The Touchstone Tools: Building Your Way to an Inspired Life (“TTT”) to be promoted via Physical Book Promotion in the US marketplace, starting 7/1/2018 and running through 7/31/2018. TTT will be offered at 7.99 USD during the promotion period. The promotion can be accessed here:
https://www.amazon.com/b?node=11101536011
Faith Tool – Discern Your Blessing In Disguise
The mystery of godliness is great.
1 Tim 3:16
The summer after my second year at Harvard Law School I worked at a Washington, D.C. law firm. I lived with a close family friend whom I knew as Absentminded Aunt Marie; she tended to forget things. I’d been saving money for a top-of-the-line stereo system to take back with me to Cambridge. When I finally had enough money, I’d withdrawn the twelve hundred dollars, only to find out at the store that my model was out of stock. It was a Friday afternoon and the bank had closed. I hid the money in my room at Aunt Marie’s house, intending to buy the stereo the following Monday.
What I didn’t know—because she forgot to tell me—was that Aunt Marie was having some rooms painted the next day. When I returned home Saturday evening, I’d found the furniture rearranged and covered, my room painted, and the painters come and gone. My money was missing!
I searched for it in vain. I felt like an idiot. I was angrier at myself than at the painters, for being so stupid as to leave that much cash unsecured. I told Aunt Marie, who called me irresponsible, chided me for accusing her painters, and summarily dismissed my concerns. I searched again, never found the money, and chalked it up as a very tough life lesson.
Eighteen months later, I was a broke, unemployed law school graduate living in Harlem, seeking divine purpose, months behind on rent. Out of the blue, Aunt Marie called: “I found your money.” I was speechless. She’d discovered the twelve hundred dollars in an envelope tucked inside a favorite blouse she’d put to the side before the painters started. She’d forgotten where she had put it but, in reorganizing her wardrobe, discovered the misplaced blouse, picked it up and my cash had fallen out. She promised to send me a check by overnight mail.
The missing money had become my blessing in disguise. Aunt Marie – in all her absentmindedness – had become to me like one of Elijah’s ravens. What had seemed like bad luck at the time had actually been God’s handiwork. Providence had prevented me from spending money on a stereo I didn’t need to preserve it for a more important future purpose that I didn’t know I had – manna from heaven to survive in Harlem. Four months rent that I didn’t have was now on the way.
Life has a way of resisting your control, of defying predictability, of introducing unfavorable circumstances, of upsetting your best-laid plans. This doesn’t mean you should live with a sense of frustration and futility but with the awareness that the constants in life are challenge and change. If you don’t believe so, you run the risk of missing or dismissing the providential interventions that could pop up along the pathways of your life. Be a person of faith—then you will find a purpose in opposition, a silver lining in the clouds, calm in uncertainty, grace through the trials, and an opportunity for serendipity in the midst of life’s storms. Your faithfulness will bring the blessed assurance that though it may be darkest before the dawn, sunshine is on the way. Through it all, you will be able to discern life’s adversities as blessings in disguise.
You can find out more about TTT and related products and programs at:
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Joe for Governor Update
Dear All:
It’s been several weeks since my last campaign update. Busy traveling around New York State, I’ve met many of you along the campaign trail and have been encouraged by your support. Though Marc Molinaro is still the frontrunner and I’m still the underdog, I persevere to make the case that I’m the most electable Republican for governor in 2018. Here’s a link to a recent article that elaborates this point.
Meet The Republican Who Can Beat Andrew Cuomo This Year AND Prevent Speaker Pelosi
I also want to share the links to my two campaign videos:
General – https://www.facebook.com/joehollandforny/videos/163325224386223/
Issue-specific – https://www.facebook.com/joehollandforny/videos/169633243755421/
With the GOP nominating convention looming at month's end, fundraising is key. Some of you have already donated, which I deeply appreciate. If you haven't yet given, I hope you'll consider making a campaign contribution and encouraging others to do. You can do so by attending one of my upcoming fundraising events – Auburn, Harlem, Irvington (Info below) –
Or by donating at my website – joehollandforny.com or sending a check to Joe Holland For Governor, PO Box 589, NY, NY 10027.
Thanks in advance for your support.
Forging New Direction For New York,
Joe
Joe Holland For Governor
Joehollandforny.com
facebook.com/joehollandforny
joehollandforny@gmail.com
(646) 504-1742
@JoeHolland4ny
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