A New World – For You

In 1800, 80% of people lived at their absolute subsistence level of poverty.  Today less than 10% do and it is continuing to drop.  There is a huge increase in wealth for everyone relative to their standard of living, compared to earlier generations.

These changes are not just a matter of having more stuff and greater comfort.  Because of economic growth, there have been radical social changes.  We live and interact with each other in ways that either were rare before or are truly novel.  One example is the role of the household.  For most of human history, it was almost impossible to live on one’s own for any sustained length of time, even for the wealthy.  Nowadays, people can do this easily, and many do.

Ordinary people today have far more effective choice and a vastly wider range of options than even their recent ancestors.  Instead of looking forward to a life as a farmer in the great majority of cases, they have a dazzling array of possibilities, even if they are relatively poor.  Many kinds of experiences are available that even kings could only imagine before. 

Much of the dark unpleasant side of life has been dramatically reduced.  For example, the chances of losing a sibling or a parent to an accident or illness before the age of 20 has sharply declined.  Human beings are now much less violent and much milder and gentler in their behavior than was the case even two centuries ago.

Your home, living conditions, family, job, leisure; today, reflect on how your life is much different than if you had lived 200 years ago.  

No pain no gain?

We’ve heard this before.  Gut it out, suck it up, pay the price.

But when you feel pain, the first thing you should consider is “am I doing it wrong?”

In most cases, yes, you are doing it wrong. 

Make adjustments so it doesn’t hurt.

Food – What are we doing to ourselves?

The longer the shelf life, the shorter your life.

Does that make sense?

Skills Precede Opportunity

When you develop a skill, people who want that skill notice and make you offers.  

Not before.

What skills are you developing?

Chose your software wisely

Put both hands on your head.  Just 1/2″ beneath your fingers is your computer hardware.  If you close your eyes you become aware of space. This is the hardware running the software that you put in.  It controls your whole body, your emotions, and all the chemicals that get released to create your emotions.

Why would you put junk or poison software in there?

Be careful what you put in front of your eyes and in your ears – because that’s what you are operating on.

How do you want to experience the journey?

If success is 99% the journey, and 1% the arrival – how do you want to experience the journey?  

What energy are you creating and how do you feel on your way?

Learn to enjoy the ride, the problem solving, the learning, the work – because that’s what most of it is.

What about today?

Put your own mask on first

Like the oxygen mask on a plane you should tend to your own care and mental well being first before you worry about anyone else.  If we are struggling, unhealthy, tired and off our center, we can be of little help to serve anyone else.

If we are happy we are more of an asset to the world; more engaged at work, more present for our friends and more connected to our loved ones.  

What do you need to do to take care of you?

Wonder Drug Available Tonight!

This drug will make you live longer and improve your health.  Do you want it yet?  Well, what if I told you it increases your memory and makes you more creative?  AND, it protects you from sickness and disease, and gives you psychological relief?  Do you want it yet? 

Well, there’s even more.  This drug gives you increased self-esteem and it makes you more attractive! 

I know, you want to know if it’s safe?  Well, there are no side effects and no one has ever been harmed by it.  Is it proven you ask?  Well, it has been written up in over 17,000 scientific reports as proven to provide all of the above.

It only requires some self-discipline on your part to get enough of it.

It’s sleep.

Who says if you are happy?

You can’t make other people happy.  And when your own happiness depends on others being happy, you are going to be a puppet, whose strings are constantly pulled by others.

The majority of us suffer from this.

Don’t place your happiness in others being happy. 

The Root of FOMO

I heard it explained this way – if you were from outer space and visited earth once every 10,000 years and gave a report each time, you’d have said “Semi-hairless apes foraging for food and resources”.  You’d have given this report 23 times – for 230,000 years.  The last visit however, is very different.  All the change has happened recently – most of it in the last 300 years.

We are made for a very different world – where there wasn’t much new information, and when there was we had better pay attention because it could mean life and death.

So today, here we are swimming in available information; messages coming in at the speed of light.  The Fear of Missing Out (“FOMO”), that once served to save our lives, all of a sudden is a liability.  

Today, FOMO = Overload and mental dysfunction.  It’s a handicap we all have.  People who create information know this and sell the drug this addiction feeds on.

Recognize it.  Set up your life so FOMO doesn’t hurt you.  Replace it with FOTM – Fear Of Too Much.