Playing with Imagination

Go with this – 

If you could be anything you wanted – anything – what would it be?

Spend a few minutes on that…

Headlight of an oncoming train?

As I have said before, I am not political, but I am about ideas, and I do know money math. Google “Chart on Federal Debt” and “Federal Debt per Person.” 

This is not a problem until it’s a problem. Then it’s a huge problem that will affect us all.  

US federal debt per person is expected to grow to $75,000 per citizen by 2025. Let’s say only one in three people work when you take out children, students, retirees, etc. So that’s $225,000 in debt per worker. Interest rates are low now which is the reason we can get away with it. If interest rates are, say 4%, then that’s $9,000 the average worker would have to pay per year just to pay the interest, not including paying down the debt or to pay for anything else. Most people don’t pay that much per year in federal tax now in total to cover all federal government spending.

There is a lot of conversation around this, (factor in this, factor in that) but you can’t get away from the lunacy of it all. The bankruptcy court for the US government is world economic collapse. How close do we want to get?

The federal government has 430 agencies and owns or lease 361,000 buildings.  

How did this happen? As long as we want our government to solve so many problems for us and be involved in so many things, and as long as we look the other way and don’t make it a big issue, and as long as we vote for those that will “give us” this or that, and as long as politicians don’t suffer when they make huge mistakes (they are playing with OPM and OPD, other people’s money and debt), then we will not avoid the financial catastrophe that will come.

Many states, like mine, are in the same boat. As one woman who was a vendor (beneficiary) of a state program to make homes more energy efficient said half panicked in a public meeting where the topic of changes to the program was being discussed “Just tell me the gravy train will last my lifetime” (I paraphrase slightly).     

Government employees and unions, corporate welfare recipients, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid recipients, anyone benefitting from a government program, lobbyist and any group hiring them – those in charge pretty much have most of us covered. Jefferson predicted that when the politicians in office can buy the people’s votes using their own money, it is the beginning of the end.

At what point does the smoke alarm go off?

When smart people get together, they don’t get smarter as a group. Individuals have to be bold enough to put their self-interest aside, call them out by pointing out their mistakes, and yes, vote them out in favor of a representative who will do the correct thing. Whether the correct thing is popular or not depends on what we value as most important now.

(Please don’t pigeonhole me to be on one side or the other. I’m not on either. I’m just looking at the Emperor and telling you what I see.)

Tell me what you think after you Google the charts. Orange button.

Kick the Resistance's A*#!

In the book “The War of Art,” author Stephen Pressfield calls it “The Resistance.” It’s procrastination. It’s feeling we aren’t good enough, ready enough, or smart enough. It’s doing the easy things first until there is no time for the hard and important things.

Today, bust through! Kick the Resistance’s butt! Look at your goals list or to do list and pick that big important thing you have been putting off – and crush it!

Go get it!

The purpose of our lives

“The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best that is within us” – Marianne Williamson

I love Marianne – check her out.

Information does not like to be owned.

People talk.  They text and email and post too.  

Sometimes, rather than keep a secret, it’s better to just be human.

Can you make a difference?

The question assumes you are not making a difference.  But you are making a difference now.

You are a help or a drag.  You are setting an example to all around you, even those you don’t know or see only for seconds in a lifetime.  You are making a difference at work, at home, while shopping, and by your absence in many places.  

The question is “what kind of difference are you making?”

From things unseen…

We can only produce results we “see” or believe or expect first. The building blocks of what we “see” are our natural onboard talents and desires, what we learn (read, hear, see, watch), the people around us, and our environment. They influence the decisions we make, what happens to us and the stories we tell about it – mostly to ourselves.

If we add to or change these variables, (what we learn, the people around us, our environment, and the stories we tell) we’ll see new things that aren’t there yet, think new thoughts, and find ourselves doing new things that produce new results.  

It’s as simple as that.

"I did this against my will" – Tim Donahue

A new subscriber recently signed up for Think Daily named Tim Donahue. He’s a student at Delhi University in New York. Someone there must have referred a bunch of students because many signed up one day. (more please!) We ask “who referred you?” and he wrote, “I did this against my will.” I loved it!  

Sometimes we need others to help us get out of our normal routine, expose us to new things, and challenge our beliefs. That’s what education is all about.  

The more we “lock in” our beliefs, our self-image, our habits and patterns of thinking and doing, the less we can learn and move forward. We just go around finding people who think and act like us, and thinking or arguing with everyone else about how they are wrong.

Thank you, Tim, for being willing to try something new. Think Daily is about being the best version of you. It’s about personal performance and development, no matter what you are trying to be. You’ll be exposed to ideas that ring mostly true to most people on most days, and stimulates your thinking about your favorite subject and the one you can control – you!

A big shout out to Delhi University. Here’s a challenge – let’s see how many students we can get to subscribe to Think Daily THIS WEEK! I’m going out on a limb here in that I don’t know a soul there personally, but I trust kindred spirits will make it happen! We’ll give a report of the results!

(It’s free, I never share email addresses, and you can unsubscribe anytime!) Let’s do it!

Don't die wondering.

Find out.

How about now?

Feeling "trapped"

If you feel trapped, you haven’t controlled your own life. You are suffering the chains of conformity.

Ask “where am I allowing others to control me that is not true to who I really am or what I really want?”

Why are you allowing this? Is what you gain worth the price?

Would a minute of defiance break the chains and yield your freedom?

Are you brave enough (yet)?