Focus on moments, more than goals, plans or dreams and Accept what you find.
We can take these two elements even deeper. Together, they represent two very powerful principles of the universe that I would translate as:
** Live in the present (Be Here Now) and
** Learn to accept and cooperate with what is.
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from an article in the huffington post by Russell Bishop:
In my work on the difference between symbols vs. experience, I have found that many people seem to suffer from the illusion that happiness, satisfaction or fulfillment (experience) are a result of accomplishing some goal or, more to the point, of acquiring something in the material world (symbol).
I can certainly understand and have experienced the illusionary pull of a better future if only I could (fill in the blank). However, my experience suggests that all kinds of us, men and women alike, have made the choice to either defer happiness today for the prospects of an even happier future if only I could (fill in the blank) or have equated happiness with achieving or acquiring something in the physical world. It's kind of the old bumper sticker mentality of "He wins who acquires the most toys."
My theory as that over the past 40 years, as American society exited the "Father Knows Best" or "Leave It To Beaver" mentality of the 50's and 60's, we seem to have increasingly equated success and fulfillment with jobs, career advancement, position title, bank accounts, and other symbols of success. If you were one of those statistical women who took on job, career or economic goals as your "symbols" of success, you just might have wound up sacrificing what mattered most in hopes of greener pastures at the other end of job, career or economic goals.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
We Are All Meant to shine
Quote from Nelson Mandella:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. "
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. "
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Happiness and worry over choices...
TURGID TRUTH
"The great source of both the miseries and disorders of human life, seem to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another...Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly or by the remorse from the horror of our own injustice"
Adam Smith, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments 1759"
in layman's terms: "Yes some thing are better than others, we should have preferences that lead us into one future over the other, but when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the differences between these two futures, we put ourselves at risk.
When our ambition is bounded it leads us to work joyfully, when our ambition is unbounded it lead us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others and to sacrafice things of real value.
When our fears are bounded we're prudent, we're cautions and we're thoughtful, when our fears are unbounded we're and overblown we're reckless and we're cowardly.
Our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing we chose Experiences."
-Dan Gilbert
"The great source of both the miseries and disorders of human life, seem to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another...Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly or by the remorse from the horror of our own injustice"
Adam Smith, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments 1759"
in layman's terms: "Yes some thing are better than others, we should have preferences that lead us into one future over the other, but when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the differences between these two futures, we put ourselves at risk.
When our ambition is bounded it leads us to work joyfully, when our ambition is unbounded it lead us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others and to sacrafice things of real value.
When our fears are bounded we're prudent, we're cautions and we're thoughtful, when our fears are unbounded we're and overblown we're reckless and we're cowardly.
Our longings and our worries are both to some degree overblown because we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing we chose Experiences."
-Dan Gilbert
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Summary of the cause of the current economic crash
The core of the issue started with the government's desire to broaden the home ownership in this country. The belief was that certain minorities were at an unfair advantage and the playing field needed to be leveled.
This was done at multiple levels by both parties. The Fed also fed into this housing bubble by keeping interest rates too low, too long.
The banking industry really didn't like these new loans and found ways to get rid of them, they sold them in whole or in part and also looked to insure them. As the housing bubble continued, greed no doubt took over. There was money to be made. Entire companies were made and prospered selling essentially junk paper all of it was 'backed' by the government.
They banks were greedy and the banks were stupid but they didn't break any rules, no amount of oversight (which there was and is still plenty) would have affected things because the government goal of increasing home ownership was being met.
The basic rule of banking is to have a certain amount of assets backing what you are lending, those rules have been lessened (by the government) but we still within reasonable limits, if and ONLY if you assumed those assets were stable like cash. The fact that much of the asset base was based on home values which were at the top of a huge bubble was a system destined to crash and crash hard.
Words of warning did start going out in 2005 and 2006, the Bush administation itself tried to enact more regulation and oversight as it started to see (better late than never) the problems brewing. They were shut down, because of the false belief that were just trying to keep the poor folk from owning homes.
The administration should have yelled louder, Congress should have listened in the first place, big banks should have been so stupid and greedy and individuals should have been more cautious and not gotten into something they couldn't afford.
When the entire system breaks down, it is impossible to lay the blame on one thing, one man or one party. This was a problem in the making for over 20 years.
This was done at multiple levels by both parties. The Fed also fed into this housing bubble by keeping interest rates too low, too long.
The banking industry really didn't like these new loans and found ways to get rid of them, they sold them in whole or in part and also looked to insure them. As the housing bubble continued, greed no doubt took over. There was money to be made. Entire companies were made and prospered selling essentially junk paper all of it was 'backed' by the government.
They banks were greedy and the banks were stupid but they didn't break any rules, no amount of oversight (which there was and is still plenty) would have affected things because the government goal of increasing home ownership was being met.
The basic rule of banking is to have a certain amount of assets backing what you are lending, those rules have been lessened (by the government) but we still within reasonable limits, if and ONLY if you assumed those assets were stable like cash. The fact that much of the asset base was based on home values which were at the top of a huge bubble was a system destined to crash and crash hard.
Words of warning did start going out in 2005 and 2006, the Bush administation itself tried to enact more regulation and oversight as it started to see (better late than never) the problems brewing. They were shut down, because of the false belief that were just trying to keep the poor folk from owning homes.
The administration should have yelled louder, Congress should have listened in the first place, big banks should have been so stupid and greedy and individuals should have been more cautious and not gotten into something they couldn't afford.
When the entire system breaks down, it is impossible to lay the blame on one thing, one man or one party. This was a problem in the making for over 20 years.
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