If you insist you are right, and someone else is wrong, this stops you looking at their perspective. Why would you waste time looking at something that you already know is wrong? When you know you are right, this prevents you learning anything new, which halts progress.
Yet real progress can ... Views: 1743
How can you improve at following through on your commitments?
Explore your Chances of Success
Look at the commitments you've made in your life. What percentage were completed by the deadline - write down your answer between 0% and 100%.
If it's not 100%, then what's the difference ... Views: 1729
The Cherokee Indians say that everybody is internally motivated, as you saw in part one of this Inner Motivation series. They know that, along with everybody else, you have both a white wolf and a negative black wolf to provide internal guidance!
Do you Just Know?
When you just know ... Views: 1578
The previous articles in this series explained how Portia Nelson's awesome poem, Autobiography in Five Short Chapters, identifies some of the difficulties in overcoming challenges in life, which she calls holes in the sidewalk.
Illustrations can be very helpful, so let's look at some conduct ... Views: 1492
So far we've covered several crucial secrets in this article series on the secret of success, now let's look at another.
Your Three Aspects
You have three aspects to your being. Intellectuality, emotionality, and your sensuality. Reason is your intellectual capacity, thinking, your head. ... Views: 1692
The present moment is here. It's what is. You may like it or you may hate it, but it is reality right now.
There's nothing you can do this moment to change it, things are exactly the way they are. Which is not to say your response can't change things in the next second, or day, or next ... Views: 1631
Is President Obama Concerned for your Safety?
Is President Obama really concerned about your children's safety, or do his actions contradict his rhetoric? Is he aiming to deny you your right to defend yourself and your children?
Years ago, he did say he recognizes that "gun owners in ... Views: 1776
Gun control advocates like to use the emotive slogan “gun violence.” Why? This misleading phrase is purpose designed to blur the distinction between self-defense and murder. Since "gun violence" takes no account of the difference between self-defense and a murderous attack, it increases ... Views: 1581
Are you cautious about what other people want you to believe, do you take what they say with a large pinch of salt? The secret of success is to check out its viability, explore their motivation, and wonder if they're trying to mislead you before making up your mind. If it sounds too good to be ... Views: 1575
Do you ever find yourself wondering: why did I do that? Something which produced such an unfavorable outcome that you feel a bit stupid? Why do we do such things?
Are your thought processes so confused that you can't tell good consequences from bad ones? Or don't you know how to think things ... Views: 1677
You have a Right to Protect Yourself
Across the world, government bans on their people's right to protect themselves with firearms is increasingly widely ignored. The enormous outcry against the gun bans proposed by President Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein and their Democratic allies ... Views: 1858
Your Approach to Life
But what's the alternative to being gullible or being cynical? Ask yourself if an idea, or their suggestions, are plausible. Become a skeptic, be skeptical!
There's a lot of misunderstanding about skeptics and cynics. Although many don't comprehend the difference, they ... Views: 1472
You've seen that the first step to mastery is to be willing to listen to the information. Without taking advantage of other people's expertise, you would have to rediscover their insights for yourself. Education is one of the secrets of success, it can be seen as the process of listening and ... Views: 1517
You can See Sense
Once you realize how something fits together and makes sense, you say you see sense. And you actually do, you get the picture. You know it stands to reason since it has the ring of truth.
When you get the picture, your context suddenly expands and that enlarged knowing ... Views: 1584
Should government stop citizens protecting themselves from criminals? What would be the consequences? Yet this question misses the crucial point: If government carried out their fundamental job of protecting citizens properly, then citizens wouldn't need to protect themselves.
The need for ... Views: 1526
The way you see things, you know you are right. And that's true, you are indeed right from your perspective. But when someone disagrees with you, they see things differently, and from their viewpoint they are also right.
But how can two contradictory things both be right? Simple! Here's how ... Views: 1387
The USA incarcerates more people - imprisons more per head of population - than any other country in the world. So many in jail demonstrate the enormous numbers of laws which make criminals out of its citizens. These laws hamper police from carrying out their core responsibility of protecting ... Views: 1600
Is being cynical the best approach to life? Does it beat being either skeptical or gullible?
Being cynical is a very negative way to approach your life. A cynic focuses on the problems rather than the benefits, sees what could go wrong and says no. He tends to reject things and experiences he ... Views: 1941
Despite the abundant evidence, democrats, socialists, and liberals continue to believe that even more stringent gun bans will stop the slaughter. How do the more intelligent and thoughtful ones maintain a straight face given the massive incontrovertible evidence to the contrary?
In America, ... Views: 1613
The 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook, Connecticut has disturbing similarities to the 1999 Columbine High School mass shooting where two angry young men slaughtered a teacher and twelve students.
Since all actions have both seen and unseen consequences, an effective response to reduce the ... Views: 2057
If the cynical stance is not the best approach to life, then does being gullible give better results?
Being gullible is the complete opposite of cynicism. Here you're very positive about what might happen in the future. You may not know much if anything about it, but you subscribe to the view ... Views: 1538
This Personal Power series started by simplifying the complexity of life and seeing that there's no free lunch. Just as you don't benefit by delegating your exercise, you can't change your life by delegating your thinking.
Personal power is crucial, it enables you to produce desirable results ... Views: 1294
Are you gullible? When somebody says something do you automatically believe them? Or do you automatically disbelieve, assume they have a hidden agenda, and discount everything they say?
Both are reactions, yet a reaction, to re-act, to act again as you did last time, has little personal ... Views: 2466
The Sandy Hook School Massacre
The tragedy at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, where a lone gunman slaughtered 20 children and 7 adults, demands action - effective action. The burning question is how to prevent such slaughter in the future, without the law of unintended consequences ... Views: 1529
Following the War of Independence against the arbitrary and unjust policies of England's King George III, the USA needed a new legal framework. All American citizens had learned to distrust oppressive taxes imposed by the legal British government.
The framers of the US Constitution created ... Views: 1936
What is the Goal?
How effective are you in reaching your goals? If you're not as effective as you'd like to be, these life strategies are for you. Have you decided what your goals and dreams are, how will their achievement look to you?
If you haven't decided on your goal, how can you ... Views: 1427
In the article, Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown, the Wall Street Journal* reports there were 18 random mass shootings in the 1980s, 54 in the 1990s, and 87 random mass shootings in the 2000s. In 2012, just one year not a whole decade, the Washington Post lists 14 cases of mass shootings. Are ... Views: 1647
Why Make the Effort?
Why spend the time to come up with bad mood strategies to get yourself into a good mood in the first place? You're busy doing what you're doing and such pre-emptive planning can take a significant amount of time and energy.
The answer is very simple: It's far more fun ... Views: 1452
There's joy in having what you want in life. But there are three essential steps to achieving what you want. Do you know and follow them all?
Don't let Know Where become Nowhere
One of the most important is to know where you're going. If you don't know where you're going, then any road will ... Views: 1618
WikiLeaks, headed by Julian Assange, has released a whole bunch of American government emails showing how America deceives the world. Is he really being hunted by the American oligarchy, with the active cooperation of British and Swedish authorities? Or are the allegations of sexual assault ... Views: 2048
What gives you joy? How do you take your attention away from feeling unhappy?
What do you enjoy doing? Which activities give you a rush, or maybe even just get you to smile inside? When you have an urgent need to get out of a bad mood, how do you stop your self sabotage? Anything which works ... Views: 1509
If you're wary of making commitments, see that making and keeping promises strengthens your personal power, which helps you realize your dreams. This implies that dislike of commitments is pure self sabotage. So to become more effective in keeping your promises, enjoy these tips to change your ... Views: 3268
If you are following this Personal Power series, and have experienced the increase in inner power possible, then you've already seen the big advantage of changing your perspective.
Recognize the Source of Personal Power
When you come across a fundamental truth, something within you ... Views: 1489
The key to real success, as we saw in the previous article in this series, is neither what you have, nor what you do. So what is it? How much time have you invested in contemplating this crucial question?
First Reflect on Your Answer
If you haven't already come up with your answer then ... Views: 1611
Illegal Drugs Increase Violence
Illegal drugs have caused a significant increase in violence. In the years since Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala hardened their stance on illegal drugs, their violent death body counts have risen dramatically.
When you encourage illegal activity by ... Views: 1549
The fundamental secret of success, as you saw in the previous article in this Secret of Success series, is your choice of what to be.
Every time is different. There's no one answer or even a right answer to this crucial question. It's always: What am I this time? (I am, you are and he is form ... Views: 1601
You argue when you both decide the other person is wrong. Two people are needed to argue, yet stopping an argument actually only requires one.
You both insist you are right, which causes the argument. And from the viewpoint you each have on the issue, both of you are right. But are you ... Views: 1275
Is the Sandy Hook tragedy being used by the administration to implement the United Nation's Arms Trade Treaty - the global gun grab? Many other shooting sprees have resulted in equally cynical gun ban attempts across the world. Are gun laws to control guns, or to control people?
The British ... Views: 1924
See a far more comprehensive introduction to the motivations behind this subject in part 1 and part 2 of this series.
Does President Obama really want Peace?
There are plenty of issues that President Obama could spend his time on which would improve America and give you a better quality of ... Views: 1690
The Problem of Prescriptive Solutions
Management theory is clear, prescriptive solutions do not work. Why not? A solution imposed from outside stops you creating your own solution tailored to your circumstances. Since you are unique, different to everybody else, how can one size fit you and ... Views: 1601
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone
Despite Connecticut's gun carry laws at the time, there was nobody armed at Sandy Hook to protect the slaughtered children and teachers. In practice, Sandy Hook was a gun free zone.
So was the 2012 Batman movie mass slaughter which killed 12 and injured 58 in ... Views: 1662
Cherokee Indians have an interesting insight on your internal motivation which can change your life. They say two wolves live inside everybody : a black wolf and a white wolf!
The black wolf feeds on negativity, it lives to bring you undesirable experiences. It's the enemy within, also known ... Views: 2090
Lawmakers in a number of states realize that disarming responsible citizens is an ineffective way of stopping shooting sprees by criminals and deranged individuals. They are now considering a far more intelligent response to massacres of the unarmed: How to terminate ineffective laws and ... Views: 1534
Life is difficult. What an awesome start to psychiatrist Dr. Scott Peck's seminal book, The Road Less Travelled.
So Much to Learn!
Life is also complex, so much to learn and so many rules to follow. There are so many laws and regulations on the books in America it's been said that, reading ... Views: 1376
Achieving anything needs personal power which comes by increasing your awareness, as we saw previously in this Change my Life series #6. So how do you become more aware?
Start Noticing
Start by noticing more. The more you notice, the more you realize there is to notice. As the brilliant ... Views: 1745
You do all kinds of things which are necessary in your life. Yet one thing remains common and that is your consciousness, a golden thread running through all your actions. Your body changes and your actions change, but you're there unchanged.
When you change your context by increasing your ... Views: 1710
Do you disagree with other people much of the time? This is not to ask if you're generally disagreeable, that's a separate question for some other point in time.
The Negativity of Disagreements
Whenever you find yourself disagreeing with what someone else is saying, or with one of their ... Views: 1324
Be Logical
Our society teaches that it's right to be logical and, when dealing with the outside world, being logical is indeed very valuable. There's always at least one opposite, and logic deals very well with the opposite. You can change your life by investigating the possibilities and ... Views: 1451
Are they really a Master? Have they been through all the five steps to mastery themselves? Or are they just pretending?
Do They Have the Wisdom of Experience?
An author who has no experience lacks credibility, his articles have no authenticity. Yet his pretense of expertise is not ... Views: 1544