To believe or not to believe

The idea of believing in guardian angels is reassuring in the midst of life's unfolding events.  It can be so tempting to give into reasons for discouragement and despair, to permit negative feelings to control your mind.  Yet, its not necessary.  More and more people are realizing another way.  This is how each person can positively change the world, one person and one step at a time.

A Fox News poll has determined more than nine in 10 Americans (91%) believe in God and almost as many believe in heaven (87%). In addition, 84% say they believe in miracles and 79% in angels.  This high percentage reflects a general hopefulness about positive things that aren't very easily explained.  Why would people prefer to believe in positive unknowns rather than negative unknowns? Increasing numbers of people are learning the power of attraction to invite and intend what may appear to be Divine intervention.  To behave as if positive events unfold can bring them.

In terms of the dark side, about three-quarters of Americans (74%) say they believe in hell and two-thirds in the devil (67 %).  At the same time, the above figures reveal that more people choose to believe in having friends in Higher places.  If people believe in both positive and negative myths or ideas, then the positive seems to become more of a pre-occupation. Would you consider this to be a symptom of a trend in increasing faith in spirituality? Does this touch on the popular Secret?

How can you choose not to believe in angels? What reasons would you have to believe or not to believe in things you cannot see?

Oil crisis

Do you dream of your life remaining as it is? A large part of planet Earth has come to depend on fossil fuels, for everything from synthetic clothing and shoes, paints and plastics to gas for heat and motor transportation.  An increasing controversy is linked to the actual quantity of remaining oil reserves.  How long we can continue living as we do before they're depleated? What would happen to life as we know it as we run out of oil?

Conventional experts suggest we have 30 years.  A large group of experts think we only have three.  Are we about to hit the oil crisis? Some experts believe by 2010, people will be shocked by oil prices.  Are they simply doomsday naysayers? Many practising petroleum industry professionals in big oil companies are in this camp. They fear the growing Asian petroleum product markets and the voracious demand that could become greater than modern levels western consumption.

Exxon Mobil (ESSO) is the largest oil company in the world. They employ over 20,000 scientists to investigate and follow the level of oil resources.  Exxon experts believe we have we have lots of time to develop alternatives (up to 60 years).  All oil fields make their way toward peak oil, but Exxon claims improving technology would supposedly enable the extraction of additional billions of barrels of oil.

How have we allowed our lives to become so dependent on cheap oil?  It takes 6 barrels of oil to bring one cow to market.  Can you begin to speculate on the amount of oil that is used daily to bring products to diverse international markets? The amount is astonishing.  Consider shipping, air freight, trucking, trains and other means of transport. Who stops to think that oil is a finite resource?

For a more personal approach, do you take what you eat and do in your life for granted? People in leading financial institutions and growing numberrs of retirees all assume they can continue to invest into oil in stock markets into the 21st century.  How many people are already thinking outside that box? Would you be one of them? Shouldn't we plan ahead differently to avoid real crisis?

I received a 12 minute Internet video about the imminent depleating of oil.  According to this international research piece, the world uses ~84 million barrels per day. The biggest find in the recent past was back in the 1970s in the north sea.  Most finds these days don't produce more than 50 million barrels (total). The big question is when will we reach half depleation in the world (half oil)?

The US reached peak oil in 1971, the UK (with its North Sea oil) in 1999 and Australia peaked in 2000.  Other places are less easy to pinpoint.  The Middle East provides 1/4 of the world's oil and refuse to permit other people in to verify how much oil they have.  In the 1980s, some places in the Middle East quoted figures that doubled, and other places published the same figures as if oil reserves hadn't depleated.  investigate the current state of reserves is unknown.

This is when  People don't understand the underlying causes of increasing oil prices.  You can slow the decline, but you can't stop it.  Can you imagine of people lining up for days to fill your tank? What about the people who suddenly wouldn't be able to heat their houses? Nobody can think of alternative fuel for airplanes. Its all about how we can get in an alternative infrastructure in place after the crisis hits.  Countries have plans for terrorist attacks and environmental crises, but where is the plan to assist societies to compensate adequately in their lives for peak oil? Consider what you can do to change your lifestyle to plan ahead.

Implicit rules

Who has access to what data and who has access to particular revenues? Enterprises and their employees are connected these days by little more than temporary convenience. This renders obligations and duties less tight. People come and go quite readily. Wages are less predicable. The idea of working for others was originally seen as a step toward more freedom in economic independence where people would have more control over what they charge for their services.

Are you part of an entrepreneurial group? Do you feel like part of a professional team? You may work on a team project and take a percentage of money earned by a project. More people work in teams or office projects than alone. As time passes, your income will continue to depend on how much clients will be willing to pay for your services. What do you wish to offer?

How you make a living can be linked to how you percieve your talents. What do you think you can do? Are you doing what you would really like to do? You may determine what you like to do but be unaware how you can make money from that. Some people work one job while they reflect on how they can make enough money to survive and prosper from what they really like doing. Dreams are those things you work toward and they nurture hope and motivation.

Steady work with predictable rises in pay of the past is rarely the norm today. Experience and maturity had nothing to do with job classifications. Everyone was paid in exchange for time. Yet, tacit rules of employment have essentially disappeared. Most people still rely on wages or salaries, yet consistent streams of income are less predictable, except for a handful of professionals. They rise and fall based on the rise and fall buyers make. A job that is permanent may still have tidal salaries, based on things like billable hours, stock options, and sales statistics. Impermanence is the standard. Uncertainty requires people redefine security.

Personal versus maket success

We each have our own internal logic about success.  This relates to our personalities and skills. How could you evolve from an information broker into a knowledge broker?  How could you become more adaptable to the marketplace and provide more personalized services that reframe your value? What can you do to show people what you can offer that isn't common-place? 

Consider computer programmers.  They understand the logic of what's possible in certain conditions.   They develop software that has widespread, practical uses.  This may give them a sense of accomplishment, but they may unaware how to promote a profitable, market success.

Consider creative people need to learn to ask the right questions, to observe behaviour cues, elicit and intuit human needs.  They are empathic and understand what is desired before a desire surfaces in the marketplace.  These people find unexpected market opportunities for what the computer programmers devise. When logical thinkers pair up with creative thinkers, they may create a greater sense of personal and marketable success. 

Businesses are supposed to create value over time to bring a financial return to shareholders.  Depending on your contribution to a business,  whether you're an investor, an employee, a business owner, a customer, you would see value and success differently.  Success can be seen as reflected in customer loyalty, while it could also be seen in the form of profit, increasing share price, greater popularity, better accessibility, and even more competitive prices.  

One kind of success is not more important or better than another.  Each person creates a hierarchy.  Every great idea comes not only in making a discovery, but also in how the discovery can be used.  Mutual learning and innovation tends to be serendipitous, and grows out of casual exchanges without high pressure.  The impetus for innovation comes from each of us.

Find the bright side

No matter what kind of condition or life circumstances you know and have known, a bright side exists. You can always train or untrain the mind to notice this.  Its a blessing to do so.

For instance, if it is raining outside, and this appears to spoil your plans, you can shift focus to be grateful for the nutrients this brings to the flowers and greenery. You can be grateful for the moisture that renews the Earth, that gives you water to drink, and enables you to do something you would not otherwise have done. You can see rain as opening the way to see the sun. Even an electric storm can be viewed as a form of relief for Nature and much more.

The same can be said for every person you ever know, every job you've ever had, every event that has ever unfolded in front of you. If you feel cheated or betrayed, you can find something positive about the same situation. You can focus what appears to be lacking or what insight, opportunity or wisdom you are gaining. What did you learn about yourself that you wouldn't have seen otherwise? It is valuable to step outside the judging mind.

If you feel you have reason to resign from your job, then you can choose to see that as the best possible thing that could happen, and feel excited about what is coming next. After all, to be your own boss or to find a different job more suitable to your skills would be marvelous!

Consider how an unforeseen injury that laid you up a few weeks enabled you to read the books you hadn't made time to read before. Perhaps you benefit from a reminder to relax and be kinder to yourself. Every event invites you to be more compassionate with yourself and others.  To recognize you have ability to see your life situation from another perspective is something that helps you, come what may.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, you can re-program your mind.  What will it take to convince yourself that you have blessings in your life? Start believing your relationships will be restored, that opportunities already exist for you and you choose to see them or not. As you start expecting good things to happen, then you reach a stage where this is all you see.  Know you pass your tests with flying colors. Recognize everything is preparing you for something else. You are being readied for conditions which are better for you than before. Sensing the bright side strengthens more than eyesight. It moves you from hope to trust.

"Always look on the bright side of life." - Monty Python