Nothing & everything to learn

"Once you answer most of the questions you've ever had about death, you'll have answered most of the questions you've ever had about life." -Neale Donald Walsch

Many people fear mystery in life as much as the unknowns they imagine about death and beyond.  If you seek to memorize supposed 'facts', then you're unconscious quest is to re-create the past.  Turn instead to the idea of your unlimited creative potential.  Consider that suffering and learning may be the required process to jog your memory about what you already know about your skills and talents.  Start to see new kinds of connections between what you've done and what you'll do.

What if increasing your sensitivity and self-awareness were the key to reminding you that you are always teachable?  As you reflect, you can learn to understand past experiences in the context of who you are today.  You can restore faith and confidence in yourself by deciding how you can benefit from lessons learned and apply this in the future.  Step back from what you thought you knew about yourself and the world and embrace what you have yet to become.

Rewind the express train

Today is a new day.  You are in a position to review your pre-conceived notions and their affect on your life choices.  How you have been conditioned to think in certain ways results partly from the education express train which has bombarded you with info through people, books and other media.  Stop this influx and mental digestion.  Switch control from full speed ahead into reverse.

When did you begin to feel you needed anything? Who told you this? You make decisions on a regular basis about people, places things and ideas that you convince yourself are needs.  What if you didn't require these things? What if your sense of dependence and judgment is unjustified?

At which point in your life did you first experience failure? What did this feel like? What circumstances and individuals reinforced your sense of discouragement? How did you react? Every moment your life is changing, moving in varied directions. You exert power and influence over how your life evolves and whether or not you perceive that it evolves at all.

Why might you feel a sense of inadequacy? Who has influenced your approval or rejection of yourself?  In what ways has your life experience affected your sense of purpose or lack of one?  Consider that your life experiences and role models shape whether you accept who you are.  Each of us latches onto images or visualizes ideals which motivate us to act or hold back.  What if your reasons for disappointment in yourself were themselves self-delusions?

Ask yourself what reasons you have to judge others and yourself? When you're treated by others, what causes you to react with anger, hatred, venom, condemnation or other negative feelings? Who have you known in your life who has set an example for you to behave in a critical manner? Consider that you teach yourself to treat people exactly how you think you deserve to be treated.  Reflect on why you feel you deserve to be treated with a lack of self-respect.

What reasons might you have to believe you are better or more of something than someone else?  How did you come to create or adopt a particular kind of hierarchy?  Who may have influenced your self view? Why do you sense you are necessarily wiser than other people? At designated points in your past, you have chosen to accept situations must be black or white.  Reflect on the possibility that situations and relationships are less definitive or 'clear-cut.'

Whispering divine answers

Throughout life, we silently request answers to questions emerging from within.  Do guardian angels respond so we may hear? Which events unfold in your life that you desire to see or choose to selectively tune out? Do you attribute significance to experiences where none exists?  You may be apt to make a fuss over things without having good reason.  Would your choices differ if you sensed certain answers enabled you to influence the greater good? Who in your life is like an angel?

My sister and one of her female friends visited me for a week.  They reminded me how people we love, as if by chance, have the potential to renew our compassion and faith in ourselves.  As I took time to show them scenic places, I learned we may instinctively expand on our knowledge, stretch our abilities and resources, and realize we know how to do that. We may take our minds off discouraging situations and simultaneously remind ourselves we actually create these illusions.  No person is forced to follow impulse.  No person is forced to believe strangers or people they know interact as they do with a higher purpose.  Yet, it can be our choice to believe this is so.

An accountant I met during Moombah Festival fireworks was quite a philosopher. He reminded me we all use numbers and discuss ideas that are really on loan and have already been used by other people before us.  His experience further drew my attention to how people who think they experience financial difficulties always have access to faith and avenues to increase their ability to help themselves. Whether or not his clients or anyone else takes advantage of options is a choice. Our discussions reinforced the idea that no challenge is unresolvable.

A rural winemaker and inventor I visited reminded me of the many ways people can help each other by example. His approaches to redefining retirement living demonstrate how lifestyle and purpose are directly affected by our choices. His family has become virtually self-sufficient with its own water sources and he encourages a great sense of self-reliance. I'm reminded of the value of taking responsibility for all aspects of my life, my food and energy choices, my relationships, my intermittent, self-imposed isolation, my sense of motivation and vision of inter-connectedness. I have learned there are no correct or incorrect choices, only what I aim to do.

A country school teacher I met for work reminded me real-life issues relate little to traditional subjects taught in school. How a community would benefit from coming together to form committees and rebuild structures after a devestating bushfire has little to do with math, reading, spelling and health classes. Truly meaningful interactions are grounded instead on issues of patience, tolerance, understanding, equality and listening skills. To discover the fires stem from selfish violence and arson reveals a need to raise new kinds of awareness. Community members of all ages could benefit from different approaches to inter-cultural education.

Self-defeating need for profit

In modern worlds, the nature of choices, food, shelter, lifestyle, quality of life, technology, medical drugs and treatment and also perceived basics and luxuries are accessible with money. How much we have determines how much we can spend. Unlimited credit, theft and strategic human connections aside, the quest for profit is key to obtaining these mentioned advantages.

What if all of a sudden, that profit was no longer considered necessary or even a desireable goal? What if survival was no longer dependent on money and economic systems as they exist today? This would undermine systems in place to promote competition and supposed excellence.  This would complicate hierarchies, promotions and systems that promote conflict or antagonism. This would render useless acts which trigger jealousy, greed, lust and other negative emotions.

What if all of a sudden, your situation was no longer yours alone. Your obstacles were shared. In such a case, seeking profit would make you worse off than before. You would likely be motivated differently. Perhaps even thoughts of profit would be punishable or punishment wouldn't exist? Economic systems as they stand and govern would crumble. Power dynamics of the 'have' and 'have not' countries would no longer shape global power or evolution. Society might evolve into chaos or find new reasons to dispute or better still, might coexist more peaceful than ever before.

Specific leads to terrific

Specific goals require specific plans to get terrific results. You need to figure out what situation you desire to influence, how you will do it, and a measurable way to track your progress. You decide what is realistic and feasible not based on other people's standards, but on your own. One of the hardest things may be to define your own standards and ideas for wealth creation without distracting, outside influence that draws you away from your core reference points.

Consider that if your ultimate aim is to increase the balance in your bank account, you would benefit from defining the exact sum you envisage. This doesn't mean simply taking a random figure from the sky. Identifying a monetary amount itself doesn't typically come with attachment. To take it further, determine the desire or dream behind your quest for the money. The money is just a means to achieve your desire. Once you isolate a realistic timeline, you'll be in a better position to take steps to make this quantifiable thing happen. If you don't know what you want or why, it's unlikely you'll make the particular sum.  Most business wealth creation is measurable.

Consider that you aim to assist millions of people with a series of motivational books you write, yet, you're unable to predict who will publish them or the timeline. Would this imprecise factor detract from your ability to create wealth? If you're open to new ideas, you create wealth in the form of a learning process all along the way. Promoting book concepts allows you to reach your audience, empowering them to clarify priorities and enrich their lives. This would reveal how the market perceives your writing and its intangible value before books are published.  Progress along this timeline isn't measured by financial milestones.  Financial rewards would come later.

You may aspire to be worth a large sum of money.  You may set a goal of earning a million dollars in five years, and a $200,000/ year salary would achieve this. However, you may have no money left after five years. You may have devoted long hours to achieving what amounts to nothing.   In creating this idea of financial wealth, you have expended time without achieving a set goal. This reminds you the ultimate goal would be what you want to achieve, not the amount or when.  You may not control all the variables that affect when you achieve your wealth creation goals, but without setting a measurable plan, you may achieve a financial target but find that it was in vain.