Deciphering ignorance

The Indian Patanjali suggests you need to return to school in order to rise above ignorance and achieve success.  According to him, we may all access useful knowledge in our minds.  It's what we choose to do with this that creates our version of success. Who is given the authority to determine what kinds of facts and skills are more important or more useful than others? What kinds of reasons do you have for accepting a particular hierarchy of steps to success?

If, by drawing from some of your skills, you're able to acquire more money and you desire this, then it may make sense to pursue this avenue.  However, if someone chooses to apply different kinds of knowledge at his disposal, which brings him less money, this individual is not ignorant, though certain cultures would have us believe that intelligence is measured by level of income.  For some people, success is based on feelings, such as a level of accomplishment or satisfaction.

Ignorance can be felt as what Wayne Dyer calls, "falsely identifying oneself as only of the ego-based world."  How can you reframe views of success such that you unlearn your thoughts to separate yourself from cravings and objects you desire? Ignorance prevents you from experiencing success and fulfillment so long as you continue to pursue what appears to provide it rather than find a sense of purpose and success within yourself without doing anything. 

Your senses may influence your view of success by tempting you with things you think you want but don't really need.  Success may involve overcoming certain self-destructive habits, such as over-eating, addictions, focusing on sources of grief, frustration and pain. 

Come waht may, remind yourself that you are not your experiences. You are not the person who thinks he chooses and controls them. A watcher exists beyond all that is perceived. Know values and habits arise as your own illusions. Reflect on your selected activities and what they reveal about your views on success. Ask yourself whether any belief about success is ever spot on.

Wealth without women?

Napoleon Hill says, "man's greatest motivating force [to create wealth] is his desire to please women." Do you agree or disagree? 

According to Hill, the only things that have changed from prehistoric times is man's methods for pleasing women.  Men who accumulate material wealth might also attain fame and power, but is this always basically to seek approval of women?

Hill also states that "it is this inherent desire of men to please women that gives women the power to break a man." The women who then understand a man's nature are therefore in no fear of competition from other women. Men may be powerful and competitive with other men, but Hill believes they are easily managed by the women of their choice. 

Some men admit they're being influenced by their women of choice--their wives, mothers, mistresses, sisters, friends, colleagues--but they refrain from rebelling againsts this influence.  The man who fails to recognize that the influence of the right women has done more to help men achieve success than all other forces combined, is losing out on a very powerful force.

Moreover, Hill expresses the view that women understand men better than men understand women.  He thinks men wish to be seen as stronger in public while women tend to run things like clockwork at home. The phrase, "who wears the pants in the family?" arises in jest.

Strengthen your concentration

What can you do to strengthen your concentration? Turn off the blaring music or change over to some more peaceful of meditative. Switch off the television. Put down the phone and turn on an answering machine if you have one.  Tear yourself away from those addictive computer games. Stop talking about doing things that are unrelated to the task at hand. Adjust your environment to suit your task or move yourself to a setting which will permit you to focus. Collect all the items  and information you need to accomplish your task. Put them together in one place and sort them.

It is never too late to revise your approach to concentration. You can start where you are. Decide if staying where you are in your current circumstances will enable you to move ahead.  If this is not the case, then it's time to take the necessary steps to accomplish more in new ways.

Crisis is opportunity

Any problem you perceive or experience, even the worst situations imaginable, actually contains the beginnings of the best possible things that could happen.  You can learn to reframe a crisis as an opportunity. Your point of view determines what seems easy or hard. What becomes far more important is whether you evolve to consider your pursuits to be more satisfying and fulfulling.

Consider entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki went through a difficult period where bankruptcy initially forced him to live in his car with his wife for six months.  They readily admit that was the toughest period of their lives.  Yet, knowing hardship prompted them to develop new faith in themselves.  It encouraged them to trust their dreams. They swallowed their pride, asked for help, took friends up on an offer to l live in a basement and 9 months later, they were back on their feet. Kiyosaki recreates his version of success as a best-selling author, real estate investor and financial advisor.

Consider a young man had a burning desire to pursue a musical career but was repeatedly told he had no talent.  He came  to suffer from low self-confidence, and didn't initially see everything he labelled as a problem was really a self-created illusion.  He opted to become a pharmacist, but he never let go of his dream.  When new friends encouraged him to enter the 2006 Australian Idol contest, he never anticipated winning. Funny, now Damien Leith's native Ireland wants him back! Athought in the process of becoming an Australian citizen, he does not forget his roots.

Both these men come to see they couldn't get rid of their problems by getting angry or trying to understand how people felt around them.  Instead, they had to step back and see it is up to each of us to notice and correct errors in our own thinking.  Each of these men discover inner power to reframe conditions, to view all experiences as part of learning curves and view every perception is a stepping stone.  In essence, they show us perceived problems are exercises in character-building. 

One big message stands out:  to doubt and discourage is like standing in our own way.  Each of us is invited to appreciate all experience and accept ourselves as we are.  Though we create our own personal versions of external success, inner success is given.  Intrinsic worth is always here.

Severing views of your history

Undesirable situations in your present are simply perceptions.  They are grounded in a belief about history.  The more you dwell on and share painful stories, the more you add energy to negative feelings and cement a sense of the past.  The essence of being exists beyond them. 

Consider an idea that Carlos Castaneda's teacher, the Nagual Don Juan, told him about what one requires to arrive at the highest level of peace and harmony:

"One day," he said, "I finally realized that I no longer needed a personal history, and just like drinking, I gave it up, and that, and only that, has made all the difference."

Whatever happened in your past is simply a belief.  Watch what happens as you shift attention from that kind of perception  To focus on the present is to know the past is imagined into being. You exert control over how you feel.  Use this time you have to your advantage.

Sever those experiences ona  teimline that evoke restlessness and discomfort.  Let them go such that they no longer control you. Focus on feeling good where you are and know everything emerges based on how you feel.  As you love everything. Life is perfect.  The more you encourage, the more you enrich the world.    Mind invites youto focus attention on the future, tells you the best is yet to come. The heart feels the best is here.  Now choose.