Entitlement vs Entrepreneur

Somehow we get it hammered into us that we are supposed to be poor.  So we let the government give us money because we don’t bring in enough income.  Here’s the catch – it’s not just my own tax that money comes from, but everyone else’s.  We are asking everyone else to give us money – for no work.  But if we purchase goods and services from each other, everybody wins.

Greed vs Generousity

When we meet someone who “already” has money and gives to others, we think they are generous. Yet, oddly, when someone is learning how and working hard to build a business, we might think they are greedy!  But that money from a properly run business which is used to support employees, families and others is like a child - it doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Some things have to happen first.

Perseverance vs. Paranoia

I was going to write a bit a perseverance tonight.  What it is to continue in the face of all odds.  In the face of failure.  In the face of messing up, and starting again.  But I was reading an article which started me thinking about what I call our "cultural paranoia." 

We've been trained to be paranoid.  The media and governing bodies tell us not to let our kids walk down the street on their own to a friend's house - they'll get abducted.  Not to let anyone be sad or depressed - they won't ever be able to cope.  Not to hug anyone or have physical contact - it's inappropriate and not therapeutic.

I find this flies in the face of both thousands of years of how we humans act, and in the face of research.  We walked down the street to a friends, and learned how to be independent and think for ourselves.  Maybe problem solve if we decided to go a different way.  We got sad, or depressed over the death of a loved one, and amazingly, we actually worked through our grief, and became both stronger and more sympathetic.  We got lots of hugs from family, friends, neighbours and teachers, and, as  research shows, became healthier mentally and physically.

Buying into the "cultural paranoia" makes us less healthy, less independent, and more depressed by teaching us not to do what is actually best for us.  But I think we all need to persevere in simply refusing to buy into it.  There is also the concept of what you focus on, you get.  The more the media focuses on the horrors, the more we get them.... So turn off the TV and news.  Send your kids to the neighbour's house.  Cry with a friend, laugh with a friend, and make sure you give and get lots of hugs!

Bootcamp For Beliefs

I've been digging around my subconscious lately.  It's difficult to write about these things without being boring (an attempt on Facebook was deleted after an hour...it put me to sleep!)  But I will say it's quite an exercise to look at what you say you believe - what you think you are living out day to day - and then to really pull up the roots and origins of what comes out in your actions and results day to day.

It reminds me of all the time I spent with my friend Mark in university. Mark was a student of philosophy, and very good at asking provoking (think "earth-shattering") questions. But I think the harder part is not having one's earth shattered - the harder part is looking through the rubble and finding out what's really underneath it all.

I won't bore you with what I've been pulling up - it might just sound like a bunch of fertiliser to you.  But if we are interested in growing, I guess we need to pull out that fertiliser on schedule!

Growth and Re-Growth

I've been accused of not writing much lately.  And that is is true, other than the odd Facebook note.  There's been a lot going on behind the scenes.  We've been busy at our practice, putting new systems into place, learning them, still learning them, and then learning a whole lot more.  And then, just maybe, it dawns on me just how much there is actually to learn.

I've also been challenged (and voluntarily challenging myself) on a whole lot of how I think, behave, act, respond, believe.  I'm pretty sure this is a good idea to do periodically; I'm just wondering why I picked the recent insane learning curve months to work on that as well.  Coincidence?  Probably not.

I've discovered fear is a lousy reason not to move forward.  OK, I haven't mastered that one yet, but the fear of losing what one has can really paralyze and wreck your life's plans.  I never understood, in the parable  about the guy who was so afraid of losing what his master gave him so he buried it in a field, why that master was so angry and took even that bit away.  I thought it was pretty unfair.  But now I think that might be a good analogy for fear.  It's not that what we have gets taken from us, it's that we give away any possibility of enjoying it (our lives?) and give away any possibility of growth and change because we don't do things.

We don't call our friends and family.  We don't take a risk and invest. We don't take enroll in that class or participate in our favourite passtimes.  We're afraid a friend we call will ignore us. We're afraid we'll lose all our money.  We're afraid of having a bad time.  We're afraid we'll have a good time doing the wrong thing.  Not doing means we don't fail, right?  Wrong.  We fail even more than losing everything would mean, because we don't just stagnate, we diminish.   If we keep attempting to grow, yes we'll fail and do the wrong things, but we'll do even more of the right things and really get a chance to enjoy our lives and achieve our goals.

So here's to new growth, re-growth, and some spectacular living!

Healthy Detox Strikes Again!

During the holidays, like everyone else I imbibed, ate and enjoyed the treats!  By January my poor joints were inflamed, my system reminding me that I don't consume heaps of dairy, wheat, sugar and additives for good reason.  Amazingly, while I think a kilo or so snuck up on me, I'm pretty astounded that my weight and waist-line were both back to where they were at my last "check-in" by the time I was ready to do a health tune-up.

Since I'd done a full-blown system detox previously, it is not recommended you do another large detox for at least a year or so.  But a mini-detox was definitely in order, so for the past 2 weeks I did the "express" version.  Part of that was getting back on a strict diet that excluded inflammatory foods, additives, sugar, caffeine and alcohol.  I'm happy to say the inflammation is down, celllular health is up, and the body fat, waist & weight all went down again!  Since Andrew wanted wine with dinner tonight, I decided to go ahead and have a glass, and even a little post-dinner, dark and thankfully soy-free belgian chocolate.

I'm glad to eating healthy again after the holidays, and look forward to disappearing more.  I also look forward to being able to make those glasses of wine and cups of coffee disappear again as well!