Happiness & Prosperity (Part 5)

Next in the video series delayed as I'm traveling for a few weeks. Start with THIS Video

This post is the Fifth in a series. I recommend you begin with #1
"Happiness & Prosperity – It’s No Secret - Introduction"

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 Personal Characterizations

When I was the owner and CEO of several nationally accredited adult education schools, I noticed that many students whom I assessed as having normal or above average intelligence, appeared to have great difficulty learning in one area or another. After much research and experimentation I was able to see the root of the problem. I wrote several papers and revised the curriculum of several courses. After adding the new curriculum and working with the instructors I was able to greatly reduce the mental blocks many students had.

Over time I was surprised to see the simple ideas we used for removing these mental blocks also had a profound influence on the students personal lives. In seeing themselves differently and becoming more effective in the way they learned, the lessons stayed with them and began to transform other areas of their lives. They learned more about themselves and what they learned begins with our following step.

Step Three - List your good and bad qualities

Make a list of all your good and bad qualities. On a piece of paper or on your computer, make two columns. At the top of one column write “Good” and on the other “Bad”. Then just begin listing all the things you know are good or bad about you. Put down as many as you can think of right away, but it’s ok if you keep adding to the list over days or weeks. (I’d be interested to know what your voice is chattering about right now!) Don’t skip this step; it’s one of the most important. As we continue, what you learn about yourself will help give you great peace in your life. Dig deep and don’t worry about what others might think. You don’t have to show it to anyone, and no one has to agree with what you think.

Some people have a hard time with this, so I’ve made a list of some characterizations to help you get started. (See below) Many of these characterizations are interchangeable and you can put them in the good column, the bad column, or both. You can also add phrases or sentences that describe your good and bad characteristics. You can use things like: “Not good at computers”, “I’m a Geek” (Remember - good or bad) “can’t draw a straight line”, “I’m too short (tall/fat/skinny/bald/hairy/etc.)”, “nobody likes me”, “everybody loves me”.  While you could look at the list and choose every word and apply it to yourself, that wouldn’t be useful. What is needed are the main characteristics that define who you are. The most important ones may not be obvious because they are such an integral part of your everyday life. Imagine some critical moment of brutal honesty when you are required to say who you are, what are your good points and where have you been weak. Write it down.

Extra Credit Exercise

For anyone looking for a little insurance, an extra edge in finding peace, happiness and prosperity, here is an extra credit exercise. Write a short autobiography. One to three pages is great, or do more if you like. This isn’t for publication; so don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, and neatness. Write a short story about your life.

Examples of how we characterize ourselves and others

A failure Aggressive Agitated Airhead Always Right Ambitious Annoying Antagonistic Anxious Apt Arbitrary Arrogant Awkward Boring Brazen Brutal Callous Careless Conceited Corrupt Cowardly Cruel Devious Disgusting Dishonest Domineering Drab Dumb Egotist Emotional Evil Faint-hearted Fat Fickle Foolish Garish Greedy Hypocritical Immoral Incompetent Inept Irritable Jealous Lazy Loose naughty

Mean Merciless Messy Miserly Monotonous Nasty Obstinate Out of Shape Overbearing Overweight Perverse Plump Pretentious Quick Tempered Reckless Rich Rude Sad Sadistic Sarcastic Self-Centered Selfish Shallow Sinful Sordid Spiteful Spoiled Stingy Stuffy Stupid Sullen Thoughtless Timid Un-ethical Unfair Ungrateful Unscrupulous Vain Vicious Vulgar Wealthy

Adventurous Agile Agreeable Altruistic Ambitious Amiable Angelic Attentive Attractive Audacious Brave Caring Charitable Civilized Compassionate Competent Confident Conservative Courageous Courteous Creative Cunning Decent Dependable Desirable Devoted Dignified Disciplined Discrete Dynamic Eloquent Erotic Fair Fashionable Fortunate Friendly Generous Gifted Giving Glamorous Gracious Grateful Gutsy Handsome Happy

Healthy Helpful Honest Horny Hot Humane Humble Imaginative Ingenious Just Kind Liberal Loyal Lucky Magnificent Merciful Modest Neat Nurturing Passionate Patient Patriotic Polite Proud Prudent Pure Reliable Reputable Resolute Resourceful Rugged Sensuous Sexual Shrewd Sincere Skillful Skinny Spontaneous Stylish Suave Successful Thoughtful Thrifty Trustworthy Truthful

I'm an alien. I just realized how foreign I am. Like science fiction I live in a different dimension. I don't see the same world you do. Every TV commercial, news story, book is seen quite differently for me. Michale Moore, "The Secret", FOX news (?), CNN, my friends, China, Big business and Bush (W), are just a few examples.

The Secret is popular, positive, incorporates many interesting and potentially helpful ideas. Unfortunately it also contains a lot of bullshit. Things like "manifesting a million dollars takes the same effort as manifesting a dollar" is total BS. Yes, I get the idea, The thought process and the GOAL is the same, but at some level everyone knows this just doesn't work THIS way. Yet it does seem to work for some people, but certainly not everyone, not even 1 %! (Do you think 55,000 people have manifested a million bucks from reading the secret? - 4 million books, 1.5 million DVDs times 1%) SO they haven't really gotten to THE secret.

The book is close, the quotations bring an awareness to a human phenomenon that really is amazingly powerful. The problem is in the "manifesting" stuff. They really don't know how it works. They really haven't given you any concrete methods or exercise to be a better manifester! I actually know THE secret, the problem is that living in the reality I live in makes it very difficult to share it. People just don't have the ears to hear the answer. How can that be?

What kind of ears DO we have? The world has changed so much. We live in a time where education is all one way. We are told things. Our parents, teachers, president, news, etc. tell us "facts". We don't learn to think and discuss, like the ancient Greeks for example. The modern world stands on the mathematics, social and political ideas they invented. People learned through thinking and discussion, for example with the Socratic Method.

We run around with a bunch of "facts" we picked up from ??? ... who knows? We learned it someplace. What difference does it make? I know it!! period. NO discussion. People don't even know what discussion or conversation IS. The Greeks even knew that. CON=together, VERSA=transform. Our modern version of conversation is arguing the "facts". You throw me one of your facts, and I hit you back with one of mine, that shows you have the wrong fact. The end result is usually pitiful. Neither has respect for the other, neither learns anything new, and most likely the area of a circle would not have been figured out using this method.

That's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It's the beginning of why you can't hear what the secret really is. You already know, besides who am I to tell you? "If you're so smart how come you're not rich"? See I really do live in another world. I see being rich, smart, reliable, and anything else you can say about people so differently than you.

Actually while I respect Socrates: "He claimed that the chief goodness consists in the caring of the soul concerned with moral truth and moral understanding, that "wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state", and that "life without examination [dialogue] is not worth living".(Wikipedia)" Excellent, we really need the "examined life" thing, but I can see another, deeper dimension in understanding wealth and goodness. It's not about me being smarter than Socrates. We live in a different time, and I have the advantage of having learned from people that came after him. So I have a perspective that includes understanding what "Smart" or "Wealth" are, in a way that can make anyone more effective, at anything they do - especially if they want to manifest tha million dollars. I can tell you how, or better yet, learn what a GOOD LIFE is, with OR without that million bucks.

Stay tuned.