Sunday Story...Upside Down World

Sunday Story…Upside Down World


A world turned upside down….credit is not actually credit. Credit is actually debt. Debt is not good. Credit is good. Credit goes on the plus side of the ledger. Debt goes on the minus side, at least in all the accounting books I am familiar with. Yet they call them credit cards, when in fact, it is a debt card.

A world turned upside down…we allow big food corporations to sell us on the benefits of added minerals and vegetables in their processed edible non-food products but broccoli and cauliflower and carrots are being robbed of their nutrient values by mono-crop over intensive farming methods.

A world turned upside down…big banks and big companies get government bail outs but the business owner down the street has to close his doors because government regulation and fees reduce the business that he has worked for a lifetime, fed his family, put his children through school to the point it can no longer be profitable.

A world turned upside down…poor people get hand outs if they qualify, rich people get tax breaks, the working poor get to work and no help.

A world turned upside down…in the face of overwhelming evidence people continue to smoke and deny the deleterious effects of smoking on their health. And cigarette companies continue to advertise smoking like it is still good for you.

A world turned upside down…drug companies advertise pharmaceutical solutions to diseases we never knew existed (restless leg syndrome). The drugs in question get advertised as long as the legal disclaimer is read and the side effects often include death. Yet natural products can make no claim even if clinical trials show their effectiveness in the treatment, prevention, or cure of the same syndromes.

Are we so in love with our pain, so in love with the status quo that we will risk pain, injury or even death to keep it in our lives? Do you so love your plight that you will ignore the open doors out of your wretchedness? I mean really? Is the pleasure you derive from smoking greater than the pain of lung cancer, emphysema, or just not being able to move the way you want to?

As humans we are programmed from birth to move toward pleasure and away from pain. This is one of the astounding paradoxes of our time: We admire and worship heroes who put their lives on the line, who run back into burning buildings, follow criminals, or rush into the fire of battle. These heroes run into danger and into pain not away from it. Our history abounds with these stories. We love talking about these people and placing them on the pedestal of our respect. Yet when we have an everyday choice like not smoking, eating right, or changing our minds we run away like a bear was chasing us.

Why not run into the hard choice? Why not do the hard things the way your hero does? Why not accept the temporary pain of effort and vision for the long term joy of success and fulfillment? Why not? It is that hard? Is it so difficult to see the gain, the pleasure that you will deny yourself if continue on your empty path to status-quo ville.

This is all related to our turned upside down world. We are conditioned by our advertising, by our culture, by our socialization to accept mediocrity, to stay with the herd-think so we never have the chance to excel, to be the truly great, amazing and fantastic person we were put on this earth to be. If you step out into the light, if you step into a vision bigger than yourself, if you run into the burning building you are an outlier, a maverick, a hazard and a danger.

You want to change but it is hard, maybe you aren’t sure where to begin, maybe you are afraid of who might have to be if you change. Here are two different paths:
Path A---Go slow. Change one little thing. Choose a minor, hardly noticeable thing and see what happens. Make sure the sky doesn’t fall. If that works okay then maybe pick another ittle thing and see what happens with that one…and so on until you start on the really big ones. Don’t quit smoking…quit smoking 1 cigarette at a time. Don’t go on a diet and cut out all carbs or sugar…just stop eating a doughnut every morning and have a bagel and an orange instead. Little inconsequential things things not big scary things and the result over a year will be a major shift in who you are. If I turn the steering wheel of my car just 3 degrees in any one direction after a thousand miles I will have a whole new destination.

Path B---Begin with the end in mind. Who do you want to be at the end of 2011? What new habits do you want to cultivate, what things do you want to accomplish? Once you have the destination, the end in mind, you can reverse engineer the journey. If I want to be enrolled in a college education program in 2011, what steps must I take? Then map out those steps…do the research and start the journey one step at a time. Want to quit smoking? Set a date to be smoke free. Figure out what the best method may be for you. Try different things, talk to people, get hypnotized. This is the big step path…decide where you want to be and take the plunge.

Two different paths…one looks like putting your toes in one at a time and testing the water. The other looks like seeing the end of the pool and diving in. They will both work. It is really up to you.

The world is upside down. You can just accept it and trudge along for your 78.8 accepting whatever the fates, big pharma, big oil, big food, and big government give you and then you die. Or you can try to right the world either by standing on your head or shifting how you live in it. Your choice…there is no one right and true way but you know which way I lean.

See the world right side up … if you dare.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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