Real Value

I put far more value in the words of wisdom from a person who has experienced life and who has learned from their mistakes, than someone who regurgitates the thoughts and ideas of a complete stranger and considers them self an intellectual.

People Need To Accept Me For Who I Am

Rejection is never easy and at times it can be very painful. All of us have experienced rejection at some point in our life. Even though it feels like a bad thing, rejection can actually be beneficial. When we are rejected it keeps us out of situations and relationships that wouldn't be healthy or productive.

Basically, why would you want to be where you are not welcome? Why would you want to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't appreciate you? This raises the most important question. Why are you being rejected?

For years, we have been told to be ourselves. People need to accept us for who we are. That is very good advice, unless you're a jerk. However, if you enjoy life and enjoy being who you are, even if you are a jerk, that's fine. Be who you want to be, become who you want to become but realise this, not everyone will accept you.

Like the saying goes, “you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time.” The good news is you don't have to accept who you are. If you don't like the person you are, you can change. That is why the pain of rejection is a good thing. Pain is an indication that something is wrong. When you stick your finger in a flame the pain tells you to move your finger or remove the flame, or else you'll get burned. The pain of rejection is an indicator it is telling you to make a choice. Either get out of that situation or change what you are.

So take a look at yourself and find out why you are being rejected. If you don't like what you see, it's time to make some changes. On the other hand, if you're happy with who you are, disregard the rejection, move on and enjoy life.

Is The Secret Real?

In a recent e-mail somebody asked me, what is the secret? The secret is the law of attraction, which basically means. You become what you think about, or you create what you think about or attract, manifest so on and so forth. Although it's not really much of a secret because you can find information about it almost anywhere.

The real secret is, everyone uses the law of attraction to attract good things and bad things into their life, whether they believe in it or not. Just like the law of gravity, you don't have to understand or even believe in gravity to use it to your advantage or disadvantage. You might ask how can you use gravity to your disadvantage? The answer is simple, if you jump off of a building you're going to fall and get hurt. Gravity doesn't understand what's good for you or bad for you. It's just gravity.

The law attraction works the same way. It doesn't know what's positive or negative. It's just a law. Here's an exercise to help you understand, let's say you're shopping, and you keep telling yourself "don't forget the milk, don't forget the milk", and you keep repeating that in your mind even out loud, it doesn't matter because what you're actually telling yourself is to "forget the milk, forget the milk". You see your subconscious doesn't understand what do or don't means, because all your subconscious hears is "forget the milk". When what you really need to be telling your subconscious is "remember the milk" or better yet I "will pick up milk before I leave the store".

This is just a very basic example but the use of the law of attraction is actually very much broader and more complex. Again just like gravity we can use it to simply play catch with our children or to slingshot a spacecraft around the moon. Before Anything Was Created, It Existed Only In Someone's Imagination. I hope this helps, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Science Versus Theology

I have a problem with both science and theology because they are both studied by humans, a species that is totally incapable of filtering out their own personal biases. A relationship with God is based on faith and therefore should not have to be proven but science is based upon observation and should always be proven, otherwise it to is theology.

An exercise in futility

If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. But, if you teach a man to build a seafood company, you feed thousands long after you're gone. Unfortunately most people just want to be given a fish.

The relationship between money and aerodynamics

In my last post I made a reference to flying, and in my future posts I'm sure I will also bring up the topic because I love to fly. I also love sailing so I'm sure that topic will find its way into some of my posts, but today I'm going to talk about the relationship between money and aerodynamics.

Anyone who understands aerodynamics knows the five laws or principles of flight and they are lift, gravity, thrust, drag and the fifth principle of flight is, Money! Lately I have been on an extended hiatus from flying because of the fifth principle. Yes I love to fly but I love life more than flying. Now I'm not suggesting that flying is dangerous, what I am suggesting though is that flying cheap can be very dangerous.

For as long as I can remember I've always loved airplanes. When I was very young I had an opportunity to ride in an airplane but I was terrified so I didn't go. It could have been the need for me to conquer my fear of flying that sparked my interest in aviation. As with most aviation enthusiasts I would read books about flying, build and fly model airplanes but it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I took my first airplane ride, and yes I was still a bit terrified. Even though I knew a lot about airplanes and how they flew, what all the controls were and how they worked, I was still nervous up until the instructor said go ahead take the controls. At that moment my life changed and I felt a change for the better, but the last thing I needed was another iron in the fire because I already had too many interests while I was working on a music career, which unfortunately never really developed into what I had hoped.

Now there was something new, I wanted an airplane, I mean a real big not a toy airplane. So how do I buy an airplane on a factory worker's wages? I resorted to the only strategy I knew at that time, I would do it as cheaply as possible and didn't care about the risk, I was going to a build an airplane. I figured I could hold down a 40 hour week job, raise two kids as a single parent, pursue a professional music career and find the time and money to build an airplane and learn to fly it, but that's just me.

I balanced it fairly well for the next few years but then that fifth law of aerodynamics naturally revealed itself. MONEY! Well something had to give, so needless to say my flying took a backseat to living. Now I am a bit older and I feel a bit wiser because I understand that money is the most important principle of aerodynamics. The more money you have the better, faster, farther and safer you can fly. I still have the same goal of owning my own airplane but I am approaching it from a different angle, I will concentrate on making money and the money will get my airplane. Wish me luck.

Let your emotions be your guide, NOT!

It's hard to go through a day without witnessing someone who is being guided totally by their emotions, but is that a bad thing? Maybe but maybe not, most of us at some point in our life have experienced an unbridled outburst of uncontrolled emotion after which we feel physically drained and on occasion totally embarrassed. We've all heard that we should control our emotions and we shouldn't make decisions based on them. On the other hand we wouldn't want to live our life guided solely by our emotions. But don't think of your emotions as a curse, instead think of them as a tool or better yet an indicator. I don't like the idea of controlling our emotions because our emotions help define who we are.

Anyway I think it's almost impossible to control our emotions. When we try to control our emotions we end up resorting to psychological counseling, psychiatry or even drugs both prescription and illegal. I'm not saying that these things are necessarily bad, except for the illegal drugs of course, but it seems like there is an epidemic of people with emotional and psychological disorders. So instead of trying to control our emotions lets use them to our advantage instead.

Let's think of our emotions as an indicator on an instrument panel of an airplane. These indicators or instruments are all tools to help the pilot fly the airplane better, easier and safer. One of the most important instruments on an airplane is ironically named the attitude indicator, how's that for an analogy. The attitude indicator shows the pilot whether the plane is banking, climbing, diving, or flying straight and level. As a pilot I was taught to always trust my instruments, but is that always the best approach? Some would argue yes, but just like always trusting your emotions I would argue no.

When I am flying with very low visibility and cannot see the horizon I will always, yes always! trust my instruments, but if I'm flying straight and level on a clear day with a blue sky and 20 miles of visibility and my attitude indicator shows that I am diving rapidly what do I believe now, the horizon or the instrument, definitely the horizon. And that is how we should use our emotions.

I will give you an example of how to do this. Let's say you're walking alone down a dark street at night in an unfamiliar neighborhood and from the shadows you hear and sense that someone is watching you. You can't see anyone or anything but you still get nervous and a bit frightened, now you are confronted with a decision, should I face my fears and continue walking to my car or do I go with my emotions, my gut feeling, my fear and run like hell? Well if you are like me, before initiating any plan of action you would ask yourself this one question. What would Spock do?

A riddle about the difference between wisdom and knowledge

On the second birthday of a set of twins an incident occurred in which one of the twins gained knowledge and the other gained wisdom. What happened? Please comment or e-mail me if you think you know the answer. I will post the answer shortly.
Here is the answer:
Answer to the riddle of Wisdom and Knowledge

The Role Of Government

For as long as I can remember I have viewed the world a little differently than everyone else I knew. I never really accepted the status quo. I've always needed to understand how things work and not just take someone else's word for it. So wrong or right but I believe right this is how I view the true role of government.

Let's look at the word government, it means to govern and to govern, you need a governor. A lot of things have governors not just states. Many mechanical and electrical devices have governors. What do these governors do? What is their purpose? Well to govern of course. Take your car for instance, the engine in your car most likely has a governor to keep it from over revving and causing damage to the engine. Actually most engines have a governor, the engine on my tractor, lawnmower, Rototiller, generator and boat all have governors.

Like it or not government is necessary, but contrary to what many may think, a government or governor was never intended to control or dictate, only to govern. What does it mean to govern? Let's look again at the governor on an engine. The governor on an engine can only do one thing and that is to impede, to slow down, to stifle to reduce power or energy to keep the engine from running too fast and causing damage to itself and that is all. The government of a nation (at least the U.S.) was engineered to work exactly the same way.

So in terms of a government controlling an economy the government can only do one thing and that is to impede. A government cannot boost an economy it can only slow down an economy. A government cannot create jobs it can only impede the creation of jobs. A government cannot control, try though it might it can only get in the way of progress.

Why Am I Here?

Why am I here? Well I have been around the block a few times and made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I feel I have learned from those mistakes and hopefully I can help others who might be making the same mistakes I did. But  the bigger question is, why are any of us here? Is there some divine plan? Is there a preset destiny for each of us? I believe the answer is yes and no.

It is hard to enter into any philosophical discussion without delving into religion.  So yes, I believe in God, but whether or not you believe in a creator the answer is still the same. We were all created equally, we were all created with certain talents, abilities, interests and aspirations. That is who we are, that is how we are wired and that is in fact our destiny, to be the person we were designed to be. To do what we know and love to do, to enjoy life and all of its abundance, to become whoever and whatever we want to become. That my friend is why we are here.