AppliedProsperity.com

Without ambition one starts nothing.  Without work one finishes nothing.

          The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. 

 The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss.

                       As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few.

The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.

                                          The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

                                                                 -- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Economics of Thought & Focus

Some might think of Henry Hazlitt's book, Economics in One Lesson, an odd one to classify as a self help book.  As I pick up the book again and again, I'm here to say that is indeed a tool for personal development.

On a Side Bar 'Question & Action' Challenge, here at my blog, I repeated a challenge I'd first read in Tim Ferris' book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which was "If you only had 2 hours each day to produce, what would you do?"  Then, something crazy happened.  I was affected by a personal energy crisis; I was constantly tired and couldn't seem to stay awake very long.  Also, when I was awake, my focus was increasingly scattered; it became difficult to stay on task. 

The great thing about this challenge in my life was that I came to see how there is a definate economy of thought and focus.  In other words,whether talking about thoughts or actions, time focusing on one thing comes at a definite cost of not focusing on other things; and there are always consequences attached. 

With a tendency toward distraction anyway, I had to find a way to progress in my life and in business by first realizing this economic principle and then applying reason to the principle.  I had to be very careful in what I chose as my priorities, then give my energy and focus to those priorities appropriate to my desired outcomes.

So, what did I do?  Of course, my first priority was my health; finding ways to increase my energy.  This in itself became frustrating to me as one day I might spend my energy going to a doctor's office and find that such actions pretty much spent all the fuel I had for the day.  My afternoons were spent with my two young children, tho who was looking after whom became the question on certain days (multi-tasking became very uneffective with the limited productive ability to focus.  Dad at the computer was seen by the lil' tikes as license to pull pants down and run outside in the yard; or for big brother to turn on the water and hose down little sister). 

After doing what I could do for my own health, I determined that an action-plan needed to be established for business and for other things in my life.  To help exact my productive time for productivity, I made a list of things I could do when I was overwhelmingly tired, such as showering or walking - things that were tough to fall asleep while doing, but things that needed to be done. 

Having only an hour or two each day for business, I had to determine one or two steps that could be taken to have the most impact on progression.  One other consideration was this: How can I enlist the assistance of others?  Better said, How can I provide enough value that others would willingly want to participate in what I'm doing?

This has been a profitable experiment, albeit an uncomfortable one.  It may be easy to see how dollars can be misappropriated in a business that has a bit of capital to start when comparing it with a shoe-string operation.  A capitalized start-up can certainly become a shoe-string operation in a short time.  We can identify that a shoe-string start-up cannot afford financial mistakes, and may not have the ability to even make financial mistakes.  It may have to rely upon creative thinking to best move a project forward.  Whereas a capitilalized start-up may have an idea for progression and invest dollars without the same amount of thought warranting the move. 

Now, here's a similar economic relationship in my own life, only using thought, energy, and the ability to focus as capital.  One lesson I'm learning from my experience is how important focused energy is, and that if I continue to utilize these economic principles in my planning, thinking, and doing while I'm improving my health, how much more LIFE there is available to me.  What will I be able to do with the extra thoughts, energy, and focus when my business remains streamlined and prioritized.  In my sleepy frustration and momentary scarcity of productive time, I've found even greater abundance.

--Dave Charbonneau, C.E.R.

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way...

"...You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."
--Pink Floyd

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"We will always remember.  We will always be proud.  We will always be prepared, so we may always be free."

--Ronald Reagan    Normandy, France June 06, 1984

This blog is dedicated to exploring the principles of prosperity; and prosperity requires freedom.  Freedom to learn, freedom to try new things, freedom to communicate, freedom to assemble, freedom to own property, freedom to fail, and freedom to get back up when you fall.

Then, there's our current political bowl of crap that's being passed around America's table; with ideas so far off base it makes me sick.  It's like an unscrupulous used-car salesman asking his naive customer which of 3 colors is the most appealing.  But it's a tactic to disguise that nothing on the lot is worth owning. 

I'm offended by the audacity of those who offer their service to the people that is blatantly opposite of what freedom stands for.  Perturbed that there are those who call themselves Americans yet stand with their complaints of the strength that keeps us free.  Sick to think of those who bask in the comforts of capitalism but cry out for the bondage of freedom through shortsighted or socialistic agendas.

And yet...  by my very ability to shout out my anger and dissappointment, I find myself humbled with gratitude; a gratitude for that which has been given and can never be paid back.  I am unendingly thankful for the men and women who have given their total selves for the freedoms I enjoy and the rights I still have to express both my disagreements and my joy.  When it is said that they gave their lives, I understand that they gave up the very potentials of the goodness life has to offer: Falling in love, their children's ballgames and first dates, laughter with friends, and a sunset casting it's last light of the day over a free country. 

If my message only served to thank those who have served and those who continue to serve the U.S.A. and freedom, then there would be no need to mention the negative.  And yet, a heartfelt 'Thank You' is only a portion of today's message.  The other part is a call to action for any who will read this. While we can't pay back the favors to those who have passed on, may we each make the most of each of our liberties, may we stand tall and fast for the cause of good, and may we push back the tyrannical plots of those who continue to attack America whether from across the seas or from within our own sovergn borders. 

May the freedoms men and women of war have handed us never be held in vain; no, may they seldom be held at all other than in moments of grattidute and reflection.  Rather, may we put our freedoms fast to work toward propserity and the pursuit of happiness.

--Dave  Charbonneau

"All gave some, and some gave all
And some stood through for the Red, White & Blue
And some had to fall
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall...

...Some gave all"
--Billy Ray Cyrus

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YOU WON'T FIND CONFIDENCE OUTSIDE OF YOURSELF

Sure, that 'one more book' or 'one more seminar' might be a valuable tool for progression; but everything you need to succeed is found in your own level of confidence.

+++

I know that success requires a level of confidence.  Not a lot, mind you.  Just one measure more than any given level of fear or doubt.

Often, I find myself looking for techniques or tools.  Yes, even though I've taught myself and others that MORE education, one more book or seminar, another technique - these aren't typically the lasting answers*; I tend to revert back to the tempting safety of finding another item or experience to add to my tool kit.  

*sometimes they are, but only after we've developed the core confidence we'll discuss today.  Once we have this, we're also much more guarded as to what and how much information we allow into our minds.

One reason for this is there are so many people telling us, shouting at us, that they're information is the key we need; perhaps that's what we're missing?

However, with thought - and at times in an attempt to get away from thought for awhile - I am reminded that less is more; that getting rid of that which isn't essential to survival is the key to confidence.  And confidence is usually all that is required to get us to move beyond a level of survival or status quo.  Confidence will take us to the very level of accomplishment that we seek.

Here's an example.  Imagine you are standing outside a castle in the clothes you're wearing now (never mind that it's the medieval times and others are looking at you strange for the way you're dressed).  You know that an opposing army is about to arrive and attack this castle, and your job is to defend the castle while taking command of the opposition.  In a matter of minutes, 400 soldiers on foot and horseback will arrive and you're standing here, alone, in your street clothes without a weapon in hand.  How confident do you feel?

You might feel more confident of the situation if you had a sword.  Okay, now you have a sword in hand.  You might feel more confident if you knew how to wield that sword, and if you had a shield.  Perhaps if you had a horse, and others to fight the upcoming battle along side you.  Maybe you're more confident if you had 500 soldiers on horseback, all with swords and armor and shields; better yet they're all in front of you and there's a seasoned commander who's never lost a battle preparing this army.  If this is the case, then you would likely feel even more comfortable just on the inside wall of the castle; better yet, instead of on the ground, you're high up in the tower with no windows and the access to you has been blocked.  Well, if we're going this far, why don't we remove you from the scene, altogether; you're on a different continent with no relationship with the battle, other than your knowledge that it is taking place.

Isn't it interesting: what started out as a desire for a tool or some help in order to feel more confident, soon became more tools, more resources for help.  And notice how these tools and the other individuals soon became, instead of confidence, a relief from the situation - perhaps in real life, your original intention.  The more tools you had, the more people you had fighting your battle, the less your chances of participating in battle.  What started out as tools for finding confidence only led to acts of cowardice, as far as the situation was concerned.

This isn't to say that you couldn't have had confidence with the army at your side, or being led by someone with experience.  Don't mistake my illustration to say that tools aren't helpful, or that it would be a wise thing to not seek resources to give you the greatest advantage.  The analogy is here to paint a picture; one meant to cause some introspection:  When we seek after that one more key ingredient, are we empowering our position or delaying our involvement in our objective.  Are we fooling ourselves into acts of cowardice, stemming from fear or doubt?

Confidence has nothing to do with a situation.  The situation might dictate that we would do better with this, have more leverage with that (and situations can always be improved, allowing us to always find lack - an unhealthy focus on that lack could lead to fear/doubt). 

Confidence is what you have left when everything about the situation is stripped away from the mind.  Confidence is stripping away your own abilities and inabilities.  It's when you find what's left when every thing that surrounds you is no longer seen and all personal characteristics are ignored.  

When you come to this point, you'll find, like I did when my personal 'stuff' was no longer present in my life, that you're okay.  You'll find that you're healthy.  You're surviving - and more.  Your ideas are good, your reasoning is sufficient for now and even for making progress.  It's at this point - when you TRUST yourself - that you'll make the best decisions based upon the information you have.  You may want to recognize what's lacking in a situation, but only in your trusting yourself that you're finding optimum solutions for moving forward.

You'll see that trusting yourself and your ability to reason is confidence.  When you know you'll do your best and you trust that you can adapt if that best is insufficient to the situation, you have confidence.  

There are three main challenges we face in achieving confidence. 

Challenge #1  There are so many tools available to us, it's easy to feel we're always lacking in any given goal or situation; like there's always something that's readily available to us that would make our progress easier (hint, it's true.  AND, if you wait until you've got everything you can have, the opportunity will have passed to move forward.  It's like you were just moved to that SAFE continent without any valor to your name).

Challenge #2  We tend toward looking at situations rather than ourselves.

Challenge #3  To get to that point of full trust in our own abilities to reason, that point of stripping away all the layers of knowledge and information and tools and judgments etc., to where we can see ourselves as someone who is able to respond to any given situation - to be this exposed, even to ourselves, can seem to challenge our confidence beyond our ability to act.  It's like we started with the army and the leadership and the armory and we're asking ourselves to voluntarily give these things up that we may discover our ability to act appropriately in this and other situations.  

Once we can gain this self-trust in our abilitiies to reason, confidence is ours.  And once we own our own confidence, we are victorious in all situations.

--Dave Charbonneau, C.E.R.

"Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they did it with expert timing"
--Carl Douglas

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Interesting that I should come across Glenn Beck's definition of being a "conservative" since I just looked up a few definitions myself, just a day or two ago.  I like his definition the best; it comes from a fellow 'Shrugger' (one who enjoys or promotes Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged) and he throws in a good portion of capitalism along with objectivism (objectivism in the terms that is defined in many of Rand's book, that there are principles that cannot be seen but are real).  Here it is:

"To be a conservative is, in my definition, is somebody that believes in the power of the individual, somebody that believes, please let me make my decisions, that I have a right to succeed and not be penalized for it.  I have a right to fail and have no one run to me if I don't want them to run to me.  A conservative believes I have a right to manage my family, I have a right to discipline my family in the way I see fit, as long as it is not criminal.  A conservative believes I have the right to worship God, I have a right to worship the God of my understanding, and I do not have the right to jam my version of God down anybody else's throat or my version of no God down anybody's throat.  A conservative believes live and let live.  That's what a conservative believes.  A conservative believes in the smallest amount of government, the smallest government you can get without anarchy.  That's what a conservative believes."

Glenn Beck has a unique approach to talk radio; as he tends to deal with cause and effect; the economics of an issue; not just a one-sided viewpoint.  His radio and TV shows look at the effects and possible consequences of current events and ideas.

--Dave Charbonneau, C.E.R.

"See that train over there?
Thats the train of freedom
It's about to 'rrive any minute, now
You know it's been'a long, long overdue
Look out 'cause its a'comin' right on through"
--The Rascals

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Copying someone else's success may not get you the same result.

Billy Joel sang a catchy tune where he compared Principles (of Rock'n Roll, as he saw them) with the methods and outward appearances of the changing times.

Moving from William Martin Joel to Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

But success is simply a recipe, isn't it? The common sense side of us tells us, if George from across the street does A+B and ends up with ‘C’, then Roger can do A+B and get the same result.

This makes complete sense, right? It not only seems logical, this premise sells millions of books each year on the topic of ‘improving’ oneself.

However, it may not hold true. If George is doing A+B based upon a set of individualized beliefs or values, and Roger is doing A+B only to get what he sees as a desired outcome, the results can be drastically different.

What George values in both doing the task as well as in the results he achieves are likely different for George than for Roger. For example, making a million dollars can mean 100 different things to 100 different individuals because we all value what those dollars mean to us in our own unique ways.

George and Roger are almost always going to get different results because of their personal values and because of their own interpretation of utility and meaning. Outside appearances may even have the two individuals getting the exact same results - and yet over time we realize that George is creating life and value and happiness for himself and others while Roger may be destroying life and value and promoting misery and suffering for himself and others. Or, at the very least, he “is sure to have trouble.”

--Dave Charbonneau, C.E.R.

"It's the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways
It's still rock & roll to me."
--Billy Joel

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"I need somebody... Help! Not just anybody..."

It seems that so many are crying out for the government's help; they seem to think the government can actually offer assistance to others.  However, the U.S. Government's ONLY available method for offering help is to take something from one person and give it to someone else (whether this is by election or by force, it's always backed by force).  Why this fact is ignored in arguments for government aid is a mystery (certainly we don't want to see cruel injustice so perhaps we simply close our eyes to it).

The U.S. Government is ONLY here to protect individual rights - not ensure one citizen's comfort at the cost of another citizen's.  Personal responsibility is the requisite.  Even that doesn't guarantee all-comfort all the time (how did we ever get to start thinking that we needed every day to be sunny? Dunno). 

I know, I know; maybe there are those out there who want to create a dependence in order to satisfy their own self-interest of getting or keeping a job (politician, special interest groups, communists), but whether the conspiracy-theorists have it right on or not, somewhere in all of this we have to take responsibility for our own selves or stop whining.  An admonition in agreement with this states, "Dave, you're right.  But we need to fix this (enter social or economic problem here) first; then we'll get around to teaching everyone to learn from the lesson." 

Bull-cracker!  Come on, you know it doesn't work like that.  Ne'er has, ne'er will (ooh, but notice the fancy 'never'). "Just give us a little bit of rope, just enough to hang you with.  No?  Okay, just enough to tie you up, then we'll get around to fixing the problem."  Ain't gonna happen.  The compromise between clean drinking water and poison is always poison.  The only real solution is teaching ourselves and our children to think accurately; to apply reason to principles.  It's not always easy in a world bombarded each day by propaganda; but it's the cause that's worthy above all else, for it is the cause of truth.

--Dave Charbonneau, C.E.R.

"When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now those days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors."
--The Beatles

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