My Gift to Share with You This Season - Your Own Prosperity

(photo credit: brungrrl)

Here's my gift to you this season -
Don't underestimate your own prosperity; share it.

There's a lot I could say here about how the current economic scene might be affecting us. In any season of the year, there are those who have no job, whose future doesn't seem very bright. And around those people you may find others who are spreading gloom and disaster instead of cheerful optimism.

Why would someone be optimistic when they have no job, bills are coming due, their responsibilities are mounting up?

Here's a surprising answer - at least to some:

You are more prosperous than you give yourself credit.

Earl Nightingale used to say often that the most expensive items you own are those which were given to you for free. Expensive, because no amount of money could replace them:

• Your health,
• Your intelligence,
• Your attitudes and abilities.

And that's just a partial list.

Sure, we could all want to improve these - if you are completely healthy, then are you as physically fit as you could be? Everyone is smart - but do we have all the answers we need to life's many problems we encounter?

Then there are native abilities - some of us are genuinely talented in certain areas. And others seem lacking in the above, but they might have other attitudes which make them rich in comparison:

• Love
• Charity
• Tolerance
• Understanding

In this season, this is what I would give to you - your own ability to share. Possibly the most important asset you have - and one which will bring you anything you could possibly want.

True.

The way this works is simple: In every religion and philosophy, there is some version or recognition of the phrase which means "As you give, you will receive."

This is such a powerful statement that it has been recognized globally as vital to daily living. You probably have heard modern variations of it, such as "What goes around, comes around," among others...

But the most interesting application of it is how this phrase got it's name "The Golden Rule". And simply, it goes like this:

When you share the prosperity you have, you become more prosperous.

Some of you might be worried about your bills and the money you don't have right now. But let's start over - you are rich in things right now which you could never hope to afford. Your life, your ability to enjoy things around you, your own ability to think.

So you are in fact very, very rich. And those around us who are constantly negative don't appreciate that fact.

While being "broke" is a temporary affair, and being "poor" is only a state of mind, in order to change either of these situations, a person is going to have to take some action in their lives - to change some attitudes and habitual ways of thinking.

Right now, no matter how much you feel you need, or how much feel you don't have - let's do this:

Share what you do have.

For some of us, it might only be a smile. For others, we can invite people over or go to their house and visit with them (if they can't get out.) There is nothing like cheerful companionship that takes the chill off and brightens the day.

That gift - a cheering up - is priceless beyond measure. And, like a smile, it's contagious. But as I said above, you will get something just as valuable - if not more - so in return.

If you are yourself housebound, and can't get out to visit someone else - then sit quietly and think about the people you know and love and appreciate. Recall the nice times you had and send these thoughts out any way you can. Maybe a phone call, maybe just write a letter to the last address you had for them. Or send out cheery emails to everyone you care about.

Because all this wealth and prosperity you are sending out will come back to you - priceless gifts being shared all around.

And while I can't be with you today, or though this season - and we more than likely have never even met - I wanted to give this priceless gift to you and ask only one favor in return:

Pass it on. Share it with as many people as you can.

- - - -

And many blessings to you, and all you care about, and everyone you know.

Why people have to be persuaded to improve their lives

Here's why people have to be persuaded to change their lives

Because they are stuck in what they think is comfortable and secure. It's that last word which really dooms them - security.

You see, changes happen all the time. That's what this universe is all about - our evolution. So people, and the weather, and the other animals and plants on this planet are changing all the time.

People find this hard to predict and so tend to get stuck in just keeping things the way they are. This is what they think is "security". However, hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour, dependent on a very narrow layer of air which is only a very small percentage of the mass of this planet - and needing a to have a certain amount of water in you at all times, and having to live in an environment where that water can't get too hot or too cold - that's not all that secure, is it?

Practically, if you wanted real security, no change at all - a person would want to be moon dust, and just lay around all day, always pointing toward or away from the Earth, never moving, no wind - just some sun to warm you up once a revolution, unless the Earth gets in between. And how hot you got wouldn't matter, since even if you melted, you'd still be the rock you were made of.

But talk about boring...

No, the problem with people is that they've been sold a bill of goods.

Look, here's the lifestyle of the people I've talked to at these many warehouse and factory jobs I've worked in:

• They work for someone else their entire life and hope that they have enough government payments and money in the stock market so that they can make a ligvi when they get too bunged up to keep working.
• Meanwhile, the government tells them they have to take certain funds out of their accounts if they live too long - so they have to pay taxes on these. If you live long enough, you have all your money out of these accounts and either spent or into a tax-paying account.
• And when you do die, they take another chunk - forcing you to give away everything you own or save before you pass, making sure that you are dead broke by the time you're dead.
• So: you grow up, get in college to get a better job (with college debts) - or just start working.
• You get married, buy a house, have a family - and stay in debt for 30 years. By the time you have your house paid off, it's starting to fall apart over the next 20 years (saying that you built a new one and didn't buy an older one).
• Your working lifespan is about 40 - 50 years. So that house is ready for major repairs and overhauls about the time you retire - meaning you have to refinance it to pay for the cost, or build a new one.
• And your life insurance is really just enough to pay for the debt you leave behind - not to pass on any amount to your kids to help them out.

That's what we're all set to do if we agree with all we're told in life.

How many people are actually successful? 1-3% of this bunch. And guess what? They don't live that lifestyle at all.

• They usually work for themselves and invest their money in various accounts, getting a far larger return at much lower tax rates.
  
• And if they are really smart, they have their private corporation buy their houses, cars, yachts, and other toys - as well as pay for the licensing, insurance, fuel, and repairs.
• They set up trust funds for their needy relatives so that they can share their wealth and the government doesn't get a dime out of it - their kids and grandkids (and some others) get everything.
  
• (And we haven't even touched the idea of overseas accounts where no government taxes anything...)

Now, notice we mostly talked about Death and Taxes - the supposedly only certain items in anyone's future.

But the joker in this deck is that people actually agree to all this in order to be "secure". Of course, this is what goes for security in our "enlightened" Western "civilization". Other countries have it rougher. You can get killed a lot easier from a lot more sources outside of the "developed nations" like the US than you can within them.

Here you go: compare those two (or three) lifestyles.

• It's not impossible for someone to move into one of these developed nations from any of the other ones.
• It's not impossible for anyone to start their own business and become successful, regardless of any country you live in.
• It's not impossible to grow that business and become outrageously wealthy and live the lifestyle of your dreams.

So why don't more people do it? Why don't more people kick over their wage-slave traces and start making a real difference in this world we live on?

Because, as Earl Nightingale points out - we conform. We want to be just like everyone around us so that we can feel "secure". And meanwhile, our government, in order to protect our security has added on layers and layers of regulation and taxation so that we finally get our security - a 2x3x6 box underground. That's the real security.

How about really living at life? How about learning to sky dive, or ride horses, or hike in mountain ranges, or visit remote reaches of this planet?

How about doing something to help people around you - to work at solving global or local educational problems, health issues, energy crisis's - all those things?

Too often we find ourselves just living the regular, secure life of someone who really has nothing better to do than complain about what is in the newspaper or on TV.

And your life is gone, but what do you have to show for it?

Here, I'm appealing to those 1-3% of us out there. Let's re-educate these people. Let's sell them on what they could be having, doing, becoming - not just what they want.

And then this whole world could be a peaceful, prosperous, beautiful place.