Vision. What you see, you create.pt2

Yesterday, we talked about how my vision ten years ago for how I wanted things to look today did not turn out quite the way I actually wanted it to.  It was mentioned that specific things were just the way I wanted them to be, but others were not.

And therein lies the key. The things that I was specific about came to pass. The things that  I wanted but only imagined in a vague sort of way either did not happen or went horribly wrong.
Some people would say the fact that I got any of the things that I wanted was sheer luck and I should be happy with my results. And I am. I am ecstatic that many of the things we worked so hard for turned out the way we wanted them to.

We, me and my chosen family, no longer live in separate apartments. We have a house to call our own. Not including the house itself, our debts have dropped dramatically. Our home is a peaceful, nonjudgemental environment, where people can feel free to be themselves, as long as who they are is not a danger or threat to others within the home. People can let their guard down here, reflect on their lives and relationships and can tear down the parts of who they are that they do not like and begin the process of personal reconstruction.

Every bit of that was something I very specifically wanted to make real. It was not luck. It was a vision of how things could be, backed up with enough desire to cause the actions necessary to make that vision a reality. Concentrated effort made our home and its current environment what it is today. Not luck.

Just as the parts that did not turn out well were not bad luck. They were simply poor planning or in some cases not planned for at all. But the great thing about time is it brings us experience. Before starting on this grand adventure it was something completely new to me and I had no idea what sort of pitfalls lay ahead.

Now that I have had some practice living in and working with the people in our home I have a much better idea of what to expect. I can and have adjusted my vision and goals accordingly. It is more fully fleshed out, less vague. Before I was literally creating something out of nothing. I had a blank table in front of me with a single puzzle piece on it. The level of specificity necessary to create the whole puzzle exactly as I wanted it would have been nearly impossible to achieve no matter how long was spent planning it.

Things are different now. A lot of what we intended to create we have. What we have now is a puzzle that is more than half put together. I just get to work with my family to find or create the missing pieces. And once we do, then we'll scale the camera back and start working on an even larger puzzle.

Vision. What you see, you create.

Ten years ago I had a vision of what I wanted my future, my now, to look like. And for the most part it does. There are parts that I wish were different, but the things that I was specific about in that vision happened more or less the way I wanted and expected them to.

When I was young it was pretty much just my mom and me against the world. We were dirt poor but I was happy.  But then she met my step-dad and it turned out to be me against the world. He made me pretty unhappy. And even when she did disagree with him, which was often, she submitted to his will in how to treat and raise me.

I decided around the ripe young age of six that I didn't have a family and wasn't going to until I could choose for myself who they were going to be. Fast forward through my teenage years full of frustration and angst. By the time I was in my mid-twenties I had gone through a lot of self empowerment and transformational stuff.

There was this one group of people that I regularly played Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games with. Most of them were amenable to my overall philosophy of empowerment and the pursuit to bring positive change to the world. We got along really well and spent a lot of time together. They were all good people. I got this idea in my head that these people should be family and that we should live together, pooling our resources and our debts, over time allowing the former to grow and eliminating the latter.

At the time we all lived in separate apartments. It appalled me the amount of money that was being thrown away every month. None of us owned our own residence and at the rate we were going none of us ever would. We were all separately struggling to survive.

My vision was for the core group, which at the time was four of us, to move into a house together, vastly cutting down on our monthly payments so we could get out of debt and actually own something, while at the same time bringing our message of personal growth and self improvement to the world.

For awhile I was fired up and really motivated and it showed in our results. It took a little over a year. But we did find a house big enough for us to move into. The problems came in that it was not just the four of us. Initially when we moved into the house there were not four but six of us. Things kept fluctuating until at one point there were twelve of us living in the house.

Our other friends had heard about our idea and thought it sounded great. They saw the good in what we were doing and jumped on the bandwagon. They wanted the pay off but they did not want to do the work of bringing the vision fully into reality. For awhile, it became pretty uncomfortable around here. Somehow it was harder to pay our bills with ten or more people working and living here than it was with four. The housing market falling apart did not help at all. The "new" people would not work together here and things were more or less chaos. I almost gave up.

Gradually, people started leaving. And with each person that left it actually got easier and easier to run our household.  Our debts are decreasing. Our secondary mortgage has been paid off.  There is a good chance that in the next year or so we will own our home free and clear. There are six people living in the house now, four core group members and two roommates. Or as I like to say it, four family members and two roommates. As a family we love and support one another. We do our best to make life better and easier for each other.

Over the last ten years a lot of mistakes have been made and a lot has been learned. I have a new vision now that includes the things that I have currently that are not exactly the way I want them and things that I do not have but do want. And this time I have a one year, five year and ten year vision. The shorter goals can be used to more directly focus on ensuring the larger picture turns out the way I want it to.

What does your now look like? Do your results match your vision from ten years ago? What is your vision for the future?

Food and hunger in America

October, November and December. The last quarter of the year brings with it quite a few holidays and as a result many opportunities for family and friends to get together and celebrate, to enjoy each other's company and to party.

When I think about families and friends spending time together, I often think of all the less fortunate people out there, the ones that have nothing to celebrate and no food or drink to celebrate with.

It is estimated that the planet currently grows enough food to feed at least ten billion people comfortably. I think that number is an extreme underestimation. I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that not a single person in America starves because not enough food is produced.

There are places where farmers are literally paid to burn thousands of tons of produce rather than to have it shipped somewhere else that it is actually needed.

Places like McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and other popular fast food chains  have quality rules set in place where after a certain amount of time they are required to throw away food that is no longer "fresh". Depending on what the items are the time is generally between ten and twenty minutes. They are not allowed to give the food to their employees or even to local homeless people. Or even sell it at a discounted rate due to its lack of freshness. They are required to waste it. And even if only an average of  1 pound per restaurant per day is wasted in this fashion,(and this is an extremely conservative estimate) there are 160,000 fast food restaurants in the US alone. That is not including other types of restaurants and would still add up to nearly 30 thousand tons of wasted food each year.

Grocery stores often turn away produce trucks if they do not like the look of the produce. Then the drivers of those trucks have to try to find somewhere else that will take the food off their hands. Often it ends up simply getting dumped.

It is  estimated that between ten and twenty five percent of the food that consumers in America purchase is wasted, due to uneaten leftovers or food that goes bad before it gets cooked. Focusing on changing this one statistic could go a long way towards feeding all of the hungry in this country.

Economic conditions in our country are not as good currently as they have been in years past. And yes there is poverty, even here in America. But I can't help but think the real problem here is greed and inefficiency.

The average American eats just under 2,000 lbs or 1 ton of food per year. There are a little over 300 million people in America. And currently, 1 in 6, or 50 million are struggling with the inability to provide enough food for themselves to eat. An extra 50 million tons of food per year would feed the hungry within our country. And I firmly believe that there is at least that amount of surplus food here that is going to waste each year.

The food already exists to feed our hungry. How do we find better ways of getting it to them?

Are you already rich?

With the staggering heights to which our national deficit has reached, why is it that America is considered one of the richest, if not the richest country in the world? It is because of the many things that are a part of our daily lives that we just take for granted. We have these things and just naturally forget about what life was like without them.

If you live in the United States, chances are good that you live in a house, apartment or condominium. You have hot and cold running water, electricity and a car. You can shower with hot water, indoors, on a regular basis. Your food can be stored in a refrigerator and quickly heated up in the microwave. You are not limited to working within walking distance of your home. There are airports in every major city.

A quarter of the world's population does not have access to electricity. Close to half do not have water piped into their homes. Worldwide, there are approximately 1 cars for every 6 people. In the US the ratio is almost 1 to 1.

The country as a whole produces far more food each year that it's citizens could ever possibly eat in that time. Food from all over the country is shipped to local grocery stores, providing wondrous variety for each meal, at reasonable prices. This alone is a thing that people in many other countries would consider a great treasure.

The US has a system of government that while not perfect does allow its citizens to live in relative peace and safety. It has a well armed and trained military. The laws and police keep the local streets safe.

And first and foremost we have our freedom, the most valuable thing in the world.
We here in America have things that people in other countries only dream of. Our every day lives are much easier than those in other countries. We do not spend hours every day carrying water from a nearby stream or river so that we can have water to drink or to cook with. We do not need to carry coal or wood for fires. Half our day isn't spent preparing food.

We have systems set in place that let us focus on just one or two things but let us take advantage of the great works of others. We do not have to each create everything of value that we need in our lives.
There is a great deal of difference between the wealthy and the poor in the United States. The rich often live on large estates in elaborate, lavish, homes. But even most of the poor here have access to more and better things than many other people throughout the world that are considered well off. It is a difference in standard and perspective.

Typically, we just expect more here. And that is both good and bad.

For Evil 's sake

How many times in a book or a movie have you seen the main villain get into a monologue describing how truly vile and dark their current plan is? Don't they often start cackling with glee over the sheer evilness of their plan? They revel in the pain and suffering that they are causing.  They are evil just for the sake of being evil.

Those who make a living entertaining us and engaging our minds in flights of fantasy like to make things clear. They want it cut and dried so as to polarize the reactions that we give them. We are subconsciously left with the impression that there are only two possibilities.

You as the viewer are vile and despicable because you agree with the cackling maniacal fiend. Or you are a decent human being that wants to see the bad guy fail and the hero prevail. In books and movies, it is just that simple.

When most of us think about evil the images from those stories are what come to mind. But in real life, things are seldom that way. That is not to say that there are not people in this world who commit some of the same horrendous acts as the villains in the stories. But their motivations are often a lot more complex.

The things they do may hurt a great many people but that is usually not the reason why they are doing those terrible things. Many of them are lashing out at authority figures in the hopes of forcing grand change to the whole system. Others are trying to get even or to right past wrongs that have been done to them.

We have a tendency to think of people that do things that hurt us as bad or evil people. And while their actions are certainly not good they are not really evil in the movie villain sort of way either. I tend to look at things as either good, evil, or selfish.

If a person is doing something to improve the situation of another person or group of people and is doing what they can to avoid hurting others than I see it as a good act. If someone is doing something solely for the intention of hurting a person or a group of people and no other reason, it is an evil act. If a thing is being done for any other reason, I see it as selfish. Being, selfish is kind of a neutral, sorta grey area with both light and dark tendencies.

When being selfish a person is thinking of the benefit doing a thing will bring them. There is often no thought for how it affects others. Most of the things that other people do to hurt us are not done specifically because they hurt us. And even the very few that are, often are done in an attempt to balance the scales. You or another person hurt me in this way, so I am going to do that thing to you, to make it fair.

Many political campaigns, war supporters and even religious debates attempt to vilify the other side. They attempt to make it a clear cut situation of good versus evil. It really only takes a little common sense and an open mind to see that things are very seldom that simple. All of these things are driven by selfish desires for the world to be seen a specific way and to bludgeon you into agreeing so as not to be forced to see yourself as the villain in the story.

The world is not full of evil. It's full of selfish. And selfish can be good and it can be evil but more often than not is simply self serving with no knowledge or care of whether it is one or the other.

Nostalgia is killing your dreams

Is there an event or series of events in your life that you find yourself often reminiscing over, whether by yourself or with your friends? You probably find yourself saying that "remember when?" and "those were the days"

We tend to have nostalgia about good times in our past. But whether you realize it or not, there is a good chance that that very thing is hurting your chances of success in the future. Now before you disagree, realize that I think that great memories of the past are a good thing.  It is just the attitude we tend to take about our current times that are killing us.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't it always seem like what we are really saying is those were the good old days and now they are gone and this is what we are left with? We used to be great. Life used to be awesome. Wonderful things used to happen to us. We are fond of the lives we used to live and dread the one we have now.

Why not use the glory days of our past as a template for the future? Sure we can never go back to exactly the way things were before, but certainly they can be better than they are now right? What circumstances made life so much better then? Did life really change all that much? Or is it simply how we look at things that changed?

If what changed is that we became jaded and beaten down by negative experiences with life, through good will and conscious effort we can repair our damaged hearts and minds. If it is circumstance that made life better then we can find ways of changing our circumstance to be more like what used to be. Again, it can never be exactly like it was. But, there is no reason why life cannot be just as good or better than it was at the highest point in our past.

Just because we accomplished something great once does not mean we are done. We have within us near infinite potential if only we are willing to work for it. We can go on accomplishing great things every day for as long as we live. Our past accomplishments just serve to show definitively the least of what we can do and have already done. We can do so much more. The only limits that exist for us are those that we place upon ourselves or those that we allow other people to place upon us.

Stop looking at your past as the pinnacle of your life and everything afterwards as the long inevitable downhill ride. Instead take stock of the things you have already done and point out how each thing has pushed your limits that much further than they were before and enabled you to know and do more. Resolve to use past victories as the momentum, the fuel if you will, to push you on to future victories.

Never give up. Never surrender. Live each and every day as if it were your last and strive to be as far ahead of the pack as you can so that you are an example for others to follow. But, more importantly, be an example for yourself to follow.

A first impression is not a person.

I spent some time today looking over previous posts that I have written here. It actually surprised me the number of completely different things that I have talked about over the past few months. My knowledge and experiences are rather eclectic, literally all over the place. Every day of my life is a new day full of value that I and other people can learn from.

And I am no different from anyone else in that regard. We all have unique valuable experiences that others can learn from even if we do not realize it. There is no way to know what or how much you can learn from any other person. But it is a fact that there is something valuable that you can learn from every person.

Yet it is said that the average woman will decide within the first two minutes of meeting a guy whether or not she wants to be with him. The average boss will decide based on first impression alone whether or not the person they are interviewing is a good fit for the job. Things like physical appearance, posture and facial expressions are often the sole tools used to make these decisions. This is completely unfair because the true value of a person is what is inside and there is no way of knowing that in such a short span of time.

We see a homeless person on the street and based on how dirty, dingy and ugly they look we decide that it is no wonder that they are homeless. Many homeless people are disabled vets with a great understanding of battlefield tactics and strategies, things which with just a little bit of tweaking can be effective and useful ideas for how to run a business better. Many others are people who were at one time skilled carpenters, auto mechanics, or metal workers. Others still are great scientific minds capable of solving difficult or dangerous problems that we need solutions to. But, we decide, and wrongly so, that, they have no value within our society.

We are being unfair to both ourselves and the other person when we just throw them away based solely on our first impressions. Do you like it when people shun you because of a bad first impression? Of course you don't. So why treat others that way.

Now I am not saying you should just ignore glaring warning signs that something is wrong with a person. But I am saying that if they are not an immediate threat to you, that you at least give them a chance to prove to you that your first impression is wrong. And even if your first impression is not wrong, even if what you do not like about them turns out to be true and valid maybe you could look past that to see the gems hiding within the trash.

Every adult, during their lifetime, has thousands of hours of experience, many of which could be positive life changing events for you, if you can manage to see past their flaws. Just  imagine how much better life could be for all of us if everyone actually learned from everyone else, instead of judging and avoiding one another as much as possible.