Pay Dirt: 7 Important Concepts To Understand About Money

In my lower-middle-class youth, I was raised to discuss money almost never; money was mostly to be associated with all the evils of the world. As a result of my childhood, I came to hold internal conflicting messages about having money, which made it tough to go out into the world and build abundance.

As I reach the age of fifty, my money intelligence has evolved, of course. I no longer regard money as evil. Just as a gun becomes evil in the wrong hands, so it is with money. How we go about earning it, keeping it, and using it is what truly counts in the end run. Now that may sound elementary, but the implications are many.  Read more... (939 words, 5 images, estimated 3:45 mins reading time)

The 3 Best Actions To Take For Depression Or Extreme Difficulty

Depression and having extreme difficulty is a natural and normal fact of life that most of us will deal with either continuously, or at one point or another. This is a very serious condition; it is an illness that often leads to death when untreated.

We live in a fast-paced, fast-food, fast-business, high-stress society. Each new generation faces ever-increasing variables. It is no wonder that people are born with brain-chemical imbalances and/or predisposition for depression…or worse.

There are trained medical and mental health professionals that can absolutely help! If you have a loved one or a friend that is suffering, it is your responsibility to try to get that person to take action for help.  Read more... (662 words, 5 images, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Enjoying The Process

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Our world is complicated which tends to complicate our individual lives. For millions of us the daily stresses of career, family, and life in general are incredible. An alarm clock wakes us before we’re ready and we’re off to the races! We rush to get the kids ready and off to school, or dash to get off to work, or scurry to meet the obligations of the morning. Our day is filled with the redundant pressures of routine. Evenings are too short. We work towards a weekend for a break in the grind. The months and years fly by as we are so busy and caught up in our chaotic lives.

Citizens the world over – for the most part – spend so much time “doing” that there is not sufficient time built in for “enjoying” (life). I know, it is not as if there were many choices in the matter; we all must do what is necessary to survive (and perhaps prosper?). At some point, however, there must be a compromise between “building a quality life” and “enjoying a quality of life”.  Read more... (669 words, 5 images, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

The Sex of Success

Human beings are historically mixed-up, embarrassed, ignorant, and hypocritical about sexuality. So many people have noted, for example, on national network television that we will show much more graphic violence than we will graphic sex, although the boundaries are continually more and more blurred. The taboos, customs, and traditions surrounding sexual matters have evolved and changed drastically from culture to culture and millennia to millennia. What was against the rules at one time is no longer.  Read more... (356 words, 5 images, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Is “Failure” Useful?

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Clearly there are many more ways to fail than there are ways to succeed! Failure is easy, whereas success takes work. The “easy way out” invariably leads to failure. Sometimes the most creative people are steeped in failure; they find ever more creative ways – elaborate ways – to fail. Failure often begets more failure, and the vicious cycle self-perpetuates.

Many of the most successful people were at the absolute bottom of the failure funnel before turning their life around. I was one of those creative people who seemed to invent new twists to the art of non-success. I hit bottom, then I hit another even lower bottom, and finally an abysmal bottom…dark, bleak, empty nothingness. Of course there are hundreds of thousands – if not millions – just like me: for some unknown reason they simply must explore the bottom of life. But some will never reach despondence and utter despair. As long as you cling to an inner self-worth, an inner light or pride, you can exceed all expectations for success!  Read more... (414 words, 5 images, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Motivation and Education

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As a teen, my parents made it clear to my sister, brother, and me that successful people attend college and obtain a degree. By implication, it was also clear that those who have no college education are something less than successful. I do not fully agree. Certainly I would agree that higher education equals higher income perhaps ninety percent of the time. The other ten percent or so, who are financially prosperous without college academics, make their fortunes through experience in a lucrative field, and/or good fortune.

As an employer, I have learned that very many employers regard 2- and 4-year degree programs as evidence that a person can complete goals. Beyond that, most companies would agree that education promotes critical thought, refines communication and complexity of expression and reasoning. I enjoy the Albert Einstein quote: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” It is advanced education – specialized post-graduate degrees – that are the extreme value and prepare most effectively for success. Medical school, law school, masters and doctoral certifications absolutely translate to higher incomes. Such people have made a lifelong commitment to education.  Read more... (454 words, 5 images, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Always build with footings and a foundation

When I was 13, my family built a home in the mountains of Idaho. My father always referred to it as my mother’s “dream home” (which was his way of saying that it cost a bloody fortune!). I remember watching the big yellow backhoe dig out a hole in the hillside upon which the house would perch. Just inside the entire outer edge of the excavation was an even deeper, three-foot trench. I asked my father: “Why is there a deep trench all the way around where the house will stand?” He explained that any structure is only as strong and stable as the footings and foundation upon which it stands. “In that trench,” he said, “a reinforced cement footing will be poured. The cement walls of the house foundation will be sealed to that footing,” he continued, “and this will firmly anchor the house to the hillside.” He added a little metaphor about the footings of marriage being true love, and that upon that footing is the foundation for building a strong family. This simple tidbit stuck with me.  Read more... (463 words, 5 images, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)