“Everyone else does it.”

Ugh. Just typing that title makes me cringe.

When we reason with it, we forfeit our freedom, we forfeit our desire to create, we forfeit exercising our brain to think about things differently.

When we go along doing, saying, thinking what “everyone” does, says, and thinks, we don’t just stand still ourselves, we don’t just stop our own momentum, we put the brakes of progress on all of society.

People die standing still. By rationalizing your actions on the basis of “everyone” doing it that way, your quickening that death for you and the community you’re now representing.

The only and best option, then, is to catch yourself, change your path, and do things differently.

 

Stay Positive & “Everyone” is almost always wrong.

*I used “Everyone” in quotations because “Everyone” is a specific group.

Trendsetting To 2014

Design

  • It’s statistically proven that what people care more about in occupations than money is purpose.
  • Every day I read about people trying to find meaningful work, some finding it.
  • All the workplace infographics I come across point out that people want flexibility, space to grow into and a bit of freedom for how they accomplish their tasks.

These are the most significant trends of 2013.

Now nearing 2014 these trends are shifting. In 2014 they will be as follows:

– It will be statistically proven (blatantly noticeable) that people will not settle for an occupation that doesn’t align with the purpose they see for themselves.

– Every day I will read about people creating their own meaningful work. They will have quit searching for someone else’s box to fit in.

– All the workplace infographics I will come across will point out that people will construct their own schedules entirely (with some regularity near an average), they themselves will be the only roadblocks in their way, growth will be infinite, and along with their complete freedom to carry out tasks their way, they will have ever more pressure to be unique about it and accomplish more tasks throughout the year.

Which I have summed up to be 2014: The year of design.

 

Stay Positive & More On This As 2013 Comes To A Close

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

Update: Think On These Things

A few days ago I wrote a post that contained a riff on reading books over again, a book regurgitation of Krishnamurti’s Think On These Things and a description/explanation of the “Little Free Library”. Additionally, I would like to share these brain webs I created from the book in hopes it will spark a bit more of your curiosity. Even more so, I wanted to share it with the person that took the book from the Little Free Library the very next day I dropped it off. The reason I am pointing this person out is because I had put two of my business cards in the book as a bookmark in hopes that I would make a connection with another person that shares similar interests. Is it marketing if you are just using the fact that this is connection revolution in order to build a personally strong audience?

Lessons From The Cat In The Box

Clover is my cat. Although, I feel it may be more accurate to call her a little kitty despite the fact she is nearly 4 years old and after being with me, has only 3 out of 9 of her lives left. She’s small, cute, has half a tail (rescue kitty), and if you don’t remember, she has a big impact on my writing:( A Writer’s Crashing “Train of Thought” and Why It’s Excellent )

I have a cat story for you.

If your a cat owner, you have put a cat in a box. If you’re not, you now share the same curiosity as those who have as to what will the cat do if put it in a box? Let’s make the box a tall box, and the cat Clover.

Clover got put into a tall box and wouldn’t jump out. Contrary to belief, cats do have fear and it is this fear of the unknown and inability to prepare for the landing that Clover wouldn’t jump out. Cat’s, being very smart, choose not to take the risk. Admiringly, nor do they choose to just stay in the box. They will, just as Clover, put their paws on the rim of the box to try and peer over it to calculate the jump out of the box. It just so happened, as Clover had her paws on the edge, the box began to tip and it is almost as if the box was trying to push her out. Clover chose to try and prepare for the jump, only to find in that preparation that everything fell into place. (Pardon the pun)

See, we can learn many things from life, from each other and even from animals if we only observe.

Lessons Learned:

  • It’s okay to fear, just don’t let it immobilize you.
  • The unknown is not something to jump into, but to fall forward into.
  • If you prepare to try, you gain a forward leaning posture that tips the box, coincidentally pushing you forward.
  • Nothing is impossible, it’s just the angle at which you look at things.
  • Determination is unstoppable.
  • Fear of remaining in the box is worse than the fear of what’s out of it.
  • Freedom of any kind is worth losing 1 of 9 lives for.

Stay Positive & Luck Will Always Be On Your Side, As Long As You Try

Garth E. Beyer

Other posts about preparation (non-cat related): Prep To Destroy, Preparation and Expectation Reversed, Safety First: The Art Of Preparation

The Change To A Free(dom) Market Economy

It seems that we are finally seeing a slight but steady decrease in monopolies. It is something I hoped for when I was 16 and even when I thought of the most logical step to take to do it. Three years ago, I wrote the following in my journal.

“America needs to focus more on free market and trading and bartering, then it would lower monopolies.”

What I didn’t know at the time was what the free market – trading and bartering – would be made up of. Traditionally speaking, it would be about exchanging a couch for a punching bag, or a TV for food, or a boat for some of the fish the user would catch. We would expect to see a decrease in the use of money and overall monetary value and an increase in personal tangible need.

What I have now come to realize is that this free market that we are riding into is not about specific valuable items, or about money, or about the vital needs for sustainability. In fact, it is a collection of it all. We’re heading into an age where the free market is composed of information, skills, talents, art, passion, action, change, teamwork, and originality.

It’s no longer who has the fanciest house, who has the most food, or who has the biggest boat. It’s about who created a new model of a house, who combined an ancient recipe with their own originality and successfully opened a restaurant with that as its signature dish, it’s about who ditches their biggest boat to bring actual art and change to humanity.

Those who successfully enroll themselves in this new free market enterprise are the ones who will become the monopolies – trusted and valued monopolies.

 

Stay Positive & I Prefer To Call It The Free(dom) Market Economy

Garth E. Beyer

 

A Conviction For Freedom

Forbidden love hovers over the City,
a pink cloud of cherry-kissed sunshine
warming faces who dare glance up
setting themselves free of doom, gloom
dictated lives
lived in dismal corners.

 The speaker of this poem clearly understands that dictated lives carried out in fear make people live in a very dark place, a place absent of happiness, love, sunshine and positivity.

I believe freedom is essential to our lives, it may even be the key to happiness, and is surely the shortcut to success for any individual willing to take the risk for freedom.  But what is freedom? Freedom is the ability to give your love to anything. The ability to see shapes in the clouds and notice the underside of leaves in the wind. The realization of your chance to not be anyone else but yourself. Freedom is the act of becoming more of your self. It is a flexible mind and a heart that never sleeps. Although, to our own demise, there are three things in life holding us back from entering a state of freedom: Traditions, fear, and love. All play large roles holding us back  in our individual paths to sovereignty.

Traditions: They dictate the majority of young people and encompass completely the lives of the elderly. Such as the live to work ethic, ones father worked to live, so he expects that to be passed down his generation. Families seem to force their children into taking their traditions and their lives instead of creating their own path. The other form of the live to work ethic is when ones parents force the life you should live based off the lessons they have learned. In reality, this action is only 5% beneficial because it is vital to take knowledge from those who have more experience but not when it revokes ones ability to choose. The third type of tradition that plays a harsh role in the containment of freedom is religious traditions. They create strict guidelines for the supposedly “proper way of living” which, ironically, are also passed down from parents. It seems that every form of so-called “togetherness” has been in place to force upon traditions that are destroying art, soul, peace and happiness.

Fear: We grow up fearing things, resenting them, avoiding opportunities, avoiding people, and social events. We lose sight of life and at times missing out on it completely. Although it is a long thought on subject, fear often shuts the brain down, turns your shoulder to the best in life and makes you forget why your heart is beating. Everything in life that you do, think, and say, can be narrowed down to either love or fear. Of course, you know which is more common – nearly everything you do is derived from fear. Think about it the next time you do anything in the middle of the day. Ask yourself why you are doing it and continue asking why until you either end up saying that you love it or that you fear something else. After doing this, you will then have a new goal and challenge in life – more love, less fear.

Love: There is a lack of love in everything we do and to who we hold dear. It’s clear by now that it is love that will give you freedom and with freedom, you will be brought happiness through every experience and interaction in life. However, it takes a special minded person to find love in their job and even a more special minded person to find a job they love. Unless you can overcome tradition and fear, you will never find your passion or your freedom. The other form of love that is lacking is the love we have for one another. For example, I was in Barnes & Noble one evening during the winter season. While searching for a book, I heard a mother tell a child to wear his jacket as they were about to leave. The young boy, probably the age of 5 or 6, said he did not want to wear it. “Put your jacket on!” the mother had screamed at him. After further yelling, she forced it on him. There are two options of love and care she could have taken rather than expressing all the negative emotion and resentment towards her son. First, she could have helped the kid into his jacket or could have told him to wear it just until they got to the car. She could have given him options to choose from and build his decision-making skills. The other option was to let a kid be a kid; young and free-spirited. If he doesn’t want to wear it then let him experience the cold. Once he is cold enough he will try to put it on and he will be successful. Of course, this way you will laugh at him because it is inside out and then help him. Isn’t that a greater experience then to just yell at him and chastise him for not doing it right? Pity. The world is deprived of unconditional love, in family, in work and in our selves.

Releasing oneself from tradition, letting go of fear, and creating a flow of unconditional love is the set course for true freedom, and takes us one step closer to world happiness.

 

Stay Positive & Ah Kuta Matata

Garth E. Beyer

To read the full poem of “Breaking Tradition”, click here

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Subsidizing Delegation to Acquire More Time

Team-Work Accountability

In a haste to delegate and decrease your responsibilities, you may hand tasks and duties to someone else. I highly encourage it when you are looking to acquire more freedom from stress and more time to take part in what you love. But when the tasks are for a shared vision you need to take the time in the beginning to make sure you are not putting the extra weight on their back before you teach them how to work with it on their back. Delegation is a shared process and will be added as a chapter by itself in the eBook “Parents Cost Us Money Too”, as a matter of prevention over clean-up.

In the beginning the vision needs to merge between the partners. Not only the desired result of both parties, but also the process and timeline. By communicating a timeline together there is a lesser necessity to make frequent meetings in the future, which results in exactly what you wanted: more time!

Delegation is tough… to start

When you begin delegating you will often feel that you are doing even more work than before. I thought the point of delegation was to give you freedom and remove stress from your life? This empowering result of delegation comes AFTER you follow the four D’s of delegation.

1. Define the problem

What is the issue at hand? What are you delegating?

2. Discover the resolution for the issue

Ask questions to focus on the result of the delegation.

3. Discern the ideas by brainstorming

How are you going to get the desired result? What will work? What wont? What needs to be taught?

4. Direct the partner– the most important.

What resources do you have available to increase their success rate? What role will you play while they carry out the task? Are there other members of your team that assist?

There you have it, a quick and straightforward approach to delegating.  Remember, it is often difficult to start but you only have to focus on the results that delegating will offer. Need further help or a more in-depth reasoning behind an aspect of delegation, feel free to comment and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

 

Stay Positive and Delegate

Garth E. Beyer