It’s Simple, But Not Easy

I spend an hour each day watching educational/informative videos on Youtube.

In today’s information age, you would insane not to take advantage of all the knowledge available to your on the interweb. While most of the population is fixated on watching videos of cats and babies, one could fixate their attention on leaning advanced physics, Portuguese, or how to program. At this juncture, I am often asked “Why?” as a response to these statements. The reason for constant self learning is to steadily advance yourself with the intention to inspire, communicate, and innovate? There is are no excuses. 

As I selectively go from one new video to the next, I stumble onto videos that are “recommended” to me based on the videos I have watched thus far. Sometimes I will see recommended videos that speak to those looking to make money(usually on the internet)fast, easy, and with minimal work. These videos claim that if you join their mission, you can make $2,500 a day just by following a few simple steps - at no cost to you(of course). 

This way of thinking is no way to create a life. Success is simply a matter of mind frame and pattern of habits. The route to success if simple, but yet, not easy. These videos offer unsuspecting individuals that have[are probably]in need of cash, only to find them buying into someone else’s wallet. Unfortunately, many welling meaning people are looking for success in all the wrong places. Success is a simple process, but never void of hard work. Simply stated: you amount of success is contingent on the amount of quality work you put into your life. All successfully driven find each aspect of their lives opportunity to better refine their skills and value. If one looks to find a fast cash answer to their problems, that to is an area of their psychology they should refine. 

The 3 Steps to Understanding Your Market Placement

Market validity is the topic of many executive meetings and and team discussions amongst start-up companies. Deciding what direction a company should go could be centered around solving the code to where the product or service fits, and its market validity to the costumer. In this constantly changing society, where information zooms incredibly fast, we must set our product placement development strategy to a flex-model that allows for the company to take advantage of the channels of information distribution that is available to us today. 

1. Target Audience

Every business owner understands that they must identify and appeal to their target market. In the modern age of technology this is simply not enough; we must use the technology and online platforms that are available to detect trends and future market fluctuations. By doing this we stay head of the curve and support the need before it’s known to be needed.

2. Market Psychology

What is the feel of the market? We must set out to identify the mind set of the overall market with all the kinks and ripples that may occur in the future. We must do our homework in order to get a universal look at our company’s market space, creating a large scale image of where our product or service fits in the grand scheme of things. 

3. Position Stability

Placing a product or service in a specific space means that you have faith that where we are placing the product is ideal. This can be based on research, peer information, or test marketing. A traditional marketing model establishes product placement location when this placement shows viability. In today’s marketplace we need to remain open to other options as the market’s needs change. This open-mindedness will create a stable environment for the product to grow as the market shifts. The product will change with the moving tides of change and remain in front of the right audience for an extended period time. 

I Should Have Guessed | short story for May 10th 2013

Texting, texting, texting! That’s all she does. My daughter spends the majority of her time on that phone of her’s. Every time I look up to ask her something during dinner, she has to look up from her phone.

I struggled with the idea of getting her a phone, but being a single mother is hard and finding leverage with her is a constant battle. I want her to be happy and have things I didn’t have, but sometimes I wonder if those things aren’t just separating us more.

“Mary!” I yelled from downstairs. “I have finished dinner and I’d like you to join me.” Silence was the response from the upstairs dwellings. Thinking that maybe she didn’t her me because her door was closed, I made the trip up the stairs to gain her attention. I reached the top of the stairs to a greeting of even more silence from her room. After knocking four times I still received no response, which started to puzzle me.

When I decided to enter the room, part of me didn’t feel comfortable just barging in on my half grown daughter. After entering her room I was shocked. There she was, on the floor, completely engulfed in her phone. “I should have guessed you’d be on that thing.” Was my proclamation to Mary as I burst through her bedroom door. “What’s for dinner?” Was her dry unenthused response. “I made meatloaf tonight” I said unconfidently.  With which she responded with, “I should have guessed.” 

The Smart Mole | short story for May 9th, 2013

I was walking along the trail at dusk trying to contemplate, but my mind was scattered and unfocused. Throughout that day people had been nagging me wanting me to understand their problems, when I was having difficulty understanding my own. 

We all have issues that we are working through, we all strive to work them out lest we hurt ourselves or the ones we love. In no particular way do we go about this. If there is a strategy, I’m not aware of one, even though I am paid to know of such a method. Alas, this path still eludes me - even more now that I am a doctor - or so they call me. 

“Mr. Sclotch, I really need your help today!” is what my first client of the day proclaimed to me as rushed into my office lobby. Mrs. Davenport is a middle aged squirrel housewife that tends to take things a little to serious. She gets stressed out over the simplest things with little to no regard to how she effects the lives of those around her. By doing this she forgets the world around her in the whirlwind of stress she subjects herself to on a moment to moment basis. She has the money, so I see her twice a week. I don’t mind listening to her, as I know by doing so I may be saving someone’s life. No, I don’t believe she could become violent. But I do think she could become irresponsible.

“Please tell me how to handle this, doctor…” Mrs. Davenport said to me, continuing. “I’d like you to concentrate on you breath more throughout the day.” I tell her in a relaxed voice, attempting not to sound condescending. She was receptive and was happy with my daily advice for her leaving looking more at ease and less mentally crazed.

I’m not entirely sure what I am doing sometimes, I am still learning. Regardless of my experience, my doctorate, or the number of clients I see per year I still feel as though I no less and less about what I am doing.

I continued to walk down the[now dark]path from which I had started. Attempting yet still to contemplate where I was in this massive universe and what role I played. For being a mole, a may be smart. But even the smartest of us have questions we’d like to have answered. No matter our physical size, we’d still like to know the size of impact we make in this world. 

Use of Time - Hour by hour breakdown - Numbers never lie

The great equalizer is the 24 hours a day we are all allotted. Simply broken down, we each have plenty of time to achieve great things in our lives.

24 Hours: These numbers are based on a general American lifestyle. 

Sleep: 8 Hours

Work: 8 Hours 

This leaves 8 hours for us to use as we wish. Typically, these hours are used up by watching TV, gossiping, checking social media, eating out, or reading media. 

Here are the remaining 8 hours broken down in a different, more substancial manner:

Educational Reading - 1 hour. This reading can be constructive educational reading that will benefit you in your field or the field you wish to be in. Some suggestions: Financial management, boating, english skills, poetry, short stories, world history, music history, or foreign cultures. 

(7hours remaining)

Family Time - 2 hours. In today’s society, spending quality family time is not only scarce but sometimes nonexistent. In a 2 hour time span you can try the following: Go to the park, go on a walk, go fishing, try a local museum, try a local boutique or shop, have conversation at a local coffee shop, do the dishes together, Skype with a distant family member, or discuss the future. 

(5hours remaining)

Meditation - 1 hour. Spending time in complete silence and sensory restriction can be one of the most valuable actions you attempt during your week. Spend this time contemplating your future goals, understanding your habits, and concentrating your mind. 

(4hours remaining

Letter Writing - 1 hour. Commit to spending 1 hour per day writing a letter to a friend, professional, or family member. If you write 1 letter every other day, that is 4 letters a week, on average. How grateful your grandmother will be to hear from you through this medium, it’s personal.

(3hours remaining)

Goal Strategy - 1 hour. During this time, dig deep into yourself to understand where you want your future to go and how you plan on getting there. The key during this hour is complete honesty. Make sure that you understand that steps you need to take to make your goals a reality.

(2hours remaining)

Creativity - 1 hour. Creativity is the chief cultivator of the human spirit. Spend time painting, creatively writing, or building something. This can benefit your household and your family. You can make craft projects for friends and family, or designate time to understanding the way your mind works in a creative context.

(1hour remaining)

Open - 1 hour. This time is completely open to what ever is needed. Following up with sick friends or family, committing time to a local charity, more time with family, writing in a journal, or working in a garden. This time is set aside for all around life improvement. Cultivate a life of constant improvement through introspection and creativity.  

The Art of Silence

Silence is typically associated with the lack of noise. This is a misconceptions. Silence is a mental state when mental processes tame and the remainder is left to reveal a state that isn’t just silent but stillness. Stillness is not an action, not a doing, stillness is a state in where your mind ceases action therefore enabling a sense of calm.

With every distraction available to us today, we are presented with mental struggles toward staying focused. We must take the initiative and spend time in our own minds; discovering our weaknesses, our mental habits, and our addictions. By doing this we see into the internal mechanisms that keep us distracted day in and day out.

The external world is something that operates of it’s own accord, moving as if not aware of our needs or desires. What we fail to see is the available tool that is under our control, hiding in plain sight - our mind. With the cultivation of our mind we possess the unique power of navigating how we react to the external world. This places us in the gamers seat, choosing each move carefully as to make each decision according to our vision. Excitingly, this vision can be anything we desire.

The Practice
Sit on the floor or in a chair with a straight back, firmly rooted.

Become aware of every mental process.

Then change your mental processes to words that indicate gratitude for your current life.

Then select one word and stay with that word for the remainder for the meditation. This wont be easy at first. Remember, you are retaining your mind to be focused. It will become easier with time and practice. Eventually, you wont even think about it.

Meditation Length: 20minutes.

Life force is gratitude | Have you tried this formula?

We live in a world that is in constant flux. At every turn we are presented with unlimited options for any vice we wish to satisfy. This, in turn, diminished our  thankfulness for the things we currently have, allowing us to become spoiled to the worldly riches that are available. In order for us to be truly grateful, we must first become present and aware of the value we have in this moment. Until this realization can be attained, we will still strive for the things we don’t have, disregarding the treasures that lay underneath our own feet. 

What is Gratitude?

Gratitude is when we find that what we have is enough to satisfy our soul’s needs. Gratitude is an attitude from which we take a presences in spirit and an inspiration in action/

Why must we be show gratitude first?

In order for us to be truly thankful for what we have, we must first locate the people, items, events, or experience that we currently have to be thankful for. For the person that claims that he has nothing to be thankful for, I must remind him of the homeless man; the homeless man is thankful for every penny he receives. Why? This is because each cent brings him closer to his goal of becoming not homeless. Where the homeless man is truly grateful is for the cup that he hold out for those pennies. Because he knows that without that cup he wouldn’t have a solid tool for the asking. Prior to that, he is thankful for his hand. For without his hand he would not be able to hold the cup that so diligently acts as a tool to gets him closer and closer to his goal. For each action, new item, and friendship we attain there is a precursor that we currently have that we should be deeply thankful for. If we are not, we will continue to search and attain that for which we cannot attain without first recognizing the tools we already have. Interestingly, most people find themselves never completely happy with what they already have. In turn, we notice that they are never happy with what they have - even when they achieve a step up from their current position, they still remain dismal. This is because they have never attempted to be in gratitude with their current state. They have been trained to look for something outside of what they have. If you have not achieved complete and total happiness within 10 years by this way of thinking, then it probably doesn’t work. Therefore, we must go against the grain and place our mind and spirit in a constant state of thankfulness for our current state. As soon as we are thankful for what we have, magical things start to happen. Opportunities present themselves, our relationships start to balance, and our health will thrive. By setting our mind and hearts in a state of gratitude we enable a shift from the false future to the very real now. We give ourselves advantage by allowing the future to unfold as it sees fit, not by our superimposition.  We are, then, subject to all benefits that we are open to. For the formula is: Daily present gratitude + open to all Universal possibilites = the Ultimate Life or DPG+OAU=UL. 

Meditation as your center

“A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.” -The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff | Chapter 3, page 24. 

We all have our home. Every one of us retain places and people that we consider to be our place of refuge. This typically due to our association with these places as a place where we know we will be accepted and safe. Ultimately, we are just as safe in a foreign place as we are when we are in a place in where we were born. This is, of course, relating to the physical realm. On a psychological level these places have attached smells, sounds, sights, and associations. These attached mental fixations are not transferable, nor would we want that - but we strive for that. We search to find the same comfort in a new location that we once experienced in the place of our origin. This speaks multiple volumes as to how we think. We are always searching to find the comfort which entails us recreating our original home place in our new local. If this were to be achieved, we wouldn’t truly live in a new location.

In meditation we find very similar mental processes as well. We sit, listening to the surrounding sounds, and strive to make our mind silent as it has been in the past during intermittent segments. Each time we have experienced a silent(or subdued)mind, we attempt to recreate that state as often as possible by any means possible. This description may seem as though a reference to a drug addict. In a sense, it is. We are entertained by our mind and thoughts to the point of literally physical exhaustion. This weighs heavily on our body, mind, and relationships. The strife towards the goal of mind taming is one that will exhaust us before we reach our attended destination. Each thought is incredibly important. The awareness that we can cultivate by allowing our thoughts to be as they are is the tool by which we can local and identify the thoughts that are habitual or destructive. We must become respectful of our current thought process without attempting to avoid the thoughts. Attempting to avoid your thoughts doesn’t work. In fact, if you’ve ever notice, when you focus on eliminating your thoughts you end up creating more bothersome thoughts. By cultivating an attitude of compassion for your own thoughts, you’ll cultivate compassion for all other aspects of your life.

In this study, a team of researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University examined the effects meditation would have on compassion and virtuous behavior, and the results were fascinating.

This study — funded by the Mind and Life Institute — invited participants to complete eight-week trainings in two types of meditation. After the sessions, they were put to the test.

Sitting in a staged waiting room with three chairs were two actors. With one empty chair left, the participant sat down and waited to be called. Another actor using crutches and appearing to be in great physical pain, would then enter the room. As she did, the actors in the chair would ignore her by fiddling with their phones or opening a book.

The question DeSteno and Paul Condon — a graduate student in DeSteno’s lab who led the study — and their team wanted to answer was whether the subjects who took part in the meditation classes would be more likely to come to the aid of the person in pain, even in the face of everyone else ignoring her. “We know meditation improves a person’s own physical and psychological wellbeing,” said Condon. “We wanted to know whether it actually increases compassionate behavior.”

Among the non-meditating participants, only about 15 percent of people acted to help. But among the participants who were in the meditation sessions “we were able to boost that up to50 percent,” said DeSteno. This result was true for both meditation groups thereby showing the effect to be consistent across different forms of meditation. “The truly surprising aspect of this finding is that meditation made people willing to act virtuous — to help another who was suffering — even in the face of a norm not to do so,” DeSteno said, “The fact that the other actors were ignoring the pain creates as ‘bystander-effect’ that normally tends to reduce helping. People often wonder ‘Why should I help someone if no one else is?’”

These results appear to prove what the Buddhist theologians have long believed — that meditation is supposed to lead you to experience more compassion and love for all sentient beings. But even for non-Buddhists, the findings offer scientific proof for meditation techniques to alter the calculus of the moral mind. »