tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60374007219576215092024-03-13T19:04:46.426-07:00Love of EverythingDomenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-19160408419423372132016-06-08T09:47:00.001-07:002016-06-08T09:47:22.837-07:00Practicing Consciousness"Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body's reaction to your mind." Eckhart Tolle<br />
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Same with CBT, thoughts beget emotions.<br />
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I woke up depressed...out of it... I don't know... just really off. This is rare for me as a morning person. WTF is going on. <br />
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I'm attempting to remain conscious of my feelings...becoming "the observer" of my feelings. <br />
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When I'm upset I go inward and pull back from everyone. This is most likely the exact opposite of what I need.<br />
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For it is the ego who is upset, not me. But what triggered these depressive feelings? Food, lack of sleep, drugs? I know when I lay next to her I constantly worry about waking her so I lay there all night, trying no to disturb her.<br />
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I'm not 100% on this, but the last thing you should have done this morning is let me walk out that door.<br />
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We're very different in a lot of ways and still learning each other. You treat me how you want to be treated and I treat you how I want to be treated. But I recognized this several weeks ago and I'm trying to keep that in mind. "You just have to let me come to you." So I didn't touch you this morning, even though I wanted to. This upset me even more.<br />
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I think I need to be reached out to because I don't bounce back after 5 minutes like you. I need to be told it's ok to be weak and that I'm still appreciated even though I'm not actively doing anything for you.<br />
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Then again I need to stand on my own 2 feet and do this shit without you....<br />
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I'm aware of my feelings, below if from Tolle, just need to put it into action.<br />
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"Accept then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as though you have chosen it. Always work with it, not against it...<br />
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Let me summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don't think about it --don't let the feeling turn into thinking. Don't judge or analyze. Don't make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of "the one who observes," the silent watcher...<br />
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The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life's challenges when they come.. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious and a conscious person more intensely conscious You can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into even deeper sleep."Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-16489016887773798202015-04-15T11:00:00.002-07:002015-04-15T11:00:45.121-07:00Leaders, servers, question askers, it's all the sameWhile to me it makes total sense to put everything you write in one place, Google, and marketing in general dictate otherwise. This is a problem I'd love to work on...<br />
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That being said I published a new article on Linked In Pulse. You can find it here. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-leaders-serve-domenic-weber" target="_blank"> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-leaders-serve-domenic-weber</a>Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-73903534748509881102015-04-12T07:46:00.004-07:002015-04-12T07:46:41.913-07:00Responsibility<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
One of the toughest things for most people to "get" is something you hear a lot in TOOLS. What does it really mean to take responsibility for you?</div>
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In the past 60 years we are only now uncovering how our brains truly work. Dr Richard Carlson wrote a book called, <i>You Can Be Happy No Matter What</i>. It's like the laymen s version of the work performed by Dr. Aaron Beck and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. </div>
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The premise is simple: every thought you have is chosen by you. Thoughts, beget emotions...literally. On a scientific level neurons are firing that are your thoughts, these trigger the release of certain chemicals in the brain known as hormones or neurotransmitters. We experience these things as emotions. Emotions drive our behavior. Our thoughts ultimately control our behavior.</div>
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A quick story. I have 2 friends who are girls and they, um, girl fight? Ya know, they are always talking crap about the other behind their backs but they are the best of friends really. Both of them come to me to complain about the other. One day one said, "She just makes me so angry when she does this." Understanding Dr Beck and Dr. Carlson what she really meant was "<b>I</b> choose to be angry because <b>I</b> don't like her actions." Emphasize that "I" when you read it...doesn't it sound selfish? It is. (FYI, you shed that ego, there is no more "I")</div>
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So I said to her, "Don't give her that power over you." You have the choice to not react to what she is doing. By reacting to her in that way you are doing what she wants and she's gaining power over you." My friend looked at me, then stared off into the distance like she was thinking. Then kind of changed the subject and I didn't think twice about it.</div>
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Months later my same friend said, "You are so right, I can't give her that power and it's been so liberating ever since you told me that. I do have the choice to not be affected by her. Thank you." I said, "No problem," and that was it.</div>
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When people understand they have a choice in their reactions, what they think and how they feel, it can be extremely empowering and liberating. A lot of people rebuke this entire idea and say, "NO NO NO, I didn't want this." And put their fingers in their ears and stomp their feet like a child...well that is their choice as well.</div>
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I got an F my junior year in high school. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.</div>
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Here is another quick story on how this can be so liberating. I went to a retreat a few years back and the leaders cursed like sailors constantly. I thought it a bit odd but I curse a lot so I didn't really care. The 2nd day there was a lecture and he brought it up. "You may have noticed I curse a lot and I don't give a fuck what you think. Why? If you are the type of person that gets offended by what someone else says you probably get offended all day everyday. Think about it, the only person in all the different scenarios who is suffering, is you! So I curse for a reason, to teach you something about yourself. You are letting others control how you feel and until you accept that as <i>your </i>problem and not theirs, you will suffer." From that day on in the retreat people cursed constantly, it was hilarious to me.</div>
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Take responsibility to everything in your life. </div>
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Every thought and feeling you have is generated by you. Maybe not consciously, but that is why you are here, to consciously change your unconscious ideals. <br /><br />Now, do I condone bigotry and hatred. Absolutely not, those only hurt everyone. For example, the laws Indiana and several other states have passed recently are terrible and they are stripping people of freedoms they deserve. This isn't about how one feels anymore, this is physically forcing a change on someone and I think it's terrible. Moreover, if people who condone and endorsed these laws lived by the principal that NO ONE can affect them, they would have never needed these laws. It's a pure sign they aren't taking responsibility for their own actions. </div>
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Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-6630841385606380702015-04-11T09:20:00.006-07:002015-04-11T09:31:14.105-07:00The Inner Voice Part 1<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
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I'm a lot more spiritual now then I was when I did this program the first time. Thinking back I really didn't pay too much credence to the "Inner Voice" thing. The funniest part about what follows is Devlyn calls me the "rational and scientific" to his "go from the gut" feelings. Which is true, I tend to be the one to provide why and what is happening on a physiological and neurological level when he just "goes from the gut." That being said, what I'm about to say should give some more weight to what many la-la new age thinkers preach. </div>
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Inner voice: now....wow, it's one of my most important parts of my life. As I said, I'm fairly spiritual now, you can call me crazy or stupid, etc etc, I don't care, but here is what I now know: What Devlyn calls your "inner voice" has many names throughout history in many different religions. Some call it God, your guardian angel, your intuition, etc. </div>
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In the New Age circle, the simplest definition is what is called your "Higher Self" this is the part of you that is connected to the universe and everything around you, it's what is connected to God because it is a part of God, it is a part of everything.<br />
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Because...everything is connected to everything. I am connected to you, to the Earth, to every single speck of matter and energy because that is what we are, in the end we are all made of the same stuff, energy, and is all connected in the quantum soup of the universe. </div>
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Christianity has a concept that we are "Made in the image of God." I, and many others have taken this further and to me it's much more powerful. We aren't just made "in the image" of God, we ARE the same thing. Our inner self, our higher self, is connected to God because it's part of God, because it's all the same thing. <br />
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Words do not do this justice.</div>
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When I am most connected to my higher self, I am the most at peace, the most comfortable, the relaxed and the most un-phased by everything terrible that happens everyday. When I am the most distressed, I can feel I don't have that same connection.</div>
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You may be asking, "well what is the difference between you and your higher self, by admitting you are you, you admit you are something different." Yes, I agree and no I don't. </div>
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EGO</div>
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The larger your ego is, the more you identify yourself as a separate thing with importance, the more you suffer. The less connected you are to that inner voice and chances are you are less happy.</div>
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I know what I'm about to say next makes me sound even crazier to most but when I'm most connected to my higher self I am clairvoyant. Yes, I'm talking 6th sense. That being said I don't think I'm special. I think everyone has this skill just like everyone has the other 5 sense, but it's something that must be worked at and practiced.</div>
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It's quite simple really. I tend to pick up what other people are putting down, regardless of words or if I can even see them. It's closer to a type of empathy where you just understand what they are feeling. My close friends all know this as truth. I'm often able to discern their moods and demeanor without even speaking to them, in fact I email them out of the blue asking how they are doing and they don't even question it anymore with "How did you know I was feeling this way?" They just respond.</div>
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Interestingly as well, the stronger someone else is connected to his/her higher self or if he/she is very separated from his/her higher self, it's much easier to pick up on these people. Meaning people who are super happy or people who are super depressed are much easier to read. Now think about that. Regardless of if you believe me about a 6th sense you have all been able to tell is someone is livid pissed or depressed and if someone is beaming with happiness and it's not just seeing their faces, you can feel it, you can identify with it. </div>
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I ponder this effect on my close friends as well. When I got super depressed last week, I started getting random texts out of the blue from all my friends, "Are you OK?" "What's going on." They knew! They could feel something was wrong with me. They didn't know what, only that something felt different.</div>
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Masculine energy is defined as "presence" and feminine as "radiance," the stronger connection to higher self the more you will be "feel" these people. Devlyn Steele has one of the strongest "presences" I have ever met, he's in the top 3, go figure. He's the type of guy who can walk into a room and heads turn, I saw this happen first hand. Think about that! We have all heard or seen people that have such powerful energy around them that simply by entering into a room, people who can not seem them, AT ALL, stop, turn around to see what is there. The people turning may not even know why they turned, something just kind of told them to check it out. You may have even been one of these people, I know I have.</div>
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I have a ton more to say on the "inner voice" but I'm going to break it into another post. This is what my brain does, it gets massive swarms of information coming through onto my radar at the same time, then I have to make sense of it all and turn it into something beautiful. <b>I am the Creator.</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">For now I will say this: 6th Chakra activation, Indigo children, leads to 7th Chakra, aka higher self, receiving information, clam in the storm, acceptance, trust yourself, connection, thoughts are creative forces, release, power, energy, presence and radiance, pleasing personalities...love.</span></span></span></div>
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Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-55780577191044476192015-04-09T08:07:00.001-07:002015-04-09T08:07:21.670-07:00Being Ashamed<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
Day 3 in Tools To Life: in the exercises section we were asked to change problems into opportunities. Working with Devlyn the past several years I often started conversations with, "Devlyn, we have a lot of opportunities ahead of us," and he would laugh. Makes me smile thinking about it.</div>
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I put that one of my problems is that I'm too effing smart. Meaning I know how this program works, and what each step is doing and why it's doing it. Therefore I have the ability to subconsciously sabotage the work.</div>
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When I want to be negative, I can literally always find a reason despite what ANYONE tells me, including Devlyn.</div>
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It's not that I <i>want </i>to be negative, it's just so easy. Just like Devlyn says, 82% of our brains have been wired for negativity. </div>
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I've already talked about he difference between rationally understanding and feeling a certain way about something. It happens on multiple levels. Last week, when shit hit the fan, Devlyn said, "Domenic, this is the time when you have to put the pedal to the metal, this is when you push through so that everything you talk and believe aren't just lip service. Now is when you practice what you preach." All I could think of at the time was, "I just don't give a fuck anymore." I knew it was a mood and it would pass but that was at that time.'</div>
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Today, writing out my "opportunity" to knowing what lies ahead an answer just came to me. What follows may sound cocky, but it's written for me to read so I'm not aiming for modesty:</div>
<b>Being too smart...it's the ultimate challenge, a higher level of knowledge, a higher vibration. I've been given the opportunity to transcend my current level and push forward. Knowing what I know, being who I am, I have the potential for greatness.</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;">Something is trying to hold me back...what is it? I am ashamed of my failure, but it's only me who is ashamed, no one else. In fact, as my wife and Devlyn say, I'm the only one who even thinks I've failed. What part of me is ashamed and why? Judgement. I judged others and said they were worthless when they were at this point and now here I am. My shame is the result of my own judgement and no one else's. I shed my ego, I release the judgement.</span> </b></div>
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I have to forgive myself and release the judgement of myself. This doesn't give me a ticket to say "Fuck it," in fact it's the opposite, "It gives me the chance to prove I was wrong before." This gets me motivated.</div>
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Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-64412822018074818952015-04-08T08:15:00.002-07:002015-04-08T08:15:07.989-07:00It's happening againJack Canfield, The Success Principals<br />
Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap<br />
The Plateau effect,<br />
CBT,<br />
Core Values,<br />
Contentment,<br />
Acceptance,<br />
shed the ego,<br />
Judgement<br />
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All the pieces are out there, I don't know how or why but they will manifest together into something great.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-40352380194831433722015-04-08T08:01:00.000-07:002015-04-11T15:57:31.701-07:00Catching negative thoughtsDay 2 is about catching yourself saying bad things. It's easier said than done. I continue to struggle with rationality vs emotion. I say negative things about myself all the time...most people do. The second I say them I know they are untrue on a rational level.<br />
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I <i>know </i>I'm not stupid<br />
I <i>know </i>I'm not worthless<br />
I <i>know </i>I'm not fat<br />
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Yet, how can you help how you feel. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy teaches us that all emotions are proceeded by thoughts. It is ALWAYS a thought that leads to the chemical release of what we know as emotions. <br />
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So I ponder this conundrum, now an expert in the TOOLS methodology and CBT system, how is it possible for me to logically know what I'm saying isn't true, yet still feel all the negative emotions.<br />
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Devlyn says something that is going to be a big part of my next 90 days, "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666669845581px;">Her perception ruled her brain."</span><br />
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A huge part of major work in CBT is understanding and changing your core values. Your core values dictate your perception. It takes a LOT of work to change your core values. I know over the years I have altered them and I'm thinking it happens like plateau effect. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9nQtC2xXrvpsrHjFapkf-Au5ExiLBWI9EYIsMAe6_83M1999PZyxyS_60cQUXjiv1ppsLgNE7FaxPD2ubr8l6fN3HoKMFLFFzFUcSvLyVQ_AOJIl1ZsEUjODqZe9M45GbD1Xw1ihUPN_e/s1600/Learning-plateau-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9nQtC2xXrvpsrHjFapkf-Au5ExiLBWI9EYIsMAe6_83M1999PZyxyS_60cQUXjiv1ppsLgNE7FaxPD2ubr8l6fN3HoKMFLFFzFUcSvLyVQ_AOJIl1ZsEUjODqZe9M45GbD1Xw1ihUPN_e/s1600/Learning-plateau-1.png" height="151" width="400" /></a></div>
We talk about this a lot in snowboard instruction. When you are learning anything, you can take in a ton of information and process a bunch of it quickly, this shows as a quick rise in skill, then as time goes on you don't progress nearly as much as you simply perfect what you know. <br />
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Then, there is a breakthrough and you repeat the cycle at a higher level.<br />
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I've been doing this for 23 years as a snowboarder. You work and work, it gets to the point where you see almost no more change, then something clicks and you "get it." and now you can move to a higher level.<br />
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It's like the Universe has a system set up that doesn't allow us to progress until we are ready...<br />
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Anyway, plateau, stagnation, contentment....hmm starting to see a theme here.<br />
I'm not content, so it must be time to move on.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-46427253878808632372015-04-07T14:31:00.001-07:002015-04-07T14:34:27.183-07:00Corporate Education: yay!I've been really asking myself what I want and how I got so down recently. Today, during my Merkaba meditation I got inundated with answers.<br />
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What do I want? Surprise, surprise, it's the same thing I've always wanted and the reason I was put on this Earth. It's Phiolo and more. I've always been an educator, back in 2003 I wrote my Master's Thesis on a paradigm shift in how we educate students. My professors said, "You realize you have a tremendous uphill battle ahead of you?" and I said, "I know, but it's the right thing to do."<br />
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I was writing about how we truly learn and how we should truly teach years before even Seth Godin broached the subject in his manifesto <a href="http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf" target="_blank">Stop Stealing Dreams</a>. Give it a quick read, he and I are 100% on the same page in this subject. <br />
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I knew the world wasn't quite ready for what I was proposing. I thought to myself, "I wish corporations put the time and effort into educating their employees to build a more effective work force," but at that time they didn't see the value. <br />
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Then the Great Recession of 2008 hit. People were laid off everywhere and the only people who could keep their jobs were the ones who were indispensable. So what made them indispensable?<br />
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My theory is that they were creators and problem solvers: companies literally would perish if they weren't there. They were the exact type of people I wanted to create through education. There were "smart" people. But as Seth Godin says, you can teach people to be smart it's not innate, you just have to know how.<br />
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Here we are now in 2015 and I'm back in the job market and starting to be amazed at all the "Educational Leadership" positions in multiple corporations. It's like a dream come true.<br />
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The Great Recession was simply part of a cycle. Historically they will look back and see that it marked the end of the Industrial Age where people were taught to be obedient and follow orders. It also marks the beginning of the Information Age.<br />
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Today, all the people getting jobs need to be "highly creative", "problem solvers" "self starters" with "people skills" and the "ability to collaborate". Sadly, college hasn't caught up, it's still trying to breed obedience, not creativity.<br />
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However, Capitalism moves much faster. Companies quickly realized it was going to be near impossible to find the type of talent they needed from the job pool of fresh college grads and started building their own education programs to meet their needs. <br />
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What do all these education programs have in common, they are about the applied use of specific knowledge to create and solve new problems. That is to say they are focusing on using content to illicit higher order thinking skills, essentially creating smarter people who can get the job done.<br />
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I may just be entering my flow.<br />
<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-68574247678849844222015-04-06T09:00:00.001-07:002015-04-07T14:43:22.228-07:00When life hands you lemons...shit sucks.Ever the optimist, I have gotten the shit kicked out of me over the past month. It feels like every single thing that could go wrong has. <br />
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<ul>
<li>My partner as QS vanishes with no communication, leaving me to run the ship alone.</li>
<li>I put in hundreds of hours of work and effort into applications, profile building, presentations, planning and our actual product development and the vast majority of it is undermined b/c the other members of the team can't spend 5 minutes to fill out their portions of it. </li>
<li>My trading account get's slaughtered losing 5%-7% in 2 days</li>
<li>My brother is harping on me for a loan and making the rest of our family miserable</li>
<li>Now, my house in NJ gets a valve stuck open, floods the house and I just spoke with our insurance company and they aren't going to cover 1 penny of the entire cost.</li>
</ul>
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What a way to start Monday morning...</div>
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I broke this morning, I simply started crying and for the first time in years I said the words, "I hate my life."</div>
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It was back in '08 or '09 when my wife first opened my eyes to all the possibilities in the world. I learned optimism and how a positive attitude literally made me smarter. My brain started firing more and more often. I was inspired with amazing ideas and able to do what I do (link content together to create new systems) better than ever. I honed my public speaking skills, I developed amazing presentations that sold more product & services. I was empathetic for the first time in my life. I cared deeply about Earth, society and civilization. I wanted to change the world for the better and I was on the path to greatness, I could feel it. I knew the world was about to change.</div>
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Fast forward 7 or 8 years and what have I got or done? All my friends would offer multiple examples of how I picked them up and supported them. I built the most advanced smoking cessation program in the world, I've learned more about marketing and started coding as well as the fact that I literally unlocked my 6th sense of what I call clairvoyance. (Everyone has this, it's just a skill that needs to be practiced.) aka the ability to pick on people's vibes whether they want you to or not. I've learned spiritual technologies and the value of meditation, reflection and self control. And rationally, using my highly developed Pre Frontal Cortex that all humans are gifted with, I get this, but I don't fucking care right now. I don't <i>feel</i> any of it.</div>
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All I feel, is failure. I feel useless, worthless and powerless. From my work in suicide I know this is where the suicidal hang out all the time. I'm at the bottom of the Emotional Guidance Scale<br />
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Just sitting here contemplating everything, I rationally get that my positivity is working b/c I moved from hopelessness back to anger and rage at myself. I'm pissed I'm such a fucking failure and there is no one to blame but me. <br />
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Then I reflect back and ask, "How the fuck did I get here?" And I honestly think the answer lies the most dangerous of emotions...to me at least...Contentment.<br />
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Since my return from my summer retreat I have been slowing sliding all the way back down from 1 to 22. Again, upon reflection I recall seeing myself in a state of <i>contentment</i> and remembering asking, "I want more than this." And the Universe delivered. <br />
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How am I getting more than contentment? Well....I'm definitely not content anymore. Is it a good feeling, no, but am I content, definitely not!<br />
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I can safely say that just in writing this and examining my emotions I know I'm already pushing back up towards hopefulness and optimism. The question is hopefulness and optimism for what? I'm not 100% sure but there is one thing for certain and that is I have to keep playing the game.<br />
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In P90X and all of Beach Body's programs they say one thing over and over, "Keep pressing play." No matter what, you keep pressing play and you will see results. They are right.<br />
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I have to keep pressing play. I just spoke with Devlyn and of course he made it all sound so simple, "Now is the time when you can't give up or else all the stuff you preach and believe in is just lip service, you need to be the living embodiment of what you preach," Fucking bastard is right...<br />
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One thing is for certain, I would never gotten so down if I shed my ego.<br />
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The question now is not "What do I want?" It's "What am I willing to do to get it?"<br />
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Keep pressing play...shed the ego.</div>
Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-18024983966409608342015-03-30T08:45:00.002-07:002015-04-15T11:10:31.779-07:00What is means to be a leader Part 2of2<b>Lesson 3: The Philosopher King</b><br />
The last night of the retreat we had to look into the eyes of everyone of our group members and tell them what we saw in them. 90% of the people said they chose me as their leader and would follow me anywhere. WTF!?! Not what I was going for on this retreat! I was there for me, screw everyone else! <br />
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In Plato's <i>Republic</i>, Socrates says that the ones who should be in charge are the ones who don't want to be, and he calls these rulers the Philosopher Kings. I always agreed with the simple idea that rulers who don't want to rule are the least apt to be corrupt, hence there is a fundamental flaw in campaigning for election. Now, 10 years after reading The Republic I experienced a deeper meaning of what Plato was writing. The one who doesn't want to lead could care less if he is leading because he's focused on the goal, not leading.<br />
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I had to start asking people why they kept saying they wanted me as their leader and most of them pointed to day 2 and said, "It was apparent you knew what you were doing and didn't need the agreement or consensus of anyone to do it. You're confidence shines forth and that's the type of person I can get behind."<br />
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Leaders don't choose to lead. They choose a path and follow it. Their goal is not to tell others what to do, they are driven by a purpose and follow that direction. In the process others see this and willingly fall in step because they are just as lost as everyone else is on this earth. The leaders then see that others are now on the same path and focus on how they can help the others along to the common goal. <br />
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Yes, people want to be lead, but they must choose where they are being lead and by whom. Conversely, leaders aren't there to tell people what to do or convince them that what is the right thing to do, the leader is there to assist them so they all achieve the common goal. The slave/leaders were wrong every step of the way. But the servant/leader can move mountains.<br />
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For years I wanted to own my own company and be the boss and be the leader. This pretty much always resulted in misery. Ironically in 2010 when I gave all that up and said, "Let's focus on me," is when I became a leader. When I told this story to Devlyn Steele, he simply laughed as if he were saying, "Duh." Then he says, "Domenic, you are a natural born leader and people will want to follow you whether you like it or not," and I replied, "But I don't want that anymore," and he said, "Whoever said it was your choice?" <br />
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<b>Lesson 4: Not everyone has to lead and that's a good thing</b><br />
Fast forward a couple years and I'm at a similar retreat. Ironically, many of the people in this one had gone through the same retreat I did years earlier, but only a couple of days prior. Evidently, they didn't learn the same lessons.<br />
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It started the same; a bunch of people said how they could contribute to our group, they were all go getters and problem solvers and ready to "lead people". I wasn't as cynical this time, when asked what I would contribute, I said I was a solution finder. Many looked at me like "What the hell does that mean," and blew me off.<br />
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Smaller group, more tasks we had to accomplish together, same exact thing, several people attempting to "lead" and bickering ensues. Our first task was 10 minutes long and they deliberated for 9 minutes. I thought back to my leadership skills and said, "You're never going to convince them there is a better way, just be yourself and they will see."<br />
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Another thing they tried in this one was to be more "inclusive" of everyone and have everyone contributing to the idea. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Many of the tasks this time were puzzles and while they strategized on how to do it, I simply did it.<br />
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After about 3 or 4 of these 30 minute tasks, some of our group started to get it. They stopped listening to our "leaders" altogether and turned to me and said, "How can I help?" My reply was always the same, "Well, this is what I figured would work, so this is what I'm trying out, if you want to help there is task A, B and C, that come next, you can start on one of those." And that's all it took. I found solutions to problems and I'd love some help trying out my theories.<br />
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By the end of the week, I was seen by all as one of the main leaders of our group, members were volunteering me to be our speaker, talk first and summarize our conversations. This time I didn't want it, I didn't ask for it, but I did expect it would happen and I wasn't surprised. That being said, would I have been disappointed if it didn't work out that way, no. The whole point of this retreat was learning to go with the flow, and I did that. <br />
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I continue to live my life and I really don't have anything figured out, I feel more lost than ever right now. I really do feel that I "Make it up as I go along," but that is the path of a creator...evidently that is the path of a leader.<br />
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-14232146478916563052015-03-30T08:34:00.003-07:002015-04-15T11:06:41.807-07:00What it means to be a leader Part 1of2I was in Joshua Tree attending a self improvement retreat of sorts and part of a group of about 50. It was a diverse group with athletic kids in their late teens to an elderly, overweight woman with a limp in her 70's. Our task was simple, we had to go on a hike while carrying 50+ bricks and enough water for the group (four 5 gallon jugs). <br />
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Living in Boulder I was like, "really we're going on a hike and this is supposed to be a challenge, I'll carry the 50 bricks by myself." However, I knew this would be a daunting task for many as they were "average Americans."<br />
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This challenge was not designed to be a team building exercise. Ultimately the task was to teach you something about yourself, and it did. When I went on this retreat, I was at a point in my life where I was there for me, screw everyone else. I approached the entire week that way. I wasn't there to teach, I wasn't there to guide, for once in my life, I was in it for me and no one else. No, this isn't selfish, it was me time, focusing on improving myself. Little did I know I would emerge a true leader by the end of this week.<br />
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<b>How NOT to be a leader</b><br />
This was day 2 of the 5 days and it was apparent several of our 50 in the group had decided they were "Leaders" and were going to "guide" the group. These leaders each had their own idea of how things should be done and there wasn't much changing their opinions because they were right and everyone else should learn from them. It was amusing to watch 6 or 7 people with this same attitude. For once I just sat back and giggled, after all I wasn't there for them.<br />
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A small caveat: over the course of the week the leaders continued with the same attitude and if you didn't listen to them they would simply do it themselves. I noticed this very quickly and took to calling them the "slaves" because you could essentially get them to do anything for you by simply not cooperating with them. On a different day we had a task and someone was asking me what I think we should do (more on why they were asking me to follow) and I said, "Well, let the slaves do it." They looked at me puzzled, then I said the names of several of our slave/leaders and they simply burst into laughter because they understood what I meant and wholly agreed with my assessment.<br />
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Anyway, back to our "strategy session" before the hike started. One thing that was agreed upon was that it was apparent there were several of us in good shape and could easily do the hike, even with 50lbs of brink in a backpack. They asked me if I'd carry that weight and I said "sure" grabbed my bag and waited for the bickering...I mean strategy session...to end. I had my task and I get shit done, I wasn't going to be a part of a meaningless bickerfest.<br />
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<b>Lesson 1: People need help but most won't ask for it...so be patient.</b><br />
Finally we get going...jeez that took forever, it's walking people. During one point there was a small scramble up a steep section and this one woman was very fit, but super skinny and she was literally trying to carry 2 bricks up the incline and kept stumbling. I offered to take the bricks and she refused. <br />
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If you couldn't tell by now, most of this group was getting on my nerves. I really was getting sick of seeing her stumble repeatedly so I simply took the bricks from her and walked up and she followed. When we got to the top one of the coordinators of the retreat said to me, "By <i>taking</i> those bricks from her you have deprived her of an experience, think about how your actions have affected someone else." <b>Oh wow, I'm a ass</b>. As I said the point of the exercise was to learn about you, and I just learned I'd been a ass my whole life because it wasn't as if this was the first time I was impatient. I was acting just like our slave/leaders.<br />
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End of day, exercise is over and we all had to say something we learned. While I was humbled by my own little lesson, I was still seething pissed at this group of idiots. Pride was their downfall and they all agreed. The lesson many took away was that it's OK to ask for help. Most stumbled and failed and were too proud to ask anyone for help, they all thought they could go it alone and the result was many of our group didn't finish the hike. <br />
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This is the lesson the skinny woman said she learned too. She brought up the instance where I took the bricks and said, "I was too stubborn to admit I needed help and my stubbornness delayed our group" and she actually thanked me for taking charge! <br />
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Does being a leader mean taking charge? No no no. We'll get there but that was NOT the lesson.<br />
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<b>Lesson 2: <i>"Do or do not, there is no try"</i> <i>Yoda</i></b><br />
I reminded myself I was there for me, not these people and slept it off that night. Then a funny thing started happening that I didn't notice until the conclusion of the retreat. During our exercises over the next several days many people approached me and asked for my opinion on what we should do.<br />
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Some of our leader/slaves even approached me and said, "Well what do you think?" My immediate response in my head all the time was, "Why are you asking me, form your own damn opinions?"<br />
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What was going on? Well, on the first day we attended a lecture and the speaker talked about "getting shit done." I'm a huge fan of this. He employs the method, "Ready, Fire, Aim." Yes, I said that right. The point is too many people deliberate and think things though then try to execute a plan which falls apart 2 minutes into execution. Just like Mike Tyson says, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." <br />
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This isn't to say we shouldn't form plans, but simply that a lot of the time you don't know what you're getting into until you're into it. Programming can be a lot like this; you start off with a general idea of what you're doing, then it expands, changes, etc. It's why programmers are apt to just...start programming, and then see where it takes them because they already know you're going to ask them to make a thousand changes. Most full functioning programs are strung together on a series of very delicate codes that barely come off as a system...eg Facebook.<br />
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Over the course of the next several days while the slave/leaders argued and wasted time, I often just started doing. Some of them took offense to this and looked at me incredulously asking, "What are you doing, <i>we</i> didn't say that was <i>our</i> plan," and by this point several others backed me up without my request saying, "He's done more in the time you argued than you have done all day."<br />
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All of a sudden, all these people thought I had my shit together and had it all figured out. Well, I don't know everything and hardly have it toether, but I'm a big fan of doing and it's where I developed one of my most paradoxical motto's: <b>I just make it up as I go along. </b> If the Law of Attraction exists, this is a perfect example.<br />
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There are natural born leaders, but they aren't what many think. They don't start with the idea they will lead people and coerce them into following. They are people with direction and purpose. They are the Philosopher Kings.<br />
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-58365327047390577322014-12-24T08:52:00.003-08:002014-12-24T08:52:34.395-08:00Dopamine, Anticipation and the FutureDopamine is a neurotransmitter released by the "reward" system in the brain. I quote mark reward because what dopamine actually does is stimulate you to take action due to the <i>anticipation</i> of a reward not the actual gratifying feeling you get when you have the reward in hand. <br />
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It's what causes yearning.<br />
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When you look at it this way, dopamine can kind of suck. You wouldn't desire anything if you didn't have dopamine, which means you could never be disappointed when you don't get it. Of course, you wouldn't get a lot of things at all either. <br />
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I've been struggling with the Law of Attraction and every Self Help books advice that you must fully experience and feel the thing you want for it to manifest into your life. You must <i>anticipate</i> it coming, you must expect it coming.<br />
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Dopamine tells you, "Hey, do this and you'll get something <i>in the future,</i>" but the future doesn't exist until it happens, aka until it's the present. As Kelly McGonigal puts it, "Evolution doesn't give a damn about happiness itself, but will use the promise of happiness to keep us struggling to stay alive." <br />
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It's interesting when you contrast this info with what we know about ADHD. According to medical research ADHD is a reduction of standard of dopamine and norepinephrine production. Because you don't anticipate any reward in the future, you simply say "Meh, not interested." As a true ADHD child I can attest to this my entire life. The medical community also came up with a solution for this: feed them drugs to stimulate the production of dopamine and norepinephrine. I will also vehemently attest to the absolute destruction of the mind this solution results in.<br />
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Let's jump to the more recent spiritual/woo-woo interpretation of ADHD and the Indigo Children. Most Indigos are ADHD and their lack of interest in most traditional subjects is simply due to an evolutionary jump in what is actually important in this world. Turns out that if you put an Indigo on specific tasks they have relentless attention and can far outpace "traditional" minds. I will also attest to this as fact, to me at least. <br />
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It really comes down to what it is you desire. People with ADHD evidently desire different things so that when we present traditional subject matter, they just aren't interested. <br />
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You do have the ability to control the future, you control the future by living in the now. You control the now by choosing what you desire. You control what you desire by creating the future in your mind, now.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-8039687281719622192014-12-12T09:31:00.002-08:002014-12-12T09:31:59.915-08:00The Depression EpidemicMaybe it's just me noticing it more as we focus on Suicide Prevention. Some call this the Law of Attraction, I call it your Reticular Activating System (RAS). I'm seeing a lot of posts on FB that appear to be cries for help in some way or another. From bold, "Help me....for the love of God, help me!" to "All this positive affirmation stuff is crap, here's my science to prove it." <br />
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...And science becomes a religion once again.<br />
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Anyway, it's the Holidays and people get Holiday Depression. Why is that? Well the simple answer is they are living in the past or future. They are thinking about how great things used to be and how they suck now. Scientific fact: your brain actually changes the facts of the past to fit your current state. This was demonstrated both by Shawn Achor and Norman Doidge. <br />
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<b>Obligation</b><br />
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My theory is that people get depressed around the holidays because they feel the MUST do something or are supposed to feel a certain way and when they can't live up to that standard they get discouraged.<br />
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This is a lot like my theory on judgement. The more judgmental you are the harder you are on yourself, the higher your standards are to adhere to and the more miserable you are in general.<br />
<br />So my solution is simple: replace the words want, need, have to get. I want to do this, I get to do this, I have do to this, I get to do this, I need to do this, I get to do this. <br />
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This isn't as easy as it sounds. You need to program yourself starting at the end of the day before you go to bed, focus on starting tomorrow with GET. What do you get to do? Wake up, take 2 to 3 minutes to focus on very simple little nice things. Laying in the soft bed, warm and cozy, or snuggling with pets, or people. Try to enjoy being alive for the first 2 minutes of the day. Breath in and take notice of what you do have. A roof over your head, a bed, clothes, health, a brain, etc, you have to start small with things you do have, make those your focus and then realize, you get to wake up you get to start another day.<br />
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Eventually, you get to change the fucking world.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-78691376242103704912014-11-04T08:26:00.000-08:002014-11-04T08:26:59.386-08:00Immediate Gratification: what is it?Dr. McGonigal writes about "The Collapse of a Civilization" in <i>The Willpower Instinct. </i>She explains what happened to Easter Island natives when they sought immediate gratification over long term survival. They cut down all the trees on the island and destroyed the ecosystem and this lead to their own deaths. The end result, a civilization exterminated itself.<br />
<br />This is odd. Why have we evolved in such a fashion that we are able to destroy ourselves? This is very different than any other species who are always looking to survive and nature is always presenting the best solution for said species.<br />
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She explains that our early primitive brain operates from the basis that we don't know where our next meal is coming from or where shelter is, etc. Therefore immediate gratification is "what's best for us," to our primitive mind. <br />
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She also points out that we don't live in that world anymore. You aren't going to starve if you skip a meal, but you're brain doesn't know that so it responds the same way it has for thousands of years. Fortunately humans developed this thing called foresight. Also known as the Pre Frontal Cortex.<br />
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This rational area of our brain can put the kibosh on your "Lizard brain," aka your Limbic System, which is in charge of things like fight-or-flight and "OMG OMG OMG we're gonna die in the next 10 minutes."<br />
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At first, it looks as though our limbic system has a flawed design because nature designed us in such a fashion that we can harm ourselves. However there are a couple of intricacies here that are beautiful. <br />
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1) Anytime anything disrupts the balance of nature, she corrects it by over compensating the other way. In this case a civilization went unchecked and broke the balance, to restore that balance nature extinguished them, thereby they can't do it again.<br />
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2) They became extinct precisely because they didn't evolve a larger PFC. Had they used foresight and rational thought, they would have seen the errors in their ways and corrected before nature had to. The survivors of our species are the ones who have evolved a larger PFC. <br />
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3) That doesn't mean we're out of the water yet. That is Dr. McGonigal's entire point, humans are still behaving like Easter Island residents, and the result will be the same if we don't check ourselves.<br />
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-18037439030572114222014-10-26T08:42:00.001-07:002014-10-26T08:42:54.873-07:00Take your time...and shove it.I myself have already admitted I never feel there is enough...I have't accomplished enough in an allotted time, always in a hurry, must to do more, etc. <br />
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I've already admitted I'm crazy by most standards, so now I'm really going to dive into the idea that <b>Time Does Not Exist</b> and why adopting this idea is freeing me from my own self inflicted turmoil and I hope it can do the same for you. <br />
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In the Sept 2014 issue of <i>Discover</i>, author Hillary Rosner wrote an article called Forever Young that talks about senescence, aka aging. I love how ego is built right into science and scientists claim they are "impartial." The article explains how science is having a tough time understanding aging because it's an assumption, not a fact. Aging is "<i>a priori</i>" in science meaning it is a given fact and cannot be proven or disproven, therefore it is. There were several theories to aging but they were just that because improvable. We all know that to <i>assume</i> makes an <i>ass</i> out of <i>u</i> and <i>me</i>.<br />
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Speaking on those theories:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"For years scientists have quibbled over which theory [of aging] proved the best. Now a new branch of the science of aging has sprouted, from a part of the world that, oddly, was excluded before: <i><u><b>nature</b></u></i>." </blockquote>
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Many plants display negative senescence meaning they are actually getting stronger as time goes on. The bristle cone pines in northern CA are 5000+ years old. Science doesn't like this because it doesn't fit in the dogma it's created. "There's dogma in the literature--which is more oriented toward the cell biology of aging--that wild animals don't actually senesce," says Daniel Nussey. His point is that science as assumed senesce can be neither proven nor disproven, and now we are doing both through negative senesce.<br />
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Time is an illusion: I first received this idea when I was talking to a tree in BC, Canada (told you I was crazy). Another fascinating topic is how we communicate w/o words but I will leave that for later. I was simply looking at the tree, not old by any means, only maybe 6" in diameter. I was looking at the bark and the many razor thin layers that make it up. They shed, grow more, shed grow more...the old stuff falls to the ground and decomposes back into the earth where it becomes part of the nutrients that feed the tree, thereby becoming part of the thing it once was.<br />
<br />
We always use the term "Nature" to describe everything on the planet that isn't us (that's funny too). Sometimes we use the term <i>Mother</i> Nature, and others refer to the entire planet with names like Gaia, Terra, or simply Mother Earth. <br />
<br />
The tree, part of nature, sheds the bark and lands on the ground, part of nature, which sits there or is picked up by an animal, both part of nature, and eventually decomposes back into the earth, part of nature, and becomes fuel for other plants, part of nature. See the theme yet? If it's all part of nature at all times, it always <i>is. </i>Now, one million years ago, one million years from now, it doesn't make a difference to nature. To nature, time isn't there, it always was and always will be...hmm, just like God. <br />
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Here's the thing: we always use the term nature to describe everything that isn't us. What if we are part of nature? <br />
<br />
Shed your ego.<br />
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You'll have plenty of time to get everything you ever wanted done.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-34901705131065634102014-10-21T09:37:00.000-07:002014-10-21T09:41:17.021-07:00Who are you?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't stand the type of pompous, uber-egotistical writing that is in <i>The New Yorker</i>. Like <a href="http://nymag.com/health/self-help/2013/schulz-self-searching/" target="_blank">this article</a>. However, I agree with Kathryn Schultz in her point. The point being that self help is mostly filled with hacks and charlatans because to help the self, one must understand what the self is...otherwise what are you helping? And 99% of the "Life Coaches" out there don't have their shit together but feel that telling other people what to do makes them happy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She concludes on the favorable side of self help because while there may be a "<span style="background-color: white; color: #232323; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">umptebajillion," ideas out there, at least they are putting out ideas as to what the self is. Like most <i>The New Yorker </i>writers, her elitist arrogance seated in "higher order" rational thinking is also the reason she can't find the self.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">The self is more than just your rational thought, masculine brain. It includes our emotions, feelings, behaviors and reactions, which to this day have not been localized in the brain. What this boils down to the separation between the brain and the mind. A rationalist will kick and scream at the idea of a "mind" that is not in the physical brain. Yet, science has had to alter course a little bit in the past few years because neurologists aren't able to explain psychological processes even though they can tell you in detail how the machine works.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #232323; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">Hence, a new branch of neurology, (with the backing of the scientific community) called Neuropsychology. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Neuropsychology</b> studies the structure and function of the brain as they relate to specific psychological processes and behaviors. It is seen as a clinical and experimental field of psychology that aims to study, assess, understand and treat behaviors directly related to brain functioning.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">Like most "intelligent" people, only using the brain to solve everything is futile, as the answers you seek aren't answerable by the brain. I could be 1000% wrong but </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kathryn Schultz's </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">article does not look like the writing of a happy person who loves life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">I once asked myself 100 questions in one sitting. 70% of them were pertaining to the same subject: "How do I feel more?" While I finally found the answers I laugh at the irony of using the brain to understand feelings. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">If your in the camp that this type of cold, rational thought is all there is to "intelligence," and you don't walk around loving life and aren't consistently happy on a daily basis (which almost no one in this country is), I invite you try one thing. If you want to know who you are, stop thinking!</span></span></div>
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-41974549919256509162014-10-17T11:17:00.003-07:002014-10-17T11:17:48.054-07:00Am"I am here"<br />
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I is the ego<br />
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What are you without ego?<br />
<br />
"Am here"<br />
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Here is everywhere<br />
<br />
"Am"<br />
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You are everywhere and everything.<br />
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There is a reason este is the first verb you learn in Attic Greek and all of language in general, because it truly is the only thing there is. Is is it.<br />
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Yes, it's totally new age cheesy crap and words don't do it justice. Working with <a href="http://warriorsagetrainings.com/" target="_blank">Satyen Raja</a> a couple years back in a practice called Harmony Integration or <a href="http://spiritual-technology.com/" target="_blank">Spiritual Technology</a>, we asked a Zen Koan which allowed us a direct experience of the truth. Meaning I can tell you exactly what the answer to the question is but it won't mean anything to you because you didn't experience the answer.<br />
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I asked the following: "What am I?"<br />
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Through a process called the Gnostic Intensive I cam to the answer of "I am here." Which is really "when am I" but that was my answer. It was the first time in my life I stopped my palsy. I knew I'd stumbled upon a great truth that literally changed my physical being through a psychoactive process.<br />
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I lead a friend through the process and he concluded with "I am This." <br />
<br />....And now I see those answers are the same. All the reading I've been doing connects in the same idea, shed the ego and you will find peace and happiness. You came to this planet with nothing and were happy, so riches are not the goal. It is only after we develop the idea of the self we start to run into problems...this is why young children are so care free, there is no "self" to care about.<br />
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I picked up a little book called "Heal your Body" by Louise Hay. It's pretty awesome. She explains how the mental things we do cause physical ailments and man they are so right on. Of course, I immediately set out to find all the things wrong with me and a theme quickly developed.<br />
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Here is a list of all the reoccurring ailments I have had since I can remember. See if you can spot a theme<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Palsy: extreme control of anger, unwillingness to express feelings, an intense desire to control everything and everyone</li>
<li>Blackheads: small outbursts of anger</li>
<li>Coccyx: (My tailbone is broken w/o cause): Out of balance with yourself. holding on. Blame of self. Sitting on old pain.</li>
<li>Poor circulation: the inability to express emotion</li>
<li>Earache: anger, not wanting to hear turmoil, parents fighting</li>
<li>Eczema: breath taking antagonism</li>
<li>Hemorrhoids: Fear of deadlines, Anger of the past, afraid to let go, feeling burdened</li>
<li>Kidney Problems: Criticism, disappointment, failure, shame</li>
<li>Liver: Seat of anger and primitive emotions</li>
<li>TMJ: Anger, a refusal to express feelings</li>
<li>Nail Biting: Frustration, eating away at the self</li>
<li>Nervousness: Not trusting the process of life</li>
<li>Sacrum: Loss of power. Old stubborn anger.</li>
<li>Snoring: Stubborn refusal to let go of the old patterns</li>
<li>Sore Throat: Holding in angry words, the inability to express the self</li>
<li>Tinnitus: refusal to listen, not hearing the inner voice. Stubbornness</li>
<li>Tonsillitis: Fear. Repressed emotions.</li>
</ul>
<div>
I am my own worst critic. I judge myself most harshly, nothing I do is ever good enough. I feel the need to do everything and satisfy everyone. It's actually not that I don't think others are capable, but that they aren't required to, only I am. And when I can't do it, which is always because nothing is every good enough for me, I am angry, angry at myself. I take these things in, I don't let them go, they seethe. I makes me feel burdened and angry at everything, angry at the past. I never think I'm good enough so I don't let go, I need to do more, I have to be better and because I can never be enough, I'm fucking angry at existence.</div>
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<br /></div>
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As I mentioned before. James Tywman put it this way: letting go of the ego means 1)Surrendering to a higher power, there is more out there than yourself and you are a part of it. 2)Trusting that you will receive the answers you need when they are needed. 3)Feeling grateful for the gifts you will be giving through trust and 4) sharing those gifts with the world through love.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
"I am not good enough"</div>
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Who am I not good enough for?</div>
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"Me, everyone, anyone"</div>
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<br /></div>
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Who defines what good is?</div>
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"I do"</div>
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I is the ego, eliminate the ego.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>"Am enough"</b></div>
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-38677582702914510552014-10-13T10:29:00.002-07:002014-10-13T10:29:46.793-07:00Phiolo.org is up and runningI've written over 50 pages of thoughts in the past 2 weeks. I never realized how easy it would be for me to write a book until I just started typing this. Whether it is a good book is an entirely different story.<br />
<br />I have attempted to take the best of those 50 pages and built it into <a href="http://phiolo.org/">Phiolo.org</a>. Phiolo is the new education system. I say this because there are multiple facets that extend beyond a school. There is the Career Services Divsion. This is where students can go to find a job post high school, or where they will start their application process to the Universities of their choice. <br /><br />One critical thing that's different about starting a university application at Phiolo....it starts in 9th grade. I posted on the <a href="http://www.phiolo.org/creating-idea-makers-innovators-and-leaders-now/" target="_blank">Phiolo blog</a> about University of Texas new campaign talking about how their pumping out the greatest people in the country. The major thing I took away from the campaign was that UT can indeed help those students become extremely successful by giving them the <i>HOW</i>. But I saw nothing that supports that UT will supply the <i>BE</i>.<br />
<br />
That is what we do at Phiolo. When you live your life with purpose, everything will fall into place.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-17113351301222418072014-10-05T15:36:00.001-07:002014-10-05T15:38:19.057-07:00Shed your Ego<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My sister asked me the other day what I thought a specific Beatitude meant. She specifically asked me about the peacemakers but I will list them all for reference. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is Richmond Lattimore's literal translation from the Greek, meaning he attempts to translate the word without implying any meaning.</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Blessed are the gentle, because they shall inherit the earth</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blessed are they who sorrow, because they shall be comforted</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Blessed are they who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> they shall be fed</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blessed are they who have pity, because they shall be pitied</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blessed are the pure in heart, because they shall see God</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Blessed are the peacemakers, because</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> they shall be called the sons of God</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Blessed are they who are persecuted for their righteousness, because</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> theirs is the the Kingdom</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> of Heaven</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At first you read these and think, "Basically I need to suffer my whole life to get into heaven," and a lot of people believe this, I know my aunts do and after going through 12 years of Catholic school, they essentially told us the same thing. But there is something more interesting behind this. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, there is no time table. There is no "blessed are the poor because in 30 years they get to go to heaven." Christ knew that only the present exists. That is to say he understood the universal key to happiness and we don't have to suffer now to be happy later, if we are meek, poor, clean, etc, <i><b>right now</b></i>, we are in the Kingdom of Heaven.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, there is the "Poor in Spirit," bit, which always confused me. I think Billy Graham actually got it right <a href="http://billygraham.org/answer/what-does-it-mean-to-be-poor-in-spirit-as-jesus-said-we-ought-to-be/comment-page-13/" target="_blank">in his answer.</a> That is to say we must be humble. One may also take this to mean we shouldn't have a big <i>ego</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lastly, ego, the answer and cause of all problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm reading a book called </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Emissaries of Light</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by James Twyman. Light has many meanings, probably because light is everything, but I'm not going to get into that now. Here's a brief idea of the concept: quantum mechanics teaches us that E=MC2 (yea that's supposed to be a squared). Meaning matter is proportional to energy, meaning they are really the same thing in 2 states, meaning we are beings of energy, meaning we are beings of light.</span></div>
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<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twyman shows us that the "light bringers" are actually bringers of peace. Since my sister specifically asked about peace I figured here is the perfect answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you understand you are light, you are at peace and you bring peace to all you meet. All fear is based in the fact that we know we have separated from God. We created a "me" separate from everything else. An ego.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fear begets war. War is simply when one does not agree with another and it is always based out of fear. You know you have separated from God and you desperately want to reunite but you don't know how, the only thing you know is to defend that which you are, ego…even if it is very wrong….hence war. War requires two ego's to both stake their claim. I believe this is why Gandhi could not be defeated by the entire British empire. (David Hawkins calls it Power in his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Power-vs-Force-David-Hawkins/dp/1561709336" target="_blank">Power vs Force</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no me, so there is no me to defend against you. Therefore there is no war, only peace.</span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you understand you are light and everything is light, you understand you are God and God is you, they are not separate. 2 important points here, you are (1) everything, therefore you are (2) God. I understand this to mean <i>Everything is God</i>. Some people call it Source, others Universe, other say God. It's all the same to me now. In Lattimore's translation of the New Testament he correctly translates Christ's words many times when Christ says "Son of Man." There are actually two complete wiki pages on this as people can't agree on what "Son of Man" means. Christ uses it almost interchangeably with the "Son of God" aka, Christ. No one has any problem with Christ calling himself the son of God yet this "Son of Man" is still disputed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ used them interchangeably because they are the same thing, he is the same thing, Son of Man and God because he is one with God, he is God, he is Everything...and you are everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you understand you are one with God there is no fear, there is no war, there is only peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be with God, truly, means one must shed the ego, for it is always the ego that puts the good and bad connotation on everything. The sun burnt me, sun is bad. The sun saved my life when I was getting frost bite. The sun is energy, energy is neither good nor evil until the ego defines it as such. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All 8 Beatitudes can be taken to mean that when you are without ego, you have found the Kingdom of Heaven. </span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poor in Spirit, humble, without ego</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sorrow, for you are not connected to God, seek to reunite and you'll be happy, aka, shed your ego</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunger and thirst to be with all that Is and therefore is right, aka God, shed your ego</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Extend Pity to everything, you are everything extend pity to you, shed your ego</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clean of heart, can't get much cleaner than shedding your ego</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Peacemakers....shed your ego</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are persecuted for being with God, you are in the Kingdom of Heaven, shed your ego (notice Christ never actually said you had to suffer, you are simply being persecuted)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, shed your ego. How do we do this? Haha, you have the rest of your life to figure it out, I can tell you that for me it started with abstaining from judgement. The day you can stop judging others for what they have done is the day you will begin to be a happier person.</span></div>
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Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-90136126675549398252014-10-01T11:34:00.000-07:002014-10-01T11:38:06.144-07:00How to create successful studentsSo Domenic, how did you do it? <i>How</i> did you create such successful students?<br />
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Why do you ask how I did it? <br />
Because I want to know the secret.<br />
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Why do you want to know?<br />
Because I can then share it with others and they can have the same success. You aren't greedy Mr. Weber, are you?<br />
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Well if I told you it wouldn't be much of a secret anymore would it! Let me ask you this, what do you think the secret it? <br />
I don't know.<br />
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Well try.<br />
You simply picked the best and the brightest, it was staged.<br />
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Say I did that. What does the research show about the success of the best and the brightest?<br />
Actually it says they pretty much end up average.<br />
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So try again, what do you think I did?<br />
Did you start with a different understanding of how we learn?<br />
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Ah, you're closer<br />
Is the secret in discipline and behavioral theory?<br />
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Now we're getting somewhere. Keep going?<br />
You focused on earning their respect so they paid attention, then they learned better.<br />
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No no, you're getting colder.<br />
UGGH! I GIVE UP.<br />
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Ok, I'll tell you the answer. I asked a simple question; what's the ONE thing I can do that will forever change a students ability to learn?<br />
That's it? What do you mean, you just asked a question? <br />
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Yep!<br />
Well what's the answer to the question?<br />
<br />
What question?<br />
What's the ONE thing?<br />
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Well, what do you think it is?<br />
I don't know...<br />
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Is it rote memorization of facts, memorizing the periodic table, speed reading, teaching the law of averages on a standardized test? <br />
No, it couldn't be any of those things.<br />
<br />
Ok, great, so what could it be?<br />
Perhaps teaching students to write or read. Maybe it's painting. Teaching them right from wrong?<br />
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Yes. You just did it, the ONE thing.<br />
WHAT!?!<br />
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I told you the answer, I asked a simple question!Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-6128144813535171232014-09-30T15:27:00.002-07:002014-09-30T15:27:55.788-07:00Balance is a lieCore Value: There is no balance<br />
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"A balanced life is a lie." ~ Gary Keller<br />
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Yep, it's true. Would you rather have kids committed to success or evenly distribute their time to multiple endeavors, creative or cookie cutter, insightful or unaware, leading or listening to others, strategic or obedient. If you chose the former in all the the cases, which I hope you did, then you chose someone who isn't going to be balanced in all aspects of life or education. <br />
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I'm pretty much going to quote Gary Keller's book, The ONE Thing, for the rest of this idea; "Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus." We all agree on the greats in anything, great painters are great painters, they aren't great plumbers or computer programmers. What about great athletes? Look at all the scandals going on between 2010 and 2014. Athlete after athlete is under the microscope for what they have done. Are the things they have done wrong, absolutely. They point being we were so focused on creating ridiculously awesome athlete we forgot they should probably learn some morals. <br />
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If you are going to build an extraordinary life; a life of passion, giving, caring, success and love, it won't be a balanced life. Furthermore, if you want kids to do math, give them a reason to do it. If they are interested in drawing and design, they will learn the necessary math to do so. They don't need to know how to know the FOIL method. If they want to get into politics to change the world, they will need to learn how to read and ask questions and type and spell, they don't need to know what the inner wall of a cell is called. <br />
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The point here is that through passion we actually will balance ourselves, exactly as much as we need in order to survive. Funny thing is, you don't need anyone to tell you how much that is, your brain just knows.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-90349682753057622742014-09-26T10:06:00.003-07:002014-09-26T13:56:03.535-07:00The Law of AttractionA very heated subject that rationalists loath and the New Age love. I believe in the Law of Attraction, the main issue is the "woo woo" people espousing their theories about how if you love the universe and and only dwell on the positive then everything will be ok and work out for you and you will create the exact world you want. <br />
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I don't hear rich successful people talk like this. Which is why you have the rationalists and science saying, "This is all bullshit, you sir, are a moron." The rationalists believe their ideas are based on cold hard facts. <br />
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Here's a fact, focus on what you want, work your ass off and you'll get what you want. Set your <i>intention</i>, make your goals, then pay <i>attention</i>. It's called your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reticular_activating_system" target="_blank">Reticular Activating System</a> (RAS) if you want to get scientific about it. Simply put, when you buy a new car, you immediately start seeing that car everywhere. It's not that more cars magically appeared, this is what science hates about the idea of the Law of Attraction. It's that you are paying attention, which science loves to say.<br />
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Working your ass off isn't enough if you don't know what your working for. People spend their whole lives working their ass off and they are completely miserable. Others wake up everyday, excited to get started, work their ass off and love their life. What's the difference? One of them has an <i>intention</i>.<br />
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I agree with the New Age, they are coming from a place of love. That doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want all the time. That doesn't mean things will be easy. That doesn't mean you don't have to get your hands dirty, and finally, it doesn't mean you won't have to work at it. "Turning Pro isn't easy," says Steven Pressfield.<br />
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There is something mystical about how everything can fall into place for some people. Is it luck, is it God, or were they simply paying attention?<br />
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My super power is putting it all together. People have always labeled my as "super smart" or "intelligent" simply because I'm like a sponge when it comes to knowledge, I soak up a lot. That's not what's special though. What's special is my ability to pay attention to the current situation, go back into my database (aka brain), and pull some shit out from 5 years ago that is seemingly unrelated until I place it next to the current topic. I told you we are non linear thinkers but we only manifest things in a linear fashion. My super power is I will solve any problem put in front of me if I so choose to. Everyone can do it, it simply takes practice.<br />
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The Law of Attraction is real, you just have to have the correct prospective. Mr. Eker believes in the Law of Attraction and he's rich, so let's see how he puts it. <b>Thoughts</b> beget <b>Feelings</b> beget <b>Action</b>, which equal <b>Results</b>. T+F+A=R. He's also not dumb enough to espouse to others he believes in mystical woo woo because people with think he's crazy. <br />
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Everything in the universe is created twice, once in the mind and again physically. This is not a point I'm going to argue. I like <a href="http://spiritual-technology.com/" target="_blank">Z. M Slovinski's</a> interpretation best. You want a soda, you <i>think</i> of the idea of drinking a soda, it will make you <i>feel</i> good, you are motivated to take <i>action</i>, the <i>result</i> is you have a soda. What about a building? An architect must dream up what it looks like in his mind, put it on paper, and only then is it actually built. You attract the soda into your hand, sure you went and got it, but it's simply relative. The architect is so focused on creating his building he's super excited and it's all he thinks about. Is it any wonder he will notice when he meets an engineer who can build it, or runs into someone who can fund it? No, he was paying attention. Btw, if you click on that ZM link, the first video I currently see is Tony Robbins, another rich dude who never mentions the words Law of Attraction.<br />
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Napoleon Hill says the same thing; you must have a burning desire for that which you want. His famous book is call <i>THINK and Grow Rich</i>, not <i>Do a Bunch of Shit and Grow Rich</i>. See the difference, the latter is always asking <i>how</i>, the former is focusing on creating and being. Sound familiar yet?<br />
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Seth Godin says it again when he says, "Dreamers don’t have special genes. They find circumstances that amplify their dreams."<br />
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I have the <i>thought</i> of building a new education system, this thought makes me <i>feel</i> very excited at the idea of helping hundreds of thousands of people and truly helping our planet. My first <i>action</i> is simply writing it all down. My next is to formulate a full business proposal with concrete goals. I'm excited to see where these actions take me.<br />
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-10273673862169295852014-09-26T10:06:00.002-07:002014-09-26T10:06:41.112-07:00Let's create 1 percentersCore Value: Love is everything, the more we love the happier we become<br />
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Creating 1%ers, I love this idea; it gets people so fired up. My sister lost her shit when I told her I wanted to create a school of 1%ers. She actually became blind with rage, which is exactly what I wanted, it got her attention. <br />
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If the 1% hold 99% of the wealth, they can easily help pay for the at least 50% of everything. That is to say, if they are taught the joy of giving from a very early young age, they will give back and they will have ample money to help those who got them there, viz. Phiolo.<br />
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The first thing my sister said is, "They will never help you, they are too greedy, your entire system doesn't make sense." I smiled and simply replied, "I'm creating 1%ers, not starting with them." If I can take a kid living on the streets with a family income under $20k/year and give him a reason to live and love life. When he becomes successful he will not forget who helped him and he will want everyone to succeed just as he did. <br />
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This system is built out of Love, it can not fail.<br />
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Furthermore, the more kids we turn into 1%ers, eventually the 1% will be 2%. 2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 10. Within a generation I see us at least back to 80/20. All of a sudden we have distributed the wealth! Whoops, did I do that? This system will eradicate the 1%ers by creating 1%ers.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-63499298504049105012014-09-26T10:06:00.001-07:002014-09-26T10:32:32.439-07:00Money is a great thingCore Value: Money is an important tools that helps you achieve success<br />
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I am a huge fan of Capitalism in it's native form. Before you can say a word of criticism I suggest reading the original author on Capitalism, Adam Smith and <i>The Wealth of Nations</i>, then read Marx's <i>Communist Manifesto</i>. I actually love Marx's system as well. The problem with it is Marx believed we ultimately were all good people and essentially you needed a Utopian society to make Communism work. That is to say you needed to simply be happy being a Doctor and after spending 30+ years in school you were equally rewarded as the custodian mopping the floor who only received 8 years at best.<br />
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People feel the need to be rewarded for their actions in proportion to the effort they put in. Granted this is different for everyone which has lead to our Entitlement Generation, but that is another topic.<br />
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Capitalism is a beautiful system designed to encourage growth and, by definition, it must always act in accordance what is best for the system. To do harm to the system is, by definition, not being Capitalist. It is a self correcting system. Furthermore Smith has one sentence in his book that the world has pondered ever since written; Capitalism is guided by The Invisible Hand. Also, it's important to understand Smith didn't invent Capitalism, he very clearly states all he is doing is writing down what he sees. Capitalism evolved to serve society.<br />
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People are misinformed on what Capitalism means. Burning Man is called the "Anti-Capitalist" event because you give everything away. Again, in the words of St Francis, "To give, is to receive." Furthermore, how was all that stuff acquired to give away? Capitalism has a huge part in it.<br />
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Money is not the root of all evil. That is something poor people say. <a href="http://www.harveker.com/" target="_blank">Harv Eker</a> has written several books on the subject and I encourage everyone to read <i>Secrets of the Millionaire Mind</i>. In fact, many of my ideas on education have come from Mr. Eker and his <a href="http://www.peakpotentials.com/" target="_blank">Peak Potential courses</a>. Mr. Eker and I actually share almost the exact same vision, except I want to focus on our youth. He focused on adults who are now motivated to learn. Those are eager learners that are easy to teach, helping the kids find motivation is what I'm concerned with.<br />
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Money is not the root of all evil, but it doesn't make you happy either. This was already covered in <a href="http://phiolo.blogspot.com/2014/09/to-serve-others.html" target="_blank">To Serve Others</a> and Adam Leipzig's Ted Talk. <b>Money is a tool</b> you use. We need money to make things happen. Capitalism rewards systems that work by generating money, which can in turn further improve the system.<br />
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The current education system is fundamentally flawed in many ways. Intent has been covered, now let's cover fiscal policy. Schools get funding from basically 1 source, the government. Colleges do have alumni that give back and that is a great thing, but that makes up very little of the funding. most is derived from Government funding. Tuition is also another source, but that is just an alumni who hasn't graduated yet. I've said this repeatedly, Time is an illusion, take away time and what is the difference between a student and alumni? Furthermore, tuition is a small amount comparing to government funding. This is why private schools cost so much more, they don't get government funding. <br />
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In Capitalism, if something isn't working, it's not rewarded and it dies away. What if we created an education system that rewards itself. In our current school system there is no motivation for improvement. Kids simply get pushed through the system because there is no penalty for not pushing them through the system. The school is rewarded with more money regardless of student performance. This breeds mediocrity. There are standards and state tests, but once again, what is their intent? The intent is to teach the <i>how</i>, not the <i>be</i>. <br />
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This even happens in college; students pay a tuition and they are supposed to be motivated by this, however if they don't succeed, the school doesn't care, it just takes their money and keeps going. Professors are notorious for not caring, they care about their craft, not educating others, it is for this reason they make such terrible teachers. We always laughed, when I was getting my Masters in Education almost every professor told us they were absolutely terrified to teach us because they knew our success depended on them and we had no hesitation in telling them they sucked at their job. Most students won't do this because they aren't students of education. <br />
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I know there are a ton of teachers out there that deeply care for their students, but they are plugged into a flawed system and trying to fix it from the inside out. As I stated before, it can't be fixed. With no motivation to improve, schools simply drudge along. If the schools success depends on the success of the students, then we are getting somewhere. Then we have a Capitalistic education system. <br />
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We create students who have their 10,000 hours in by the time they are 12. Then aren't fully balanced across all subjects, but are you? They love what they are doing and they love sharing their gift. These are the types of people who will be heavily recruited and they may not even be out of high school. Is there any doubt they will be super successful? They will be taught from a young age that there is nothing wrong with money and giving their art to others; their gift and their money results in their happiness. The new education system is funded <i>by the students, </i>which eventually become alumni. The system will only succeed if the students succeed. <br />
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Furthermore, with a growing population of alumni, more and more money will come back into the system allowing it to further grow and expand itself. A perfect Capitalist system.<br />
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<br />Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037400721957621509.post-63062296022509999052014-09-26T10:06:00.000-07:002014-09-26T10:06:10.411-07:00Every Child Left Behind<div>
Core Values: Love is everything, the more we love the happier we become. Money is an important tools that helps you achieve success</div>
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Since the foundation of the current system is broken, putting a band aid on it doesn't help. We can not "fix" this system. I want to believe No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was an attempt to fix the broken, but I honestly think it was specifically designed to make our kids even dumber and shove HOW questions down their throats to create an even more pacified and unmotivated workforce. <br />
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When I was in post Grad at Oregon we had to take a class on school law. The Constitution states that all education funding and direction is at the discretion of the state. The Fed has nothing to do with it. To summarize, NCLB is Federal Law stating every child will meet a minimum score or else the school is "marked for improvement". If marked for improvement the school then gets a small amount of Federal funding, but not until that point.<br />
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If you are marked for improvement too many years, guess who steps in, the Fed. Now the Fed get's to start directing education and what will they do? They will essentialy build robots out of our youth.<br />
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Because schools aren't given money to implement NCLB and funding is always short, what are the first programs to get cut? The ones that NCLB doesn't test, art, music, shop, etc.<br />
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It get's worse. Essentially NCLB says that each state must show progress year after year. If you are a state like Iowa or Wisconsin that started this system with really high test scores you now have the bar set very high and you still need to exceed it every year. That sounds awesome except when you fail to exceed all of a sudden you have the most successful schools in the country "Marked for improvement." Whereas if you a a state like Tennessee, where the teaching of Intelligent Design is encouraged, and you have the lowest score starting out, the bar is very low and easy to eek by. The result being the brightest schools are being punished and suppressed until the worst catch up.<br />
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It's not No Child Left Behind, it's pushing down the brightest. Furthermore, if you are one of these top or even middle states, you are now motivated to barely, just by the least possible margin, raise your bar because you are ultimately penalized for raising it too much to fast. There is a natural learning curve where we gain vast amounts of info very quickly on a new subject and as time goes on we pick get into the minute details.<br />
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NCLB wants to take the natural learning curve and turn it into a straight line. This is not possible and I think the crafters of this bill, headed by President George W. Bush, knew this. <br />
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Most, if not all, teachers hated this entire idea because they saw the flaws from the beginning, but it was pushed through, then 9/11 happened and everyone stopped paying attention to education.<br />
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There have been mixed results from NCLB with math test scores increasing slightly. Meanwhile kids in China can do calculus by 5th grade. My point being, the system is flawed. It's using inadequate standardized tests to measure content and curriculum that is designed to keep kids unmotivated and even suppressed. This truly is Every Child Left Behind.<br />
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This is why The New Education System, right now I'm calling it Phiolo, which is a greek play on words of philos, love and olo, all, does not want government money and will not be subject to any government regulations or laws. We will not be suppressed, we will thrive as our system is built out of love.Domenichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16732336264950099181noreply@blogger.com0