Challenge Everything You ‘Know’

Posted in Perspective · Self Improvement · Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Children by their very nature are curious.
What is curiosity? Curiosity is the desire to explore the unknown, to gather information and form a more complete picture of reality. Why do most adults lose their sense of curiosity? Because they feel they have gathered the necessary information to form a complete picture. This is the greatest ILLUSION ever created by the brain. It’s like taking a few snap shots of Earth and then using those snap shots to fill in the blanks. What if those snap shots were of Antarctica? Or the Desert? Can you imagine what kind of incorrect assumptions you would make about Earth. Now blow those erroneous assumptions up to a universal level. Not just physical territory mapping but relationships, emotions, thoughts and dreams, all the abstract stuff that is life, that is your reality. The snap shots you have experienced up until now are what you assume to be life - the complete picture. What a grand illusion.

Suspend what you know for a moment - consider that maybe, just maybe you haven’t explored all there is to know, that your model of reality is only a fragment of the complete picture. This returns you to the state of a child. You allow life to become a mystery again because you are strong enough to live with mystery. You don’t need to know everything. Not knowing is exciting. Challenging what you know makes you a child. It’s time to let your creative spirit explore again.

Top 10 Reminders to Live Your Full Potential

Posted in General |  Email This Post | by James Rick

It’s easy to read something the first time around and say ‘yes that makes sense, I’m going to do that’ and quite another to put it into practice.

In case you’ve already come across these tips - now it’s time to make them a reality.

TOP 10 REMINDERS ON HOW TO LIVE YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

1 - Get plenty of sleep (8 hours or so per day)
2 - Drink plenty of water- One 8 oz glass per every 1- 2 hours
3 - Eat green leafy vegetables - They are high in nutrients and are the best fuel for high energy.
4 - Exercise Daily- Get your heart pumping
5 - Read Daily- Develop an accurate model of reality so you can decide what you want and how to get it more effectively.
6 - Meditate Daily - Slow your mind down and learn to detach from the world at regular intervals. Learn the art of engaging and detaching.
7 - Get 15 min. of sunlight daily - Sunlight is one of the best ways for Vitamin D to get absorbed by your body. Notice how you feel after you get a little sun.
8 - Listen to uplifting music - Use uplifting music to positively influence the way you feel.
9 - Connect with people in positive ways - Energy comes from socializing. If you interact with people in caring, loving, compassionate, honest, affectionate and authentic ways you create more energy for yourself and the person you are interacting with than what existed before. 1 + 1 = 3
10 - Clean Focus + Short Breaks - In daily cycles the most productive way for a knowledge worker to work is two hours focused on one task (that’s clean focus) followed by a fifteen minute break. And in weekly cycles to totally withdraw from work and focus on a hobby or recreational activities that leave you feeling RE-Created.

Detaching from the Illusion

Posted in Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Give yourself some time to lay down and relax. Breathe deep. Notice how your brain immediately skips around thinking of random worries and concerns. Now imagine “your name” thinking these thoughts and see yourself as apart from “your name”. In other words, in the same moment there is “your name” and there is “you” observing your name. This little shift in consciousness will allow you to detach from the bubble of reality created around your name. This awareness allows you to see things more objectively. Through this awareness you can become more renewed and re-centered. It is easier to re-establish your intention for living, or even your intention in that moment.

I often find myself committing to remember my dreams or become aware while inside the dreams, or to stay aware during a long meditation and because I was in a state of silent, detached observation; my intention becomes manifest. You could use this same strategy of laying down, relaxing, breathing deep, detaching from the self and then clarifying intention to manifest any result you desire.

I find that when I detach from the identity, my intention is quite different from that of the Ego. And they are easier to distinguish. My Ego for example is all about ‘itself’, its wants, its desires and its wishes and what it wants to earn or create in the physical world. Whereas my Soul intentions are usually about exploring myself, exploring my dreams, meditating or contemplating ways to impact the lives of others in a positive manner. Both are interesting to observe, but “I” know at the level of my Soul what is a higher value contemplation when I’m observing it.

Evaluate Your Daily Routine

Posted in Self Improvement |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Thoughts lead to habit. And habits create circumstance.
Take some time today to evaluate your daily routine and see if it’s taking you closer or farther from where you want to go.

Be prepared. Making changes will not be easy. It will take persistent effort and follow up before the new action becomes a part of your new daily routine.

Loving What Is

Posted in Perspective |  Email This Post | by James Rick

My thoughts dance free
Free from time
I live in my dreams
There I am immortal

Oh dastardly illusion
You’ve done it again
I turn to truth
Though far less romantic

In love with reality
Though, seeking it fully
Wounds my fantasy
Still..

Oh fragile self
Fall away
Leaving only
What Is

How to Pull the Mental Emergency Brake on an Overactive Mind

Posted in Perspective · Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Slowing the mind down is essential to having a heightened sense of awareness / aliveness. The longer you have let your mind run without the intention of slowing it down – the more likely it is to be running at a speed not conducive to awareness. Practice the art of extreme focus as method for pulling the emergency brake on an overactive mind.

WHEN THE WATER IS ALWAYS MUDDY - YOU CANNOT CONSTRAST IT WITH CLARITY
In the average person’s life, the mind has one opportunity to slow down and recharge and that is through sleep. If a person were to maintain their focus on breath shortly after waking – the residual effects of a quieter mind after sleep would persist. That means sleep is an aid for centeredness – if you can just keep your mind fixed upon your breath and have a very clear intention to maintain centeredness. However if shortly after waking you muddy the water again with thoughts of all the things you must do – a cloudy mind is what you grow used to. When a cloudy mind becomes the norm you cannot contrast it with the peace of a more placid awareness and therefore cannot experience peace directly, but only imagine it will come after some achievement. When this happens peace exists as a mental fantasy or concept instead of a real place you can visit now.

“I’M NOT THE KIND OF PERSON THAT CAN SIT STILL VERY LONG”
All an overactive mind takes is a little effort to slow the mind down. Setup reminders throughout the day to focus on breath for one or two breaths and give yourself an opportunity in the morning or evening to close your eyes and simply breathe, focusing on your breath with no agenda. If your mind has been running at full speed prior to your intention to quiet it – your mind will wander quite often, like a candle flickering in the wind.

“WHAT IF MY MIND WANDERS?”
Even if your mind wanders for a few minutes – it will eventually return to your intention. That’s why it’s very important you clarify your intention to focus.

WHAT IS EXTREME FOCUS?
Then notice what it feels like to half-intend something and then concentrate even more. It can be compared to half committing to pick up a heavy weight versus lifting it with all your might with so much energy that it goes sailing into the air. When you intend to quiet the mind don’t just sit down and go through the motions. Imagine in your mind what it feels like to be intensely here now. Not just sitting down and saying “Okay I’m here now.” But putting all your heart and soul into one breath with such energy that you can only maintain the intensity for a few seconds before you get mentally tired. Then try to maintain this focus for even a few seconds more. The act of this extreme focus is like applying the brakes to an overactive mind. When you’re speeding down the highway you can’t just apply the brakes a little – one good pull on the emergency brake can slow a heavy object with lots of momentum almost immediately. Extreme focus can be a useful tool in the beginning of your meditation.

“HOW WILL I KNOW IF I AM DOING IT RIGHT?”
Here are few signs that will help you know that you’re doing extreme focus right:
1) During intense spurts of concentration you’ll feel the need to ‘relax’ your mind from focusing so hard even after just a few seconds at a time.
2) You might actually feel energy causing chills up and down your body for the few seconds while initiating extreme focus.
3) After you finish even a short meditation you’ll notice the brain has slowed down and your mental space seems much clearer.

DO EXTREME FOCUS NOW
Do a few minutes of extreme focus now (and post your questions or comments here.) Remember – a great place to start is just with your breath. When you breathe in, don’t just focus on breathing in but REALLY focus on breathing in with all your heart and soul. And don’t just focus on breathing out, REALLY focus on breathing out. Maintain this intensity as long as you can – which if you’re just starting should only be for a few seconds. You should notice a major difference in the experience of wanting to focus and REALLY focusing with all your might. It’s the difference between bending down to pick up a weight, and REALLY bending down to pick up a weight with so much energy it flies over your head.

Awaken

Posted in Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Read these words and be silent. Listen and feel with no agenda for the next few moments. Take a deep breath and contrast your level of aliveness and wakefulness with the moment before you started reading this.

~~

Return to focusing on your breath as often as you remember just for today - and notice what happens.

What You Are Experiencing Now is One Possible Reality

Posted in Perspective · Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

While there are some general rules and principles governing the overall experience, no two experiences are alike. (1) Environment, (2) sensory experience of environment, (3) interpretation of sensory experience and (4) awareness of interpretation spawns an infinite number of possible realities.

The experience for the observer shifts as perspective does. The individual perspective acting like a single lens studying reality from one vantage point, the observer standing behind it - sometimes aware of itself.

When you fully understand both self and ability to shift perspective at will - you directly control experience. Like a strong hand having the power to calm turbulent seas, you stand at the helm of your emotions. You become creative in the sense that what you cultivate on the inside begins to reflect on the outside. You are in essence the observer with a hand in the observed, aware of the creative process forming a boundless reality.

It’s Not What Happens to You - It’s What You Focus On

Posted in Perspective |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Our choice is not what happens to us, but what we choose to focus on.

While this might seem like elementary advice, it’s good to be reminded of it. Especially when we are facing challenges that make us seem to forget this important lesson.

Capitalism is Broke - a Step by Step Plan for Fixing It

Posted in Wealth |  Email This Post | by James Rick

CAPITALISM IS BROKE – A STEP BY STEP PLAN FOR FIXING IT

The current system is capitalism is manipulated by a small few while the world feels its effects. The origins of currency were to make ‘free trade’ possible – you know, so we didn’t have to use teeth or try to divide cows in half. So how did the concept of ‘currency’ for the ease of use of common citizenry expand into the complex system of smoke and mirrors that it is today? Through a slow deliberate boiling – beginning with central banks and ending with today’s current financial ‘crises.’

I emphasize crises because I don’t see it as a crises – I see it as an inevitable expression of a broken financial system. Like a poorly designed multi-level building, the full weight of today’s capital system is crushing the common worker. The common worker holds it up in vain – because he doesn’t see any other option. He freely gives of the only thing he possesses – his time, in exchange for paper and coins backed by empty promises. He gives of his most cherished possession, his life – to serve a system that despises him.

But who is to blame: the creators or the blind that unwittingly serve it?

THE SERVANTS
It is a fact – whoever owns his life controls his will, his intention. If he yields this right out of fear or obligation, whatever the excuse he must still claim full responsibility.

THE MASTERS
It is the primitive nature of man that urges him to power and if he is crafty enough to create a system that is believed to be legitimate it is in his right to do so; the question of morality aside – if he can do it, he will do it.

A STEP BY STEP PLAN FOR FIXING CAPITALISM

Capitalism is broken and we, the servants of capitalism numbering in the billions must fix it. How do we do this?

STEP #1: EDUCATE YOURSELF ON CAPITALISM: WHO HAS ALL THE POWER AND WHY?

While most of us would like to pretend we understand how money works – the exchange of value that you see happening every day is only the tip of the iceberg. This is the way a free market is supposed to work, but once you dive beneath the surface you’ll discover a whole new world of leveraging going on. And the one being leveraged is YOU. Your time, your hours, your minutes are being leveraged to the benefit of someone you don’t even know. If you are struggling to earn money now, shouldn’t you care to know who benefits from your toil?

Now at first you might think you are being leveraged by your boss or your bosses’ boss – or the owner of the company you work for, but this is only a minimal leverage point. And in a true free market society this type of structure may still serve the greater good. (Each person has unique strengths – some are starters, some are refiners, some are system creators some are system followers – an organization makes sense.) What I’m talking about are the people that add no value to the free market system, yet we serve them. I call these people the ‘maximum leveragers’. They are in a position of maximum leverage – the masters benefitting from the time invested by the servants with no equivalent value to offer in return. They are the people at the top of the capitalistic food chain and they are bleeding you dry.

The internet has made it possible to identify the individuals and institutions if you are looking for them. You can also learn how they work. You’ll see that they move in small social circles. Skeptics might argue, or paid propagandists might tease; this is just an elitist conspiracy theory – this is why I urge you to do your own research.

Here are some places to get started:
1 – Research: The Truth About the Federal Reserve
2 - Note favorable connections between the Federal Reserve and other financial institutions. (a few that seem to stand out: JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs)
3 – Note favorable connections between educational institutions (like Harvard, Yale, Oxford) and positions of high esteem: Presidents, Federal Reserve Chairman, CEO’s of Banks and large corporations.
4 – Get a good grasp for how banks operate: Private & commercial banks in relation to the Federal Reserve and regional Federal Reserve banks.
5 – Understand how the FDIC (the organization that promises to insure your money up to $100,000) works. Note that at the time of this writing the FDIC has around $50 billion in their fund and promises to insure more than $13 trillion. (How can that be?)
6 – Note how other central banks from around the world work together, especially in today’s financial turmoil – in a time of panic they are less able to hide their levers.

Now I realize researching all of these links might take some work. Maybe 10 to 20 hours of solid research. But think of the alternative – are you going to invest roughly 40 years or more serving a system you don’t even fully understand? Will you struggle until the day you die and wonder why life was so unfair to you or blindly leave it in God’s hands and trust the product of your life was God’s will? Maybe God is trying to help you wake up right now and realize you have the power to do something. Are you listening?

STEP #2: DECIDE TO STOP SERVING CAPITALISM IN ITS CURRENT FORM

Because we control our time – we have all the power. We vote with the hours and minutes of our life. We vote every time we log a minute of our intention in the pursuit of making ‘money’ in its current form. Every minute invested in making money is a vote to renew the system. With no more votes – the system is dead.

Why do we vote? We vote because we are afraid if we don’t we will lose our livelihood. Our sense of survival will be in question – and this is the greatest of all human fears. Even if basic survival is assured, the fear of losing that which you’ve worked so hard to gain is emotionally equivalent to losing your life. The pain of loss is so great that some people do indeed end their life when they lose all their money. Yet you didn’t feel that pain when you entered the world without those possessions why would you feel that pain when you no longer have those possessions? The fear of loss and in some cases its realization is a self inflicted mental pain – a form of guilt or regret that has a positive intention to help you survive above all else. But once you understand the psychological mechanics behind it you can ‘let go’. Trust that if you add value to a system you will not have to worry about survival. But DO be diligent in ensuring that the value you add is contributing to a system that you believe in, one that is not leveraged against you.

Decide to stop voting for a master that despises you and instead you look for a ‘master’ that has your well being and the well being of those you care for at heart. What would this master look like? One that produces the least amount of friction (regulation) and one in which those at the top do not profit disproportionately from those at the bottom. There will still be hierarchy – but the maximum leveragers become servants and the servants form a mutual alliance with them. In short, the system cares for all people, especially those at the bottom - in the way it’s designed.

STEP #3: TRANSITION TO A SERVANT FRIENDLY VERSION OF CAPITALISM

In traditional capitalism – he who has the capital has the power. Now this wouldn’t be a problem if everyone started with the same amount of capital and it just exchanged hands. But the reality is that capital flows through the market from the top – in the form of loans. The central bank loans to commercial and private banks and charges them interest, these banks then loan to companies and individuals who are charged a higher interest. Where did the central bank get the capital to loan in the first place? Great question! The answer is: out of thin air.

And what ‘work’ did the commercial and private banks do to get their capital from the central bank? Great question! They push paper around and make risk assessments on whether the loan will be repaid. This might be an important job if they could calculate risks accurately – but they can’t which is why banks fail – again and again. But because this game works for a while – the companies and more specifically the workers actually invest time to repay loans on money that nobody else really worked for. Money that was invented out of thin air is now turned into ‘productivity’ by companies and workers. This productivity is the basis of a ‘free market’ and is where real value is added to the system. Without production – money invention would have no tangible value. This means the Central bank and the private & commercial banks would be worthless.

I will say this again – the real value in a true free market society is in production. Production is defined as: the organization of resources to produce something of value. The stuff that is happening at the top - the money loan is a joke.

If we could organize production on our own without the need for an invented currency – we could reclaim the leverage that we foolishly give away.

Organize production – that’s all the banks do! They invent currency (like US dollars) and as long as everyone agrees to honor them with production, they are valuable. And for accomplishing organized production through an invented currency the banks have all the leverage – starting at the top.

To create a better economic system the key question to ask is: how can we better organize production? Put another way, how do we create a money system that doesn’t rely on instruments of inventing money out of thin air and require that the interest be strapped to the backs of the servants (value contributors) of the free market?

DETAILS OF THE NEW SYSTEM

I have a simple plan – but I’m sure it will require a detailed planning session with key leadership – leadership that truly cares about it’s people and making the world a better place.

The plan is this:
A) The central bank (now known as the Federal Reserve – not a government entity, a privately held company) should be divided equally amongst its population. In other words – if there are 250 million people in a country there are 250 million shares in the central bank. We each own one share.
B) We elect leaders to the central bank much like we elect presidents. Activities of the central bank are totally transparent to ensure that loans are made on the basis of merit and not personal connections.
C) We make all lending institutions an extension of the central bank (since they are just passing down money from the central bank). Interest that gets paid back to the central bank enriches everyone who with shares in it – every man, woman and child. (As it is exists now, if the government borrows money from the central bank for military or large companies need to be bailed out, YOU are forced to pay it back through taxes!)

With the central bank in public control – we have organized production without concentrating the power and the flow of wealth into a small number of hands.
With public transparency we cut down on corruption. Through secured internet voting WE can decide to bail companies out or not. Leaders elected to government must answer to us, must come to us for money, must convince us why they need it. This moves power of economy back where it belongs – into the hands of the people that produce.

STEP #4:IMPLEMENTING A FULL POTENTIAL ECONOMY

The fastest way to implement the new plan is to get key leadership on board. The challenge here is that most government leadership is transfixed on the old idea of capitalism because that’s where they get their power. Only new leadership with a fresh perspective and a heart to truly serve is going to buy into a plan that literally strips them of their power.

The second option is to organize a large like minded community and make our voice heard. We the people are still the largest functioning body of the government – our only limitation is in our ability to organize ourselves. But the internet has made this more possible than ever.

If you agree that capitalism is broke and you want to fix it – invite friends and family to join Full Potential.com – read this essay and invite others. Full Potential will eventually become an organized force with a voice that must be heard. Do not be fooled, we have the power to change our world in massive ways - starting with what you do right now.