Start with a dream list: what would be the ideal world? Yes, you can even say, "World peace!" Try to make a list of at least ten dream items; for example:
- Ensure clean water for every human
- Eliminate hunger
- Eliminate homelessness
- Convert to renewable energy
- Stabilize and reverse human overpopulation
- Discontinue deforestation and begin reforestation
- Provide opportunities for every human in every occupation
- Expand space exploration
- Reform treatment of prisoners and mentally ill
- Reform and implement free education
- Reform and implement free healthcare
- Encourage collaboration and innovation for the benefit of all humankind
I did say at least ten.
Is it odd that my dream world looks like humanity in the age of Star Trek? It is a worthy goal, and achievable, if humans weren't each so self-centered. It is rare the person who does not work only to his or her own benefit. Even those deeply religious are not exempt because while they do work to help others, it is often with the goal of converting other, and/or getting into Heaven, which is still a selfish goal.
Can humankind overcome the desire for power, money, prestige, land, and "being right"? Not all of us, but some. Abandon borders (with the goal to abandon nationalism.) Abandon religious righteousness. Abandon money. Abandon power over things, animals, and other people.
There are small ways to begin. Ways that don't cost any money, but that will show you how far we need to come. Try this: pick up all garbage, wherever you go. Catch yourself when you say, "Some jerk just dropped this here!" or "Why should I pick this up when these people don't care about how they live?" Pick up all garbage, wherever you go, with the goal of making the world a better place. Acknowledge how difficult it is, how easy it is to become angry and bitter, and how this small act can really change the world, if it can only change the way you see it.
What is holding you back from the lifestyle you desire? Money? Health? Job? Family? No matter your current situation, you CAN achieve your dreams, in less time than you think! By making small, easily sustainable changes in your life, you will smoothly transition into the person you always knew you could be, with the money, health, job and family of which you've always dreamed.
How?
Your first step is VISUALIZATION. You need to picture yourself where you've always wanted to be. Make a list of your desires, and even add pictures. Post it where you will see it every morning when you awake, and look at it before you leave your bed. Visualize your ideal life for five minutes every morning. Now you're well on your way!
Common courtesy means that you must think of others beyond yourself. Toddlers cannot do this. When toddlers grow into small children, they gain this sense of other, but it is not permanent. A sudden surge of hormones in the teenage years wipes away all thought of others. Teenagers go back to toddlerhood, and it is a much tougher fight to regain this sense than it was to achieve the first time. It is this difficulty that often stops many from finding common courtesy again.
You find these underdeveloped, self-absorbed adult teen/toddlers everywhere. They are the ones who make appointments they don't keep. They are the ones who throw garbage next to garbage cans. They are the ones who tailgate. They are the ones who promise over and over a task will be done, and never do it.
And it is the ones who re-achieved their evolution back to common courtesy who must suffer.
You have taken the first step. By reading this book, you have acknowledged that not only are you poor, but that you no longer wish to remain poor. Let this book be your inspiration, your first step up and out of poverty. Hopefully, you didn't pay too much for it.
In this book you will find:
- Inspirational stories from regular people who prove that you can get out of poverty.
- Thrifty tips and tricks to help you gather wealth.
- Tips and tricks to make you appear (and feel!) richer than you currently are.
- Motivational quotes and facts.
- NEW! Special added chapter for those who have never been poor, designed to help them realize that being poor is not a character defect.
Your journey from poverty begins now. Good luck!
The trick to remaining active is to be active.
The trick to eating right is to eat right.
The trick to feeling well is to do the activities and consume the consumables that will make you feel well.
The trick is that there is no trick.
The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is not a true story of how life on Earth began, but rather a story for children that teaches them how they grow and learn. Those who take the Bible for truth will most certainly have their own thoughts (and they will be sure to share them on crumpled paper rubber banded onto to rocks and flung through my picture window,) but it is nonetheless obvious for anyone who chooses to truly look.
"Eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" is what we all eventually must do, though it is a bitter fruit, indeed. Recall the first time you realized that some aspect of your life was not as it at first seemed. Recall the horror you felt. Recall the tilting of your world beneath your feet. See the thick, black line drawn between "before" and "after" this realization. Think of your wish never to have had that realization. Witness your own futile attempts to forget. See every day the new truth you wish you never learned.
Congratulations. You have eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I ate of the Tree when a man in a Winnebago cut me off when I was only sixteen and flipped me the finger. I realized, with a shock and a quick application of brakes, that not all adults are kind.
It was a conscious decision, as Frannie believed all her decisions were, to change the face she put out to the world. It had always been her own face, unadorned and unrevealing. As Frannie crossed over the birthday that brought her closer to her own life's end than to the beginning, she first fully acknowledged that she had never been fashionable, and then she decided to remedy the situation, even if only temporarily.
Louis was one of those people who never tried as hard as they could because if they did and still fell short, it would mean they weren't good enough. If Louis never tried as hard as he could, then he could always tell himself that if he had only tried harder, he would have succeeded. Berating oneself as lazy was infinitely better than being an actual failure.
It was during his late thirties that Louis realized he was one of those people. He was in the middle of berating himself for once again missing the deadline for a writing submission when his synapses finally let him know it was not laziness at all; it was fear of trying.
The knowledge hit Louis like a sidekick to the chest and he numbly thought it must have been what Adam and Eve felt after eating the Forbidden Fruit. He sat down on the floor of his one bedroom apartment and cried because this kind of enlightenment didn't go away.
