Personal Responsibility, Wealth and Health
We Get What We Ask For
Yup. No doubt about it: what you want is powerfully attractive. Plenty of evidence for that so I won’t deal with it here.
So what do you want?
Secure retirement?
Fulfilling work?
A partner? (Maybe the ideal partner?)
A family? (How about being more specific: a happy family?)
To be healthy? (To be mentally, emotionally and physically healthy?)
World peace?
It’s important — vital — to make your wants specific, otherwise you might, for example, attract a partner who’s less than ideal, or a family that’s not happy, or health that’s not optimal.
A long time ago I had this idea that a certain monthly income was the right number to hit, so I made it a goal. And guess what? After I got out of my own way, I got there. But I had a problem: my life changed to include kids and a house and schools and other things that weren’t in my original idea of the perfect monthly income…and I didn’t change my “want” to help meet my “need” until later on when even I realized something had to be done. When I changed my want to exceed my need, things changed to meet that new expectation. This really works. We really do get what we ask for — and it makes sense to ask wisely.
Do you want real wealth and real health?
Are you prepared to take responsibility for them?
If so, keep reading.
I’m going to illustrate the importance of mindful intentions and how music supercharges them.
This may blow your mind.
Wanting Money: A Short Economics Review….
This isn’t a blog about money, but many of us measure things in terms of monetary value, so I’ll use money as an example.
An Ideal Money-based Want
I know we all want to provide well for ourselves and those we love, so let’s make that into a very specific want thusly:
- I want to provide well for myself and for those I love, and I want an income from fulfilling work that lets this happen.
This is a “responsible want” because it has a clear, socially-agreeable intent (caring for myself and my family) linked to fulfilling work. Notice that it doesn’t require a specific number of American dollars per month or per year, which (as I learned) was a bad idea as my needs and the resources to meet them changed.
(Being on the dole isn’t part of this want, although being the recipient of personal charity might be part of it in certain circumstances.)
Econ 101
If you would like to understand why the sample “want” above is so powerful, I can lay it out here in the form of a short economics lesson. If you already get it, skip this section to the one headed “Wealth.”
The “experts” tell us that American dollars are worth less and less all the time. Exhibit A: you might be aware of the worldwide price of crude oil, which keeps dropping, and the price of gas at your local station, which keeps rising. Something seems to be interfering with the logic of this situation: if the price of the raw crude goes down, the price of refined gasoline ought to go down, too. Why?
Of course I’m going to over-simplify this, but the fact is that most of the world’s oil producers don’t like selling crude for American dollars because American dollars don’t buy as much other stuff on the world market as they used to. That is, American dollars don’t have the purchasing power on the world market that they used to have. So, even though the price of crude oil is quoted in American dollars, often the actual purchase of that oil is conducted in other currencies, which have more bang for their buck on the world market.
The worth of an American dollar on the world market concerns me — and I hope it concerns you, too — because American dollars are how I’m paid. If it takes more of my American dollars to buy gasoline because they’re worth less to the rest of the world, that concerns me. I care about the rest of the world, and if the rest of the world doesn’t want my American dollars because they aren’t worth as much any more, I’m going to have to seriously adjust what I want. Right?
Wanting Wealth
Last week this blog was about wealth and the wealth revolution I believe is coming to America and perhaps to the entire world. No world citizen should have to worry about the value of the money they have, and yet the citizens and governments in China, Russia and many European Union countries are gravely aware that their currency is losing its power to buy stuff from the rest of the world. Here in America, the government still believes that it can print as many American dollars as it takes, but, as the crude oil price example shows, the world doesn’t care about that because, once you have an American dollar in your fist, all you want is to know that you can exchange that American dollar for something equal to the value of the crude you sold. If that’s not the case, why sell your crude for American dollars, when some other country’s currency holds better value?
Wouldn’t it be nice if our money bought more at the same price? There was a time where one American dollar was worth ten French francs, and American tourists could live like kings and queens in France. Not any more. Now it’s certain foreigners whose currency is “strong against the dollar” who live like that in America.
So, should we all just want more American dollars? I don’t think that’s the answer. Figuring out how to retain the value of our American dollar ought to be on the minds of every one of us who vote, since it’s America’s government policies that have the biggest impact on the value of the American dollar, but no one can say for sure how many American dollars you or I might need to buy the gas or milk we need tomorrow or next year or five years from now.
Have you noticed how retirement savings have been in the news, and how those savings are generally decreasing? Have you noticed how interest rates are very low on savings accounts? There’s plenty of worry about Social Security, too, and how the government will be able to afford to give back to all the retirees at least as much as they’ve paid in. “No problem,” says the US Treasury, “we’ll just print more dollars!” And, yes, they have been doing that…with the effect that American dollars are worth less to the rest of the world for things like oil and Japanese imports.
One of the major “exports” America has are its government bonds: public debt. Buying American debt has been a great investment historically, because it has had a stable and guaranteed return. But American bonds are bought and sold in American dollars, and the world isn’t as interested in American dollars as it used to be because they don’t buy as much on the world market any more, compared to other currencies. To print more American dollars, the US Treasury has to back them with “full faith and trust” which used to mean every American dollar had a chunk of gold guaranteeing its worth. Not any more. Now American dollars are backed by…wait for it…a mortgage. Yes: since the “gold standard” was ditched, America’s government mortgages the future earnings of its citizens to back up the value of American dollars, and it sells those mortgages as bonds (investments) to the rest of the world.
The rest of the world isn’t interested in American bonds any more because they aren’t as good an investment as the used to be.
So we have a double whammy impacting our wonderful want for wealth:
- American dollars are worth less to the world;
- Compared to other government’s bonds, American bonds (debt) aren’t as good an investment as they used to be.
Is this making sense to you?
The mindful intention — want — where we started is powerful because it isolates your want from the difficulty American money is having in the world today. It’s upper limit is set reasonably: enough to meet the most important need you have. You can make that need anything at all, but please avoid the trap I fell into: putting a dollar figure on it.
The sky’s only just the beginning, people. You really can attract whatever you want, so want wealth with wisdom.
The mindful intention — want — where we started is powerful because it isolates your want from the difficulty American money is having in the world today. It’s upper limit is set reasonably: enough to meet the most important need you have. You can make that need anything at all, but please avoid the trap I fell into: putting a dollar figure on it.
The sky’s only just the beginning, people. You really can attract whatever you want, so want wealth with wisdom.
Resposibility Beyond Taxes
I’d love it if I didn’t have to think about my money or my health and someone else or some service I subscribe to just figured out how to care for my livelihood. Trouble is, I can’t figure out what person or agency or business would do that for me. Here’s two examples:
- Social Security (America’s government-managed retirement fund) will probably run out of money — money I’ve been forced to invest in the system — before I retire and want mine back with interest;
- Health Insurance (soon-to-be-government managed health care) is being set up so that the services I want may very well not be available to me even though I’ve been paying my insurer to provide them should I need them.
Remember that ideal “want?” Here it is again:
“I want to provide well for myself and for those I love, and I want an income from fulfilling work that lets this happen.”
There’s no mention of the government or someone else in that want; that’s all about me taking responsibility on my own. I hear you saying that I’m still stuck with paying into Social Security and (soon) stuck with paying in to ObamaCare (as are all Americans), so how (I hear you ask) does one take personal responsibility in this case? Taxes basically enforce a certain kind of personal responsibility, so I’m talking about responsibility beyond paying taxes — beyond government. But we’re stuck with taxes…so how can still take financial responsibility for our needs and wants?
Simple! By staying on point with our attractions — our wants — and making them powerful and not dependent on outside agencies or other people. This is all about YOU.
We’ve discussed attracting responsible wealth, now let’s talk about attracting great health and the responsibility you have for it.
Responsible Health Care
If you’re like me, you don’t go running to see a doctor for every little thing that goes wrong. I like to stay out in front of stuff going wrong by doing yoga, eating healthy food and living a life free of substance abuse and overindulgence. I try to take good care of my mental and emotional health as well, and many of you know I do that using music.
I’m a huge advocate for responsible self care.
Contrast that to the health care industry, which — in most cases — is more about profiting from your symptoms. People with symptoms are expensive to treat, but treating unhealthy people is pretty much what the health care industry is all about. That is, if the health care industry was really about eradicating disease, there would be nothing left to treat. (What do you think the health care industry’s collective “want” is anyway?) HMOs tried to get out in front of problems by teaching their members to be more healthy…and we all know how that turned out, as good as it looked on paper….
The wellness industry is about staying out ahead of symptoms and health issues by practicing things that make symptoms and health issues more difficult to acquire. Wellness is about “eating right for your type,” “lifestyle,” and a hundred other buzzwords that really mean “take responsibility for your health.” Like the “health care” industry, you can spend all kinds of money in the pursuit of “wellness,” but it is your own money because most of the methods used are not “covered” by insurance. Sure, the insurers will tell you that there’s no wellness evidence or the wellness protocols are too new, but aren’t they afraid that people will actually get healthier and take business away from the “health care” industry? Possibly… The “wellness” industry has a completely different mindfulness about it than the “health care” industry because it permits patients to take responsibility for their own progress and care.
Did you know you can learn to treat yourself successfully for physical, mental and emotional issues? There are evidence-based results for many “self-healing” practices based in religion, spirituality and medicine. You can relieve symptoms using Emotional Freedom Technique, which is based on acupressure points on your skull and upper body. You can heal physical and emotional issues with Advanced Integrative Therapy.Yup. Tru Dat. I could go on, but these links are great examples of the power of mindful intention to change the human system for health.
Mindfulness
It’s a buzzword, so I’m using it with care. We know that what you want powerfully attracts that want to you. So, to be responsible, be careful what you want. Be mindful that what you think about is actually attracted to you.
Examples:
- Fill your mind with lack, you will have lack.
- Fill your mind with abundance, you will have abundance.
This is common knowledge! Some call it the Law of Attraction, some The Secret, and some disbelievers will do everything they can to disprove it. But it’s a fact.
So, what’s the best way to fill your mind with what you want?
You mind spends very little time on what’s in front of it. You could be reading this and thinking of a dozen other things, or watching TV while you space out on tomorrow’s meeting, or falling asleep with the TV on. Your mind is processing all that background stuff, and there is a LOT more background processing going on than the tiny slice of brainpower it takes to do the foreground task (make dinner, talk to your partner). But you have control over that background, too. How?
Music.
Music without words can give your background brain a boost, a rest or a buzz. It’s a physiological fact.
Add words into the music and the background power of attraction starts to work, especially if you find yourself singing along (foreground).
If the words support your wants, you’ll have them even faster because both your foreground brain (tiny) and background brain (huge) are focussing you on what you want. If the words in the song are NOT about what you want, look out! You are still attracting what’s in your background processor — your brain or consciousness — and so you’d better be sure you want what the song’s got, ‘cuz you gonna get it!!
Set Yourself Up For Success
We used to use that phrase in business to mean that arranging all the details in our favor would add up to our success. It’s no different in self care.
Give your own self care a “healthy” boost by using music in the background or foreground to support your success — mentally, emotionally and physically. If you work out to music, make sure that the words jive with your health goals. I have nothing against hip hop music, for example, but if I work out to it I try to find hip hop with words that don’t drag me down into issues to which much of hip hop is related. Does that make sense?
If I want to listen to music at work, and I’m particularly interested in making some money at work, I won’t play a song with lyrics that degrade wealth or celebrate poverty. That’s not setting myself up for success.
Your music is your preference. I can’t tell you what music to use, but I can show you how your favorite music works on you. Being mindful of music’s impact on you physically, emotionally and mentally is critical to your success in giving yourself excellent care.
Our minds fully engage in music, whether we like it or not, and produce physiological effects on us when we hear music whether we like it or not. Your preferences are important; all I’m suggesting is that you are mindful about the music you use…because it will fully engage you. It can help you reach your want, or it can hinder reaching that want.
What’s important is that you are aware.
Wrap & Strike
Thank you for hanging in through the economics lesson. I hope you get it that your wants don’t have to be tied in to the world’s issues with money, and that if you are very specific about how you state them, they won’t be.
Thank you for hanging in through the personal responsibility stuff. I’m a big believer in the power of taking personal responsibility for what we want.
Thank you for hearing me on the power of music to boost our ability to both take responsibility for what we want and supercharge our drive towards it, whether than be wealth or health.
That’s a wrap. Strike the set. See you next week.
