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Progression Requires Letting Go of the Past

Jeremy Day — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:02:20 +0000

To progress in our lives we must let go of the things we have gathered in the past…

One of my favorite word pictures in relation to this idea is one that comes to us from Zen Buddhism. It is an idea that has been used over and over again in various stories, including movies. It is often entitled “Emptying Your Cup”…

“A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted. “You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”

Do you get it?

If not, think about it this way. How far you go is often determined by how heavy you travel. If you are carting around a lot of useless luggage it takes a lot more time and effort to go where you want then if you simply traveled with what is necessary.

There are many things that hold us back. They can be physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual. I will call these things “past burdens”. By past burdens I mean to say they are things we have picked up in the past that still burden us today.

Now don’t get me wrong. There are some things that are our burden to carry. Yet many things we carry are not our burden…

For instance, we often have relationships that we hold onto long after they are over. Long after that person may have even stopped talking to us. And dare I say, much longer after an acceptable mourning period for a loved one who has passed away.

These are all realities of life that we must accept and come to terms with. Many people feel they have accepted these things, but they really haven’t come to terms with them.

This happens because acceptance is mostly a passive action while coming to terms with things is an active action.

In other words, what’s done is done, and you must first passively accept the reality of things. Then you must do the work of coming to terms with it. By coming to terms with it, I mean actually dealing with it and moving on. Many people do themselves, and the people around them, a great disservice by never dealing with the past and moving on.

The best definition for coming to terms with something I found has been this – “To confront squarely and come to understand fully and objectively.”

To come to terms with the past one must do these things…

Be Honest – If you lie to yourself to protect your emotions you are doing more harm them good. The truth must be told and you must speak it in your own mind. No amount of truth telling by friends and family will change you until you start speaking the truth for yourself, to yourself. In this situation, blunt and honest are two words that definitely belong together like peanut butter and jelly.
Have Courage – Do not shy away from the work that needs done. There is a natural correlation between how long you have held onto something and how strongly you hold onto it. The longer you have had it the stronger you hold onto it. “It” starts to feel like a part of “yourself”. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
See the Truth – If a farmer wants a fruit tree to produce more fruit (i.e. be more like itself) then he has to prune it. It is the same with you. You must see how cutting off the dead branches will improve your true self. There is no life in the past, only the present. And new life will come in the future. You must take care to preserve what is full of life now and not let the dead branches of the past weigh you down.

It is hard to be objective, understanding, and confrontational when all we want to do is be subjective, close minded, and fearful. Yet that is exactly what is required of us if we want to live life to the fullest extent possible. We must remember that the past doesn’t always have to determine our futures.

Editor’s Note: Wow, this is my longest Progression post to date! I feel that I have even more to write about regarding this topic so I am going to keep going. Technically this is what personal development is all about. Progressing into what is better and not what is worse.

My only hope is that I can continue to cheer you all on in your own individual personal development journeys!

A Simple Plan of Progression…

Jeremy Day — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:03:32 +0000

…is the best.

First, decide what you want or where you want to get to (sometimes this is the hardest part).

Two, plot out your course. Make a map. Know the terrain.

Three, figure out what tools you will need along the way. One single tool can determine your success or failure. Make sure you know what those are before you leave.

Four, pack provisions. Most trips will cost you more in time and money then you can accurately estimate. Decide what you think you need, then pack 10-20% more.

Five, start out on your journey, one step at a time. Know that prepping for the journey is often harder then actually doing it.

Six, don’t forget to reassess at way points. Ask yourself if you have everything you need to still continue. The better supported you are, the more likely you will succeed.

Lastly, build and use social capital. Though you may take the journey alone you are still supported by the people around you. Help those you can. Be gracious with the help you receive.

Those that have achieved success in life will often tell you that success breeds success. Each goal won leads you on to bigger and better things.

If you just keep taking step after step, no matter how hard they are, success is almost inevitable.

I am convinced that the #1 reason people fail is that they didn’t do their prep work. Either they didn’t have the knowledge, tools, or provisions necessary. Or they really didn’t figure out how important the goal was for them in the first place so they quit.

Next week, I want to address this issue. Up till now we have been discussing things in a broad and general matter. It’s time to get down to the specifics….

The Progression Mindset

Jeremy Day — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:28:07 +0000

It’s not always easy to progress…

Sometimes progression comes in leaps and bounds, as when learning something brand new…

Other times, it’s a long hard road to becoming good at something, as when practicing your musical scales for the millionth time.

The idea behind progression, and all self-improvement in general, is that you are always looking forward to how something can be made better.

It is an intrinsic value. The reward must come from within oneself to have true progression. People tend not to progress very far when all they have are rewards from the outside. No one can ultimately be pushed to greatness without the desire to do it in the first place.

How one gets this internal motivation is a different story altogether, but this forms the basis of how we must think about progression.

We must also think about how progression is part and partial of a community at large. One not only progresses with oneself and in one’s mind, but also in the context of the world around you. The people and the things that make up your surroundings.

So while progression comes from an intrinsic motivation it is ultimately produced, or is seen to be fruitful, in your surroundings. A teacher helps a person learn, a mechanic fixes a car, a painter produces a work of art. The person’s work produces something in the world, in reality.

It is within this mindset that I begin to discuss the possibilities of progression. How we can achieve more in our lives. How we can view our history in more favorable terms, and how we make the most of our lives.

It is also within this mindset that I will discuss progression in real terms with real examples of people who have greatly affected the world around else. We all have the ability to greatly affect the world we live in. It is at once that we begin to make this realization that we can see how far we have progressed and how much further we can truly go…

Progression: How to Move Forward

Jeremy Day — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:04:49 +0000

Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut? Plateaued in your life? Not able to make it further?

Or maybe have you ever felt just lost? Not sure what to do with yourself? Felt worthless to society?

A number of events in my life have helped me to further consider the idea of progression. In other words, how do we move forward and achieve our dreams? How do we help ourselves as individuals, and the societies that we live in, progress forward? To make the world a better place.

Today I am starting a series on the idea of progression…

Perhaps it is only a question an optimizer or maximizer would ask. Why would we want to move forward or progress when we are happy or content where we are? Contentment is another story all together, but you have to ask yourself, are you really happy? The oft-stated quote from Thoreau is that most men lead lives of quiet desperation…

What I do know is that if you are honest with yourself you will find that you do want more out of life. You do want to progress and move forward. You do want to make the world a better place, if not for yourself exclusively, then also for the society at large. You do want to be a contender, fighting for what you have come to believe in, fighting for what is right and good in the world.

The question then remains, why are we not progressing? Why are we not moving forward?

That is exactly what I want to talk about in this series. I would like to start out with what I would call a philosophical background to this topic. Speaking a little about human history, and what makes us want to achieve. What makes us tick?

I would also like to talk about how I view this subject and how many others view this subject. We all have different views on self improvement, and on how to improve society, yet I believe we must sometimes leave our views aside in order to decide upon the best course of action. To be more pragmatic in our dealings with progression.

A discussion of this subject would not be complete without some practices we could adopt as well. For progression first happens in the mind before it happens in reality. With a deeper understanding of the mindset of those who have progressed far into the deeper reaches of life, we can begin to transform ourselves into men and women of action who change not only ourselves, but also the world.

I look forward to writing about this subject and also very much look forward to hearing your thoughts on it as well.

Economic Prognostications 2010

Jeremy Day — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:12:51 +0000

Here we go… another year… and another time for guessing…

Let’s start with Economic Prognostications 2009…

It would be great if you read those predictions to start out with, and also read my economic primer, but if you are strapped for time here is the summary.

1. I first predicted that the Dow would not rise above 10,000 in 2009. Low and behold, it hit that mark in November. Couldn’t it hold out 2 more months for me to be right? haha.

In any case, I must thank Kent @ The Financial Philosopher for making me do a counter argument. While it was unlikely it would rise that high, it did happen, and I think I explained pretty well why it happened in the comment section of that post. As for the second predication that it wouldn’t rise above 10,000 over the next 5-10 years. Well, that was a little crazy, and wasn’t based on anything more then my pessimism at the time. Moving on…

2. My second prediction was that housing prices would drop another 10%, half of which would be caused my the increasing unemployment rate. Looking at the data now, I really can’t really say conclusively whether this happened or not.

For one, the census bureau won’t wrap up their data analysis till sometime in February. I also failed to remember how I came to my conclusions in the first place.

There are only two solid conclusions I can come to: That there was an additional decrease in housing prices in 2009, but by what percentage I am unsure. Also that there was a degree of stabilization in the market overall.

3. I predicted that immigration will remain high. This is almost a no-brainer. Obama would like to eventually give illegal immigrants a better pathway for gaining citizenship. If that happens, and immigration quotas are raised, we will almost assuredly see a huge surge in new immigration.

4. I predicted that unemployment will rise above 10% in 2009. Check. I went even further to say that it will stabilize around 7-9% in 2010. Hmmm. Maybe a bit too ambitious. We will see…

So I was either right on, or slightly off. We will see the final figures in a month or two. As for 2010 I will make some simple predictions…

1. Forget the stock market. Gold prices will continue to rise. Yes, gold is almost ridiculously priced right now. It will continue to rise however. With what the government is doing right now, they are causing a lot of inflationary fears. Enough people are buying into that fear that they will continue to buy into gold. Today’s price of gold is $1,138.30 per ounce. I wouldn’t be surprised if $1,300.00 or $1,400.00 was out of the question.

2. Going against last year’s predications, somehow, someway, the Dow will rise to over 11,000 or 12,000. My only basis for this is my understanding of money and the need for people to invest it somewhere. The stock market somehow remains still one of the number one places to invest despite it’s lack of sensibility.

3. As for housing. Who knows. I thought unemployment was the trump factor last year. This year it’s housing. It will be a make or break year. This is the year we will see if the housing stimulus, and record low interest rates will save the housing market. So far the numbers look promising, but anything can happen. My predication is that we will start seeing modest house price increases across the board in all but the worst of locales. For example, Detroit & the rest of the rust belt, and probably California & a few other states that were hit the worst. Those areas will still experience declines, albeit modest ones…

4. Unemployment. *sigh* Its rough and will continue to be rough. Federal policies, as well as banking policies, are making it tough for new and small businesses to hire and experience growth. My original prediction of a job recovery in 2010 is a bit unfounded. I thought more people would make the shift to entrepreneurship, but that doesn’t seem to be happening in large enough numbers.

What is also intriguing is the number of people who get removed from the official unemployment list. The number of people that “stop searching for work.”

I predict that unemployment won’t go below 10%, and may go up to 11 or 12%. I’d like to be more optimistic here, but I just can’t.

I have some other ideas about the economy, but I feel they would be best served in separate articles, and certainly wouldn’t count as official predictions anyhow.

So here is to a great 2010, whatever it turns out to be.

Cheers,
Jeremy

How to Handle Life’s Twists & Turns

Jeremy Day — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:44:09 +0000

Oh the roller coaster ride we call life. The ups and downs. The twists and turns. How happy and joyful. How sad and depressing. And everything in between….

I feel like I have entered a very interesting time in my life. A time where I am more confident then ever about my place in life, my abilities, my goals, and my dreams. Yet more uncertain then ever of what the best way is to accomplish those things.

Just when you are making some headway life throws you a curve ball. And in no place is the analogy more relevant then our current bathroom remodel project.

This remodel project has been on our minds nearly from the time we bought the house almost 5 years ago. We started this project 5 months ago when we got the urge to rip everything out of the old bathroom. Oh how us guys love to flex our muscles in some righteous demolition. Especially knowing something much better is coming along.

So we completed the demolition in the spring and allowed nearly the whole summer to go by as we were on vacation or enjoying the nice weather outside. Finally as cold weather approached and September loomed large on the horizon we decided to get started on the actual building part of the project.

We bought our supplies and started to put up the basic framing needed to support the room. As amateur builders go we knew just enough to be able to accomplish the task, but slowly, and with much thought and questioning of what more experienced people knew. Things would run smoothly and then we would run into something we didn’t know how to accomplish. We used up a lot of time figuring out the best way to do things. And a lot of time spent running to the store to get parts we didn’t realize we needed.

Next came the plumbing and electrical work. Same deal. Go until you can’t go no more. Then find out from the experts what we needed to do next. Or go to the store to get the things we didn’t realize we needed. All in all, a great way to learn a lot very quickly, but not the best way to spend your evenings and weekends.

But isn’t that how life is, and isn’t that how we grow. Go until we run into something we haven’t encountered before then learn how to beat it?

In thinking about this, I’ve learned some things that I would like to share…

1. Take it a day at a time. Yes, things always seem to take more time then you realize. Especially when you haven’t done exactly that thing before. Enjoy the process. Realize you are building both something valuable and your knowledge for the future.

2. Good things come to those that wait. Our kitchen remodel was the same way. It took months before it was done. Now that it is finished we are enjoying the fruits of our labors. We spend a whole lot more time in our kitchen because it is so much more enjoyable.

3. Problems will arise, yet nearly everything is solvable. Don’t act like something is impossible just because you lack the desire to beat it. People that have come before you have accomplished nearly everything you plan to set out to do in this life. Anything you want to do from raising a child to flying a plane can be learned. Knowledge and experience is everywhere, you just need to look for it.

4. Everything is an opportunity. It may be in disguise but everything that challenges you will make you better. Its a real promise for all your hard work.

5. Life is short, so play hard. Life is way too short to get all caught up and mixed up in the twists and turns of it all. Focus your energies and play hard. Most of us have heard the analogy about how concentrated light makes a powerful laser. You be the same way. Focus yourself and play hard. Life is too short my friend…

How else do you guys handle the twists and turns of life? I would love to hear about it in the comment section below….

There is at least one man more deserving than Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize…

Jeremy Day — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:19:14 +0000

For me, results always speak louder than words…

I am a results-oriented guy and will always be that way. Perhaps it is my business training and experience?

Obama has no real tangible results. Only a vision of the future that could potentially be bright.

Obama has failed at helping the Israeli-Palestine conflict, failed at reducing troop numbers in Afghanistan, and has failed at just about every peace making attempt he has pursued. And I am sure he didn’t make many friends vying for Chicago to be the location of the 2016 Olympics. Well except for his friends in Chicago. Doesn’t that seem a bit self serving to you?

After I heard that I couldn’t help to think how far away we are from JFK. When he said, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

And now he wins the Nobel Peace Prize among a host of other nominations. 203 to be exact. Which is a record number of nominations this year.

I would like to suggest to you a man more deserving of a prize for peace. A man who has dedicated his life to bettering humanity, not bettering his place in the political world. A man named Greg Mortenson.

Go ahead. Read the wikipedia article about him. He builds schools in Asia focusing on educating girls. In two Muslim countries where educating women is banned, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has personally put himself in danger to help further his cause.

This article was the one that stood out to me in the list provided on Wikipedia…

“It Takes a School, Not Missiles”, NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, New York Times – Op-Ed Column, July 12, 2008.

He talks mostly about how we will win and gain peace more by building schools in countries, not bombing them.

Kristof also talks about how Mortenson has done more to generate goodwill in those countries than just about any other outsider.

Kristof ends his article better then I could ever end this article. Of course, I am only one person with one opinion, but as I said before, I like to see results…

“So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration.”

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