A New Education

Think about the education that you received growing up.  Consider your formal education from school, and the lessons, habits, and ideas that you got from your parents and family.  Reflect on what you learned from your neighbors, friends, everyone.  Think about what you learned and what it has or is doing for you.

It means something different for everyone.  It's ongoing...What everyone takes from it varies.  We're taught to value education, in a traditional sense.  For example, we've been learning historically that getting a college education is the best way to a great career and financial security.  We've been learning that saving as much as we can is the best way to prepare for retirement.  We're conditioned to take the road most travelled.  Some of us are trained to follow in someone's footsteps...become the future leader of dad's company, be a lawyer like grandfather, or a politician because that's the family business.  Some of us are trained to "just go out and make a decent living, and take care of our families."

Part of the lesson is correct.  We should be trained to be leaders...of ourselves if no one else.  We should be trained to take care of our families.  But why is it that we are trained to go down the traditional, beaten path? It is because we've been trained to believe that it is safer.  The less risk you have to take in life, the better.  We know that the doctor or the teacher is going to be successful and secure...so we continue giving our posterity this one sided education.

Again, there are no quarrels here with teaching our posterity about the good possibilities that lay down road familiar.  But what is really sad is that even though we now see that steering the future leaders down that path is not necessarily safer all the time, we still turn our back on that road less travelled.  Experience is teaching them that going the traditional route is not always a sure bet to having the life you want, whether from a financial or happiness perspective.  So why is the formal education they are receiving not providing them with an alternative?  What does it say for our own education, that we believe it's okay to send them out into the world so inept for what they will really find out?  What will what they have learned actually do for them and us in the future?

Resolving resolutions

The end of a year signifies many things for a lot of people. For some, it can be a celebration of many accomplishments or maybe one huge achievement. Others may be celebrating the good riddance of a troubling and disappointing time. Whatever the reason, people in general are excited to see a new year. I believe that this is the time when visions for a better life are most vivid among people. They think about all the things they will change...and how great life will be after they accomplish the goal. We call them new year resolutions.

  Here's a short list of some of my favorite past resolutions: 

• Lose weight 

• Go back to school  

• Save more money  

• Attend church more 

• Stop smoking 

• Take a vacation 

•  Be more helpful to others. 

 At one time or another, I was able to accomplish each one of these resolutions! I did lose weight (though I might have gained some of it back);and so forth and so on. Realizing each resolution had its own difficulties and their own rewards. The one characteristic that each resolution shared however, was that I couldn't settle into the new year, giving into to the temptations that drove me to have to make the resolutions in the first place. I had to make fundamental changes in order to realize the resolutions. The first change I made was in my mindset.

 The biggest reason that so many new years resolutions never get resolved (ha ha) is because people never really make the fundamental changes that are required to make it happen. For example, people run out and sign up for gym memberships and then figure out how to incorporate actually going to the gym in their schedule...heck, a lot of them won't even incorporate cancelling the membership after they have joined and then never make it...and I am not just putting the blame on other people, I have been guilty of such activity myself.

 But I did change...and you can too! All you have to do is choose to be committed. After all, The Bible tells us in Prov. 13:4 "The desires of the diligent are fully satisfied." Then make the fundamental changes required to make your resolution a reality. Next, try to maintain your emotions while you're making the changes you need to make. Don't look at the situation completely from an emotional standpoint. Emotions (especially when they are high) can make any reality look bleak. Escape the emotion by working at achieving your resolution. Eventually everything else you need will seem to resolve your resolution will just be in your path...there for the taking!