Insight Writer

Progression Requires Being Debt Free

Jeremy Day — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:01:28 +0000

I would say that the #1 thing holding people back from the living the life they have always dreamed is themselves…

The #2 thing that holds them back is almost certainly their DEBT!

Last week I talked about how progression requires a certain letting go of the past…

This week it is all about letting go of the need we feel to spend, spend, spend!

Let’s face facts here and confront the reality of the situation here. For anyone seriously wanting to be debt free you need to have this world view, this outlook on life that says, “I am a slave to my debt, I am an indentured servant to my creditor until my debt is repaid.”

It is a sickening feeling… I just watched the movie Maxed Out. It had some horror stories in it. Including stories about people who committed suicide because of their debt. (Hopefully none of my readers are there yourselves. I promise you debt is never so horrible to end your life over it.) Watching the movie might just make you sick to your stomach like it did for me, but you should force yourself to watch it.

Why?

Because emotions create motion, and that is the result we are after. The sooner you set yourself on a solid road to debt freedom, the sooner you can start progressing into a brighter future for yourself, and even for your friends and family.

Our government and the “powers that be” are highly responsible for the situation we are facing. Yet we also have our own personal responsibility. We must become aware of how things work, and be careful so we will not be ensnared by debt’s trap…

If you aren’t willing to click some of the links above or watch the movie please at least spend 10 minutes reading this article entitled… “I Want The Earth Plus 5%”

Reading this one article can potentially help you to progress farther in this area of life then you could have ever imagined. Please do it, not for my sake, but for your own…

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….

Progress Defined

Jeremy Day — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:24:01 +0000

With last week’s post I talked about how progression happens in reality, not only in the mind. Real progress is defined by tangible results.

Progress is also closely aligned with achievement, yet they are not the same. Achievement is simply the external reward or recognition for actual progress.

Today I want to leave you with some thought provoking quotes on progress. Next week we will talk about how exactly we can all have more progress in our lives…

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or nation.” – Oscar Wilde

“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” – C.S. Lewis

“The reasonable man adapts to the world, the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress in the world depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Human progress is neither automatic or inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.

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