Which paradigm for success do you still believe?

Our culture has had two paradigms for success ... for over one hundred years.

1. The first paradigm defines individual success and began before the Civil War.

“Go to school, get a good education, get a good job, work real hard, and retire to a rocking chair on your front porch or go fishing six days a week.”

2. The second paradigm relates to business success and has two parts.

• a. The oldest part of this paradigm began before the Civil War when the steam engine, the cotton gin, and telegraph began to change how people lived. Since farming was becoming mechanized, fewer people could work on farms. Consequently, parents had to teach their children a new paradigm for successful self-employment (farmers were self-employed) in the industrial age. The new paradigm became, “build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Understanding soil and seasons was replaced with creativity and invention.
• b. In the last few decades, due to reduced profits from inflation and offshore competition, a new paradigm gained popularity, “profit, profit, profit.” The paradigm of profit justifies any action, whether legal but not ethical, or ethical but not moral, or moral but not sustainable.
  
  The first paradigm, “go to school,” is not a pleasant subject among those who have paid dearly for their own college education (as I have) . My personal library indicates that education is, and always will be important.
  
  However when 50% of college graduates cannot find work in their chosen field, perhaps we need to consider a new paradigm. In the next decade, the “go to school” paradigm is going to be severely challenged because China currently has more students that graduate with honors … than we have students that graduate. Still not convinced? Consider a real life application of this antiquated paradigm.
  
  According to current labor department statistics, if an unemployed person only has a high school diploma, standing in the unemployment line will average three months. If a suddenly unemployed person has a Bachelors degree, then re-employment will be delayed about six months. If an unemployed person has a Masters, then the wait would be about one year. When a person with a PhD gets laid off, it takes an average of two years for re-employment.
  
  Now, I know all the reasons for getting a higher degree: more pay, more respect, more benefits, etc. I won’t argue with any of those honorable and well earned rewards. The flaw is this: the “go to school” paradigm does not include the potential for a two year stint of unemployment. Here’s reality.
  
  When a PhD has been unemployed for two years (which is the average)
• credit cards are maxed out in order to maintain the lifestyle of a PhD
• the PhD’s home has become REO (Real Estate Owned by the bank)
• any cars that were not fully paid for are being driven by someone else
• student loans continue accruing interest
• and the probability of divorce increases exponentially.

How does the “go to school” paradigm teach the proud possessor of a PhD how to survive such devastation?

Now, I am not saying to throw away your PhD, or withdraw your candidacy for a PhD. What I am saying is the “go to school” paradigm for success, which has a PhD as the apex, is outdated and does not work well in our current (and future) economy.

Allow me to offer my guesstimate (educated guess) regarding the new paradigm for success (particularly for the Y generation and the millennials). Here it is:

Find what you are passionate about, then create multiple streams of income by expertly doing what you really enjoy doing.

Using this paradigm, a person who loved folk dancing could study for a PhD in ancient therapeutic dance (for example). With the knowledge acquired, the person would then create two or more streams of income in the field for which he is passionate … and has a PhD.

Should one income stream evaporate (perhaps the loss of a professorship due to college budget cuts), the PhD could shift to the second stream (consulting, writing a book, guest lecturer, or part time business). Long term unemployment would be improbable because he/she would always have a back up income to cover contingencies … of course a little rainy day money would also be nice.

Doing what you love (passion) is gaining popularity, however it is conflict with the second paradigm of business, but not the first paradigm. If business is focused on “building a better mouse trap,” then inventor-ship would be encouraged. After all, there will always a bigger, better, faster, and more effective gizmo for which the world is waiting with bated breath.

In contrast, a business primarily focused on “profit, profit, profit,” would not allow employees (not even a PhD) to create a secondary income stream because the business “buys” (W2 income) the prescribed work plus the creative effort of employees (usually part of the employment contract).

Suppose the PhD invents something, while not at work, which blossoms into a secondary income. The PhD’s employer will typically claim the invention as theirs, particularly if the invention is in the field of knowledge for which the PhD is employed. The “profit, profit, profit” paradigm is in conflict with “do what you love.”

Fortunately, the “profit, profit, profit” paradigm is also changing. The new paradigm appears to be “people, planet, profit.” If “profit, profit, profit” resulted in the abuse of people (80% of employees are dissatisfied with their job), the planet (our garbage overfloweth), then a balancing paradigm would put profit at the bottom of the totem pole of values. Instead of profit justifying the mal-treatment of employees, vendors, customers, local habitat, and the planet, the new paradigm of “people, planet, profit is gaining momentum. Even the EPA is getting in on this transition of paradigms.

Recently the EPA created the “Seal of Environmental Design” which clearly reflects the new “People, Planet, Profit” paradigm. To earn the Seal of Environmental Design a company has to show that they treat their employees fairly, with manufacturing procedures that are people and planet friendly (even suppliers are included). Additionally, the company must show that they do not injure the habitat surrounding their facilities (perhaps even reclaiming damaged habitat resulting from someone else’s mistreatment of Mother Earth).

To my knowledge, only one company has earned the Environmental Design award. The same company is the only American company to receive the United Nations Environmental Award (in the 1980’s). The same company introduced biodegradable cleaners (in the 1960’s) when people did not know what the word biodegradable meant. If you want people and planet safe cleaning products for your business or home, may I suggest you check out the Legacy of Clean product line from the fifty year old company that set impeccable standards before there were any standards … Amway-Global.

Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen

Home Office 408-723-4777
Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/tvandrielen

Symbiosis Enterprises
Box 18907
San Jose, Ca. 95118
http://www.symbiosis4u.us


Try a RedOx machine for a full month and experience the benefits of drinking triple conditioned water … before you pay any money. RedOx (say Red Ox) machines triple condition water which flushes environmental toxins out of the body, gently diminishes acid reflux, while supporting the immune system with massive amounts of free radical zapping hydroxyl ions.

The Four Phases Of Learning

There is an old adage that says, “If you continue doing what you have always done, you will continue getting what you have always gotten.” Today, if you continue to do what you have always done, you may not get what you have always gotten. That which was true may not be true any longer in our modern world of change, change, change.

Change is the standard of business. Bill Gates said that we should expect more change in the next decade than used to occur in a half century. Because of the rapidity of change, the most expensive sentence in business is probably: “We have always done it that way."

While you may have never heard anyone say those exact words, consider the opposite. Have you ever heard, “How do we do what we don’t know how to do ... and may not even want to do?”

We have always done what we do, the way we do it, because “that way” worked well enough, and often enough, to go through the process of creating a habit.

We have all conditioned ourselves to automatically do some things one way … whether using a mouse with the right hand ... or stepping on the brake with the left foot ... or simply the way we tie our shoestrings. These are examples of habits that we formed to make life easier. Many habits serve us well, while others … well, you know what it is like to break a bad habit.

Since habits are learned behaviors, not instinctive reactions, how do you learn other ways? Is it easier to replace a bad habit or implant a good habit? How do we learn to do things differently from the way we have always done things? How do we stop doing what we do, the way we have always done it? Should we?

Habits, like addictions, frequently have a negative connotation. Yet habits per se are not necessarily bad. Without habits, things that were difficult to learn would remain difficult to do.

Think back to when you were learning to drive a car. Can you remember when you could not automatically signal for a left turn, look over your shoulder without drifting out of your lane, while holding a coffee cup of hot coffee in your right hand, without skipping a beat in the pattern of a conversation on a cell phone, or the pattern of traffic, and ... all at the same time?

The next time you put on a pair of shoes with laces, try to tie the knot quickly and easily … after reversing which lace you put on top of the other? Sounds simple, doesn’t it? We don’t think about things like tying shoe laces because we formed habits to make such repetitive actions almost automatic. We do certain things a certain way, because that way has previously worked well, because we don’t have to think about how to do it, because … why should we try a different way that may not work as easily?

When considering habits, the easiest place to start is by identifying the four phases everyone goes through whenever they create a habit. Those four phases are unconscious/incompetence, conscious/incompetence, conscious/competence, and unconscious/competence.

When we progress through the four phases with a repetitive act, we develop a habit. When we progress through the four phases to enhance a skill or ability, we develop a mastery. The four phases have been part of our learning processes from infancy to fancy degrees.

Both habits and mastery begin in the first phase which I jestingly call oblivion. Oblivion is when you are unconscious and incompetent. You simply do not know that you do not know. One of my mentors calls this phase “the most dangerous place to be” because this is where you can get blind-sided.
The plastics industry was in phase one when they did not know that BPA, the chemical used to make plastic hard, would act like a hormone (xenogen), disrupting the normal maturation process of children. The full consequences of this act of oblivion will not be known for years, perhaps decades.

I am looking for a clinical study on using electrolyzed water to remove xenogens. If you know of such a study, please advise me. I already have a variety of clinical studies that document using electrolyzed water to remove other man made toxins. Xenogens are different because the immune system does not appear to recognize them as abnormal.

When a toddler sticks a bobby pin into an electrical outlet, he is in phase one. Usually, the potentially lethal shock tells the toddler not to do that again. However, my eldest son stuck metal objects in electrical outlets repeatedly. He didn’t cry from pain following such incidents so I could only conclude that his thrill at watching the flash of light exceeded any electrical shock he may have felt. Of course, we soon put safety covers on all the electrical outlets. My toddler son may have been in phase one, but his mother and I were not.

Not all consequences from phase one are dangerous or detrimental. For example, at some point in your life you did not know that helicopters existed. You were in phase one regarding helicopters. You may have been a few months old, or a few years old, before you saw a helicopter. Not knowing that you did not know that helicopters existed had no impact on your life.

However, as soon as you know that helicopters exist, then you progress from phase one to phase two: you know helicopters exist but cannot fly one. We all have many things in phase two that do not create impediments in our lives. For example, I know that Boeing 727s exist because I have take flights in them. However, I do not know how to pilot a 727, nor do I want to learn to do so. I am quite contented to remain in phase two regarding flying airplanes.

I am also in phase two regarding hang gliders. I know about hang gliders but do not know how to fly them. Unlike my phase two perspective on flying a Boeing 727, I sometimes imagine myself soaring silently through the air while hanging below a huge wing. But ... I don’t want to fly a hang glider enough to invest the time and money to learn the skill. I don’t want to transition to phase three with a hang glider.

Phase three is when you know something exists and you can do whatever is involved … but you have to think about each action while you are doing it. If you have to look at the keyboard when you type, you are in phase three. When you drive a different car, you are probably in phase three until you can minimally turn on the windshield wipers, the headlights, and adjust the radio without taking your eyes off the road.

Some people have a phenomenal ability to act in phase three. My late wife’s cousin was twelve years old when he stole an airplane from the San Carlos airport. He flew it around for an hour and then landed it ... to a welcoming committee of police officers. The boy grew up to become a commercial airline pilot ... probably flying Boeing 727s.

In phase three you have studied a foreign language enough that you can communicate readily … but you still think in English and then translate into the foreign language. The language in which you talk to yourself in your head, is your phase four language.

Phase four is mastery, when you can do something without thinking about it. This phase is what James Allen called habit force (here’s a free modernized copy of James Allen’s classic As A Man Thinketh in EZ format (arrow down until you see the title), and modern psychologists call subconscious actions. Psychologists also tell us that more than 95% of our daily activity is accomplished in phase four.

You are in phase four when you leave home in the morning, arrive at work, and have no memory of the journey. You are in phase four when a thought comes to mind and your fingers dance on the keyboard until the thought has become words on the screen.

A person is stuck in phase four whenever they complain, “But we have always done it this way!” In actuality, resistance to change is merely resistance against returning to phase three … where one has to think … in order to develop new phase four skills.

Whenever I sense myself resisting change, I know I have something new to learn because I hear my Dad’s voice telling me “When you stop learning, you start dying.”

Perhaps that’s why I like Spock’s benediction in the old Star Trek series, “Live long and prosper.” To live long and prosper requires continuous learning, developing new skills, exploring new horizons, perhaps even acquiring a new language … even if it is only a phase three language … or spending a Thursday evening at a Denny’s listening to a white haired business man.

Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen

Home of Red Ox machines for triple conditioned water which flushes toxins out of the body, gently reduces systemic acid, while supporting the immune system with massive amounts of free radical zapping electrons.

The Four Freedoms from the Fourth of July, 1776

Well, the Fourth of July is right around the corner. July 4 is when we honor those valiant men in 1776 who signed their names to a document that became their death warrants because it had paradigm shattering sentences, such as ...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Among those inalienable rights, probably the most difficult to define is “liberty.” Because we do not live in a state of tyranny, we Americans tend to take our “liberties” for granted and blur the distinctions between “liberty” and “freedom.”

Consider this. In speaking to someone, if I referred to the Statue of Freedom in New York Harbor, they would not know what I meant. The Grand Lady in New York harbor is not called the Statue of Freedom. She is the Statue of Liberty. Yet, in everyday conversations, we use the words “freedom” and “liberty” interchangeably. There is a subtle difference between the two words that is more than the arrangement of letters of the alphabet.

Freedom is a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restrictions.

Liberty is a political, social, and economic right that belongs to the citizens of a state or to all people.

As I understand the definitions of these two word, “liberty” is a legal word and “freedom” is an experiential word. “Liberty” is something you protect, while “freedom” is something you garner. “Liberty” is a birth right while “freedom” is to be achieved.

With that distinction also comes a caveat: liberty and freedom cannot be separated. A citizen must have liberty in order to enjoy freedom. A citizen must also have some degree of freedom in order to produce or sustain liberty. We have liberty because of the Declaration of Independence which precipitated the American Revolution, and produced the US Constitution. This year, rather than laud the signers of the Declaration of Independence for their steadfast pursuit of liberty, as is my custom, I want to look at the availability of freedom … today.

In contrast to liberty, freedom is not a legal issue. Freedom is heartfelt sense of satisfaction with the quality of life, and/or the potential of the future. There are many freedoms we have the option to enjoy, or perhaps I should say the option to attempt to enjoy. Among those many freedoms, four stand out as paramount. Upon these four freedoms, the majority of other freedoms depends … perhaps even liberty itself. Those four freedoms are: location, time, finances, and expression.

Location Freedom is the ability to live or travel anywhere in the world (or at least the USA). Few people experience this freedom because we (myself included) have too many honorable commitments that keep us tied to one small piece of this planet. We have a job or business, house payments, college tuition, car payments, utility bills, ad infinitum.

My younger brother savors his location freedom. In the 1960’s he abandoned a full scholarship to UC Berkley and went on a trek around the world. He left San Francisco with ten dollars in his pocket and returned a year later, having visited many countries. Even after he married and had two children, if he and his wife (who shares his penchantment for location freedom) wanted to winter in Mexico, they would not hesitate to hitchhike from Canada to Mexico with their small children. Even today he structures his life so he has location freedom. He lives in the Canadian outback, in a log cabin he build from trees he felled and scrap lumber. He has no car, no electricity, no running water, and no bills. When he wants to go somewhere, he goes. When he comes back, he comes back. Location freedom is high on his value list.

Time Freedom is the ability to choose what you will do next. Time freedom is waking up naturally because you are completely rested not because the alarm clock jangled your nerves. Time freedom is working eighty hours a week because you are captivated with an idea. Time freedom is not working for a year because you just feel like vegetating. Time freedom means you can do whatever you want with your time. Most Americans have limited time freedom because they work door to door.

Working door to door means, in the morning workers go through their front door, then the car door, and then their office door. At the end of their work period, they go through their office door, then the car door, then their front door. Tim Ferris was working “door to door” and decided he wanted more time freedom. Over a period of time, he was able to reduce his work week to four hours, while still holding down the same job. If you haven’t read Tim Ferris’ book The Four Hour Work Week, then you might be missing a little, or a lot, of time freedom.

I wrote the micro-book Corollaries prior to reading Tim Ferris’ book. As a result of Tim’s insights, I have added a tenth corollary to the Information Age. The tenth corollary would be “any job that can be done from home, will be done from home.”

A free copy of Corollaries is half way down the left side of the page of free eBooks at the eBook menu page.

Consider 9-11. Except for face-to-face sales clerks on the lower floors, most workers left home in the morning where they had a computer and a telephone. They traveled into the city, rode up the elevator to their office … where they worked using a computer and a telephone. Now, you can see why I believe the tenth corollary will be working from home … a form of time freedom.

The antithesis of both location freedom and time freedom is a prison inmate. A penitentiary inmate never leaves the walls of his prison, is told what clothes to wear, what to eat, when to eat, when to sleep, when to work, what work to do, and with whom he can hold a conversation or correspond.

Financial Freedom is not about being rich. After all, if you are reading this email, you are already rich compared to the standard of living of over half of the world’s population (the average household in Bangladesh earns $500 a year). Financial freedom is a state of mind in which you no longer worry about money, bills, taxes, etc.

Financial freedom is having your finances so well ordered that you finally discover the reason why you were born. Financial freedom almost forces you to evaluate what you will do with your life now that you no longer have to chase the almighty buck. Financial freedom gives you the resources and the time freedom to make a difference to people and/or the planet.

Donald Trump is rich, but I don’t believe he has financial freedom. Bill Gates is rich, and is discovering financial freedom now that he is managing a foundation to dispose of his wealth. Bill Gates is currently finding answers to the question, “What legacy does Bill Gates want to leave to the next generation?” Such a question is not easy to answer. I am eager to experience the conundrum.

Another of my brothers retired from the Environmental Protection Agency a few years ago. He rattled around the planet for a while, not knowing quite what to do with himself. I think he found his purpose when he found himself in southern Mexico helping people with their English. His federal retirement income provides a bountiful lifestyle in Mexico so he can help people without having to charge them any money. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. I wonder what Donald Trump would think of that kind of life style?

Inner Freedom is the ultimate freedom. Victor Frankl observed and experienced inner freedom while in a concentration camp during the Second World War. In the midst of cruel living conditions, forced labor, and meaningless executions, some people found their inner freedom. In the final analysis, inner freedom is the ability to choose how you will respond to a situation.

Perhaps inner freedom is what caused the signers of the Declaration of Independence to sign on the dotted line. They knew the consequences of signing such a document. They also believed they had a right to choose how they were going to live, even if they had to die in the attempt. Patrick Henry expressed this concept clearly in his “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” speech. Of such beliefs are great nations formed.

Here is a re-enactment of Patrick Henry’s famous speech "Give Me Liberty or give me death" is the fourth item down on the left column.

The Declaration of Independence did not create the environment in which the above four freedoms could flourish. Establishing and sustaining freedom has always been done at the price of soldier’s blood. As a veteran, I see the Fourth of July as a day to honor our servicemen. Toward that purpose, I added a video to my homepage that I call “Tribute.” An old friend of mine, whose only son had just been deployed to Afghanistan, asked me to create this 20 minute video, which he narrated. When he had finished there was not a dry eye in the house, and everyone was on their feet cheering … not for the speaker … not for the video … but for all those who have sacrificed their lives … or been willing to sacrifice their lives … for freedom based on liberty. Place a box of tissues nearby, you will need them.

At the end of the Fourth of July holiday, if the Red Coats didn’t burn your home to the ground, clap you in irons, and put your family in a dungeon, then you will probably be available to attend the Entrepreneurs Club meeting in Milpitas on July 7th. I have been invited back to speak to this very creative group of people, some of whom are looking for venture capital, some for joint venture partners, some are wondering if they will ever find their market niche, and some just wander in out of curiosity. I will be speaking on changes in the market place based on studies by Frank Luntz, Stephen Covey (Junior), the Better Business Bureau, and others. These changes can be boiled down to two principles:

1. We have been taught to focus on “What do I want from the market place?” This is selling.

2. The new focus will be more like “What does the market place want from me?” This is un-selling.


Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen
Home of RedOx (say Red Ox) machines for triple conditioned water which flushes environmental toxins out of the body, gently diminishes acid reflux, while supporting the immune system with massive amounts of free radical zapping hydroxyl ions.

Limiting Beliefs

Everyone has one or more self-limiting beliefs, even critters like fleas and monkeys. I learned about
fleas first while I was in grammar school and struggling to learn the times tables. I was whining “I’ll never learn these stupid times tables.” In response, my dad asked me a question I have never forgotten, “Is that what you want?” To explain As A Man Thinketh (free eBook) in grammar school language, my dad told me a story about fleas.

Put a dozen or so fleas in pint size mason jar and loosely screw on the standard metal lid. Place the flea filled jar where it is relatively quiet so you can listen. After a few seconds, you will hear a faint “tink, tink, tink” as fleas crash into the metal lid while trying to jump out of the jar, which is perfectly normal (humorous mp3 file).

Then a strange thing happens.

The fleas continue to jump, but they stop hitting the metal lid. The faint “tink, tink, tink” stops. After a few hours with no “tink, tink, tink,” you can take the lid off the jar and the fleas will not jump out. They believe they will hit the lid, so they do not jump high enough to exit the jar … and freedom.

Forty years later, I was attending a marketing seminar for small business owners. The speaker said that natives in the jungle will catch monkeys by putting a banana in a narrow mouth jar. A monkey slips his hand into the jar and grabs the banana. However, with his hand clutching the banana, he cannot pull his hand out of the jar. While the monkey is caught between the quandary of releasing a banana and living in a cage, the natives run up and make the decision for the monkey.

The speaker then compared the monkey to a small business owner who cannot release a failing product or fire an incompetent employee. Both the monkey and the small business owner have the limiting belief that the banana in the jar is the only banana in the world.

I don’t know about you, but I have had unconscious beliefs that caused me to “grasp a banana.” One particular banana was a line of archery products that had been predicted (by a senior VP of the largest arrow manufacturing company in the world), to be revolutionary. With expectations of making really big money, I manufactured and attempted to sell those products for ten years without ever making a profit, not even for a single month. Like the monkey holding onto a banana, I really believed the products I had patented would revolutionize the market.

It took a heart attack to cause me to ask difficult questions regarding business, money, personal fulfillment, etc. Like most survivors of a heart attack, I paused to think about what was really valuable in my life. The archery business was producing no value. It was a banana in a jar. I stopped my archery business as quickly as a thorn deflates a bicycle tire. The reduced stress resulting from deflating the archery business caused me to consider how many other bananas were keeping me captive.

How many of my beliefs were bananas in a jar? How could I determine when a banana that I had in my hand was providing nourishment (empowering belief) or stuck inside a jar (limiting belief)? What is the inherent difference between a beneficial belief (5 minute video) and a limiting belief? How many beliefs are formed so early in life that we feel like the beliefs are part of our individuality?

For example, the meaning of the word “money” is usually formed before the age of six. Consequently, one of the first questions I had to answer was “What is my first memory about money?”

Somewhere in my early childhood, I acquired the idea that money is like a pie that is cut into pieces so everyone who wants some pie can have a piece. The unspoken assumption was that everyone should get an equal piece of the pie because that is how we cut a pie in our family. Therefore, in order for me to get a larger piece of the pie, someone else must get a smaller piece of the pie.

Economists call this theory “scarcity economics.” Scarcity economics is true for finite resources like land, gold, or water. However scarcity economics is a limiting belief when applied to creating new products.

So, how do you make a fixed pie of scarcity economics into an expanding pie?

Bring more value to the right marketplace, at the right time.

Increasing value in the marketplace increases the size of the pie. The larger the pie, the more pie available to others who participate in the same marketplace … including yourself. That is what my archery products were supposed to do; create an expanding pie. However, because I was in the wrong marketplace (California is not big on archery) the business became a banana stuck in a jar.

Perhaps you may be asking "How can I tell if a belief is a limiting?"

This is actually quite easy. Ask yourself these three questions.

1. "Does this belief pull me towards becoming more of the person I want to be?”
2. “Does this belief compel me to do a little more than I am currently able to do?”
3. “Will this belief prevent me from having everything that I want to have?"

It doesn't matter whether a specific belief is called true or false, limiting or enhancing, conscious or unconscious. What matters is whether a specific belief moves you TOWARD or AWAY from what you want? If a belief does not serve you, now is the time to replace it with a belief that does.

To change a limiting belief, consider using empowering questions. Asking empowering questions takes the cajones of a brass monkey because the question plays mind games with your own mind. As you can see from the following examples, an empowering question assumes that you have already accomplished what you desire and you just want to know how it happened.

“How was I able to own a sail boat and spend six months cruising the Greek Islands?”

“What did I do to produce four extra income streams in just one year?”

“How was I able to reduce my body fat to 20%?”

“What skills did I develop that promoted me to VP?”

“What did I change about myself in order to attract my soul mate?”

Limiting beliefs will never give you the life that exists in your dreams because limiting beliefs are like goldfish in a small fishbowl.

A few months ago, Dr. Robert Anthony told a story about a limiting belief. If you move a goldfish from a small fishbowl in your home and take it to a lake, the goldfish will continue to swim in the same small circle? Why? Because he has accepted the limiting belief that if he swims farther, he's going to bump his nose. He's always swam in circles, because it has done always been done that way. Any other way is "impossible."

What would happen to your levels of happiness, health, wealth, and wisdom if you had no limiting beliefs?

The first line of this newsletter states that everyone has one or more self-limiting beliefs. I just realized the sentence assumes a limiting belief about my ability to eliminate limiting beliefs. Unlimiting limiting beliefs can be really sneaky. (23 minute video by Tony Robbins)

Before you check out, check out the next wave of health enhancing products to hit the American market. Go to my home page , click on the picture of the RedOx, and then look at a video “RedOx Water Helps Blood” to learn how water can be more than just water.

May you continue to increase happiness, healthiness, wealthiness, and wisdom, in whichever order you prefer.
Tom Van Drielen

MLK Day, 2011

Monday, January 17th, is a day of remembrance for Martin Luther King Jr. In years past, I have provided Dr. King’s speeches as my way of honoring his intention. Based on his speeches, I sense that much of what Dr. King strove to achieve has been realized … particularly since a man of African descent has been elected President of the United States.

Therefore, for Martin Luther King Day 2011, I want to take you back in time, to about 100 years before Dr. King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Back to before Abraham Lincoln became President. Back before the Civil War, when there were giants in the land, upon whose shoulders all great reformers have since stood.

One of those shoulders belonged to a slave who called herself “Sojourner Truth.” Listen to a re-enactment of her impromptu two minute speech, and you will see why the day of remembrance for Dr. King should include those upon whose shoulders he stood.

http://www.symbiosis4u.us/Special/SojournerTruth.htm

As this insufferable recession continues, if you know anyone who could use a lift in their finances, send them this email and ask them to click on either “Micro Businesses” or the “Trend-Analysis-Solution” logo on the top left of Sojourner Truth’s webpage. Based on Sojourner’s speech, I think she would be pleased with these new non-discriminatory small business formats.

And remember to check out the REDOX water machines, which are being manufactured right here in Silicon Valley.

Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen