I constantly keep hearing about people who are poor and have trouble with their finances and the struggles they have at paying their bills. I'm going to start out by talking about 2 books and 2 authors who have different viewpoints on this issue. In 1988, I broke my ankle, which may seem like a minor thing, but it through me into a state of feeling completely helpless and powerless and came to the conclusion that I would rather choose holistic medicine to get healed, instead of western medicine, which sucks. I had to have my ankle operated on and that really sucked, but still came to the conclusion that during those times in which I have to at the mercy of western medicine, I still want to use holistic healing to work with it.
I also got sick and tired of not having enough money, so I read a book called You can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. I haven't gotten there, yet, but it always helps to focus on creating abundance as opposed to not having enough money. I don't agree with everything that Louis Hay says because I don't take anything I read or hear at face value. Still, Louise Hay has a lot of intelligent and empowering things to say when it comes to creating abundance in your life.
I talk to people about how I wish I could make a lot of money and people say shit like, if it was easy to make money, everyone would be making it. It isn't not being capable that stops people from achieving prosperity, it is fucked up thought patterns that are taught to us. Here are some of the thought patterns that are mentioned in Louis Hay's book regarding barriers to prosperity, which are:
· Money doesn't grow on trees
· Money is evil
· Rich people are crooks
· I don't want to make money and be stuck up
· Artists have to struggle
· I don't deserve to have abundance
· I'm not good enough to have money
· A penny saved is a penny earned
· Money only comes from hard work
· Oh, I couldn't charge that much
· Everyone else comes before meNow, I agree with most of these things, but I don't agree with all of them. I don't agree with the Oh, I couldn't charge that much because I once met someone who read all kinds of new age books and things and felt that the universe was going automatically provide him with an abundance of wealth, so he maxxed out his credit card and then he could not pay his bills and he had to file for bankruptcy. Well, have enough confidence to charge a certain amount, but don't go overboard like that.
I strongly agree with money only comes from hard work as being a major barrier to prosperity. There are people who work hard and they don't have shit. People need to work smart and have creative thoughts. I also strongly agree with the everyone comes before me as a major barrier to prosperity. Ever since I was a little kid, my parents told me that I am a selfish self-centered prick, but people need to help themselves before they can help other people. I find it to very cool and empowering that people are writing books telling people that they can create wealth and abundance in their lives and that kicks ass!
Meanwhile, I was watching C-SPAN 1 day when they had authors come on and talk about their books. I got to hear Barbara Ehrenreich come on and talk about a book that she just recently wrote called Nickel and Dimed, which is about people who are stuck working at minimum wage paying shit jobs and barely being able to get by. Barbara Ehreneich is this yuppie journalist who traveled around the country interviewing poor people to hear their depressing stories. Barbara Ehreneich, illustrated that there is a problem, but I didn't hear her come up with any solutions. Barbara Ehreneich went undercover to work at Wal-Mart too and interviewed her coworkers to hear more depressing stories about how some of the people who work at Wal-Mart are homeless, while others don't even have enough money to afford to eat lunch while they are at work because Wal-Mart is too cheap and greedy to pay people enough to live on. The only thing I got from listening to Barbara Ehreneich is the discovery that working for Wal-Mart sucks, but I already knew that, but discovered a lot more reasons why Wal-Mart sucks.
I am hearing 2 totally different viewpoints when it comes to creating wealth and abundance and things like this have been fucking with my mind for years. I get the impression that Barbara Ehreneich did what she did as a publicity stunt. 1st of all, she even mentioned when talking about her book about how she has this college education, so therefore she can get by, while mentioning that people are working for Wal-Mart because they don't have a choice and have no skills. It really pisses me off when someone decides for someone that they ain't got a choice ain't got no skills and ain't good enough to have better. This is the reason why I would like to become a motivational speaker. If I was a motivational speaker and someone approached me and told me that they work for Wal-Mart because they feel that they ain't got no choice, I am going to tell them that they should go out and kill themselves. Hey! I'm only going to tell them that because I want to give them tough love! I would also tell them that for their own good. I have experienced many situations that are worse than death and death was preferable to many types of shit to go through and yet I am still alive! When you are in a situation that sucks worse than death causes your brain to search long and hard for alternative solutions and it works 99% of the time. I just hope that I don't end up in a situation of shit that happens to be the 1% that don't work.
The impression that I got out of listening to Barbara Ehrenreich speak is "look, I'm this yuppie journalist and you have to work for Wal-Mart na NA NA and struggle to survive and starve and you are helpless and powerless to change the situation that your are in." I acknowledge the possibility that I could be wrong, but that is the impression that she gave me by listening to her speak. What Barbara Ehrenreich is saying is disempowering and I'm sick and tired of hearing that shit. I don't have much respect for people who tell people that they are powerless and helpless. It's about time for some fucking positive affirmations for Christ Sake. I say, fuck this nickel and dimed shit, I would much rather heal my life. I agree very strongly that the economic situation in this country thanks to our government and big corporations sucks, but if you just sit around feeling powerless and helpless, you waste away your life. The economic situation of this country has been nothing but extreme shit ever since Ronald Reagan became president, but don't wait for the government to get better use your brain to search for empowering solutions and keep trying until you get there. Besides Louise Hay, there is another person who talks about Personal Power. I'm sure that you know who he is. I will talk about the Personal Power dude the next time. That piece is still pending so go back to Pat's 2002 vision of the world page to read the cool stuff that he has already written.