Fromm did not believe faith is in opposition to reason or rational thinking. On the contrary, he simply made a distinction between rational faith and irrational faith. He believed that irrational faith is based on submission to irrational authority. But rational faith is based on one’s own convictions.

Rational faith, then, is an important component of rational thinking. In fact, Fromm believed that creative thinking begins with a “rational vision,” a vision that results from study, reflective thinking, and observation.

In other words, rational faith is rooted in one’s own experiences and judgments. Irrational faith, on the other hand, is the acceptance of something as true only because an authority or the majority say it is.

The rational believer must have faith in his core being. He must have trust in himself. He must know that the person he really is will not change with changing circumstances. If we lose faith in who we are, we become dependent on others and change in ways to gain their approval. Not a good thing.

There is no rational faith in domination — either for the dominator or the dominated. To be sure, power is a panoptic objective for politicians and many religious leaders. But, to their dismay, it is the most unstable of all achievements.

Fromm pointed out that because having faith and having power over others are mutually exclusive objectives, all religious and political systems originally built on rational faith become corrupt and lose their strength. It would be difficult to argue that history has not supported his viewpoint. And over the next several years, this will become clear to all but the most brainwashed American sheeple.

What Fromm did not address head on, however, is faith in a higher power. Is it rational or irrational faith to believe in God? The atheist would say it is irrational. The believer would come down on the side of rational.

But the believer could just as easily say that the atheist’s viewpoint is based on irrational faith — faith, perhaps, that the universe somehow created itself.

In truth, both an atheist and a believer in a higher power can have rational faith in their beliefs, so long as those beliefs are based on study, reflective thinking, and observation. As I’ve said so often, I agree with Viktor Frankl’s view that there is probably not much difference between a so-called atheist and an individual who believes in God. It’s more a matter of semantics than zealous people on both sides might believe.

So, whether it’s faith in yourself, faith in your spouse, faith in a friend, faith in your future, or faith in a higher power, don’t let anyone tell you that faith is not an integral part of the human experience. Make thatrational faith. And you will do your children a great service by making sure they understand and believe in rational faith from a very young age.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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Further, most of the things people worry about never even come to pass. Or, if they do, they end up being not nearly as bad as envisioned. Even better, some of the most minatory circumstances often turn out to be nothing more than disguises for great opportunities.

I thought about this a couple of weeks ago when my son asked me to take him to a University of Maryland football game on a perfect-weather Saturday.

It was quite a request, considering:

1. I had never been to Maryland’s Byrd Stadium, and was not certain how to get there.
2. I estimated that the University was at least an hour away in modest traffic.
3. It would take us about an hour to get ready to leave the house.
4. It was 10:00 a.m. — two hours before kickoff.
5. We had no tickets.

Nevertheless, seeing a chance to be anointed Father of the Week, I replied, without hesitation, “Sure. Let’s do it.”

Some might call this impulsive. Others might refer to it as abject stupidity. I would argue that a fair and enlightened individual would recognize it as nothing more than temporary insanity.

But something just felt right about it. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I felt like I could run a marathon backward. And I saw it as one of those great Steve Martin-type bonding opportunities (as in Father of the Bride).

We pulled out of the driveway at 11:00 a.m., an hour before game time. Surprisingly, traffic was light, even as we began to near the campus. Even more surprising, the stadium came into view about 40 minutes after we left the house. I still haven’t figured out how that was mathematically possible.

Now for the not-so-small matter of parking. Cars were jammed into every square inch of space on the side of every road anywhere within sight of the stadium, so I frantically looked for a parking garage. But before I could locate one, would you believe that a parking space suddenly appeared on the side of the road — about a five-minute walk from the stadium?

After I parked the car, my son and I jumped out and joined the crowd walking toward Byrd Stadium. At this point, I was thinking what a shame it would be if it were a sellout and we’d have to turn around and go home.

Amazingly, however, as we approached the front gate, two men were standing right in front of us, one of them holding up a pair of tickets. He said they were his season tickets, but that he was going to be sitting elsewhere with his friend that day, so he just wanted to “get rid of them.”

He told me they were on the 50-yard line, and I braced myself for his asking price — $75? $100? $150? Another surprise: Almost apologetically, he asked if $20 a ticket sounded reasonable to me. I refrained from hugging him, and quickly peeled off two $20 bills from the cash stash in my pocket.

Thus far, I had been wrong about every dire thought that had crossed my mind before agreeing to take my son to the game. But I felt certain I would be right about one thing: No way was I holding 50-yard-line seats in my hand. Scalpers are hardworking entrepreneurs, but they have been known to shade the truth a bit.

Surprise again: Our seats were, indeed, smack-dab on the 50!

At halftime, since we hadn’t had time to eat lunch before leaving the house, we were starving. Perusing the menu board at a garbage… er, concession… stand, it became evident that our substitute lunch was going to be a hotdog, an ice cream sandwich, and a Pepsi.

To avoid apoplexy, I reminded myself that what we were about to eat was at least healthier than cyanide-laced Kool-Aid… though not by much. Besides, the dogs were only $2.50 apiece, which wouldn’t even buy you a bun at a pro football game.

After we finished “lunch,” we stopped by one of the restrooms for a little relief. How pleasant. It made the restrooms at Washington, DC’s RFK Stadium look like the Ritz-Carlton. Shows how easy it is to please college kids.

The bottom line is that it was a great day, a day when everything that seemed like a problem ended up being a plus. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that things turned out so well, because I’ve witnessed the playing out of this type of scenario so often over the years.

The moral is that when you really want to do something — but are apprehensive because you see so many “problems” on the horizon — do it anyway! Don’t worry about it. You won’t bat 1,000 percent. But if you continually fail to take action, you’re guaranteed to bat zero.

And even when things don’t work out, you’ll find that, in a vast majority of cases, the fallout won’t be nearly as bad as you’d imagined.

The many wonderful, unexpected things that will come into your life as a result of taking action will more than offset any pain you might endure from your few missteps.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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One person’s idea of freedom can actually violate another person’s freedom. To one person, it means doing what he wants with his own life. To another, it means doing what he wants with other people’s lives. Both say that the other one’s concept of freedom is tyranny.

To the laissez-faire businessman, freedom means an end to all government regulation. To the communist, freedom can be achieved only when individual incentive has been crushed and “the people” own everything. (Are you starting to feel uncomfortable?)

Some people believe that job quotas for minority groups promote freedom. But to a person who is truly anti-discriminatory, quotas are a violation of freedom.

Throughout history, men have miscommunicated on this subject. Since conservatives, liberals, fascists, communists — and every other group — all claim to be in favor of freedom, they cannot be talking about the same thing.

The dictionary defines freedom as “being free.” In turn, free is defined as “not under the control or power of another.” How can there be so much confusion over a definition so clearly stated?

Utopian thinkers have always confused freedom with equality. But nothing could be more incorrect. Nature has made freedom and equality totally incompatible. “Freedom and equality,” wrote Will and Ariel Durant, “are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.”

When most people talk about freedom, they tend to think in terms of freedom for themselves. They see freedom as a license to do as they please. Thus, you may be surprised to find that when people espouse freedom, often they are referring to their freedom, not yours. Worse, you are likely to discover that their freedom necessitates the violation of your freedom.

The only way freedom can be rationally viewed is as the freedom for each individual to do as he pleases, so long as he does not commit aggression against anyone else.

Presidential candidates love to talk about freedom, even while telling us how they intend to further limit our freedoms. They do this by manufacturing “rights” out of thin air. The last batch of candidates was especially bold in this respect.

The problem is that all artificially created rights are anti-freedom. Because in order to fulfill one person’s rights, another person’s must be violated.

At the heart of such thinking is what I call GAVEC. (That stands for guiltism, angerism, villainism, envyism, and covetism.) People suffering from GAVEC are usually unable to achieve success in a free society. Thus they yearn for an external force (government) to “level the playing field” and equalize results.

True freedom means freedom for the “poor,” the “rich,” the “handicapped,” the “oppressed,” the “weak,” and the “strong.” Simply put, it means freedom for everyone.

Think about this as the 2010 candidates start to step up their promises to fulfill artificially created rights. Everything in life has a price. And, make no mistake about it, the price of artificially created rights is the exchange of your rights for someone else’s.

Look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Is that what I really want — for me or my children?” I would hope not.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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My “Heisting Hall of Fame Headlines” article recently ran in the American Writers & Artists Inc. Golden Thread newsletter. It got quite a response:

“It is probably the best one I have read in ages.” — W.L.

**

“Excellent. As usual… the king of copywriting teachers offers a gem. More articles by Michael Masterson.”

**

“It taught me a great lesson on headlines. I am currently writing a Web page for a gun dealer. After I read this article I came up with this headline: ‘Under the 2nd amendment you have the right to own a gun.’” — J.R.

**

“Great advice… never hurts to get back to the basics! More stuff like this… breaking down a tool and really making it simple.” — Catherine

**

“Today when I opened my e-mail I thought just for a second about what today’s topic would be. And for the first time since I became a subscriber, the article damned near knocked me out of my chair. I had no idea that what we consider ancient would have such a positive effect on me and the way I normally think.

“WOW!!! And you’d be surprised that I have seen this headline before and never even thought about the underlying effects it has on the reader. I know it opened up my way of thinking and the emotions I felt. And thank you for taking the time to really get down to the nitty gritty of the article.” — J.H.

**

“One of the best issues. Really sparked some ideas that I can apply immediately.”

]]> http://www.earlytorise.com/2009/10/13/reflecting-on-freedom.html/feed 1 http://www.earlytorise.com/2009/09/29/constant-change.html http://www.earlytorise.com/2009/09/29/constant-change.html#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:10:51 +0000 Robert Ringer http://www.earlytorise.com/?p=8915 David Carradine. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. Billy Mays. Karl Malden. Steve McNair. The Grim Reaper is on a roll.

What might the deaths of these high-profile people have in common with the likes of Gary Hart, Gary Condit, Jim McGreevey, Mark Sanford, and John Edwards, among others?

Or how about Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew, and Richard Nixon?

Or G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, Mark Fuhrman, Wayne (Dog) Chapman, and Don King?

Answer: Things change!

We do not live in a static universe. Nor do people or situations remain at a standstill on our little speck of cosmic dust. Mountains erode. Riverbeds dry up. Technology moves forward. The economy fluctuates. Even laws change.

Who could have predicted that the celebrities I listed in the first paragraph of this article would all be gone within a one-month period?Or how their departures would change the lives of those they left behind?

Gary Hart is long gone from the political scene, forsaking his frontrunner position as the Democratic presidential nominee for fun and games with a good looker named Donna Rice. That opened the door for Michael Dukakis to become the party’s nominee in 1988. Things change.

Some 20 years later, John Edwards in Hart’s footsteps with ex-party-gal Lisa Druck (the “director” and “camerawoman” extraordinaire who decided, one day, that it would be cool to transform herself into “Rielle Hunter”). Things change.

Following in Edwards’s footsteps was Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, one of the favorites for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Who benefits? Try Mitt Romney. Things change.

Let’s go back to the 60s…

Following his loss to John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon turned right around and ran for governor of California in 1962 as a sort of consolation prize for his failed presidential bid. Only one problem: He lost! That’s when he delivered his famous “You won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore” speech. Finally, the Nixon era had come to an end. Things change.

Hold it. Not so fast. On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned the nation when he went on national television and, almost casually, said, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” Which cleared the playing field for Bobby Kennedy to grab the Democratic Party’s nomination in 1968. Things change.

But a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the election: Bobby was assassinated. And that, in turn, cleared the playing field for — Yikes, back from the dead! — Richard Nixon. Things change.

Nixon’s election to the presidency led to the rise and fall of Spiro Agnew, Watergate, and a third-stringer named Gerald Ford. Ford lasted only a few years, but just for being an accident of history, he became rich and famous. Who ever said life was supposed to be fair? Things change.

And let’s not forget how Watergate catapulted a whole cast of previously unknown characters onto the national stage — Chuck Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, and John Dean, for example. Colson has become famous for his Prison Fellowship Ministries. Liddy has hosted his own radio show for years. And John Dean still pops up periodically as a television guest and college-campus speaker. Things change.

And where would Oliver North and Mark Fuhrman be today had they not been thrust into the limelight through accidents of history? North’s Iran-Contra conviction was ultimately reversed on a technicality. And Fuhrman, though convicted, never had to do jail time. But these men used their unexpected fame as a launching pad to stardom. Things change.

Of course, they had nothing on Wayne (Dog) Chapman and Don King, both of whom were convicted of murder (though King’s charge was later reduced to manslaughter) and opportunistic enough to use their infamy to become wealthy celebrities. Dog, in fact, is so cunning that he was able to hold on to his celebrity even after being recorded using the dreaded “N” word in a telephone conversation with his son. Things change.

Which brings us to Sarah Palin. From out of nowhere, John McCain picked Palin, a complete unknown, as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. Suddenly, a star was born! Things change.

Then, on the evening of July 3, 2009, Palin did her version of LBJ’s 1968 surprise announcement by informing the world that she was resigning as governor of Alaska. Her inexplicable action registered 8.4 on the political Richter Scale. Following on the heels of Mark Sanford’s demise, Mitt Romney must have felt as though he had won the lottery. Zap! Just like that, most of the competition was gone! Things change.

The list is of epic changes is endless…

In the 1940s, the invention of the modern air conditioner becomes the catalyst for a population explosion in the unbearably hot South and Southwest.

Fifty years ago, cash begins giving way to credit cards. Today, credit cards are giving way to bank debit cards.

Pay phones (remember them?) give way to cellphones.

In 1980, the major television networks are caught off guard by an upstart cable TV station called CNN. Sixteen years later, CNN is overwhelmed by its ideological opposite, Fox News.

In 1995, a kid from Albuquerque puts his Internet bookselling idea into practice, calls it Amazon.com, and ends up dictating the business strategy of Borders and Barnes & Noble for years to come. A few years later, two other kids start a little search-engine company called Google, which becomes the first serious challenge to Microsoft’s overall dominance. Facebook… MySpace… Twitter. What’s next? Things change.

All of the above comprise but a tiny sampling of some of the major changes that have taken place fairly recently. If someone were ambitious enough, he might spend a few years putting together a book — a very large book — on all the major changes that have rocked the world over, say, the past 100 years.

But you don’t need to read such a book to reflect on what change means to you. I’ve given it a lot of thought over the years, and my conclusions boil down to this:

1. Life does not stand still. Count on it. Never carve your plans in stone. Strive to make flexibility an integral part of your being.

2. Rather than fearing change, think of it as an exciting aspect of being alive. Sometimes the unknown disappoints — even devastates — when it makes its appearance. But more often than not, it brings with it incredible opportunities. Practice expanding your mind to be on the alert for the offsetting positive in every negative situation.

3. Fight the numbing effects of homeostasis — the tendency to maintain the status quo. Hanging on to yesterday’s reality is psychologically unhealthy and can cause you to be out of touch with today’s reality. Yesterday is a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a postdated check. But today is cash.

4. Keep moving forward. Action is the oxygen of success. You have to keep hitting those singles and doubles to stay in the game of life. Because if you’re at bat long enough, that perfect pitch eventually will come across the plate. And that’s when you have to be ready to hit it out of the park.

Simplistic. But it works for me.

Just realize that the way you view change will have a dramatic impact on the decisions you make, the quality of your life, and your future success (or failure).

Things change. Think about it.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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More wealth, health, and wisdom from Masterson…

When they’re hot, they’re hot. And I’m talking about buying trends, not supermodels.

Every industry experiences swells of irrational consumer consumption. Irrational in the sense that the buying is bigger and faster than supply and demand fundamentals suggest it should be.

Smart marketers are always on the lookout for such trends. They know they can profit greatly if they get into one early in its cycle. Right now, for example, currency trading is hot among buyers of investment advice. In the natural health market, consumers are gobbling up rejuvenation products.

In the information industry, trends are commonplace. Before one hot idea cools, another one is heating up.

Some information trends last two or three years. Many emerge and recede in just a few months. That’s why it’s so important for your marketing team to be alert to market action. And for your production team to be geared up for speed.

When you identify a swell, test the waters as soon as possible. The fastest way to do that is with a quick-and-dirty, low-priced special report. If that floats, jump on it with a more substantial product and promotion. The goal is to ride the crest until it crashes.

One of my clients developed a system for profiting from short-term information trends. They call it swarming. Simplified, it means getting their best copywriters and editors working together the moment a trend is confirmed.

During the “swarming time,” they produce as many as a dozen products and promotions on the hot topic. And they fractionalize those by testing a variety of prices, product types, and offers. The idea is to attack the opportunity with intensity and conviction. Short-term trends won’t wait for you to move cautiously. Ready-Fire-Aim is the modus operandi.

I dashed off a memo to three of the copywriters I had been mentoring. I congratulated them on the progress they had made, and told them how I’d like to see them working to improve the profitability of their company. As soon as I sent the message, I realized their boss would be upset with me for talking about these things with his people directly. He likes to maintain a high level of control. And he’s built a very successful business that way — a Stage Three business. (By Stage Three, I mean a business that has reached $10 million in annual revenues.) But the business is stalled. To grow it bigger, he needs to let up on the reins and give his people more independence.

As expected, he chastised me for not talking to him first. I apologized for breaking protocol. But then I pointed out, “I find it interesting that your first reaction was to worry about losing control instead of being excited about the progress your people are making.”

In my book Ready, Fire, Aim, I explain that a primary obstacle facing the Stage Three CEO is the need to break up imbedded bureaucracy in the business. You can’t do that if you want to manage everything.

The companies that manufacture aspirin convinced us that it should be taken every day to prevent heart attack. Well, guess what? They’re wrong. Big time.

According to Dr. Al Sears, aspirin has no effect on preventing heart attacks. Or strokes. Even worse, he tells us, a new study by Scottish researchers found that daily aspirin use increases the risk of:

• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Stroke
• Major abdominal bleeding
• Ulcers
• Cataracts
• Pancreatic cancer
• Kidney failure

Fortunately, there are natural alternatives. White willow bark, for instance, has been around for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians took advantage of its anti-inflammatory power. And Hippocrates, the father of medicine, had his patients chew it to reduce fever.

Consider the wisdom of our ancestors before taking your next aspirin.

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Then there’s Sarah Palin’s daughter, who got pregnant by an 18-year-old punk who not only backed out of marrying her, but decided it would be real classy to go on national television and tell tales about the Palin family.

These stories of celebrities’ kids screwing up go on nonstop. And they remind all but the luckiest of parents that one of the not-so-fun aspects of having children is that they all too often don’t take into consideration how the results of their actions might impact their families.

Which brings me to my 20-year-old son. A few months ago, he was in an automobile accident and nearly totaled both his car and that of the other driver. It was nighttime, and the black car in front of him had run out of gas and come to a stop in the right-hand lane. The driver said he had his emergency lights on, but my son – perhaps due to a momentary lack of concentration – thought the car was moving.

In any event, he looked over his left shoulder to make sure he could switch lanes, and, as he looked forward again, the right front of his car slammed into the left rear of the immobilized black car in front of him. Though my son was going under the 40-mile-per-hour speed limit, the impact was great enough to trigger his airbag and spin his car around several times.

Of course, you’re always at fault when you hit a car from behind. However, considering the circumstances (black car… nighttime… the other car out of gas and stopped in the road… and my son driving under the speed limit), it didn’t seem necessary for the police officer to charge him with reckless driving. But that’s what he did.

A reckless driving conviction can bring a very stiff fine, the suspension of one’s driver’s license, and, in extreme cases, jail time. But, thankfully, no one was injured. And the other driver was a sympathetic gentleman who was just happy that his wife and small daughter were okay. He even called our house later that evening to see how my son was doing.

As with all negative occurrences in life, a lot of good came out of this one. During a recent conversation I had with my son, he told me that he couldn’t believe how much he had learned from the experience.

When I asked him to elaborate, the first thing he said was that it made him realize how easy it is to have a serious automobile accident. He emphasized how much more careful and alert he intended to be in the future.

He also said he had never imagined how involved being in an accident could be – dealing with insurance companies, finding an auto-repair shop, coming up with the $500 deductible for his share of the $10,000 repair bill, finding an attorney and coming up with the money to pay his fee, going to the DMV to get a copy of his driving record for the attorney, making two court appearances, and, above all, the stress of waiting for both his first and second court dates.

Best of all from my perspective is that he said it made him realize what a major effect his actions could have on others – especially his family. Kids normally learn this simple truth the hard way, over a long period of time. But we adults have no excuse. We should already know that virtually everything we do impacts others, particularly those closest to us.

Which is all the more reason why we should think doubly hard about the consequences of our actions ahead of time. As I told my son, it’s a heck of a lot easier to avoid a serious mistake than to repair the damage caused by one.

In my article “Learning from Saddam,” I said that it’s a good idea to learn to “look backward from the future.” By that I meant that you should make it a habit to picture the possible consequences of your actions before acting. There’s not a person reading (or writing) this article whose family wouldn’t be better off had he/she always applied that rule.

Of course, your perception of reality is a critical factor in all this. If you delude yourself about the odds and the possible consequences of your actions, looking backward from the future is an exercise in futility.

But having an accurate perception of reality is another subject for another day. Right now, a good start is just to think about the efficacy of the “looking backward from the future” principle – and start teaching it to your young children.

What if your children are already in their teens or early twenties, you ask? Answer: Good luck.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

Comment on this article

So what, exactly, is an “impossible situation”? More specifically, what does “impossible” really mean? Is it impossible to make a mountain move simply by having faith? That’s quite a challenge. If anyone could do it, it would probably be that Star Wars guy, Yoda. But I don’t know of any real person who’s mastered such extraordinary mind power.

Is it impossible to get the man or woman of your dreams to love you if he/she is already in love with – and maybe married to – someone else? (Shades of Dudley Moore in the classic 1979 movie 10.) Not quite like moving a mountain, but perhaps a close second.

Terminal cancer? The subject of miraculous healing is a surefire invitation to a heated debate. Many of us have known people who were told they had terminal cancer, yet survived and lived to enjoy many more healthy years. Have all of those cases been flukes?

All of which raises the question: When the seemingly impossible happens, is it God, luck, coincidence, or something else that is responsible?

God can presumably do anything, but God also helps those who “help themselves” – meaning those who take action.

As for luck – well, that’s pretty much random.

Sometimes we witness the impossible and refer to it as a coincidence. But I’m not sure there is such a thing as coincidence. Most of the coincidences I’ve experienced have been a result of actions previously taken.

Which leads me to the “something else” – that great metaphysical abstraction we refer to as human will.

The will to accomplish something – be it winning a sporting event or moving a mountain – manifests itself in something we call attitude.

Viktor Frankl was perhaps the most famous of all Holocaust survivors. He lost his mother, father, brother, and wife in Nazi concentration camps. Years later, he wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Okay, so Frankl had an amazing attitude under seemingly impossible circumstances. But wasn’t he lucky as well? Absolutely. I’m sure Frankl would have been the first to admit that he was a very lucky man, but he also was convinced that he could not have survived Auschwitz and Dachau had he not chosen to find positive meaning in his life.

Let’s consider the three possibilities you would have had if, like Viktor Frankl in the 1940s, you found yourself in a Nazi concentration camp.

Possibility No. 1: If you had a great attitude concerning the dire straits you were in, you still may not have survived without a good deal of luck.

Possibility No. 2: If you harbored an attitude of total despair, you surely would have been doomed, even if you had been fairly lucky.

Possibility No. 3: But if you had a positive attitude coupled with good luck, you would have had a shot at surviving. This, I believe, is what Frankl was getting at when he said that choosing one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances is the last of the human freedoms.

In all likelihood, then, the impossible dream is not impossible at all, at least theoretically. In my lifetime, I have been in far too many impossible situations that mysteriously became possible.

Meeting my wife was impossible. (Too long of a story to go into here.) My son coming into this world rather than dying at birth, as he almost certainly should have, was impossible.

For that matter, when I get up every morning and behold my little speck of the universe, it occurs to me that both the universe and my consciousness are complete impossibilities. Surely I am the most improbable collection of atoms in existence.

Whatever it is that arranged my atoms in such a way that I can reflect on my own existence, does it not seem reasonable that the same Whatever can make a brain tumor disappear? Or bring the perfect spouse into the loneliest of lives? Or cure a person with financial leprosy and guide him to great wealth?

I believe the answer is yes. And for me, that Whatever is the Eternal Energy of the universe.

Luck and coincidence are interesting abstractions, but a more meaningful abstraction is human will – the will to have power, the will to have money, the will to live. When you exercise your freedom to tap into the Eternal Energy of the universe, your life is not at the mercy of luck or coincidences. And though we may not understand it, it is that connection that allows us to go beyond dreaming the impossible dream – and actually live it.

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos. And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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“This brief company history may leave the impression that our experience has been one of ever-improving results, with one success after another, each building on the one before. Nothing could be further from the truth. Progress, whether in business, an economy, or science, comes through experimentation and failure. Given that a market economy is an experimental discovery process, business failures are inevitable and any attempt to eliminate them only insures overall failure. The key is to recognize when we are experimenting and limit the bet accordingly.”

Now let me tell you why you should think long and hard about the above words: They were written by a man who has built his business into the largest and most profitable privately held company in America. Koch Industries, which most people have never even heard of, has annual revenues of $90 billion – greater than those of Microsoft and Bank of America!

I suppose I was one of those people who assumed that a giant such as Koch Industries had experienced nothing but success, with each success “building on the one before.” After all, how many failures can you possibly have on your way to building a company with $90 billion in revenues?

Answer: Plenty. In his book The Science of Success, Charles Kochdescribes one misstep after another that he and his team have made over the past 40 years, mistakes that cost his company tens of millions of dollars. But mistakes and losses are part and parcel of the free-market, entrepreneurial model upon which Koch Industries has been built.

This entrepreneurial model requires Koch Industries to go into each new venture as an experiment. If the experiment seems to be working, the company increases its bet as it goes along. If it isn’t working, it cuts its losses and moves on.

Translation: Failure is not a bad thing. Failure is a good thing, so long as it doesn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Failure is, in fact, the Supreme Teacher, and action is the matriculation fee that allows you to enroll in the Supreme Teacher’s class.

Michael Masterson calls this the principle of accelerated failure. “To develop any complex skill,” he says, “you must be willing to make mistakes and endure failures. The faster you can make those mistakes and suffer those failures, the quicker you will master the skill.”

He goes on to say that you should be “happy and even eager to try and fail until you finally succeed.”

That reminds me of something basketball great Michael Jordan once said: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”

Most people harbor such a fear of failure that they can’t bring themselves to supply the action needed to participate in the class. There can be many reasons for this fear, and one that I believe plays a more prominent role than most people might suspect is the stigma attached to failure.Society tends to treat failure with disdain, and most people fear being frowned upon by the straight-and-narrow types who make up the bulk of the populace.

I doubt that one in a hundred people believes that “business failures are inevitable and any attempt to eliminate them only insures overall failure.” But these are not the words of a Harvard Business School professor. They were written by a 40-year veteran of the Entrepreneurial Wars who sits at the top of the food chain.

Charles Koch is not telling us that we might fail. He’s telling us that we must fail. And that if we try to eliminate failure, we are guaranteed to experience overall failure – as in long-term failure. In other words, the only way to totally eliminate failure is to do nothing, which, paradoxically, guarantees a failed life.

The next time you feel a fear of failure coming over you, remember the words of Charles Koch and don’t allow the potential stigma of failure to intimidate you. When Charles Koch talks, wise people listen. I mean, how wrong can a guy worth $14 billion be?

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.

And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to Robert Ringer's one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.] ]

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We all desire love, understanding, and recognition, but those things aren’t foundational to serenity. The antidote to stress can’t be found through alcohol, pills, sexual pleasure, fame, or wealth either. Millions have tried without conquering their stress, and all too many have lived unnecessarily short lives as a result.

The real key to conquering stress is self-examination – continual, honest self-examination.

Inner conflict causes stress. By contrast, leading a concentric life (i.e., one in which what you do matches up closely with what you believe in and what you say) brings harmony into your world. Harmony is directly related to how often you follow through and do what you know is right. Likewise, harmony is related to how often you demonstrate the self-discipline to refrain from doing that which you know is wrong.

Here are some things to think about that will help you develop the mindset to overcome the stress in your life:

Don’t try to make the world bend to your will.

Trying to get everyone to do things your way goes beyond stress. It’s a frustrating, hopeless exercise that can drive a person mad. I know one wealthy individual, in particular, who long ago lost his ability to think rationally because of his frustration over not being able to force everyone around him to conform to his wishes.

One of the rules of being a good delegator is to tell people precisely what you want them to do, then let them do it their way. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said that a good executive is someone who, when handed a letter that he knows he could have written better, signs it anyway.

This is an area where you have to be careful, even when dealing with your own children. While it’s the parents’ responsibility to teach and guide their children, wise parents learn early on that their children cannot and will not do everything exactly as their parents want them to. The reality is that your children are different human beings than you are, so it would be unnatural for them to mirror you 100 percent of the time.

Recognize that for every negative, there’s an offsetting positive.

I often refer to a principle that I call the Natural Law of Balance. In pointing out that the universe is in balance, I use such examples as electrons and protons, night and day, male and female, hot and cold, and life and death. The reality is that for every positive, there’s an offsetting negative, and for every negative, there’s an offsetting positive. Balance is the natural order of the universe.

The nice thing about it is that when you understand and believe in universal balance, you automatically look for the offsetting positive in every negative situation. Put another way, think of every negative occurrence as nothing more than an illusion hiding something of value to you. As Richard Bach so eloquently put it in his book Illusions,“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.”

Control anger and bitterness.

It’s worth repeating Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous words: “For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.” The late Jim Blanchard was a great teacher for me in this respect. Jim was one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever known. A paraplegic from the age of 18, he not only built a fortune while working from a wheelchair, he traveled the world extensively and did almost everything “normal” people do – and more.

Jim once told me about a guy who had shafted him out of a lot of money. I asked how he could be so calm about it, and I’ll never forget his response: “I’ve found that it’s disarming to just smile, be polite, and act as though nothing is wrong. Not only do you avoid making enemies by handling things in this manner, you also save yourself a ton of aggravation. All you need to do is avoid having business dealings with that person in the future. And to the extent you are cordial, he’ll probably even sing your praises to everyone – which means you win all the way around.”

I admit that Jim was special when it came to handling people, but his words help me to this day. Whenever I become angry, I give myself time to cool off before saying or doing something I might later regret. For example, if I impulsively write a quick letter in a heated state of mind, I let it sit for a day or two before mailing it. It’s amazing how much of the angry edge you can take off a letter by editing it a couple of days after you wrote it.

One last thing worth thinking about when it comes to achieving peace of mind. In his book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra says that worrying about stress is more damaging than stress itself. Which brings me back to something I said in my last ETR article on this subject: It is not events that shape your world. It is your thought processes.
When you learn to control your thoughts, you establish the boundaries of negative influences upon your life. Remember, no matter how long a list of stress inhibitors you compile, your mental state will always be the most important factor when it comes to achieving peace of mind.
[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.
And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to Robert Ringer's one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World. ]

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As you can see from the examples above – all of them posted on various websites – although the Internet has become the most popular source of information these days, it’s full of wrong information. Sometimes it’s an innocent retelling of myth. In other cases, the people behind it are out to spread malicious lies to further their agendas.

In either case, you must check your sources before you rush to include anything that comes up in a Google search in your next e-zine article, term paper, or blog.

To guard against republishing fiction as fact, ask yourself: ”What sources of information are guiding my actions? Have I checked the facts, or am I simply relying on the word of others? Above all, have I applied common sense to this situation, or am I acting impulsively?”

Lazy thinking leads to the acceptance of fiction as fact. Our modern world is so saturated with fiction transformed into fact through the phenomenon of gradualism (where a lie is repeated so many times it gradually gains currency) that even the most alert and rational among us can be fooled. This is just one reason why the search for truth is a lifetime

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.

And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to his one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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All of this came to mind yet again when I recently read a book written nearly a hundred years ago. The book, The Human Machine by Arnold Bennett, admittedly is not written in a reader-friendly style. But Bennett’s approach to understanding why people tend to look outside themselves – to others or to “uncontrollable” circumstances – for the source of their problems is quite clever.

By the “Human Machine,” Bennett was referring to the part of a person that consists of brain and muscle.

Researchers of late have been frantically trying to show that abstracts such as the ego and the soul are nothing more than physical aspects of the brain. Their objective is to move the ego and soul out from under the umbrella of metaphysics and fit them neatly into the Human Machine.

The brain intellectualizes, conceptualizes, and gives orders to the muscles. It has the power to override instincts. But the brain and the ego are not the same thing. Bennett believed that “your brain is the servant of the ego” - i.e., that you have the power to control your thoughts.

It was of great interest to me that a hundred years ago Arnold Bennett was addressing many of the same issues I have been writing about over the past three decades – for example, reality versus the perception of reality.

Bennett cautioned readers not to base their actions “on the workings of an ideal universe,” and instead to “base them on this universe.” In my book Looking Out for #1, I discussed this point at length under the moniker of the “Is’s versus Ought-to’s Theory,” which states: The degree of complications in a person’s life corresponds to the degree to which he dwells on the way he thinks the world ought to be rather than the way it really is.

In other words, reality is what it is, and it’s up to us to discover it. Our perception of reality may or may not have any connection to reality itself.While all this may sound obvious, each and every one of us is guilty, at one time or another, of confusing reality with the perception of reality.

We often go to great lengths to convince ourselves of our innocence. But the truth of the matter is that, in the vast majority of cases, our bad outcomes can be traced to our own actions – or lack of action.

Those who don’t get this become unconscious participants in the Blame Game, in which they blame events, conditions, or other individuals for their bad results. It’s a dangerous game to play, because it can become an excuse for failure.

What I’m talking about here is a psychological delusion known as transference. When you insist that something is not your fault, what you are unwittingly saying is that you cannot change your situation because you have no control over it.

The most common targets of transference are the droves of dreadful people who continually cross our paths – the liars, the self-righteous, the rude, the petty, and, worst of all, the hypocrites. After all, aren’t they at fault for any friction that interferes with the way our Human Machines perform?

The answer is no! We would like those people to be at fault, but they are not. They merely provide us with an excuse for the bad results of our own faulty judgment.

Even when you suffer as a result of someone else’s bad behavior, you do yourself no favor by blaming your pain on that person. There is a difference between engaging in transference (blame) and trying to analyze the reason you incurred the problem.

There is always a reason for a bad consequence, but a reason is far different from an excuse. An excuse is nothing but a clever way to escape accountability. The fact that someone was dishonest with you could be a legitimate reason why you were harmed, but it is not a valid excuse for abusing your own Machine.

What I mean by this is that if you allow someone else’s malfunctioning Machine to “bug” you, if you focus on retribution against the owner of that malfunctioning Machine, you – not he – create an enormous amount of friction in your Machine. Why? Because you are the master of your thoughts, and it is your thoughts that either abuse your Machine or keep it operating smoothly.

The reason you are the master of your thoughts is because they are formulated in your mind, and no one can enter your mind and wreak havoc without your permission. Which means that no human being can force you to be upset… to complain… to be angry. Anger is a debilitating mindset, because it separates a person from his common sense and dignity. When anger is out of control, anarchy reigns in your head.

But even when we’re not angry with someone else, we often cause friction in our own Machines by making the mistake of trying to control others. Bennett gave excellent advice regarding this mistake when he pointed out that we are not in charge of the universe; we are in charge of ourselves.

Remember this the next time you think about meddling in someone else’s Machine. Learn to leave things alone that are none of your business. As Bennett put it, the art of peaceful living lies in “keeping the peace, the whole peace, and nothing but the peace with those in your life.”

A good motto to live by is that when there is friction in your Human Machine, the fault always lies within. When all is said and done, the only thing you can really control is your own mind. Which is no small task. Work at becoming adept at it, and you will be amazed by how smoothly your Machine functions. 

[Ed. Note: To learn how to survive and prosper during the turbulent years ahead, check out Robert Ringer's powerful audio series Succeeding in a World of Chaos.

And be sure to sign up for a FREE subscription to Robert Ringer's one-of-a-kind e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World.]

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