Who’s to Blame for the Current Economy?
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2643
- WEALTHY: Why I don’t spend time on “tax-saving strategies” (Michael Masterson)
- HEALTHY: The 5-step metabolism makeover (Matt Furey)
- WISE: Albert Ellis on the best years of your life
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The only thing you can really control (Robert Ringer)
- How to get an e-newsletter to publish your article (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Good to Know… about satellites colliding
- Add “tautological” to your vocabulary
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A Few Words About Taxes…
I don’t spend much time thinking, talking, or writing about tax-saving strategies. The reason is twofold:
1. Despite what you may have been led to believe, there are no significant tax loopholes for wealthy people. Except for the regular benefits you get from having your own corporation, high-income earners have to pay their 40 percent taxes or go to jail.
2. Even if there were any tax shelters left, they aren’t worth the time and trouble required to get into them. Everyone I know who has been involved in a tax shelter or some tax-avoidance scheme eventually has regretted it. If you want to pay less tax you’ll have to earn less income. As long as Uncle Sam is leaving you enough money to become financially independent, it doesn’t pay to work yourself up over taxes.
[Ed. Note: The above article was adapted from Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence, published with permission from John Wiley & Sons. Get your copy today.]
”The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”
Albert Ellis
The Human Machine
For the great thinkers of the world whose job it is to make sense out of life – from Plato to Will Durant… from Epictetus to the Dalai Lama… from Montaigne to Eric Hoffer – the foundational rules never change. The universal principles of human nature are constants. And in a world of chaos and madness, that’s nice to know.
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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Build Your E-Mail List With the Relevancy Principle
“Dear ETR, I was wondering if you accept articles for your newsletter?”
I get e-mails like this on a weekly basis. And I applaud the senders for their initiative. Since ETR has over 450,000 subscribers, it is a good marketing strategy to get your name and ideas – and a link to your website – into our newsletter.
If you have an Internet business, you, too, should be looking for reliable methods of generating traffic to your site and growing your e-mail list. Publishing articles in other people’s e-newsletters is an easy, free way to do both.
But a word of caution: You must adhere to what I call the “relevancy principle.”
You see, you can’t just write any old article, send it to an e-newsletter, and expect it to be published. (All too often, I get submissions like these for ETR, and I have to turn them away.)
First, of course, you need to ask if the publisher is looking for submissions. Next, you should ask for contributor guidelines so you know exactly what the publisher is looking for. Plus, you should read the newsletter you are submitting to. That way, you’ll be familiar with its style and content.
But most important, you need to make sure that you, your business, and your article complement the newsletter.
For instance, if you run a home improvement company, you probably wouldn’t be a good “fit” for an e-newsletter about mutual funds. You’d do better to send articles to newsletters that target real estate investors, new homeowners, or even recently single women.
Abiding by the relevancy principle can help you in two ways. First, it’s more likely that a newsletter publisher will accept your articles. She wants to send relevant, useful information to her readers… so you’ve just made her job easier. Second, you’ll make a stronger connection with her readers – and attract people to your site who are already interested in what your business is all about.
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Big Fat Fitness Lies
By Matt Furey
Hold it. You may be exercising and eating all wrong.
You may have been led to believe a lot of very stupid and untrue things about what
it takes to get fit. Things like:
• Running several miles per day is the key to getting fit.
• Doing a ton of long, slow distance (LSD) is absolutely necessary.
• Lifting the heaviest weights you possibly can will turn you into a human fireplug.
• Eating five or six times per day cranks up your metabolism.
• Training one part of your body today and another part tomorrow prevents overtraining.
• Working out only 2-3 times per week is the fastest way to make progress.
My friend, there are pieces of truth in all these lies. For example:
Long, slow cardio may make you feel good – but if you want to “STEP UP” your metabolism, you’re far better off doing a very hard, very vigorous workout that calls upon all your physical and mental reserves. You’re better off with a short workout that will never get easy – no matter how often you do it.
Consider the sprinter. His body is lean, muscular, and powerful. But it is rare to find a long-distance cardio person who is well muscled. He may be lean, but there’s no power. Not only that, but after a period of time he may end up suffering from hip, knee, ankle, and lower-back pain.
Why? All the pounding on the joints. It takes a tremendous toll on the body.
Instead of the long, slow, dull approach to fitness, consider the following five ways to a Metabolism Makeover.
1. Begin doing vigorous full-body bodyweight exercises that force you to lose control of your breathing. If you aren’t getting out of breath when you train, your system is NOT being forced to adapt and change. The harder you are breathing, the more shock to the system. The more “shock” there is, the greater the shake-up in your metabolism.
2. Instead of running or bicycling several miles per day for cardio exercise, train like a cheetah. Run as hard as you can, at full blast, for as long as you can. Run with all your might. When finished, you’ll be gasping for oxygen. And this gasping is what turns on the fat-burning furnace within.
3. Practice deep breathing. The deeper you breathe, the more oxygen in your system. The more oxygen in your system, the faster your metabolism. Don’t just get your deep breathing from vigorous exercise. Get if from the act of deep breathing itself – done all day long.
4. Eat plenty of fiber-rich, water-content foods while avoiding starchy foods most of the time.
5. Change the mental picture you have of yourself. As you see yourself in your mind’s eye, so you become.
Follow this approach to getting fit fast and you’ll catch the eyes of everyone when you walk down the street. Others will instantly sense that something is different about you. And you’ll know why.
[Ed. Note: Matt Furey - a national collegiate wrestling champion (1985) and a world shuai-chiao kung fu champion (1997) - is the author of the international bestsellers Combat Conditioning, Combat Abs, and Gama Fitness. Discover how you can increase your strength, endurance, and flexibility without lifting weights or long-distance running right here.
For unbiased information on critical men's and women's health issues... the latest breakthroughs in alternative medicine, fitness, and nutrition... as well as motivational guidance to help you achieve your goals, sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter.]
It’s Good to Know: The Sky Is Falling! But the Military Is Here to Help
There are about 800 satellites in space above Earth as we speak. It’s crowded. And occasionally, two of those spacecraft collide, disrupting commercial and/or military communications, global positioning systems (GPS), or whatever else the satellite was put up there to do.
The U.S. Air Force Space Command keeps tabs on 300 of them. And now they are moving to register all 800 so they can tell satellite owners when a collision is imminent and steps can be taken to maneuver them out of the way.
Of course, there are complications. Satellite owners, which include private companies and foreign governments, would have to reveal sensitive data. And because the military fears liability issues, they would also have to sign agreements freeing the U.S. from legal action if a repositioned satellite is damaged.
They hope to sort all this out by October 1.
(Source: Reuters)
== Highly Recommended ==
6 Steps to Success in 2009
When a toddler is first learning how to walk she starts with a series of small steps.
It’s scary at first. Holding onto tables, chairs and anything else within reach, she hesitantly moves forward.
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Word to the Wise: Tautological
“Tautological” (tawt-l-OJ-ih-kul) – from the Greek for “repeating what has been said” – means unnecessarily or uselessly repetitive.
Example (as used by Joyce Carol Oates in The New York Times): “Perhaps the very term novel of ideas is tautological, for what novel is barren of ideas, unshaped by ideas?”
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Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
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