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I own a philosophy company. Just a little over a year ago I was a General Manager of a large automotive dealership. Today I talk to people about philosophy, rather than cars or the automotive business. Some people thought I was crazy to give up a good job and open a philosophy company, and for that matter not many people have heard of a philosophy company before. Some people still think I’m crazy, and I call them Dream Killers, but more on that later.
Philosophers generally don’t agree on very much, because each philosopher promotes his or her own thought. Sometimes we examine large issues, such as existence, or little issues like what is the meaning of “is.”
A large majority of philosophers agree that there are four major disciplines in philosophy: logic, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology.
We all know what logic is - it is when you need a big screen TV and your spouse says you don’t, and so in order to get along you accept your spouse’s logic, even though it may be Super Bowl time.
Ethics is doing the right thing, whatever that may be. We have been arguing for centuries about what is the right thing and how we can do it. Saint Paul lamented in the first century that he did not understand himself, for he wanted to do what was right, but instead would do what he knew was wrong. If a Saint can’t do what he thinks is right, what chance do we mere mortals have?
Metaphysics is about what we don’t know, that we may still believe. One of the first metaphysical problems that we encounter is, does Santa Claus exist? I have a 5 year old, and I know that Santa does exist.
And epistemology is the difference between knowing and believing- my wife knows that Chance is our son; I just have to believe it.
Jacques Derrida, who died this year, was the father of “deconstructionism.” He read past philosophers’ writings, deconstructed the language, and quite simply said that what the philosophers were saying could be that they said just the opposite. Derrida is in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Who isn’t in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy? Napoleon Hill, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, Dale Carnegie, Lou Tice, Dr. William Glasser. These modern philosophers focus on personal achievement.
Deconstructionism is in the Encyclopedia, but not the philosophy of personal achievement. The philosophy of personal achievement is not considered to many to be a philosophy. Yet I think it is the most important part of philosophy.
What is the definition of philosophy? Of course philosophers argue over definitions of words; that is part of their job. Some would say perhaps that philosophy is the love of wisdom. I would say that philosophy is the why and how we live our lives. And the why and how we live our lives is very important to everyone reading this.
What is important to you? Your personal achievement? The accomplishment of things that are important to you?
As an example, the people at the Maple Counseling Center in Beverly Hills are professionals that have dedicated their lives so that others may have a better life.
Their philosophy is to help others that cannot afford treatment. Their success is the accomplishment of that goal along with other programs that help people live full lives. I know that they are very proud of their accomplishments and I am very proud to be associated with them.
So now I own a philosophy company, and the philosophy that I talk about is the philosophy of personal achievement, and why it is so important in our lives.
Believing in Yourself is a Choice
A person I know that is in the education business had a company survey 1000 children from the age of kindergarten to 3rd grade from Florida to California. They asked the question, “are you a good person,” and 65% of the children said no. These children were not inner city kids, but kids from the suburbs and “better environments”.
LuNel is a volunteer for the Community Circle program here in Beverly Hills. She asked the 3rd grade some time ago “do you feel good about yourself,” and 75% did not feel good about themselves.
And why did these children not feel good about themselves? It could be that they took a toy when they were smaller and did not give it back, or maybe they fought with their siblings. Small things that we as adults would probably dismiss as not life altering, yet to these children it was and continued to be a bad thing in their life, and they thought of themselves as not good.
Last week I was privileged enough to be able to go to an elementary school with LuNel and got to sit in on what I would consider a very important program in the schools: Community Circle.
I got to ask the 2nd grade, “do you feel good about yourself,” and we went around the room passing the teddy bear, each answering the question. We all said yes, until we got to the last two boys- one hemmed and hawed, and the last little boy said no.
This started a backlash of “well, maybe I don’t feel so good about myself,” “my brother beat me up,” “I beat up my sister,” “I took my brother’s things,” “someone was a bully to me,” “maybe I was a bully to someone else”. All of a sudden we had a backlash that I am sure the teacher wanted to avoid, since when we went around the room to begin with the teacher prompted a few, “just say yes.” I thought the slogan was, “just say no.”
My point is that I believe that this and other programs are essential for our children. They can hold on to a notion that they are not good, or they are not okay into adult life if no one shares with them that these are normal feelings and that you have choices in your life.
I have read case studies where people have a self-image or a mental model of themselves that is decades old, and they should have grown out of the self-image or mental model that they now have but they don’t. In most cases they don’t even know that it is just their choice to change what they think about themselves.
I believe personal achievement philosophy is important to all of us- not just as young people, but also as we grow older.
I went to school and studied philosophy, and I was fascinated with the philosophy of personal achievement. I have found that bringing together many concepts into what we call the Four Dynamics makes a huge difference in one’s life, and talking about personal achievement can make a difference in everyone’s life.
I believe that people are naturally goal-orientated in life. I know we have all heard of the person that reaches their goal, like retirement, and then dies. We are all motivated to a certain extent. What we do with that motivation is what makes the difference.
I talk about something called the Four Dynamics, which are powerful forces that move us forward in life. Many people don’t even realize that they use them for success.
The Four Dynamics are Choice/Change, Attitude/Risk, Self-Image/Mental Models, and Eliminating Failure and Increasing Success through the development of character, values and goals.
The base that the Four Dynamics is set on is our ability to: do, be, understand, develop and gain education.
Now, I cannot thoroughly explain Success Philosophy in this short a time other to say that it can help you live life the way you want to. But if you click here you can read more about it.
Take myself- I am over 50, which means I have some chronological credibility. I am doing what I want. I have just released a new book, I have a radio show, and everyone told me there was no way was I ever going to get a radio show in the largest radio market in the world with no experience. We have DVDs and CDs that we have produced to help people get more out of life. And we have other lofty goals to accomplish.
You can also achieve things that you want. You are never too old, never not smart enough. As a matter of fact, you can do anything you want to if you will start with just one thing: believe in yourself.
How many of you every day try to restore belief in someone’s self?
Fighting the Dream Killers- No Matter Who They Are
Let me share with you a story about myself as an example of how we can trap ourselves in our minds.
When I was 12 years old I went to Boy Scout camp for the first time. My Mom and Dad loaded me up into the station wagon and drove me to Camp Topenebee in Michigan City about 12 miles away. We drove up on a Sunday afternoon, and Mom and Dad were going to pick me up on Saturday afternoon the next week.
The first day that we got there I was totally excited about going to camp. The counselors gathered everyone around and gave everybody an orientation as to what was going to happen that week. They explained everything and then at the end told us about “the mile swim.” At 6 am on the Saturday that we leave, everyone who wants to goes to the lake and swims a mile. You get a merit badge for that, and after the swim they have a big pancake breakfast and then everyone gets ready to go home.
Well, I didn’t think about the swim again for a day, when all of a sudden some of the kids started to bring it up. “Are you going to swim the mile?” I really hadn’t thought about it, and then the stories started. “You know the last year someone drowned.” “The year before that two kids never made it out of the lake, something must have grabbed them and pulled them down”.
Then they started on the kids that haven’t been at camp before. “Are you going to swim the mile? You probably won’t make it, you will never see your Mother or Father again”.
Now, I don’t know how many of you know the lakes in northern Indiana and the surrounding areas, but it is not like Tahiti where you can look down and see the bottom. The lakes are murky at best, many with lily pads and other growths from the bottom to the top. Most lakes have leaches, and it is not uncommon to come out of the water and have a leach on you.
I don’t know if you have ever swum a mile, but it takes about an hour if you are an average 12-year-old swimmer. So you are in the lake, with the muck, the leaches, and things floating around you.
So on about Wednesday the kids start: “Are you swimming the mile?” And I think to myself, “If I don’t swim the mile the kids are going to make fun of me and I’ll be considered a wimp. On the other hand if I swim the mile I probably will die”.
So it starts and ends every night, “Swimming the mile?” I am thinking to myself, “If I don’t I will be the laughingstock of everyone”. By Friday night I am thinking “Dear God, go ahead and take my life now, it’s been pretty good up to now, and instead of dying in the lake you can just go ahead and take me now”.
I am petrified of the morning light that will soon be coming. And then it happens. The counselors came in at 5.30am and yell for everyone to get up who is going to swim the mile. Everyone gets up, puts on their bathing suit and wraps a towel around themself, and goes down to the lake.
I remember that it was cold that morning, and the towel wasn’t very big or warm. As a matter of fact it was pretty thin and my teeth were chattering.
The counselors were in canoes and rowboats and had marked out the lake with buoys so that they knew where the mile was to be swum (So that if the lake didn’t get you, someone with an oar or paddle probably would).
I was one of the last in the water, which was freezing, and I started to swim. I swam and swam, the water heated up, I heated up and my arms and legs started to feel like cement. I was ready to give up and then heard someone screaming. At first I thought someone was dying, and then I realized that they were saying my name. I pulled my head out of the water and realized that I was close to the end of the swim and the pier was only a little ways away, I pushed forward and made it to the pier and was pulled up by two counselors.
I couldn’t move. My legs didn’t work, and I just sat there on the pier wanting to throw up- but the good news was that there wasn’t anything in my stomach. After about 15 minutes I gained my strength and walked back to the camp where I took a shower (no leaches!), got dressed and walked to the pancake breakfast.
When I got to the breakfast there were all of my friends eating and laughing, and now I know I am about ready to get it: “Jones you are so slow, where have you been? You are the last one in, you are a loser”.
So as I approached the table I feel ashamed of myself, thinking I’m slow, I’m last, I’m going to get mocked and made fun of, when one of the boys said, “Where have you been?”
I replied, “I just finished swimming the mile.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Jones, you swam the mile?”
“Yes.”
“We can’t take you anywhere, you swam the mile?”
“Yes, didn’t all of you?”
“No, we didn’t swim the mile, we had the counselors pull us out after the first buoy we came to and came back here. It was too cold and the mile is too far to swim.”
I was stunned. Here I am thinking the worst for over half the time that I am at camp, and these boys robbed me of half of my week and fun. Or was it that I robbed myself because I listened to them. I was my own dream killer, with all the kids around me helping me to kill my dreams of a good time at camp. Instead of having a good time, I was worried about the future. I was worried that I couldn’t be like the rest of the boys. I lost most of my week at camp and now here they were: the real losers and I had thought I would be a loser.
I went for the moon to try to swim the mile, not knowing that everyone else wasn’t even going to take off. I was afraid that if I didn’t go for it, everyone would make fun of me, that I wasn’t good enough. I kept telling myself that I was chicken and afraid, and that I was not strong enough and not able to swim, and that the worst was going to happen- but if I didn’t try it would be worse with people ridiculing me and making fun of me. And I didn’t want to be alive.
My weeks of dreaming about going to camp for the first time were dashed, and I spent days worrying about something that didn’t make any difference. I just didn’t know.
What if I had known about dream killers? What if I had known that I had the power to choose and change my life? What if I knew that I could talk to myself and say nice things and tell myself that it doesn’t make any difference what anyone else thinks? What if I knew that I could decide to be positive with myself and achieve my own successes? What if we can put possible failure out of our mind and instead fill it with successes? Who knew?
May I leave you with this quote for you from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, “If you shoot for the moon and don’t make it, at least you will be among the stars.”
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