When we speak of emotions we have to understand them in two levels. The most obvious level is when emotions all come triggered by visible and detectable causes.

At this time there is a clear change in our thoughts and body feelings. Then we identify the emotion we are feeling and chose the response behavior.

For example, when I'm angry because the car before mine run very slowly I may:

1. Scream my head off to the driver and wait for the next red light stop to get out of my car and scream even more.
2. Criticize all the bad drivers who do not drive fast enough.
3. Put on good music on the radio and calm down and breathe quietly putting on a plastic smile.
4. Change my way and go to speed up.
5. Try to overtake the car in a more or less dangerous way, and so on.

For each emotion that is triggered by an external situation there is an infinite range of possible reactions, each reaction will have a different impact on what is going to happen (if I knock the driver, the impact is different than if I stay fresh and smiling) .

This is the same for internal triggers. For example, when I am anticipating a stressful situation (a job interview, for example), I feel anxiety, fear, or even a form of panic before the time of the interview, though at this moment I may be having coffee with my sweetie.

This is an anticipation mechanism. Again, from this knowledge you may have very different reactions to adapt yourself to the new challenge: putting things in the right perspective, prepare yourself and practice, seek a coach for training or read books on job interviews.

Deepest emotions

Image courtesy of: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is it going to change the way we live and the way we handle each of these emotions?

There are many factors involved, but a very important one is background emotions. In some ways this is the emotional base of our well being.

We are not aware of these background emotions because the intensity of the emotion is low or medium on one side and on the other side because it is at such a deep level that we do not realize.

For example, people with sadness as background emotion are not even aware that most times they will react to situations automatically. If you tell them that the weather is wonderful, they will reply that it will not last.

 If you tell them that the new manager is very nice, they will talk to you about the good old days with the old Mr.. If you give them a new task, they immediately think that they will not be able to do it, etc..

Our background emotions are aligned with our psychic life and act as a filter to dampen or amplify the action triggers.

This process can be very deep inside if it were formed long time ago. If my background emotion is fear, I will filter all events through that fear to feed it and make it bigger.

It is the same thing when it comes to sadness or anger. Then it becomes a prison that inhibits creativity, commitment, change, and adaptation to external reality.

Background emotions work right when we can, at the present, be aware of the deep emotional mechanism which we are living so that we can change things right now.

Then we can choose how to get out of a situation by changing our reactions.

It is much simpler than all that: it is about working on background emotions as we work the land, to dye it with joy, satisfaction and pleasure, and internal or external triggers will have much less control over us and we can stay calm in spite of circumstances.

There’s a long tradition of people having a job. I think that tradition is over. I think the model of walking up the corporate ladder is busted.
I’ve failed more times than I’ve succeeded.
If I fail more than you I win. If you get to keep playing that mean you get to keep failing and sooner or later you succeed.

People who loose don’t fail at all or they fail so big that they never get to play again.
the kind of failure people talk about is no failure at all. If you post a blog post and it doesn’t resonate with people, post another one tomorrow.

Should we jump out and take a risk?

Let’s talk about definitions:
What is a freelancer?
A graphic designer might be a freelancer. If you work as a designer you get paid for working. The more you work the more you get paid.

What is an entrepreneur?

And an entrepreneur get paid while she sleeps. They build businesses bigger than themselves and she gets paid when she is not eve there.

What is to work for a boss

Think if your boss is asking you to do a set of tasks because it is so,  they are going to find someone that is cheaper than you, which is not good.
Or if your boss is asking you to solve interesting problems and if that is the case, now you’ve got to work it out for you.

To take the appropriate risks

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Those are risks that keep you in the game even if you fail. All great programmers learn the same way: they code something and see what the computer does. They change it and see what the computer does. They repeat the process again and again until they figure out how the box works.
They don’t get bumped out when their code doesn’t run they get chances to do it again.
It’s all about exploring and trying what it works.

How a business work

Get curious about how things work, about how a business work. School has brainwashed us to just accept it all.
Don’t ask, just listen and conform to it.
Now in this revolutionary age things are being rebuilt

Resistance and fear

How did we end up accepting this dictatorship from the system? How does it work in other countries? How has it been become the status quo?
Right now is easier to start a new business than anytime in history, the only person stopping you from starting a new business is you.
Access to marketing, access to capital, access to information have never been so easy, os take initiative, do not wait for instructions.

Comparing Japan to Singapore

Japan is in trouble because of this conformity thing is not working, it didn’t work for Sony and it didn’t work for a lot of companies, because if all you are going to do is the same as before and there isn’t somebody with a new map, it is really tough.
Singapore is just as crowded as Japan but they’ve got the freedom to invent new stuff. They are not waiting for somebody from the United States to bring the plan for them. They are taking initiative.
If you are working on an organization that doesn’t let you take even a little initiative you ought to try to get you fired.
I don’t really think that you work on an organization like that, but if you do why you are wasting today an tomorrow and the next six months doing that?
We have more degree of freedom we think of. Even if you are a waitress at a restaurant yu can figure out how to be the waitress they would miss if you are gone.
What does that costs?

Source: Notes from the interview with Seth Godin from the video "Failing until you success" (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225447)

Manifest abundance in your life.

This morning on my way to work I was thinking: I have to write about respecting money, things like what do you do when you see a 10 cent coin on the floor? Do you bend over to pick it up? Will you lean down for 5 cents?

What if you are in the supermarket and you need 5 cents to pay for purchases? You can not get your groceries home unless you return a product.

And just as I was thinking about these ideas I saw on the ground a 20 euros bill, I took it right away without a second thought.
Of course it was there for me, a new 20 euros bill on which people had stepped on without even seeing it, so I picked it up and put it neatly in my wallet.

Image courtesy of [renjith krishnan] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I took this simple fact as a manifestation of abundance.It is not the first time I find money on my way to work, some other times it have been 5 euros and coins too. I pick up everything and I always find money when I decide to change unexpectedly my usual path and cross a sidewalk or walk out of my usual way.

I have an innate impulse that leads me to break the routine, you see, maybe this is why I am seeking financial freedom.

Watch your language

Talking about how things are so bad is a habit that television and the media promote every day.
But you do not talk all the time of your needs and lack of money, not even to joke.
Every time you talk about scarcity and shortages think that you are creating a mental image of scarcity, which ultimately results in real lack in your life.

Speak only positively about your financial situation, if you haven't got money say that money is coming in this moment to you, that you are living the experience and that you will always have money when you need it.

This may at first seem like a lie to you but it is only to create new though habits.
You will soon get used to thinking in a much more positive way and will create a stream of abundance that will make money flow into your life.

Focus on prosperity

Attract to you the company of prosperous people, people who made it and have success. Sometimes that which we hate is what we want to be. And look for symbols of abundance and get rid of damaged or very old things at home.

Do not criticize an expensive product because you cannot not have it at the moment, it is better to buy less frequently and when you buy something it will be a symbol of quality and prosperity for you.

Our modern society is fascinating. You've never seen so many things to buy and so many things to sell, and how are we supposed to react to so much hype?

You can find all kinds of products with all kind of prices. It has never been so many offers, so many possibilities and so many temptations to go to the bank and borrow money.

It is believed that one of the causes of the problems in young people, who are demonstrating destructive rage, is because of ads and commercials. Now, if they are constantly flooded with slogans, images, posters, commercials and whatnot, how will they react?

The first thing they want when they get to work and get money is to buy all these objects: they too want to consume and possess things.

That works very well that brainwashing publicity, eh? Because they want to replace our need of belonging to a group, or a tribe as Set Godin would say, with the feeling of “belonging” to a brand, to push us more and more into consumerism.
And we all want our part, but what does that part mean for us? To work more to earn more to spend more?

Image courtesy of [renjith krishnan] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The other day I heard a conversation between two women:
"Ah, this Saturday I went to this and that shop and you should see how I "burned" my credit card with all the purchases I made,"
- And the other woman replied,
"Ah, that is a good thing to do from time to time! "

Consumerism is the worst drug in our society. It's like eating when you are not hungry for fear of not having enough later.

If you become a victim of this kind of brainwashing situation you will have far fewer opportunities to reach your financial goals and moreover your financial freedom.

If you become a victim of commercials and consumerism you will not pay your debts but increase your debts.

You will not have savings projects nor buy financial assets to get passive income or whatever, because you will fall to the temptations that materialism sets in your way.

I have lots of debts and I am a victim of consumerism, what I can do?

Turn off your tv. Just to see what happens for awhile. Watch yourself and watch the others, you will be better off.

The cause of all this is only in our minds and the solution is linked to your ability to separate the powerful speech of commercials from your real life.

The next most important thing is to feed your mind with good things and turning the tv off is  a good start.

Start appreciating what you already have and then make inventory to see how far your lifestyle is linked to consumerism.

The difference between need and desire

Learn to differentiate between need and desire, many people confuse these two, and the more confused they are the more financial mistakes they make. We can say that need is all that is vital for you: food, shelter, clothes (and I'm not talking about dressing in Prada clothes unless you can afford it, of course), the rest is in the domain of desire .

The secret to stop being a victim of consumerism is to find a good balance between what you need and what you desire, if you can spend without counting because you have a cash reserve or savings, why not buy it if you can not afford it?
But if you have to ask for money to the bank to spend on these things, these credits are going to take you straight on the road to poverty.

And you, are you a victim of consumerism?

It is certain that America will, one way or another, cancel on its deb.

This is the teaching of history, outstanding debts are never paid. They are either rejected or destroyed, as it was with Russia. There will come a time after the hard phase of crisis, where everyone will realize that the risk kills growth, hope and mobility in our society. And of course freedom.

Pseudo-democratic societies bought social peace by what can be called "risk premium package", increasing wages, social transfers, securities, employment creation, which made legitimate social order existing.

The accumulation of debt, the rising of inequality and unemployment, make this solution now obsolete.

We can not continue this way as debt is too big.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The IMF doctrine of austerity to find balance it's being rejected by the United States and by Europe also who is quietly delaying the payment deadlines.

There will come a time when the United States will propose solutions. These solutions require drastic reduction in the debt burden,and it will be like a gift to the global world but in its own interest also.

A fairer monetary system

The present monetary situation is temporary the world can not live forever flooded with liquidity.
One day or another, it will leave the monetary and fiscal policies because they are not fit anymore.

Then the question will arise for a monetary system more satisfying, more balanced, that better reflects the situation of the whole world.
A system which will reflect justice and not and not the one we have right now, which emerged from the Second World War. A system that will take advantage of advances in science and technology and put it at the service of men.

Well if you'd make 10% less than your usual salary, would you be able to live on it?
But if you really think you cannot afford to save 10% of your earnings then just start to save 5%.
The thing is to start a new habit of paying yourself first, and see how much you have got left to live.

This would be an ideal distribution of monthly income:

Salary:

Savings: up to 20%

Entertainment, leisure: 10%-30%

Current-expenses: 50%-80%

Look: First is the savings, pay yourself first and then you will see for the rest.

Where to invest money?

•      Savings books
•      Safe financial products

Image courtesy of [ddpavumba,] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Savings books: they do not produce much interests, the advantage is that the interest is guaranteed and you can withdraw money at will. Is a good way to start or when you have not that much money.
2. Financial products without risks: they get interesting enough when you find a product that yields a 4, or 4.5% interest, the kind of product depends on the country you are. Here in France there are life insurances, with the start minimum fund of 1000 euros. Well, this must be studied carefully in each case ad watch the evolution of the interest, and is even more beneficial if tax deducted for

In any case, do not forget that:

I'm no expert on finances, this is only my advice.
The idea is to get out of credit slavery on the road to financial freedom.

How much money should I put in emergency savings?

The system is simple, just put the equivalent to 6 months of expenses, and then start saving  between 10% and 15% each month.
In round numbers: If your monthly expenses are up to $1000, start saving up to $6000.
This amount can keep you away from asking for a credit when you are in need or it can be a small project to buy you some important thing.

"And there is no greater waste than a man spend his entire life on the field planting corn to eat. Then one day his body does not respond anymore and he lies down waiting for death to come."

From Don Juan Teachings, Carlos Castaneda.

In his teachings Don Juan spoke constantly of the warrior and the hunter who must have an impeccable spirit accumulating personal power.

Then this personal power is used at the right time and with the right measure, without "abusing the world," that is, without taking more than you need.

The farmer

The farmer is the consumer who works just to eat. In our modern world we are much like that: Working for a paycheck watching the hours pass by, just to pay the monthly bills.

As we always "hunger" for material things, we work to "eat" (buy more things) and accumulate more. And so we run all the time.
We complain that prices rise and taxes too, and that politicians are corrupt and how bad this world is.

We join all kinds of protest movements thinking that we are not like the other sheep. But we do not move a finger to give motivation to our everyday life and change. We do not like changes, change of territory, or change of customs.

Until one day the body does not respond anymore and we just wait for retirement to come.

The hunter

The hunter kills only when he is hungry (buys things only when needed) and has no schedules.

Image courtesy of [Poulsen Photo] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The hunter instinct moves him. He knows where ad when hi next victim will pass by (knows how to seize the best opportunities and take advantage of them).

The hunter travels light and buys few things, but they are valuable and useful things that help him to move forward.

He likes discovering new territories and finding new partners and friends, though there are not that much people were he is.

The hunter is not waiting for retirement to come, because he gets what he he wants when he needs it.
He already provides for the future knowing that his future wellbeing depends only on himself.

... The art of a hunter is becoming inaccessible. Being inaccessible means to touch as little as possible the world around you. And this does not mean hiding or walk with secrets. Nor does it mean that you can not deal with people ... A hunter does not have routines ...

... The life of a warrior can not possibly be cold and lonely and without feelings, because it is based on his affection, his devotion, his dedication to his beloved one: the Earth ...

... Feeling important makes one heavy, dumb and vain. To be a warrior one needs to be light and fluid ...

... A warrior takes responsibility for his actions. Even the most trivial. An average man never takes responsibility for what he does ...

(More quotes from Don Juan)

And you, are you a farmer or a hunter?