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Notice: If you normally receive a notice when a new Intelligence Briefing is published, you should have received one on July 15, 2009. If you did not, or if you would like to be included in our notification procedure for the first time, please supply us with your current e-mail address at NOTIFY, with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. We never sell e-mail addresses. Nor do we use them for any purposes that are not directly relevant to this Web site. Maria Davidson Personal Assistant to Mega Genius®
Mega
Genius® Intelligence Briefing: A 10-Step Tune-up for Your Life William F. Buckley, Jr., the distinguished American author, television commentator, and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, once affirmed, “I have often said that I would much rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than the 2,000 members of the faculty at Harvard University.” Mr. Buckley believed that Harvard’s faculty lacked the ability to make things go right. The first
step of making things go right is to tune up your own life.
Merriam-Webster defines tune-up
as, “A general adjustment to insure operation at
peak efficiency ([as] an engine tune–up).” Here
are four steps to rid yourself of sputtering, knocks and rattles, four more
steps to fine-tune your intentions, and finally two steps to shift your life
into high-performance mode. 1.
Disassociate from “the parasites” In
the 1970s, a famous friend of mine concluded, “You know, I think that there
are two kinds of people in this world: Those who want you to survive better and
those who try to attach themselves to you and suck the life from you like
parasites.” He had seen the light. A
few imperfect, but highly ethical, energetic and able individuals are working
fervently to greatly improve conditions on this planet for others, and
are producing meaningful results. Unfortunately,
they are prime targets of the parasites, who -- unable to produce much energy
themselves -- try to attach themselves to those who are particularly able and
then feed off their energy. It’s
unfortunate, because the particularly able and energetic people have the ability
to help you achieve your dreams. Most
people are less ethical and able, but they are hard working and
well-intentioned. They enforce our
laws, make our clothing, bake our pastries, repair our automobiles, and
construct our houses. They work hard
to make things happen and to keep them running right. They
don’t have time to become celebrated composers or write great novels, because
they are too busy paying taxes, earning mortgage payments, putting food on the
table, and making ends meet. Each is
hoping that someday his ship will come in (and that he won’t be at the airport
when it does). These
industrious people deserve all the help they can get. Then
there are the parasites, a small percentage of the populace who are atrociously
deficient in ethics and, therefore, abilities.
They encourage trouble. Just
by being around them, they make you feel sad, incompetent, upset, worried,
guilty or exhausted. Although it may
be difficult to understand just how these taxing people do that, you can easily
recognize them by the disturbance they leave in their wake. They
will attach themselves to you and suck the life from you, if you let them. Identify
them by the way they make you feel. Then
disassociate! Your life will go
better. 2.
Disregard your critics The
easiest thing in the world to do is criticize someone.
You only have to shirk responsibility for something, and then blame
somebody else. Advice
is a recommendation that is intended to help; consequently, when you receive
effective advice, you feel better. Conversely,
criticism is a fault-finding judgment; accordingly, being criticized makes you
feel worse. Criticism is unhelpful
and virtually worthless. To
attract criticism, just announce that you have a brilliant idea, or that you
intend to accomplish some extraordinary feat.
Then almost every friend who has had to abort his own similar dream will
try to discourage you. “Oh,
are you really sure that you want to do that?”
he will say, or, “That’s going to take a lot of work!” or, “Well, good
luck; I guess you’re going to need it,” or bestow upon you some other
expression of discouragement, cloaked in concern. He
will not do that because he wants you to fail … exactly ….
After all, the two of you are friends.
But, you had better not succeed! Because,
if you accomplish something at which he tried and failed, then that will make
you right and him wrong. And, he
doesn’t want to be wrong. Therefore,
his life will be so much easier for him if, somehow, your plan just doesn’t
work out quite right for you. Then he will hand you his handherchief. That
is why, even if you have the best idea since the paper clip, you will probably
get farther with it if you begin by keeping it to yourself. The
second easiest way to attract criticism is to succeed so spectacularly that you
cannot be ignored. Then, like a
magnet, you will attract all the
blue-ribbon failures. They will
criticize you ruthlessly, in total disregard of the truth, to try to stop you
from proving them wrong with your success. Just
disregard them, too. 3.
Ignore anonymous sources Adam
Lambert is the recently discovered singing sensation of the hit television show
“American Idol.” A couple of
weeks ago, I wondered how he was coping with his sudden nationwide fame and the
relentless gossip about his personal affairs.
So, as he was recording his solo debut album, in a Los Angeles studio, I
asked him during a break, “What should people know about you that they
don’t?” Adam
laughed and confessed to me, “I think everybody knows everything.”
As long as he can laugh at all the rumor mongering, he will do okay. Unfortunately,
misleading, defamatory and injurious statements about individuals and groups is
often not a laughing matter, because the source is hidden.
You see, when a source who is known contemplates saying or writing
something that he knows is false and derogatory, he also knows that he may have
to defend himself against charges of slander or libel for the damage that he
causes. So, he usually keeps those
false thoughts to himself and does not say or write such things.
On the other hand, when an anonymous
source says or writes something that he knows is false and derogatory, he may
well escape such litigation, because he is anonymous. In
a single article in a prominent news magazine, I recently counted 17 instances
of “according to an unnamed source,” and “on the condition of anonymity,
our source said,” and “a source who did not wish to be identified told
us,” and “a source who did not have authority to speak about the matter
said,” and so on. Using such black
journalism, magazines and newspapers can allow anonymous sources to allege
anything their evil minds can fathom. Then
they publish it. The casualty is
truth! Whenever
you believe allegations that are shrouded in anonymity, in newspapers,
magazines, or on radio, television or the internet, you have set up yourself to
reach an irrational conclusion … to be fooled … to make a first-class fool
out of yourself. That is not the way
to make your life go right. Hidden
sources of anonymous allegations lack the courage to allow themselves to be
identified. They have reasons for
being cowards. Always
look for the source and evaluate its reliability.
Always ignore anonymous allegations.
You don’t need more falseness in your life. 4.
Get sufficient food and sleep Mammalian bodies live about 6 times their period of growth, yet the average human body lives less than 3 and one half times the period of its growth. No one “thinking inside the box” thinks that is unusual. I think that it is. Although a human being’s total natural diet has not been thoroughly researched, it is likely that almost every person is severely nutritionally deficient. The question is: In what? Until you know precisely what “proper” nutrition is, your goal should be “reasonably sufficient nourishment, without being overweight.” Without at least reasonably sufficient nourishment, a person will process information less easily, and life will not go right. There are technical reasons why this is so. Reasonably sufficient nourishment means reasonable portions of nourishing foods, including fruits and vegetables, along with green leafy vegetables, at reasonable times throughout each day. One must also have sufficient sleep. Otherwise, again, the person will process information less easily and life will not go right. What is sufficient sleep for one person is not necessarily sufficient for another. One needs whatever sleep he requires to feel sufficiently slept. To make your life go right, eat reasonably and sleep sufficiently. Otherwise, you probably will not live to be old; you will just feel that way. 5.
Maintain your civility The
word civil comes from the Latin word civilis,
meaning kind or courteous. Anytime
that you act in a manner that cannot accurately be described as kind or
courteous, you cannot truthfully count yourself among the civilized. At those moments, by your actions, you have proven that you should be standing “way over there,” amongst a conglomeration of the unrefined, unhelpful, uneducated, primitive and unlawful. We routinely confine them in the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane, and the Zoological Society of San Diego. On
this planet, aside from plants, bacteria, fungi, viruses, slime molds, and other
rudimentary life forms, there are only two groups of sentient entities: (1)
beings who are humane, and (2) animals. If
you claim membership in the first group, it is your responsibility to stay in
character. 6.
Live the good life You
know in your heart when you are doing the wrong thing, when you are betraying
your moral or ethical code, when you feel the need to keep your actions secret.
You know when you no longer love the image in your mirror.
But have you calculated the price that you pay? Suzanne
Mullins won $4,200,000 in the Virginia lottery, in 1993. Today she is deeply in
debt. Evelyn
Adams won the New Jersey lottery, not just once, but twice, in 1985 and 1986,
accumulating $5,400,000. Today, her
money is gone and she lives in a trailer. William
Post won $16,200,000 in the Pennsylvania lottery, in 1988.
Within a year, he was $1,000,000 in debt, declared bankruptcy and ended
up living on $450 a month and food stamps. In
June of 1997, Billie Bob Harrell Jr. won a Lotto Texas jackpot of $31,000,000.
Twenty months later, when Harrell committed suicide with a shotgun, he did not
even have enough money left to pay estate taxes. They,
and many others, could not have the
good fortune. Oh, they won it, all
right, but, for whatever reason, they could not have
it. For
example, if you keep violating your moral or ethical code, you will no longer
love your image in your mirror. Therefore,
you will feel that you deserve less, and you will ensure – one way or another
-- that you receive less. You will
prevent yourself from receiving, and keeping, that to which you do not feel
entitled. You will have limited your
ability to have. And that is not the
way to make your life go right. Living
the life that you know that you should live is the easiest way to ensure that
you receive the good life that you will know you deserve. 7.
Believe in yourself No
one with a grip on reality believes that he is perfect.
If he acts ethically, however, he strives to do the best that he can, and
endeavors to do better, by improving his abilities and eliminating destructive
influences. Parasitism,
criticism and other destructive influences originate from a small percentage of
people in your environment. Generally,
when you recognize one of those troublesome persons and attempt to deal with his
obstructive actions, you feed power to him.
You do that by deciding that he is a comparable opponent who is worthy of
your attention, time and energy. Instead,
unless you choose to have such a nuisance investigated, or intend to file a
lawsuit against him, you are usually better off paying no attention to him.
It is not rational to increase the power of a troublemaker who is trying
to paint a bull’s-eye on your back. Nevertheless,
there is still another influence, to which people are even more susceptible,
that is greater than 100 times as destructive.
If you could kick the responsible party in the behind … you wouldn’t
be able to sit down for a week. You
do it to yourself! You criticize
your actions. You minimize your
abilities. You withhold your
talents. You complain about
yourself. You think negatively.
You question what you know is true. You
belittle your success. Never mind
that some misguided deviants have nothing better to do than demean you.
You disparage yourself! Nothing
that can happen to you is as destructive as your self-invalidation. I
know of no person who has listened to all The
Mega Genius® Lectures and thinks that I have left a stone unturned in my
exploration of the universe. Accordingly,
I am telling you this: If all the truth were known, you would realize that you
are a better, and more powerful, person than you have ever allowed yourself to believe Do
something exceptionally intelligent today: If you don't believe in yourself, believe
me! 8.
Make time work for you People
are fond of separating time into three parts: the past, the present and the
future, and insisting that the past is past, by which they mean that nothing can
be changed about it. It is over!
Stick a fork in it! It is
done! Almost everyone readily agrees
with that, which means that they probably are wrong … and they are. Just
recall a time that you changed your mind significantly about something that
happened previously, and you will see that you changed more than just your mind.
By changing your mind, you actually changed the past to some degree.
(If your mind is too inflexible, you won’t get this point.) Nevertheless,
the average person’s mind is so inflexible that if he thinks too much about
the past, it can lead to dwelling in the past, which can lead to living in the
past, which can lead to him arguing with houseflies if he doesn’t get his
medication. That is the real reason
people advise you to stay out of the past. The
future is not here yet, so you should always live in the present, they say.
Actually, you should keep glancing at the future, so that you continually
know where you are headed, but you should stay in the present, as that is the
only time in which you can do anything. And
the present is also the time when you should take stock of your life; here is
how. The
older a person becomes, the more he mistakenly tends to view time as an
adversary. He
won’t view time as an adversary when he is in his 20s or 30s, but it will
happen. Sometime in his 50s, when he
gets up in the night, walks into his bathroom, turns on the light, and scares
himself when he sees what he looks like in the mirror, it will happen.
That is because the older he gets, the more he concludes that time is not
working for him. The
way to make time work for you is to intend
it to work for you. Continually put
aside some money as an investment in the future.
Buy some antiques that will appreciate in value.
Practice and improve your skills. Build
your vocabulary. Are you with me?
Plant a tree today that will bear fruit tomorrow. My
grandfather once bought an 80 acre farm, in the American Midwest, which included
a large farm house, garage, barn, smoke house, several other buildings, and a
woods. Then he decided to plant some
black walnut trees, which is one
of the world’s most valuable tree species, based on price per board foot, due
to its beautiful color, strength, and durability.
Actually, he scattered two bushels of black walnuts: one
bushel for the squirrels to bury and eat later, and one bushel for them to bury,
forget about and let grow. Many years later, after my grandfather had retired from decades of farming wheat, the value of the black walnut timber that he, and the squirrels, had grown as an incidental far exceeded the value of all the buildings and the entire 80 acres of land. The
more that you make time work for you, the less oppositional time will be. 9.
Improve your communication skills Are
you ever embarrassed, or tongue-tied when talking to people?
Do you sometimes offend others with your choice of words?
Do people consider you an uninteresting conversationalist?
Do you have any qualms about speaking before a large group?
Your answers should all be, “No.” Do
you consistently acknowledge what others have communicated to you?
If you don’t get an answer to a question, do you pursue it?
Do you know how to avoid arguments? Do
you know the proper use of a semicolon? Is
your vocabulary adequate for a speech, and follow-up questioning?
Your answers should all be, “Yes.” Communication
is the act of sending something from one point through space to another point,
and ensuring that what was received is precisely what was sent. Communicate!
Besides being, deciding and considering, you will never do anything else.
You need to be good at it, for in the game of life, you will be only as
successful as you have refined your ability to communicate. If you do not
know that, you are lost! To
improve your life tomorrow, improve your ability to communicate today. 10.
Laugh your way to success People
do not laugh because their lives are going right.
Their lives go right because they laugh. The
more serious a person is about an endeavor, the more likely he will fail in it.
On the other hand, the more lighthearted he is, the more likely he will
succeed. Things
that are understood are simple and fun. But
when a person misunderstands something, then he does not understand, and things
become complex and difficult, and significant, condensed and heavy.
Consequently, he becomes solemn and serious, and slows down.
He may even become depressed and immobile.
How serious can a person become? As
serious as a dead body in a casket. And
it all begins with just a misunderstanding. I
say again, “Anytime that you cannot laugh, you are off the track.” Laughter
is a universal secret to making your life go right. Albert
Einstein allegedly said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.” If
so, Einstein was wrong. That is not
insanity, but merely irrationality, which is the condition of being devoid of
reason or understanding. Insanity
is different. It is a gradient
condition of uncertainty and, consequently, lack of responsibility.
That is what an insane person is: certifiably irresponsible for
his actions. If
you have previously overlooked any of the 10 steps that I have given you to tune
up your life, now you can make the necessary changes and then rationally
expect different results (provided that you are “living the good life,” as
explained in step number six). I
have said it before, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will
always get what you always got.” Today,
you know how to change your life for the better.
For your sake, and that of the human race, I hope that you will do it.
After all, accepting a little more responsibility for your own condition
is the road to increasing your sanity. Mega
Genius® 11
July 2009
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