Keeping Up Your Momentum

Keeping your Momentum from Motivation

How to Beat YesterYou Part I of II 

Acquiring the motivation to get up an hour early so you can do something you initially perceive to be unpleasant is your goal. You want a better look, better health and more energy. That is a noble goal worth the hour loss of sleep. This is probably one of the most common habits that people want to start. It tops my list. I mentioned in earlier posts that I have been in "the zone" before, and let it go. I learned a lesson with that: it’s much easier to retain it than to regain it. 

With that said, in this post we are assuming you have it. You are in the zone and you move from your center. You make decisions and don’t fumble around second-guessing yourself. When you need to work out, there is no debate in your mind about whether you should or shouldn’t. The pros and cons have already been hashed out and you’ve made this a habit.

The lawyer in head that represents instant gratification, might as well be a public defender. She doesn’t care enough to argue any longer. She has been shushed and the real you, the part that represents your place in humanity has beaten down the primal urges to do what you feel like, eat what tastes the best and follow the laws of inertia, the same way a lump of coal does. If you are experiencing these things, you can be sure you are in “The Zone”.

You do not want to take risks in losing this state of being. The quality of your life experience is largely based on your ability to control your self, if not totally based on this.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who have no problem reaching this state of being. For me it takes motivation, self-denial, mental and emotional fortitude, timing and a little bit of luck. I’m sure this is different for everyone. Twice I have felt like I was in the zone and there is nothing better. It is worth any price, and the above tag is not very expensive.

Its value comes from…well, every aspect of your life. Like we mentioned up top, you look better, have more energy, you’re healthier and decision making and self-confidence are positively affected. But, I will tell you what it felt like for me and then I will tell you how I lost these states. And, I will give you the one word that is key to staying in this state. It’s already all up in this blog post, so you may have already guessed it. It’s no secret of the ages. It’s the rule that applies to us all who want to improve each day in every way.

When I was twenty and again when I was twenty-six, I was in the zone and I knew it. My friends and I called it super-dedication mode. I thought it was just applied to my working out, but in any way imaginable my life was better. The first time I was dumb kid and only held on to this until an approaching leave from the Army was completed. I started in February working out and denying myself certain things as a fast for God. It was an important factor in attaining the desired state, but I didn’t know that at the time. I lost it as quick as I got it though. I didn’t know how much I was losing when I let it slip away.

I got much more attention from the opposite sex because anyone looks 10x better than when they aren’t. I was treated differently by everyone. My superiors in the military and peers treated me with more respect. I’ve talked with a lot of people about this particular phenomenon, and almost every person says the reason is because the one treating me with respect sees that I was a responsible person and thus the higher level of respect. I believe that it is much more 

emotionally driven than intellectually. I think it is a caveman thing. I felt fantastic every day. I have had anxiety issues especially during the end of my term in the military and after, but I had no anxiety when I was keeping myself up. I was happy. To be direct and not mention every little thing that was improved, I’ll shorten the description. The laws of nature bent to my will, just a little. Good things happened to me and I was grateful which made more good things happen if only in my mind.

 See ya tomorrow comment and bookmark

The Newest Designer Drug Takes it's First American Life

You may not have heard of it yet, but like many designer drugs this one causes erratic behavior and often death.

A new designer drug has hit the streets of South Florida, killing a young man last week. Known as “gravel” or, more commonly, Flakka, alpha-PVP has been on the DEA radar for over a year. Many of these designer drugs, known as “bath salts” and entering the market from other countries, mainly Eastern countries, have had an effect on populations elsewhere giving the US a warning of things to come.

“Cathinone” is the scientific name for the family of synthetic drugs that have burst onto the scene lately, being marketed as plant food, detergent incense and, thus the name, bath salt. These drugs only became popular recently, but have been around since the 1920’s. There is little known about the immediate effects of this and other designer drugs and nothing known about the long-term effects. That is what makes this class of drug so scary. We have seen how out of control, an individual can be who is under the influence of bath salts, when not long ago a man using a similar drug stripped down and assaulted homeless Ronald Pappo before the police shot him to death.

The new drug is molecularly similar to antidepressants known NRI’s (Norepinephrine Re-Uptake inhibitors but have a much different effect on human beings. This is a very dangerous and hard to contain drug. It’s dangerous for above mentioned and obvious reasons. It is hard to contain because it is cheap and if demand rises will flood through customs in packages and delivered to a buyer’s doorstep. One of the contributing factors of the popularity of these drugs is that it is not tested by conventional drug tests, making it an alluring alternative to more established drugs for the millions of American’s who have to take drug tests for probation or work.

It’s cheap, plentiful, novel and undetectable by common tests. Bath salts are no longer sold in head shops and gas stations, but have been substituted for more costly drugs by street dealers. It’s hard to say if this is fad drug or here to stay. Many young adults in Florida are buying a bath salt drug that’s active ingredient, MDPV, reportedly gives a similar high to Ecstasy. It is marketed by dealers as “Molly” (short for Molecular MDMA) and MDMA is Ecstasy in its purest form. However, what costs the street dealers less than $100 per kilogram, can cost the unknowing end user the same price for a single gram.

There are hundreds of these designer drug compounds and law enforcement still isn’t the answer. Until real education about drugs is introduced, young people will not have the tools to properly weigh the pros and cons of experimenting with drugs like these. The DARE program is a failure. It would be great if we could rely on parents to educate their own children regarding the dangers of addictive drugs, like Flakka, it’s never going to be a reality.

So what is the answer? Trial and error, perhaps, with a faster measurement dynamic of current program success. We cannot allow a program like DARE to be implemented by the same entity that gets the majority of it’s funding from the thing it is trying to prevent. The CDC and State Health Departments should have an escalating role in the prevention of drug abuse in young people. In fact, these agencies are more relevant to drug abuse than any other and must eventually be tasked with the jurisdiction over the areas or drug abuse and mental health. The old way is not working. Quite the opposite.

Law enforcement’s long-time jurisdiction over drugs and abuse has been a huge failure and led to a conflict of interest for our Departments of Law Enforcement. More so, growing up in a society that has always attempted to control drug abuse in this manner, it can be difficult to imagine a better way. This mishandling of our attempt to curb drug abuse has led to daily, tragic miscarriages of justices. Drugs being the most prevalent legal offense has shifted our attention concerning true criminal behavior and actions and resulted in massive amounts of money for the agencies that nibble at the problem.

Drugs, like Flakka, flow through our borders, and now through our postal services from other countries. Police make a valiant effort at fighting the drug trade, but as time has proven, are just inadequate. Law enforcement can’t stop something that is in such high demand by the people. Something must be done to minimize the demand. If our schools could effectively drill into our young students the absurdity and insanity of addictive drug use the way they drill in the multiplications tables, we would see a drop in demand and the cartels and pharmaceutical companies would have to find new jobs because neither is going to cater to the < 1 million Americans that want drugs, if our programs were successful. But, do we really want that?

After all it’s not just cartels and big pharma that makes money on the drug trade.

Flakka isn't news. It is one of hundreds of drugs just from its family of designer drugs. It wasn’t the first and won’t be the last drug to make it into America. Until we pull back our own veils and see the failure that this “War on Drugs” has become, will we be disturbed enough to make a change and stop the problem at it’s source: the demand.

3 Steps to Move Toward Financial Sustainability

Lets’ go ahead and get the disclaimer out of the way first. I am not a lawyer, I haven’t passed the Series 7, not a banker, not even a wealthy person. Do not substitute this information for that of a Certified Finance Pro.

This is a simplified way to help those who are about changing their lives for the better, to get started and move forward from these three first steps.

They call it the “Rat Race”…

Rich people, that is. I think Robert Kiyosaki, coined the term in his bestseller, “Rich Dad / Poor Dad“Rich Dad / Poor Dad”. The grind of making just enough to cover your bills and stretch your paycheck through the week. It’s uncomfortable, but most American’s do it. In fact, most Americans live here. 6 of 10 baby boomers have less than a thousand dollars saved for emergencies. This place sucks, so we want to elevate to the next level. Lucky, for you, it’s easy…not that you couldn't otherwise handle it….

Step   1.

Pay yourself first. That doesn't really make much sense, but it is the single most effective change you can make in your life, and like most everything discussed here, you can do it now, today.  All you do is take about 10% to 15% of your profit, income, whatever and put it in your account, not to be messed with,

Paying yourself first means that you take a predetermined amount, let’s try 10% for now, until we get to some personal finance basic statements. I think that almost all of us could cut a latte, cigarettes, or anything out of your life to cover the price of your savings needs. Better yet, don’t cut it out (unless it’s cigarettes or the like), but find a creative way to increase your income. The point of these posts, ultimately, are to get you to see that there isn’t anything that you aren’t capable of doing. It’s not bullshit. With a positive/realistic outlook on life, yourself and your abilities, it’s true what they tell you in kindergarten.

So, right now, make the change. That’s the beauty of change; you can do it instantly if you don’t fight yourself about it, and it adds up to dollars.  Speaking of which, that reminds me of……

Step 2.

Use the power of compounding, tax-free interest. This isn’t a tax-avoidance blurb, but we can go over some of the basic vehicles in which to drive you tax-free moulah around in. This is where you will want to do some research on your own. Don’t just any-many-Moe a bank, and do what their guru says. She/he is not obligated to have your best interests in mind. Needless, then, to say; he/she most certainly does not. He or she can be a wealth of consulting knowledge once you can sift through the crap. Remember, banks are the ones that rocked our economy, so hard that everyone in the world felt it about seven years ago. It seemed like misconduct, even control fraud to me, but no one was arrested but me that day. If I had been smart, and went to school in Boston, for Finance, then I would have been compounding interest instead of good time.

The way to make the most of this is to use a Traditional or Roth IRA, educational savings plan like a 529 plan, for your kids’ college money, even life insurance policies can be a good way to grow your cash garden without having to worry about weeds.

Make sure you put away a month of income, at least, in a money market account or the stock market, only taking very little, if any risks at all with this. This is your emergency fund and the cornerstone of a good healthy portfolio. This money cannot be tax deferred, by nature, because you may need it quickly and tax-advantaged accounts like your 401k, are penalized if you dip into the cookie jar earlier than agreed.

A 401k is an IRA that is contributed to by both you and your employer. An IRA is a retirement fund and you can own anything (almost) in your IRA. This part is tricky, often, Talk to a pro. I think the only thing that you aren’t allowed to have is collectible wine, because you might drink it.

A 529 plan is one of the educational savings plans that grows un-taxed, while, normally, your child grows up and then it is used for college tuition, books, computers, Beats by Dre (It’s true), rent during school and even a vehicle. The best part is, this is not calculated by the Pell Grantors. If you have a kid, head to Fidelity or your least hated financial institution and drop a couple of Jacksons on your IRA, Life Insurance Policy and/or that 529 plan for little Billy. Oh, and if Bill Jr.uses that dough on college expenses for real, like Beats by Dre, he may not pay taxes on the back-end either. You cannot beat that.

Briefly, if you have a high deductible health insurance policy, you can open a tax—free savings account, known eloquently as a Health Savings Account (HSA), this is not an exhaustive list, but I thought I’d throw that weirdo in just to show you that there are many tax-advantaged accounts and processes. Please, educate yourself further, after taking these first two steps and manifesting them in your life. This is a zero-sum game that we are all playing. There is foreclosure built into the fractal banking system and Modern Money Mechanics. It is overwhelming, but you’ll adapt or someone will be eating your lunch. It’s a dirty game, yawl. I shouldn't even be telling you this, I should want you to lose….Relax, I’m only joking. I want to see as many people rise up and fight smarter to even the playing fields. The game is fixed, but only as long as we allow ourselves to not be educated about said game.

That is why Rule 3, should be Rule One, applies to every aspect of your life and is under your responsibility 100%. [ABC] Always Be Clowning’, Oh wait that was my old motto. 
My new one doesn't need a catchy acronym and it is a good thing, no matter who you’d like to ask. Improve yourself daily. Learn and compound ideas. Help those around you understand, and seek help for what you don’t understand. The truth is that once a human accumulates an unimaginably vast fortune, hundreds of millions or billions, often she is a slave to the money in a whole new way. The object is to keep her from being so stressed out, by participating in your in own financial planning. The pros won’t always steer you in the right direction. Good intentioned layman, won’t either. I hope you take this to heart and out of your next paycheck, take 10%, walk inside your bank and add it to your IRA, find resources that will help you understand how to handle your money.

--Money makes a great servant, but a horrible master. —    -----whose quote is that?

Resources:
www.yahoo.com/finance, 

www.google.com/finance, 

www.bloomberg.com, 

www.fidelity.com  My Favorite