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The times they are a changing and as the economic distress seems to further unfold and disseminate, what are some personal strategies in terms of thinking through the current morass? There is the traditional measure of doubling up, of working harder and more hours. Hard work with extended hours could certainly be one component. But the machinery out there is so big, so encompassing that the effect of hard work done could almost be like shouting in the unprotected forest. Another issue is that people follow ideas en mass, and keep an especially careful look at the money makers. But this look or watch can be relatively useless, in that the gap is just too large and even to think about emulating say Warren Buffet is relatively useless in terms of anything it will do for you. A key part of the personal analysis is what are the gaps, where are they, how are they and how do I need to look at them, not to sensationalize them but just to see what they really are. If the gaps are too large, I could consider shifts towards situations where the gaps are less, or where there are greater means to close the gap. The gap I need to look at can go in two directions as well and this is key, What I am trying to move into or towards, is something I could just as easily be trying to escape and there might be some rather large ground to cover in terms of an escape strategy. People might put considerable effort towards something, even say a career, that they need to just escape from, even to the point of running for the hills. You can see this pictured humorously in some films- the former rich guy, or king of the hill, is chased down the street by the crowd of unhappy campers. Issues of neglect are also there. It is all to easy to neglect any area of personal need or anything else along those lines. Part of this is splitting everything into different components, which of course relates to occupations, where a person splits off in this direction or that direction, and calls themselves say a scientist based on this occupational pursuit. The split offs are at least partly artificial and yet they are done within the context of a contained reality. The substance of the situation is this then, I’m a scientist or so I say. But the splitting off and subscribing to contained realities, also can result in gaps, the point being that you may need to or want to find your way back and plot another course or get back to base one or coalesce around other preeminence's. Because all these split offs tend to be artificial, because they have to be, there needs to be some reservation about the artificiality of the process. I am really a person that wants to be sitting in an office 80 hours a week, when in fact I am in part artificially submitting for this for more outer goals,indicating another universe for me, now rather ill defined, where I will eventually have enough money to spend a lot of time on a beach in some tropical paradise? Its great that I can do this, but I need to at least comprehend that there is a level of artificiality to what I am now doing, and I need to grasp at to what degree I am willingly and knowingly submitting to artificiality to encompass murky goals and hidden depths under the possibility of a great expanse and open universe. So another gap widens as the need appears to regain authenticity. Wherever the road has narrowed, indeed, I may have at least partially have lost my way. There may have been to much of follow the leader, because the leader can give the reward. And the leader may not have been any one person, but a conceptualization that does become personified or put upon given individuals who are perceived as pundits, real or imagined, and these starlets have what I need to have as well. Part of the problem is the high emphasis on education and on achievement in education, where the A might be achieved by following the till, giving the right answer more so than asking the right questions. Something I think would help immensely is shifting the whole educational process to at least 20 percent of sheer questioning with no frank answers demanded. The ability to question needs to be stimulated in all the educational pursuits. So for example, a test would give a case and then ask, what are the questions that can be posed here? There should be no unquestioned pursuits anywhere, and this goes into some of the current crises modes of the market, where the unquestioned part is seen as follow the leader over the cliff. And this also goes to the conceptualizations of the leaders personified to teachers, the rich, the lauded, those deemed for now successful. What has happened is that many people have bet on horses that won already but have not run many races, and the back draft of the illusion on these successes was given more or less unquestioned immediacy. Observation needs to be made also as to any type of neglect that is occurring, and crying for a lot of people there needs to be a drive and a permissive approach to think more creatively first and foremost for themselves and for the ability to do so for themselves. Thinking more creatively especially when those steps aren’t there or aren’t being taken. I remember visiting Machu Picchu in Peru, and the steps involved were very steep in the area, but you of course could follow your progress going up those steps in the ensuing climb. If you want to follow your progress in whatever you are doing, the ability to replicate efforts really isn’t enough or shouldn’t be enough if you have high minded aspirations and too much of what is mounting drive in job efforts is replication of efforts. You may in fact need to clear out completely and to start fresh with newer endeavors that have some glow for the future. Finding the pedestal some people are on already, assuming those spots are preserved, and then trying to follow your own way to that pedestal, may be the incorrect strategies as by the time you get there, it might be and often is too late. In using the analogy of the surfer, who is gloriously on the beautiful long sloping wave, something you want, but that wave might not be there by the time you get your surfboard and surfing skills ready. The pedestals may already be long gone, and then another gap appears, because I have run to a place that can no longer be found. The pedestals that contained your aim, have disappeared and now what is left to aim for? You could have been an investment banker, but now there are no investment banks left. There is the perspective that another year has passed, the earth has circled the sun in the darkness of space and of course some changes would happen on the earth such as companies falling by the wayside. And the sails need to be reset. But this time to a more even keel, to the reality of the seas that you are on and can see and the seas that can see you as well. That sees for real, not to the illusions of pedestals, of stars that shined from artificial light.
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