Preface

“Oh God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.”

– The Serenity Prayer, by Reinhold Niebuhr

This book grew from a recognized need that I found in my life and in almost everyone around me. Most of us seem to be struggling to find, to be, or to do something more in life, to get ahead of something, or to make life more significant.

Embracing change

Our religions, philosophies, and sciences fall short of any real answers, constantly changing with new ideas and discoveries, leaving us humans fewer reference points to build our lives. We struggle to solve our problems and understand ourselves and each other as we evolve to higher levels of awareness and consciousness. Our search and struggle is very real and normal. Driven by instinct and the genetic code, the goose flies south for winter, the bear finds a cave to hibernate, and fish journey thousands of miles to fresh water streams to lay eggs, whereas humans strive to create and be the most that they can be, one way or another, while finding purpose and meaning along the way.

Pope John Paul wrote, in a 1998 encyclical letter, to his Bishops addressing some of the issues of our age:

“Driven by the desire to discover the ultimate truth of existence, human beings seek to acquire those universal elements of knowledge which enable them to understand themselves better and to advance in their own self-realization. These fundamental elements of knowledge spring from the wonder awakened in them by the contemplation of creation: Human beings are astonished to discover themselves as part of the world, in a relationship with others like them, all sharing a common destiny. Here begins, then, the journey which will lead them to discover ever new frontiers of knowledge. Without wonder, men and women would lapse into deadening routine and, little by little, would become incapable of a life which is genuinely personal.” ¹

Human beings have always struggled for survival, and the struggle must have been quite intense fifty or one-hundred thousand years ago. During the formative days of Canada, the struggle for survival was still apparent and many, many people suffered immensely and even died trying to make their way in that new land. In this day and age, very few struggle for survival but to find purpose and meaning in life. Our decades of prosperity have provided great comfort, but have not made us any more fulfilled.

There is a great awakening at new levels of our hearts and minds, and we are all faced with new problems. The advancement of science and technology is causing radical changes on every front, major shifts in thinking within all disciplines and bodies of knowledge, leaving us fewer reference points to anchor our beliefs. It seems almost impossible to get a grasp of meaning amidst so many different views, ideas, theories, facts, and statistics. You could spend your whole life pondering and studying and not come up with any suitable answers.

The deep questions of life have been the aim of all philosophy and religion for the six-and-a-half thousand years of recorded human history. Now, we have hundreds of religions and millions of views. In Christianity alone, there are some 34,000 independent churches. The largest religious system in the world has gone through some major shifts in its fundamental doctrines. The Catholic Church has shifted from exclusivism to inclusivism, from Heaven and Hell being places to states of mind or being, and to the acceptance of some evolution theories. Everything we once believed is being rethought and is likely going to change, and they should, as this is our human evolution. We used to think the Earth was flat and the center of the universe but, as we evolved, we realized these ideas were not the case.

Change in core beliefs is frustrating and leaves us with a similar sense of insecurity that the struggle for survival left our ancestors. But this kind of change is a positive and wonderful thing if we can understand it, embrace it, and look forward to new growth, new understanding, and new experiences. Change is what every living creature experiences physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Every one of our billions or trillions of cells completely change, making us a completely new human being every seven years. Our belief systems change with every new experience and piece of information we take in. Change at this level is not noticeable to the human eye and, in fact, we sometimes don’t even recognize it at all. Nevertheless, the fact is that we do change. It is the human condition to grow and change, and that is all that life really asks of us.

Choosing a belief system

One of the areas in which we resist change the most is that of our belief systems. We feel the need to believe that the way we see and experience life is correct, but the truth is that we all see through the glass dimly and with a certain amount of flaw. Our belief systems are simply formed by the information and experiences we have taken in through our different senses, mostly our ears and eyes. You can change your belief as simply as changing the information and experiences you take in. If you grew up in the West and experienced the loving believers of the right-wing Baptist Church – truly caring human beings – and learned all about the doctrines they teach, you would come to believe that system to be the truth. If you then moved to the East and spent time with a Jewish family and lived among the wonderful, caring community of believers there, you would soon come to believe their faith. You will have experiences that prove one or the other to be either true or false in your mind.

The point here is that our belief systems are based on whatever information and experiences we have been exposed to. God, to use the term loosely, is not going to fault you because you may misunderstand or misinterpret the data that has entered your mind. She could not possibly be that small.

As much as you believe your faith is the truth, it is rather more a matter of choice: A ‘choice’ to accept a religious belief system that was formed by the institutions and organizations that fed your mind, combined with the experiences you have had. Don’t confuse ‘believing’ with ‘knowing’: They are not the same. People’s faiths are their ‘beliefs’, not the conscious knowledge of knowing. Faith cannot be proven: That’s why it’s called ‘faith’. If you think you know, then what your faith is producing is the fruit of arrogance instead of humility, which means you are most likely off-track.

This kind of faith leads many to coerce others into believing what they themselves believe, thus narrowing faith and limiting growth while putting God into a nice little box of their own understanding. As Mahatma Gandhi says:

“Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there and be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.”

Most think they ‘know’ because they’ve heard or experienced, but that’s all it is. Hearing and experiencing are not necessarily fact or truth. The truth is that nobody really knows anything: We are merely scratching the surface of the complexities of the human body, let alone the depth of mind. It is our goal to personally and collectively develop as we learn more about ourselves, our past, and the vastness of the universe. As Pope John Paul II says in the same encyclical letter from above:

“Humanity has been led down the centuries to meet and engage truth more and more deeply. It is a journey which has unfolded, as it must, within the horizon of personal self-consciousness: The more human beings know reality and the world, the more they know themselves in their uniqueness.”

The fact is that we all need to grow and change, become more aware, and continue to seek truth and our potential. This book is not trying to start a new religion or state a particular theological perspective. I am not trying to undermine your faith or lend to the skepticism, pluralism, or relativism of the day – I will leave that to the theologians to debate.

The answers lie in growth, not faith

My intention is to present a practical book illustrating the need for personal development, which is what I find lacking in most churches, organizations, and individuals. People tend to buy into and accept what they hear as being ‘fact’. They become programmed, and growth is more often limited than it is expanded, which is one of the true violations of humanity.

I began to see clearly how the answers to many of our problems weren’t in some faith or belief system that we could adopt, but rather in our ability to grow to new levels of awareness. It was clear that where there were low levels of awareness, there were higher levels of struggle and failure, but where there were high levels of awareness, there was success and purpose. The quality of results seemed to be in the amount of personal development that the institution, organization, or individual engaged in, which would determine its level of success and fulfillment regardless of how it was defined.

As I studied and recorded the principles and practices that lead to success in a variety of areas in life, it became clear that from success to salvation, personal development was the issue. The answers to our problems lie in our growth, not in our belief systems. Albert Einstein put it so well in this simple, but utterly profound, quote:

“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.”

In this life of extreme complexity, constant change, and development as a species, it is crucial that we personally engage in not just formal education, but personal development, as well: Raising our level of awareness in all areas of life if we are to succeed and have a promising future for ourselves and our children.

One of the greatest reasons for mistake and failure in life is to base beliefs and actions on wrong assumptions. Assuming that we understand something in its full leads to all kinds of arrogance and wrongs, as it has been said that more wrongs and evil in this world have been committed by people who knew exactly what they were doing. Our arrogance and insecurity lead to all kinds of problems and limit growth. We humans are evolving, and what we used to believe is simply not so anymore. What we used to believe about our faith, medicine, science, planet, and our bodies changes with every new advancement in technology or turn of the archeologists’ shovels. No one body of knowledge or even religion has the answer for mankind – we only have the opportunity to grow to new levels of understanding and seek out our true human potential, which comes from our personal and collective growth and development.

Perhaps the greatest philosophical personality in history was Socrates. Born in 469 BC, Socrates believed the philosopher’s task was to provoke people into thinking for themselves, and he stressed the need for analytical examination of one’s beliefs. In this day and age, it is crucial that we examine our beliefs and learn to fully think for ourselves. This is the true goal of mankind and personal development.

We can, as individuals and organizations, lead lives full of purpose and meaning, truth, and value as we continue to evolve into ever more conscious beings. We can become much more alive seekers, creating lives full of experience, passion, and the abundance of all the world and beyond has to offer. For many of us, this journey is just beginning, and I hope that this book can be a positive contribution: To provide some practical steps on how to create fundamental change and passion that will result in a positive impact in life and the world we live in. I believe this subject to be at the forefront of the problems we all face: The need for higher levels of consciousness and personal responsibility.

There is no ‘one’ to blame, there is only opportunity to grow and become more responsible in what we believe, how we act, and who we become. As Confucius says:

“To put the world in right order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life – we must first set our hearts right.”

Setting our hearts right

I am going to claim a certain level of expertise in the field of personal development because of what I have learned and gained in real life experiences, personal transformations, and the vision I now have. Few people have engaged, studied, applied themselves, and overcome as much as I have, and because of this – coupled with my strong desire and passion to create positive change – I have dedicated better than two years to the writing of this book.

It takes courage to write ones thoughts down and submit them to public scrutiny, but I feel I have the obligation to make this contribution in the hope that it will open up dialogue, challenge thinking, and simply add to our need to grow and change. As the saying goes:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”²

I believe all of us have a valuable contribution to make because of our particular experience and perspective on this world, especially the younger people. I recall a Rabbi once saying that our children can see much further standing on our shoulders: The wise elders must give way to the vision of their children as the youth strive for a world of splendor that I believe we can have.

Truthfully, I don’t even know what makes an expert, anyway. Is it due to how much you have studied? Does the education you received from a prestigious university make you an expert? Does your personal journey, your triumphs or transformations, make you an expert? Webster’s dictionary defines an ‘expert’ as “one who has special skill or knowledge”. That being the case, then I qualify.

In regards to personal development, and even success, we know that formal education will not do it alone. Degrees and PhDs do not mean that you have grown personally, for there are many PhDs who still behave like young children who have little to no understanding of themselves, let alone their neighbors. A degree from school may get you a good job, but it does not necessarily contribute to a good life. Education is part of the process, but is often misunderstood. The Dalai Lama says:

“One problem with our current society is that we have an attitude towards education as if it is there to make you more clever, make you more ingenious. Sometimes, it seems as if those who are not highly educated, those who are less sophisticated in terms of educational training, are more innocent and more honest. Even though our society does not emphasize this, the most important use of our knowledge and education is to help us understand the importance of engaging in more wholesome actions and bringing about discipline within our minds. The proper utilization of our intelligence and knowledge is to effect changes from within to develop a good heart.”³

It is also a well-known fact that where there are low levels of education, there are high levels of crime, abuse, drugs, alcohol, and worse. Spend some time in the poor districts and ghettos of any major city and try to understand the mindsets of the people: It’s not that these people are not intelligent – in fact, many of them are extremely brilliant, creative, and talented. I know, because I have been there and done that.

What I found are low levels of awareness and a lot of misdirection. I grew up in a broken home with an average family that argued a lot. I found myself influenced by all the wrong people, and had an early life full of poor choices which lead me to jail by 16 years-old and a continuing spiral down the wrong path until my early 30s. Fortunately, I kept questioning life and then engaged in personal development, which has lead me through tremendous personal transformation in all areas of life. I have read and applied principles and practices from over 500 of the best books, tapes, and seminars on personal development, which is what we will discuss in the following chapters.

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt