Help Yourself! (Seven Ways)
These days everyone seems to want a bailout, a stimulus package, a government handout of some sort.
While you are waiting for your "check," two words of advice:
- Don't hold your breath
- Do some things to start helping yourself
I say don't hold your breath because the "check" isn't in the mail . . . The forecast in Hell is record high temperature-- no snowballs.
Helping yourself is a sure bet. Here are some of the many ways you can help yourself, starting today:
- Learn to DIY
- Work on your career
- Start a business
- Find new ways to save
- Control your finances
- Offset your food and energy bills
- Organize and work smarter
This is not an all-inclusive list . . .
What can you do today to help yourself?
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Oddly enough, I was just thinking about this "help yourself" and "help from others" theme this morning. Here is a summary of my thoughts.
I know there are people that need help, but there are drawbacks to it when it isn't necessary, warranted or right that they receive it. When we allow government to provide relief and assistance to others, we run the risk of:
- establishing expectations of continued help from "on high"
- creating dependencies instead of strength through independence and self reliance
- rewarding irresponsible behavior
- encouraging others to insist that government help
- force others to help (with their tax dollars) against their will
- encourage government to "butt in" as a nanny when they would do best to "butt out"
- empower those in government by allowing them to continue to promise more rewards for dependent behavior
- provide an excuse for the rest of us to stay home and ignore the true need of others simply because we've been trained that it's the job of government
We have to remember that what we reward will be repeated. This isn't a clever saying, it is absolutely true. If there is no penalty, then why change our behavior?
When the woman told me "the more babies I have, the more money I get," it was abundantly clear to me that we're rewarding irresponsibility and creating dependence on government.
When a friend of mine, who ran a red light and struck a highway patrol car, offered that he shouldn't have admitted responsibility so quickly because the highway patrol has special driver training and that patrolman could have avoided the accident, then I see clearly that the idea of self responsibility is melting away.
It's a shame, especially when the responsible individuals are penalized through higher taxes, more insurance requirements, more regulations, and more government to implement the regulations.
The real problem is that many government programs allow you to survive, and there are plenty of people that are happy with that. Their initiative has been dampened.
Survival isn't what our lives should be all about. If survival was in our best interest, we'd still be riding horses and writing letters with quill pens. Our mission should be to thrive, and the only way to do that is to lead your own way out of a survival and dependency mode, and stop expecting great things from others. The only great things in your life will come from your own initiative, your own sense of achievement, and your own unwillingness to be simply be a part of the masses.
If we don't believe in ourselves, I promise you that no one else ever will, and we'll never be able to better ourselves above the level of basic survival - something that deer do in the winter.
Clair
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