Kill Your Complacency

Wake up America! Proceed with caution. Quite possibly some of the following suggestions might aide you in your effort to raise your level of consciousness, become more alert and active. Avoid the daily brainwashing of the popular media and think.

1. Lose the ego - The next time you think that you deserve something because you're so great, try to instead of a way that you could improve. Check your ego at the door at the next brainstorming session at work, and instead try to participate to find the best solution to the problems at hand.

2. Release the animal within you, get a dog - Or any other animal. They don't care about time, they don't care about the laws of the land, or anything else that we people invent. They only care about what is going on in THE NOW. They can help you to live in the now, and to be a leader. They look up to you and will obey you, but only if you lead them, only if you show them that they have no other choice but to follow you.

3. Turn off the television - Turn it off, along with the radio. Try to drive one morning to work without the commercials blaring in your ear. Instead of plopping down in front of the commercial pumping television set one night, tend to your home, your yard, or your family.

4. Change your routine - Take a different route to work, get up earlier, whatever it is, change something about your daily routine. Do something different every day and make the only thing common about your daily routine the fact that you do something different from day to day.

5. Stand up straight, look up, acknowledge people as you walk past them - The next time that you pass someone in the hall, acknowledge them with a nod, a hello, or a wave. When you drive past someone in your neighborhood, look them in the eyes and wave to them.

6. Take the blame - Carry the burden. When something goes wrong, go with it, and then fix it.

7. Stop complaining - Take responsibility for your own happiness, stop complaining about the world around you, stop complaining about work, your car, or anything else that you want but don't have. Simply be, and enjoy being who you are, where you are, with who you have and what you have. Take a deep breath, look around, and choose to focus your energy on improving your situation yourself, through changing things that you have control over, or taking control over the things that you need to change.

8. Lend a helping hand - It is not as difficult as it sounds, but in this world, it seems like we are physically closer to each other than we have ever been, yet we are emotionally further apart than we have ever been. Talk to each other, help each other.

9. Put down your cell phone and talk to the people around you - It always amazes me to be out to dinner and look over to a table in the restaurant or in the park and see two people together; one is staring off in boredom, and the other is yapping on the phone, or both are yapping on the phone to other people. What is so much better about talking to someone on the phone versus talking to and enjoying your present company? Stop the chatter, and enjoy the company of those around you.

10. Exercise - Get out and exercise. Stand up, walk around the office, stretch every now and then. Especially if you have a desk job, get up at least once an hour and walk around, jog out to your car and back, stretch in your cube, whatever you need to do to get the blood flowing again.

These are just some ideas to help wake up and live better. Get back to the roots of America and stop lusting over useless crap that we don't need and can't afford.