439. Who's Holding the Keys ?

As a being of Power, Intelligence and Love and as the Lord of your own thoughts, YOU hold the key to every situation and contain within you the trasformative and regenerative agency by which you can make of yourself whatever you will.

438. Things to Cherish

"Cherish your visions, your ideals, the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the lovliness that drapes your purest thoughts for most of them will grow delightful conditions all heavenly enviornment; of these, if you remain true to them, your world will at last be built." - James Allen. VOI CHE SAPETE (FROM THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO)

437. Power of Thought

"Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things andother people, they will alter towards him. - James Allen.

436. Lost Opportunities

Never turn down an opportunity because of unreasonable fears about what might happen. Prudence dictates that we should be cautious but a cool assessment of the risks involved will give you an action plan in case things go wrong.

435. Can't or Won't

Contrary to popular belief, there is very little that we cannot do. The real choice is between "will" and "won't". People usually say a thing can't be done in order to disguise the fact that there is a choice. What they really mean is that they don't want to do it or don't want you to do it.

434. Realism Vs Optimism

In a sense, optimism is the opposite to realism. Realism is a useful mind-set when making some decisions such as setting out your budgets, but don't fall into the trap of using this mode of thinking for all situations. It can lead you to pessimism and depression.

433. Taking Responsibility

Tread a careful path between taking too much and too little responsibility. Only take as much credit as you consider your due. Do not duck your responsibilities or ignore problems until they grow out of proportion. Always remember that the best time to kill a monster is while it is still small. When considering relationships with other people or institutions, remember that the appropriate measure of responsibility is that you should take 100% responsibility for yourself and 50% responsibility for the relationship. In other words you must be fully responsible for yourself and live up to your values. When it comes to the relationship, once you have done your part, it is up to the other party to do theirs. You do not have to control it totally, nor should you allow the other side to control it 100%. - Their responsibility, too is only 50%.

432. How do You View Failure ?

When examining failures, learn to see them as being specific events, not a general failing condition. Se them as one-offs and not patterns.

431. Your Successes

Look into yourself and take time to appreciate all those things that you have achieved already, the skills you have gained, things you have built, people you have loved and the books you have read and written. Learn to consider your successes to last for all time and to cover a large range of activities. Remember to start and maintain your victory log. This is an important document as it may be the only thing you have to keep you cheerful when things get rough.

430. Optimism

Be optimistic rather than pessimistic. Optimists achieve more and live longer. Optimists are better liked and tend to have better relationships.

429. Hard Decisions

Do not shrink from difficult decisions or questions. They will have to be faced sooner or later and the sooner you face them, the quicker they are resolved.

428. Warning !

Never ignore a warning. Halt your plan until you have checked it out.

427. Train with all your heart, 30% Rule

Remember that when training in the Martial Arts, it will be a lot tougher on the street. You will only be able to deploy about 30% of your skill and strength when you are under real pressure. For that reason, when you are training put all of your mind body and heart into it. That way you will have more to use in your 30%. The more you sweat, the less you will bleed.

426. Beware of Prizes

A prize can be held out to two or more people in such a way as to make the competition between them so fierce that they forget their own ambitions, duties and plans. This leads to strife for them and ultimately, destruction.

425. Immediate Implementation and Respect

Implement all your good habits plans and ideas immediately, otherwise they will never get done. That way you will be respected and not treated as a child.

424. Make it Clear that You are in Control

Hear people's complaints and petitions personally. Avoid showing too much favour to your closest friends or making them too powerful.

423. Catherine de Medici On Advisors

"The magistrates and office holders are difficult and loquacious. They spoil everything and try to control everything with their arguments, verbosity and knowledge. This makes them so overbearing and presumptious that they expect their opinions alone to be considered. It is far better, therefore, to have military men as advisors who say what they mean and are brief and to the point. They have nothing but common sense and are not lettered or opinionated. They are more easily manipulated and more naturally loyal and their intentions are easier to read." - Catherine de Medici

422. Catherine de Medici's Advice to her Son, King Henry of France

"Open and read all letters and dispatches yourself. Do not leave the job to secretaries who might respond without consulting you. This way you show the hand of a Master." - Catherine de Medici.

421. Your Critical Faculties

Keep your critical faculties sharp. When you hear a report either favourable or unfavourable about a person, place or thing, do not simply accept it at face value. Find out the real agenda behind the report - where the person making it is coming from. To what extent are they likely to benefit from the actions you may take based on it ? Cui bono ? (Who benefits?)  Always favour disinterested reports over biased or coloured reports, the one by the person who has nothing to gain or lose by any actions you may take. Always react neutrally to reports so that others won't be afraid to give you bad news and so that they can't know from your reaction what your plans are. (None of their flamin' business.) ~Treat all nformants on a need to know basis.

420. Whatever is Measured gets Improved

In order to become efficient, learn to measure everything that you do. Make it a habit. Begin to set parameters for yourself and learn to live by the numbers in order to develop a real feeling for the significance for all your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

419. The Relationship between Budgeting and Poverty

Make friends with your budget. Create one from scratch and keep refining it. Always live within it - this will make you disciplined about money. Your budget is your first line of defence against poverty. Without one, hou have no hope of avoiding red-lining. Keep your budget under review, line by line and week by week. It is not enough just to create it and file it away. It must be a document that you live by.

418. Record Keeping

Keep copies of all correspondence both incoming and outgoing. Keep everything, forever. The Law only reqires you to keep files for 7 years but you should keep it all forever. At the very least it will help you write your memoirs. Modern technology (2011) allows you to keep a huge amount of data on DVD or in cyberspace. Institute a properly indexed filing system for all your papers and maintain it carefully.

417. Enid Blyton on being an Only Child

"You can't help being an only child. They are always a bit odd unless they are very careful. Children who have others around them are taken out of themselvves and don't have time to brood or sulk or get into a temper...." -Enid Blyton.

An only child has all the advantages and disadvantages of being the eldest, youngest and middle child as well as all those in between. I you are wise, you will learn from all of these.

416. Physical Security

Keep the security of your home strong. Fit dead bolts, 5-lever locks, anti-ram hinges and whatever new physical barriers that come on the market from time to time. Keep your alarm system serviced, armed and up to date. Fit video surveillance systems. Conduct a review of your security arrangements every 6 months.

415. Other Peoples' Wars (OPW)

Have nothing to do with religious wars or racial conflicts. These forms of madness are simply brand loyalty taken to extremes. Whenever you see it, ask "How has this brand become so successful?"

414. Vision and Insight

Do not allow appearances to cloud your vision and insight into the truth of things. Look, listen and smell for the signs of truth in any matter. Seek WISE counsel, second opinions, agent's reports etc. Act only when you are as near to 100% certain as you can be.

413. Value

Learn the value of things - do not give away that of greater value for that of lesser.

412. Get a Grip and Keep it

Come to grips with everything in your gift and keep a firm grasp of it all, right down to the last and finest detail.

411. Remedies for a Bad Situation

Sometimes, when a bad situation has been allowed to build up it is necessary to apply more than one remedy in order to cure it. It may be necessary to apply the same remedy over and over until the situation is eliminated. Just because it didn't work the first time doesn't mean it won't work when it has been repeated.

410. The Practice of Red-Lining

Avoid red-lining. This is the practice of getting things done just barely in time or of spending nearly all your money and being broke just before pay-day. Make a budget for yourself for every month and live within it. Do 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 year budgets. Revise and refine them regularly. Train yourself to live on 19 - 20% of your income and use the rest in accordance with the income allocation plan set out above.

409. The Life of a Highwayman

In Post No. 408 the advice was to secure at least one academic qualification. Always bear in mind a piece of wisdom from the Jewish tradition that goes like this : "The man who fails to give his son a trade is preparing him for the life of a highwayman." This means that you should give your son all the education and training needed so that he can make a decent living honestly and with integrity. In your case, you are studying horsemanship, matrial arts, drama, typing and rugby. These are all disciplines that can provide you with a good living if you teach them once you have become proficient in them. You should do the same for your sons and daughters.

408. Academic Qualifications

Whatever else you may do in life, make it a priority to secure for yourself at least one strong and solid academic qualification. Even if you eventually end up doing something completely diffeent, your qualification(s) will always be respected and can be worth, on average 15% extra income to you every year. This 15% extra could fund a very nice retirement for you if invested well from day # 1.

407. Your Own Agenda

In all cases, be crystal clear as to what your agnda is. Do everything to advance it and nothing to obstruct it. Have due regard to the season in which we live. Sometimes it is wiser NOT to speak your mind. If it harms your agenda, don't say it !

406. Understanding

Cultivate your innate ability to understand the demands of every situation

405. Symbols of Attainment

Whenever you achieve something or accede to power in some way, create a symbol to represent this fact. Symbols speak to the unconscious mind and are more powerful than words. When symbols are awarded to you such as gradings in the Martial Arts, belts, guruships, diplomas, degrees movie parts etc., consciously make time to go into your private place, your ashram or poustinia and contemplate these symbols, make this contemplation part of your daily ritual.

404. Being A Warrior

Be a brave warrior, courteous, chivalrous, kind and learned. Read, train and study all your life.

403. Act Swiftly, Act Decisively

Always act swiftly and decisively. Do not dither. In Martial Arts, when threatened, you have to decide whether to fight or surrender. If you decide to fight, know the sequence of moves you will make and commit 110% to them and see it through to the end. Adopt this philosophy in life and act decisively and swiftly once you have made your mind up.

402. Taxation

Study the tax laws. The most iniquitous tax you will ever pay is the one you impose on yourself (by failing to find out how to avoid it.) At the very lowest level of tax education, you should at least find out and list all the tax reliefs you can find. Then list the ones that definitely apply to you and enter them on your tax return. Next, find methods for applying the rest to yourself. Every day study a new loophole in the system and take a step towards benefiting from it. Seek to maximise the tax-deductible expenses in your life. Read a section of the Department of Finance website and the Revenue Commissioners website and take notes ! Every 6 months conduct an in-depth review of your tax situation. Vow never to pay a penny more in taxws than you have to. Keep your bookkeeper busy !

401. Flattery vs Sincere Praise

Beware of flatterers for they will turn on you when it suits them. Learn to recognise sincere praise and distinguish it from the words others think you want to hear. To help you in this, cultivate a taste for bald truth. Prefer it to euphemism. You may have to use diplomacy yourself but always try to see through the diplomacy of others. Always prefer to hear the truth, however unpleasant it may be, than to hear a pleasant lie. For that reason, always encourage those around you to speak the truth pleasantly and discourage pleasant untruths. 

Study the situations of others; see where their interests lie. Then you will be able to judge the truth of what they say for they will always speak for their own interests. (By interests here we mean those things that are of advantage to them, not their hobbies).

400. Don't Get Too Far Ahead

Do not make the mistake of getting too far ahead of your own troops lest you find yourself cut off and caught in the cross-fire or surrounded and captured.

399. On Enemies

You do not have to DO anything in particular in order to create or acquire enemies. Simply by being the way you are and by doing the things that you do, jealousy, hatred, envy, opposition, a desire to steal from you, and to destroy what you seek to achieve will arise in the world. Strive always to be stronger and smarter than your enemy. Do not allow wars to drag on (they will drain your resources). Act swiftly and efficiently and where possible in such a way that your enemy does not know that it was you who acted against him.

398. Execution

Move quickly and decisively and boldly once you have decided on a course of action but do not move at all until you have a very clear set of outcomes an goals fully formed in your mind. Once you have embarked on a course of action do not cease in your efforts until you have achieved your results. Then immediately set about consolidation. i.e. make the most of what you have achieved. Once you have consolidated, begin on a course of gradual organised expansion. Do not over-extend yourself as this will expose your weaknesses to your enemies.

397. Good and Bad Turns

Never forget a kindness done to you, nor a disservice. More importantly, never forget the lessons you learn from the bad turns done to you.

396. Alliances

When necessary, make use of allies but do not trust them fully and always remember that you never have permnent friends or enemies, only permanent interests.

395. Survival

In order to survive in times of war and unrest, you need to develop initiative and creativity. When things go pear-shaped, you need to be able to profit from it.

394. Plan for the Future

Plan for the well-being of your descendents. Plan at least 3 generations ahead. My grandparents and parents planned for my well-being by making sure I received an education that allowed me to make a living. Your responsibility to the future generations is to take what has been passed on to you, improve on it and pass it on to the next crew to take over from us. Keep this journal and add to it the wisdom you acquire personally and preserve the knowledge for your children and grandchildren. Pass on any wealth you gain for them so that they may continue to live in prosperity. Try to ensure that they choose wisely in the spouses they pick because they should avoid divorces. Divorces weaken the wealth that we are working to build. It can be difficult to do this without trying to control the children too closely when they become adults but with wisdom and diplomacy you should be a great influence (for good) on them.

393, Diversification

Maintain a business policy of diversification. It allows you to retain power without relying on any one source. Keep on growing and changing.

392. Hostages and Promises

"Never offer a hostage needlessly to those you have made promises to." - Giovanni de Medici (Pope Leo X).

391. Changes of Policy

"Remember that whenever circumstances change materially so too must your policies."  -Giovanni de Medici ( Pope Leo X).

390. Controlling Institutions and Machiavellianism

Whatever institution you wish to control learn its mechanisms from the inside. Expand your power by whatever means are possible (- Lorenzo The Magnificent (Medici) and Nicolo Maciavelli). Plan far in advance ( 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 year plans are vital.) and use the utmost deviousness. Maintain your "Libero segreto" (secret journals) and keep them closely hidden.

389. Prepare for Exile

Be prepared to embrace exile. If the political, social or economic climate becomes intolerable, have contingency plans in place to move yourself and your assets out of the juristiction in an orderly fashion, speedily and with a minimum of loss or fuss. Revisit these plans every year and keep them up to date. Using your values and hierarchy of values, establish break points for yourself, at which your decision to move will be made. e.g. if the tax rate goes to 50% or if certain laws are passed that would prevent you from doing what you are legitimately entitled to do. These break points will keep your mind clear on these issues. Be clear and clear and clear.

388. On Starting a New Enterpise

"Whenever you start a new enterprise, send out a questionnaire asking 10 or 100 of your friends for feedback to see what improvements can be made." - Qamir Hussein

387. What to Do in a Dispute.

Act decisively wthen there is a dispute. Either move swiftly to use your charm and generosity to heal the rift or strike at once to eliminate the threat. Stand or fall down but for God's sake, don't wobble !

386. Enid Blyton on Anger

It is a mistake to let anger cloud your thinking. Never throw away or destroy what might be very useful to you out of sheer anger.

385. Enviornment

The kind of life you want to live can be facilitated or hindered by the location or enviornment you are in. You may have to re-locate to attain your life plan.

384. Rituals

Do not think lightly of rituals simply because they form part of religions. Sometimes they are all you have to get you through a tough situation.

383. Inexplicable Behaviour

Whenever someone appears to act against their own interests, it could be because they no longer care or it could be a desire (conscious or unconscious) to fail or it could simply be attention seeking.