Focusing Forward - Lesson Learned.

"well stated, indeed there is much to consider and when you need to keep with the pulse of the network, and the machine there is not much time for much sleep. Thanks for sharing the sentiment it is appreciated. How many years were you working as an IT Consultant?"  

"....about 30 years...I held various entry level management and technical positions and finally moving to Consultant status because managing  careers of 40-60 people when you have a lousy executive VP as your boss is not good or healthy.   I did not want to put peoples careers on the chopping block and miss-lead or get their hopes up (because management said to) because it will cause me ill-fate on my performance record if I don't.....  Where I had worked, I found management types were people who wanted the be the focal point, wanted the glory, the ultimate word...but were not the personable caring types of people who would help you with your career.....their bottom line is the money......and personal glory and gratification of being on Top.......the real people are ones who are the backbone of the corp and those are the hardworking, low paid workers who don't get the respect and recognition they deserve......."

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    Yeah probably for the best, it is that profit motive that can make or break a person. And to go against your own thoughts only because management says so is like being, just another pawn on a large chessboard. It is interesting though as I also consider that I strive to be an IT Consultant but as an independent entity, that takes care of my network and others that I may setup, not so much an on the job type of person, rather I would use my talents and abilities how I see fit, to make the decisions as an independent entity, a human being, who understands and realizes that within myself there is growth opportunities.

    The job is the traditional view but in that you do deal with the upper level types, and sad to say they are really only accountable to the shareholders, or a board in the upper echelon of some unnamed office building, where decisions are made like a chess game is played, the only objective increasing the bottom line regardless of what sacrifices that may entail. It is a sad but true story, and by making up your own mind to live your life to see how you choose, that is commendable and bravo to that. I have dealt with the same experiences, and I chose to no longer be a pawn even if I was aware from the outset that it would not be easy. Regardless of the work it may consist of it made sense to me to make my best effort, not even aware that the economy may go south, instead only aware that there are better things then just working a job no matter the pay they may offer.

    Whether I read to much into it or not, your statements hold so true and in your sentiment I really started to think and to remember those challenges I faced when in the job market, a slave to money, barely surviving and having to live a frugal life, simply because I made the mistake of putting all my eggs in one basket, and thinking the traditional idea held true. I learned the hard way, when I had a job that paid well, and seemed like it was something that would last, until I became a target of the management, and my only income being from that job when I lost that job the income stopped. This after I had rented my first apartment, and was getting my life together, the problem was I put it all in one basket, and if there is a hole I lose it all. After becoming a target it was only a matter of time, and the day came when I was told not to come back tomorrow. There I was, no money, no job, and an apartment that still had bills that needed to be paid, everything based on the income from a job, that ended far to suddenly and really it took me awhile but I eventually recovered. The point is that in this day and age, no matter how difficult that situation was, I chose to learn the hard lesson and to redirect my focus on making sure it did not happen again.

    I am not claiming to be a millionaire, instead I am claiming my own particular independence through pride in what I do, the enjoyment of writing and the experience of learning, to keep a website alive, to incite thought by inspiring people to realize there is more to it then the generally expected journey. That the job is nice, but you never know if it could end tomorrow and in that a life lived in fear, is that a life lived at all?

realizing the power of you as an individual.

If man no longer finds any meaning in his life, it makes no difference whether he wastes away under a Communist or a capitalist regime. Only if he can use his freedom to create something meaningful is it relevant that he should be free. That is why finding the inner meaning of life is more important to the individual than anything else and why the process of individuation must be given priority.

- Man & His Symbols p222 by Carl G. Jung

When I consider what it means to focus forward this quote seemed to say quite alot more then I could about the situation, because really when you consider it, to focus forward means to step outside the comfort zone of your life. Unless of course as the quote aptly states, regardless of the regime, not taking action, not making the choice to change is just fine. To truly take the step in the right direction to progress requires each person who wants to progress to take that first step. To realize we can do more when we live life fully then let life control our every aspect of our existence.

So to focus forward is to step it up, to make the first steps to make a change, to say outloud

I am tired of life controlling me, instead I am making the quality decision now to progress in my existence, it's my life and I am in control of it.

In that simple statement, that particular mantra to speak it with conviction means right here and right now you are looking at stepping out of the regime, moving away from the commonly held views and making a quality decision to focus forward in your life and to help others do the same. What are your thoughts on that? Share it in the comments.

Understanding Unconcious via Dream Sessions

A man likes to believe that he is the master of his soul. But as long as he is unable to control his moods and emotions, or to be conscious of the myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into his arrangements and decisions, he is certainly not his own master. These unconscious factors owe their existence to the autonomy of the archetypes. Modern man protects himself against seeing his own split state by a system of compartments. Certain areas of outer life and of his own behaviour are kept, as it were, in separate drawers and are never confronted with one another.

via Man and His Symbols

When we as people realize, that change is not an easy process, but a necessary one to progress in your own life, and once you have reached that consensus between you and the person in the mirror to make the necessary changes to grow and progress through life, it is at that moment the real challenge begins. Change is surely a necessary step to make that change you must start to make deeper changes. Though you may be compartmentalized in your mind and concious and unconscious self to truly make the necessary change to truly progress you must take the time to analyse your own life, and not just the concious life but the unconscious life so far as you can explore it.

To make that specific change the first step would be to take the time to write down your dreams and your ideas, as their are many clues often in a dream that you may not be fully aware of until you take that time each morning to write out what you dreamt of the night before. Meaning, before you get up in the morning take a few moments to slowly welcome the day to keep the dream images fresh in your mind and when your eyes slowly open have a journal with a pencil ready and just write, use keywords look for clues in the dream through it's images. As I have begun to do just that myself, I feel it has opened my eyes to taking the steps towards the change that is so necessary to truly live life fully. So I begin, reading Man and His Symbols, by Carl G. Jung, and using, Tony Rice's Dream Dictionary to help you interpret these ideas and images. Both resources I use on a regular basis and have found them to be an important part of the process of initiating the necessary change. Both Consciously and Unconsciously, meaning by grasping the power and abilities within yourself we are all able to make the quality decision to Focus Forward in our lives don't you agree?

More About Dream Sessions Can Be Found @ http://dreamsessions.blogspot.com take some time to look it up and explore it.

Focus Forward - To Exist Fully in Your LIfe.

I had always been impressed by the fact that there area a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way. I was also surprised to find many intelligent and wide-awake who lived (as far as one could make out) as if they had never learned to use their sense organs: They did not see the things before their eyes, hear the words sounding in their ears, or notice the things they touched or tasted. Some lived without being aware of the state of their own bodies.
There were others who seemed to live in a most curious condition of consciousness, as if the state they had arrived at today were final, with no possibility of change, or as if the world and the psychic were static and would remain so forever. They seemed devoid of all imagination, and they entirely and exclusively depended upon their sense-perception. Chances and possibilities did not exist in their world, and in "today" there was no real "tomorrow." The future was just the repetition of the past.

from Man and His Symbols

When I saw this particular statement from Man and His Symbols, I thought about it and realized how appropriate it is to the Focus Forward Project, as the pet project that it is, and understood how correct it truly is. So much so I felt it should be shared and so here it is.

As we as people have a choice, to actually exist to live life fully or just sit on the backside and let the days fly by until you reach the end of your dash. The choice is where the power is but truly it is you and the person in the mirror who truly must reach a consensus to make that change, to expand the mind and see beyond what has always been accepted even if it did not have to be near the same.

Why not you as a person, with the free will that was given to you from so many years back, why not make the choice to make a change, to start now in this first month of January 2009, to set the resolution by year end to make the quality decision to start living your life, to experience what it is fully.

Life is for living not just existing so make the change to make some progress, it takes that first step to progress beyond now, so why not step it up and move your backside off the chair and enjoy this life, this blessing that is your life. Will you make that choice? If not why, share your comments down below.