What are we doing now to live sustainably on the earth while fulfilling our survival, success and transcendent needs?

Your Purpose:

• Are we basing and aligning our individual needs, innovative projects and ideas based on available environmental, social and economic resources;based on our individual rights, values and perceptions with advice and collaboration from wise mentors; to become sustainable andto attain self-fulfillment, universal power and peace?

• Using organic farming, sustainability and aquaponics as a teaching model:

• Measuring the quality of how we take care of things

• Building lasting symbiotic relationships

• Giving more than we take

• Allowing nature to be our teacher

• Asking questions to find innovative solutions to make the world a better place

• Being respectful and responsible to self, family, community, environment

• People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. - John C. Maxwell

• “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” - George Bernard Shaw

• "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.” - John Cassis

Life Tips

• Do things now that we won't regret later.

• Seek high quality of life on less income/no debt/reduce needs and impact on environment

• Be the change you wish to see in the world. – Gandhi

• "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." - Aldo Leopold

• "Another flaw in the human character is that everyone wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance." -Kurt Vonnegut

• "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix

• “Happiness is only real when shared.” - Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

• How can we help make the world sustainable for 7 billion people now and for future generations?

• Structure life in accordance with the values of family, community, justice, and the health of our planet.

• Creating Healthy Long-Term Relationships and Balanced Living = win/win

• Both needs met - give more than you take

• Be a reporter - find out what they need

• Avoiding Unhealthy Short-Term Relationships = win/lose or lose/lose

• Take and don't give, focus on long-term win/win

Happy People…

• Happy people do a lot of things:

• They spend time expressing gratitude, cultivating optimism, practicing kindness, nurturing loving relationships, committing to meaningful goals, savoring life’s little pleasures, and so on and so forth.

But they NEVER…

• Mind other people’s business.

• Seek validation of self-worth from others.

• Rely on other people and external events for happiness.

• Hold on to resentment.

• Spend prolonged periods of time in negative environments.

• Resist the truth.

• Not let fear rule their life.

No Regrets

Bronnie Ware, author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, worked in palliative care, in a place where she says “patients would go to die” and she “was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.” She asked the patients “about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently.” Through this unique experience, Bronnie discovered five common themes:

• “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” (This was the most common response.)

• “I wish I didn’t work so hard.” (Every male patient Bronnie nursed gave this response.)

• “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”

• “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

• “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

Live a Fulfilling Life

• Keep life simple.

• Practice being satisfied.

• Beware of indecision.

• Practice cheerfulness.

• Learn to like people.

• Live and let live.

• Adversity teaches.

• Don’t take yourself so seriously.

• Have a sense of humor.

• Practice objectivity.

• Tolerate your own mistakes.

• Forgive yourself.

Basic skills that should be taught in high school

• Personal Finance, which would include balancing a bank account, How to shop wisely, and Understanding Credit and Compound Interest (AKA how to not get messed up by credit card companies!)

• Law. This would include Your Constitutional Rights, State, County, and Municipal Laws, Dealing with the police, and Basic Contracts.

• Basic Biology: How babies are really made. How to avoid STD's. Drugs and the Consequences of their abuse.

• Home Economics. (I know it's not new) This should be REQUIRED for everyone. Everyone should know how to cook a decent, nutritious meal, do their own laundry and shine their own shoes.

• Basic Home maintenance: How to unclog a sink. How to fix a leaky faucet. How to Spackle and paint a wall. How to properly clean a carpet. How to hang a picture. How to hang blinds and curtains.

• Etiquette. By this I mean basic good manners, not which fork to use how to wear a tie. I mean How to comport yourself in public with common courtesy and consideration.

• Critical Thinking. How to deconstruct a newscast or article. How to tell if you are being lied to. How to understand what advertising does and how marketers try to influence you.

The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith

• People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

• Love them anyway.

• If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

• Do good anyway.

• If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.

• Succeed anyway.

• The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

• Do good anyway.

• Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

• Be honest and frank anyway.

• The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

• Think big anyway.

• People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

• Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

• What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

• Build anyway.

• People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

• Help people anyway.

• Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

• Give the world the best you have anyway.

Unalienable Rights for Americans (for now): Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

• The right of self-government

• The right to bear arms for self-defense

• The right to own, develop, obtain, and dispose of property

• The right to make personal choices

• The right of free conscience (freedom of religion)

• The right to choose a profession

• The right to choose a mate

• The right to beget one’s kind

• The right to assemble

• The right to petition

• The right to free speech

• The right to a free press

• The right to enjoy the fruit of one’s labors

• The right to improve one’s position through barter and sale

• The right to contrive and invent

• The right to explore the natural resources of the earth

• The right to privacy

• The right to provide personal security

• The right to provide nature’s necessities—air, food, water, clothing, and shelter

• The right to a fair trial

• The right of free association

• The right to contract

• The right to know the law

• The right to cooperate with others to mutually provide personal security

• The right to educate one’s self or others

• The right to life (Meaning life and limb. Upon which all the other rights depend)

• The right to liberty (The right to travel and relocate one’s home. And the right not to be kidnapped, enslaved, or falsely imprisoned. This is also foundational)

• The right to pursue happiness. “All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness

Individual Duties

• The duty to honor the supremacy of the Creator and his laws.

• The duty not to take the life of another except in self-defense (Justified only by being falsely imprisoned, kidnapped, or under threat of loss of life or limb. Assault and battery are not sufficient cause unless there is a reasonable fear of loss of life. Nor is loss of property, though one is able to protect property short of homicide).

• The duty not to steal or destroy the property of another.

• The duty to be honest in all transactions with others.

• The duty of children to honor and obey their parents and elders.

• The duty of parents and elders to protect, teach, feed, clothe, and provide shelter for children.

• The duty to support law and order and keep the peace.

• The duty not to contrive through a covetous heart to despoil another.

• The duty to provide insofar as possible for the needs of the helpless—the sick, the crippled, the injured, the poverty-stricken.

• The duty to honorably perform contracts and covenants both with God and man.

• The duty to be temperate.

• The duty to become economically self-sufficient.

• The duty not to trespass on the property or privacy of another.

• The duty to maintain the integrity of the family structure.

• The duty to perpetuate the [human] race.

• The duty not to promote or participate in the vices which destroy personal and community life.

• The duty to perform civic responsibilities—vote, assist public officials, serve in official capacities when called upon, stay informed on public issues, volunteer where needed.

• The duty not to aid or abet those involved in criminal or anti-social activities.

• The duty to follow rules of moral rectitude.

More Info

• Cost of living

• Quality of life

• Living off the grid

• Giving instead of taking

• What are your outcomes?