Today, 33% of all public high school students are dropping out. Of those who graduate high school, upwards of 70% desire to obtain a college degree. The majority do not. And of those who acquire a college degree—of deflated value—within five to ten years 70% are no longer working in a field related to their major. Some of this is acceptable, but there should be much more fulfillment and greater movement toward the American Dream. So what is happening to the dream? First, let’s define what it is or, more specifically, what many believe it is founded in, and then we will get into the particulars.

For most, the American Dream is founded in a solid education resulting in a four-year college degree (or that’s the perceived belief, yet only 28% of the population has a bachelor’s degree). So the question must be asked, exactly what does “education” mean? If you are looking to obtain something, it is always best to first and foremost get it clear as to what it is you are attempting to accomplish. This begins with definition. If you want to “love,” you better know what that term means, more specifically what it means to you, an individual definition. If you want “joy” in your life, “happiness,” “challenge,” “reward,” whatever it may be, you better get your definitions down before you even begin to set specific outcomes or goals. This all limits to the greatest degree any unnecessary aimless drifting, which happens all too often for many seeking an education as well as in obtaining goals in general. And another reason to get your definition is because an “education” is often defined for you (by government, parents, college) without your thorough understanding–which often works to the disadvantage of the educated. More on this later.

So what is “education”?

First of all, let’s take a look at what the government defines as education because it is the one that offers or mandates primary and secondary education. Post-secondary, college / university, is a separate issue. Today, the main emphasis is on science and math to supply workers for careers in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). Since this is government sponsored education, it is about feeding the economies and not about the student, a key point I’ll focus more on later.

In 2006 George Bush announced the American Competitiveness Initiative because the need for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in the 21st century is great. A main focus of education from the start has been to feed the economies, of course. America needs to make money and compete with other countries for that money via trade to maintain and improve living conditions. And training students in math and science is good, for according to the National Science Foundation (2004), half of all U.S. economic growth in the last 50 years is a result of scientific innovation.

However, what needs to be addressed here is the point that only about 5 percent of the workforce is currently employed in STEM fields. This is something that few if any are talking about, and it creates a major issue for the individuals being educated. Because of the great need for graduates in science and math to feed the economies, opinion leaders and the general public alike see these disciplines as important, of course. Generally, as you can see here, what is taught mostly in public high schools is math and science, and linguistics: three science classes (biology, chemistry, physics; alternatives are physical and life sciences), five math classes (pre-algebra, algebra I, geometry, algebra II, and trigonometry), four English classes, a few from the social sciences (world history, U.S. history, government, economics, and accounting), two years of physical education, and maybe some health and wellness classes.

The needs of the country should not be overlooked or slighted. There is a great push for STEM field workers for good reason, for the Business Roundtable (2005) believes that if current trends continue 90% of all scientists and engineers will reside outside the U.S. And since detail is critical to understanding, or being able to see a clear picture through detail and definition, here are the fourteen most burgeoning fields: Advanced Manufacturing •  Aerospace •  Automotive  •  Biotechnology •  Construction  •  Energy •  Financial Services  •  Geospatial Technology  •  Health care •  Homeland Security  •  Hospitality •  Information Technology  •  Retail •  Transportation.

Most of the information above comes from a report that was prepared by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration by Jobs for the Future (2007). To repeat, what the country needs is important, those competent in science and math; however, in an AP-AOL News poll 4 in 10 said they hated math, and I’m sure of the remaining 60% there’s not a lot of love being given complex equations. As a college instructor with over ten years experience, to get a bit of a pulse on students and their majors, over the years I’ve taken informal polls of incoming freshmen to see how many are math or science majors. Most of the time, if I’m lucky, I get one or two in a class of thirty, which makes sense, for there are currently excessive openings in STEM fields.

However, the question must be asked, of those who don’t hate math and can at least stomach it, has learning occurred? And if it has, is it being applied and to what degree? (More on this momentarily) It certainly would be nice to know if our taxes are going to good use, for we are so concerned about our children going to school, but do we really know what they are taking with them upon graduation or our ROI?

For most students, any math beyond arithmetic or a basic understanding of science is generally wasted; for really, there is little chance that even a lukewarm reception of science or math will take one far in a career and / or life. Even if most don’t use math in their careers, there are always the pro-math group that will say math is important by arguing, for instance, that one needs higher math to determine the size of one’s garden, the family budget, how to lay out the back patio and so on. The belief that a great number of high school grads will apply higher math (beyond arithmetic) to at-home applications is putting too much faith where only faith may be. Or in other words, not likely. For most people, according to uber-successful marketer Dan Kennedy, are selfish, lazy, and they’re right, meaning; once again, they are not motivated to extend themselves mathematically. Just think of the average person you know and how much they use math. You do the math.

Regardless, everyone’s been exposed to math in high school, at least from algebra to geometry to some trigonometry and pre-calculus. But to what end? Is there any surveying going on post-graduation to see how much of what has been learned (and what has been learned?) is used? Needed? Desired? Of practical, everyday, career or personal use to the graduate? Once again, I’m not saying math is unimportant, nor science. What I desire for the student is to have a more realistic understanding of math and science’s place in education. And remember, it’s the education the student defines, not anyone else. So if it’s in the student’s definition, fine. If not, fine also. The student decides. I’m basing this in the belief that we live in a free country where we are free to make our own choices.

But let’s get back to the student that doesn’t hate math and can at least stomach it, has she learned?

Most believe that because a person graduates high school or college that “education” has taken place. However, if the motivation is external, as in main interest being grades, one may get the grade but not learn, a lot of that going on. In addition, if the student is not interested in the material or doesn’t use it, it will dissipate and disappear in a short period of time. The “stickiness” of education or lack thereof is a critical part of the process that few consider. If you’ve seen that show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? you know what I speak of. It’s got little to do with “smarts” but more to do with interest and frequency of use. Even if the student has interest in what she is learning, if it is not used on a regular basis it is forgotten all too quickly. So don’t think that because your child is being exposed to particular subjects that she is getting an education, in the sense that the knowledge is retained and used for the long term. Or, for that matter, that the high school grad knows how to apply the knowledge using the much maligned critical thinking. For most that get an “education” it is study, test, purge with little understanding as why the material has been learned or how to apply it.

To support, I remember going with my wife to classes offered by the state to help our son overcome his delayed-language learning issue. We attended for several months faithfully with about ten other couples. We learned the material, applied it somewhat, and once the class was over soon forgot all about it. And this is the typical response for even people who are mature and responsible, never mind young and inexperienced. I see my seventeen-year-old daughter finishing off assignments like a hot potato, tossing them to the side as soon as possible to be forgotten and never visited again, if she can help it. And being in education for over twelve years, mostly at the college / university level, it is something I often see, hear about, and have been told directly by students.

We can’t merely give the inexperienced great knowledge with little to no practical understanding as to its reason for being, first and foremost, nor an understanding of what to do with it all after its been learned and expect them to retain it never mind use it. Basic motivation says that to get someone to go somewhere, first they have to know where they’ve been, where they’re going, and what they need to do when they get there. We are giving knowledge like a gift to never be unwrapped, seen, or utilized. A sad state of affairs indeed.

Getting back to secondary education’s main purpose, to entice more to become science and / or math majors, so therein is the injustice of a STEM based education. Many are called but few are chosen to serve. So what of the 90-95% who don’t fit the bill?

As I’ve mentioned before, we should not negate the critical need for students to fill STEM jobs (again, many going unfilled at this minute), but a critical point to consider is that a student may not be made for the STEM fields. And if this is true, trying to insert someone somewhere where they don’t belong is counterproductive, regardless of need. For in the long run, if a person does not like what she is doing, she will not do it for long, not very productively, at least. I and tens of thousands of others have been there. My advice is just don’t do it, nor should students be conditioned to believe that if they don’t fit into the STEM education system that they are dumb or should worry excessively about fitting in.

Unfortunately, this excessive focus on science and math often conditions schools and their leaders to excessively force students to learn or comply with little subjective, logical reasoning. I heard of one case where a student attempted to pass a particular math class some six to seven times to no avail. This is an utter waste of time, for the student either has learning disabilities that must be addressed or no aptitude or interest, so pass the class to what effect?

But there are critical needs for certain general knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are essential for most everyone looking to maintain an income today.

Today’s needs are certainly different from those established during the Age of Enlightenment in the mid-nineteenth century when the concept of a free education for all arose, an education model that is still used today. Early in our country’s history, education meant preparing workers for their place in the nineteenth century economies, along with some understanding of civic pride and responsibility. If you were “educated,” you were considered scholarly—good communication skills, knowledge of the classics, and an understanding of civic responsibilities. But even though the pace of society has increased, needs changed, internationalism a cold, hard fact our education system has changed little.

Today’s classrooms are still focused on dispensing material to passive students who merely accept what is given as necessary and needed in their lives or by those who do little thinking about the why’s and how’s of their education. Some say that these “children” are not ready for such independence, but that is old-school thinking of a slower, less complex time. Things have changed. Back when government first mandated education, free at the point of delivery for everyone, it was all about the Industrial Age, mass production and manufacturing were king. Today, things have changed considerably. Today, creativity is king, that which requires greater student participation and autonomy, for greater creativity, knowledge acquisition and retention, responsibility, accountability, and so forth.

Today, half of all jobs ($1.7 trillion of GDP) come from the creative sector. And with the traditional classroom of listen, study, learn and regurgitate, there is little massaging of critically needed creative and critical thinking skills. Today, many workers are creatively designing for entertainment technology, devices and applications, like never before. Today’s workers can create software for gaming systems, phones, and computers. They can create movies, like those who work at Pixar. But it’s not just animators who work there. Pixar also employs mathematicians and scientists to get those amazing, almost more real than real life pictures. But there’s more than just STEM field jobs that require creativity. There is diversity in how one may earn their way today like never before. It is the most exciting time to live and earn.

What are some of those fun, exciting, fulfilling creative jobs?

Life or career coach, Ferrari driving instructor (Really!), chocolatier, magician, disc jockey, sports writer / broadcaster, standup comic (did that myself for five years), cruise ship performer (I roomed with one who has his masters in mathematics from UCLA; makes about $2,000 a show and does dry land corporate gigs too), wedding planner, theme park designer, food or movie critic, interior decorator / designer, PR / marketing, movie / commercial director, meeting and event planner. And the list goes on and on. You can get creative yourself. That’s the beauty of this entrepreneur based society that allows each individual to follow his or her passion to great effect.  I have one client who has a passion for organizing. She tells me that when she gets a juicy job, like organizing an entire house, she gets so excited she can’t sleep at night. Now that’s not a job but a passion.

Certainly some of these jobs or careers are not traditional or difficult to make lucrative, but that shouldn’t be the reason to stop. I have met and know many very successful people who have given up very good incomes in more traditional jobs to do things they love, like selling wellness products, mustard, and scrap book building techniques. Odd as it may sound, these people moved away from their traditional jobs with very good pay for a good reason; they wanted to follow their passion. Considering that mortality is very brief, it’s much better to follow a dream to say it didn’t work out instead of should have, could have on your death bed.

But times have changed as well. No longer is it safe merely to go after the money via a job; for the job is dead what with corporate downsizing and an increase in contract and temporary work to cut costs. Today, a worker must become an entrepreneur of one creating great personal value, skills, knowledge, attitude, character to ensure a career in these economically unstable times. Jobs and economic sectors will come and go, but the worker must be a constant. And this is what each person above focused on to obtain their success. It is the only way to survive today. You must get much more than just mere tip-of-the-ice berg knowledge at college, you must build a personal foundation of great depth and breadth. I often say that most college students even upon graduation are still missing 60-70% of critical knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed today.

However, many in the workforce merely pick from the existing job menu. And that’s fine for some, but not for many. Because too many are educated via the external–such as what society deems acceptable, parents, or peers, or even colleges–and not based in intrinsic desires or the individual’s desires and needs, the college student gets into trouble. Some students may just go to the college catalog and choose from there. Or some may attempt to satisfy deficiencies by seeking jobs that will provide respect, prestige, or status. All of these are greatly attempts at failure, for greatest motivation comes internally or intrinsically utilizing one’s unique talents, abilities, gifts to mastermind a plan not merely to gain income but to provide opportunity for growth, challenge, and purpose. According to motivational expert Dan Pink, the following three elements are the main features of motivation and achievement: autonomy (freedom of choice), mastery, and purpose. The worker cannot find long-lasting, sustainable success, happiness, and joy, even, without focusing on the self, or self-interest, in an effort to master a skill to obtain great personal purpose. This can only be found through optimizing freedom of individual choice. How can anyone find mastery or great purpose doing that which one feels lukewarm about never mind hates?

I find it sad that in a creative, problem solving, entrepreneurial based society, the development of entrepreneurial skills in education are virtually ignored. We don’t think in these terms because government sanctioned education has conditioned us to think language, math, and science. What of teaching comfort with chaos, dealing with uncertainty, taking risks and enjoying them, confidence, persistence and tenacity, acceptance of failure and the ability to learn from it. Some of these attitudes and skills would also be very useful for employees too, amongst many others that should be taught that are just discovered by chance by most in the workforce, often many years into existing careers.

There’s even a popular notion of skipping college education and learning more career specific skills via classes and hands-on training or apprenticing.  In many countries in Europe, students co-op their education, roughly 40-70% attend school and work, taking a few years not four or more years to train for a place in the workforce. Far too many students obtain mere knowledge and theory and not critical attitudes and skills needed today. A great place to learn them is in the work environment itself. In addition, there are many higher education experts who see this as a waste (see Bryan Caplan’s statement below).

I worked with an English woman who didn’t go to college, who was the VP of MIS and she found it odd that so many Americans have a college degree. Neither I nor most of the programmers I worked with had a college degree and we were making very high end salaries as programmers and programmer / analysts. She said, and I quote, “The only people going to college were specializing in fields like medicine, law, and engineering.” The cost of college is twice the rate of inflation. Total loans spent have increased in the last three years by 25% going from $440 to $550. Going to college is no place to find yourself or if you get a degree you damn well be sure that you use it if you’re going to spend thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

Because of all these issues with education, some are coming up with alternative forms of achievement, such as Tim Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Work Week, who wrote “8 Steps to Getting What You Want Without a Formal Education.” He speaks to the fact that most jobs (80%) are obtained via networking and only a small percentage (20%) via adverts in the newspaper and on the Internet. He speaks to not only getting a job but building a career by going to the informal job market or networking, establishing your own credentials via experience and research, that employers require skills not degrees. Ferris is basically saying that unless your need specific training–such as one needs to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer–there are alternatives.

Here are a few more looks at education issues and the debunking of myths and mis-notions about the same from the experts at The Chronicle of Higher Education from the article “Are Too Many Students Going to College?”

Charles Murray, political scientist and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute: It has been empirically demonstrated that doing well (B average or better) in a traditional college major in the arts and sciences requires levels of linguistic and logical/mathematical ability that only 10 to 15 percent of the nation’s youth possess. That doesn’t mean that only 10 to 15 percent should get more than a high-school education. It does mean that the four-year residential program leading to a B.A. is the wrong model for a large majority of young people.

Marty Nemko, career counselor based in Oakland, Calif.: All high-school students should receive a cost-benefit analysis of the various options suitable to their situations: four-year college, two-year degree program, short-term career-prep program, apprenticeship program, on-the-job training, self-employment, the military. Students with weak academic records should be informed that, of freshmen at “four year” colleges who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high-school class, two-thirds won’t graduate even if given eight and a half years. And that even if such students defy the odds, they will likely graduate with a low GPA and a major in low demand by employers. A college should not admit a student it believes would more wisely attend another institution or pursue a non-college postsecondary option. Students’ lives are at stake, not just enrollment targets

Richard K. Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and professor of economics at Ohio University: A large subset of our population should not go to college, or at least not at public expense. The number of new jobs requiring a college degree is now less than the number of young adults graduating from universities, so more and more graduates are filling jobs for which they are academically overqualified.

Bryan Caplan, associate professor of economics at George Mason University: There are two ways to read this question. One is: “Who gets a good financial and/or personal return from college?” My answer: people in the top 25 percent of academic ability who also have the work ethic to actually finish college. The other way to read this is: “For whom is college attendance socially beneficial?” My answer: no more than 5 percent of high-school graduates, because college is mostly what economists call a “signaling game.” Most college courses teach few useful job skills; their main function is to signal to employers that students are smart, hard-working, and conformist. The upshot: Going to college is a lot like standing up at a concert to see better. Selfishly speaking, it works, but from a social point of view, we shouldn’t encourage it.

Caplan: College attendance, in my view, is usually a drain on our economy and society. Encouraging talented people to spend many years in wasteful status contests deprives the economy of millions of man-years of output. If this were really an “investment,” of course, it might be worth it. But I see little connection between the skills that students acquire in college and the skills they’ll need later in life.

Murray: A large wage premium for having a bachelor’s degree still exists. For everything except degrees in engineering and the hard sciences, I submit that most of that premium is associated with the role of the B.A. as a job requirement instead of anything that students with B.A.’s actually learn. The solution to that injustice—and it is one of the most problematic social injustices in contemporary America—is to give students a way to show employers what they know, not where they learned it and how long it took them. In other words, substitute certifications for the bachelor’s degree.

Murray: Who should pay for students to attend college? Ideally, students themselves. If that means delaying college for a few years to save money, so much the better—every college professor has seen the difference in maturity and focus between kids straight out of high school and those who have worked or gone into the military for a few years. The ideal is unattainable. But somehow we’ve got to undermine the current system whereby upper-middle-class children go to college without having to invest in it.

Murray: We have a moral obligation to destroy the current role of the B.A. in American life. It has become an emblem of first-class citizenship for no good reason.

Caplan: From a moral point of view, far too many students are going to college—just as far too many people stand up at concerts.

So what are some of these critical skills, knowledge, and attitudes that today’s employers want but students aren’t getting at college?

Most employers are looking for good communication- critical thinking- and complex reasoning skills (that which so many students lack; therefore, the majority of employers now pass over U.S. undergrads for the demanding jobs to hire those with masters degrees or foreign educations). But there is more. Since today’s graduate will change careers, not just jobs, some three to five times over a working lifetime, he or she will need to learn how to think critically, creatively, and intuitively like never before.

And I know I just mentioned creating your own business or situation, but unless you are really motivated (because it’s hard out there), best to get some experience and connections under your belt before doing so, thus a job.

As mentioned previously, half of all salaries and wages in the U.S. come from the creative sector ($1.7 trillion); therefore, it is critical to be a creative problem solver / solution finder, a creator of original ideas, a creative leader–creativity being at a premium today. In addition, the very nature of the system in which we work, capitalism and its creative destruction—destruction and creation of jobs, even economic sectors—resulting in greater turnover in these most economically turbulent times, requires one to be creative. The presence of capitalism’s creative destruction is a good reason to not merely follow job trends in choosing work, never mind a career. For soon the inherent better service / product nature of capitalism will result in, for example, Net Flix making video stores like Blockbuster obsolete, Amazon forcing Boarders to close its doors, or technological advances empowering musical artists making record companies much less significant. Therefore, one must be more agile in one’s ability to not only problem solve on the job but between jobs, even between careers, or moving from one career to the next several times over.

Students must learn how to be self-educating, for more than ever before education is not institutional but individual. With corporations staying leaner than ever before in a turbulent world job market, the new worker must see herself more as an entrepreneur than employee. The individual must be 100% accountable for his education, career(s), and life like never before. She must also emphasize such skills as being adaptive, open-minded, and self-reflecting like never before. Reliance on the government for education, a single job stream for solvency, and educational institutions for guidance and all one needs in today’s complex world no longer applies. Today’s worker must be an entrepreneur, a company of one, regardless of whether an employee or employer.

So let us get more into the specifics of these ever important skills: critical, creative, intuitive thinking.

Critical thinking is the ability to go beyond surface meaning, being able to look between, above, below, and around the lines to greater, greatest understanding, evaluating and judging, going deeper, deepest to more thorough problem solving. It’s all about learning to ask the right questions.

Creative thinking is at the foundation of critical thinking; it is divergent thinking, being able to see many possible solutions to synthesize current knowledge, understanding, and experience to create a bridge of new understanding to solution.

Finally, there is intuition, creation’s cousin. Intuition, or gut instinct, is a source of understanding or insight that resides outside the individual’s conscious mind. Some say the intuitive lies inside us in the subconscious. Others say intuition lies outside of us in the divine. Regardless, because of the current increase in knowledge, complexity, and speed of change in many fields, one can hardly rely on the limited rational mind, that which has evolved little and has not kept up with the rapid technological advances.

“Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data” John Naisbitt, best-selling author, future studies

“All human knowledge thus begins with intuitions, proceeds thence to concepts, and ends with ideas” Immanuel Kant

“The only real valuable thing is intuition” Albert Einstein

“Without creativity, knowledge would not exist” Albert Einstein

No amount of education, knowledge, or understanding will help us in many situations where problem solving is critical, for we have relatively remained the same in our capacity to take in, process, recall, and retain information while knowledge is forever increasing and technological advances proliferate. Keeping track of all this information and dealing with these rapid advances in technology adds stress, enhancing our limitations.

Consider the following example.

Because of the ever increasing knowledge gains in medicine, for example, one would think this naturally to be a good thing. The logic being that with increased knowledge there is increased chance for remedies to disease and injury. However, quite the opposite has occurred. Knowledge has increase and technology has advanced, certainly; however, the human instrument over that same time period has remained relatively the same in its extreme limitations to take in, process, and recall all this new information.

According to Dr. Atul Gawande (endocrine surgeon Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; associate professor Harvard Medical School), “Scientists continue to report important new genetic findings, subtypes of cancer, and other diagnoses—not to mention treatments—almost weekly. The complexity is increasing so fast that even the computers cannot keep up” (The Checklist Manifesto 23). He goes on to state that it’s not just clinicians that suffer this fate but “software designers, financial managers, fire-fighters, police officers, and lawyers.” Because of this, Dr. Gawande came up with a simple, yet elegant solution: the checklist. Einstein said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius–and a lot of courage–to move in the opposite direction.” Dr. Gawande imparts an important aspect of problem solving here. His simple solution has proved to be quite useful.

The above is one reason why 90% of employers rate “written communication, critical thinking skills,  problems solving and complex reasoning as very important” (Academically Adrift). To process and analyze information, problem solve, and communicate in today’s complex and knowledge swelling world, one’s mind must be in tip top shape. However, most undergraduates don’t have the above mentioned skills and because of this are often overlooked for the more complex, better paying jobs.

Way too many students come to class today without the necessary curiosity and passion needed for learning and problem solving that is critical in today’s highly complex, quickly changing, and vast world job market. But if there is a desire to think well, to discipline the mind, it is only through consistent reading, reflecting, and researching that today’s successful student will be able to find some semblance of career(s) security. Processing, manipulating, managing knowledge, the continued working of a well-tuned mind muscle must be flexed in these complex, quick paced, multiple-career times. Great achievers have done as such, but it’s more important today to the average worker than ever before. There is greater opportunity than ever before, but the destruction and creation of jobs–jobs that are generally more interesting, rewarding, but demanding and complex than ever before–demand one to be prepared and in top notch condition.

Now that we’ve gained some additional insight, let’s go back to secondary and post-secondary education and take a more detailed look at current issues and concerns.

As mentioned earlier, the number of high school dropouts has reached epidemic proportions (one out of three public school students), for many are bored or don’t see the relevance between what they are learning and the real world. They know something is wrong, not quite right, but can’t put a finger on it. And few are helping them to see what is truly afoot, that their government is focusing on STEM field jobs thus only two of the eight intelligence types (linguistics and math or logic), and if certain students don’t fit the bill, it’s their loss. This is an extremely limited education considering the variety of lively options that lie outside STEM fields. And of those who do graduate and go onto college, more and more are not graduating, or if they are graduating, they are not learning.

So what’s happening? Let’s take a deeper look.

There are more career, life, even entertainment options than ever before. There is great diversity and liveliness in today’s experience, what with television and its hundreds of channels and entertainment options; movies with tremendously appealing and fanciful visuals; the interactive Internet with its social media and video sites in which the average person becomes the involved creator; the wide variety of theme parks; and so much more. Yet to a great degree, we still teach our children the same knowledge we always have with little curriculum modernization in content or delivery, as well as to the greatest degree keep our kids in a passive, non-creative, lack of control state of being. Autonomy, as a reminder, is that which enables not only greater learning but optimized knowledge acquisition and retention, creativity, and personal accountability and responsibility, that which is most needed by today’s worker / entrepreneur. To feed our economies today, we must enable this active, creative, reflective student in the class room. The passive student is passé. In one experiment by a Duke University professor, she had students interact on a blog, commenting on each other’s writing. Interestingly, she found that without the teacher there, or having to do more restrictive, less interesting, less subjective essays, they thrived, doing some of what she discovered was their best writing.

With all this stimulation and the need to sit for hours in boring classrooms, should we wonder why so many kids in recent years have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder?

In our secondary schools, if children are found not to be interested or able to pay attention in class, an attention deficit diagnosis is assigned and the appropriate drugs prescribed, drugs that often, like most drugs, have serious side effects often creating outcomes worse than the alleged disease they are attempting to remedy. Even in general society, if one is depressed or unable to focus and concentrate, drugs are often seen as the answer. The number of over-the-counter drug commercials on television and in print media today reveals our nations comfort with the prescription. Apparently, there is a great disturbance in our youth. They can’t sit and listen, and they are so discontent with education that they are dropping out in record numbers. What is going on?

Considering that the third leading cause of death for those ages 15-24 is suicide, one must ask the question, why? There is an excess lack of motivation, hope, and commitment to education today. A great cause for suicide is a lack of understanding, a sense of drifting without purpose. In 2011, Academically Adrift came out speaking to the issue of the serious decline of higher education. A key point from the book that I’d like to focus on here is that “students stay in prolonged states of directionless shift, delay characterized more by indecision than motivated reflection, confusion than the pursuit of clear goals, ambivalence  than  determination” William Damon, psychologist.

Anyone who is young and inexperienced, who is “directionless,” full of “indecision,” “confusion,” and “ambivalence” has a greater tendency than not to lose hope. What needs to be done is to provide that hope, meaning that we need to define, explain, and inform what this thing education is really all about to the deepest level possible, the nature of the economic system they will work in, and possible difficulties and encounters in career and life that will arise. A more informed person is a more secure person; knowledge is power; and so forth.

I provide that service to my college students and clients, and you’ve never seen such an attentive, rapt group, learning things that are fundamentally true and critical to understanding to lessen indecision, confusion, and ambivalence, but unfortunately are rarely addressed. Students, the young and uninformed, need to know more about the second most important commitment to time, money, and effort that they will make in their lives–career only second to family. If we are not as transparent as we can be about education, giving as thorough an explanation to its in-and-outs in minute detail as possible, then we do them a great injustice and disservice. We are simply contributing to their confusion, ambivalence, directionless, and indecision.

Contributing factors to public high school dropout rates also has to do with the economy, where financial survival takes precedence over education. One of the core issues being the economy, of course. Education takes a back seat when mom and / or dad lose their jobs and the only chance of survival is the of-age children going to work. But the high divorce rate doesn’t help either what with there being two households to pay for rather than one. I could go on, but these are some of the major concerns.

At the college level, maximizing the student’s understanding of education and what it means is imperative, and the economy’s effects are equally as upsetting to college students, but there are some concerns regarding higher education that differ from those of high school.

What are some of the key issues affecting students today that are directly related to colleges and universities?

Some of the low graduation rate and diminished learning can certainly be blamed on universities that reward faculty more for scholarly pursuits than teaching under-graduates, but students must take some of the blame as well. The learning that is not happening can be attributed to students who have learned to “manage” their education, often taking easier classes or teachers who require less work for good grades or those that can be manipulated by students. Most of this change has occurred over the last couple decades as a result of money changing hands. Instead of money going to universities, now it goes to the inexperienced student-consumer in the form of financial aid, students who often merely go to college by default because it is the thing to do or that which his or her parents, peers, or society has advocated. Thus the student is not properly motivated and sees “college” as an obstacle to simply be navigated as quickly as possible (Academically Adrift).

But another reason for this is that no longer is a degree seen as a “sure thing” to a job and steady career; as a matter of fact, as mentioned previously, there are more with degrees than there are job openings that require a degree. This in itself is creating a lot of anxiety, doubt, and confusion.

The above lack of learning has resulted in more and more employers complaining that those with a U.S. bachelor’s degree do not have the necessary critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing / communication skills needed for more complex, demanding jobs. As a matter of fact, it has gotten so bad that many employers in the states have relegated rudimentary non-technical jobs to those with U.S. bachelors while hiring those with graduate degrees or from foreign sources for more rigorous, higher paying positions (Academically Adrift). I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.

So what’s the result of all this?

Many business leaders are concerned that today’s graduates don’t have the skills to ensure economic competitiveness. As mentioned previously, it is technology and science that drives the U.S. economies. STEM careers require complex and critical thinking skills. But even educators believe that recent organizational changes have undermined core education functions.

“Colleges and universities, for all the benefits they bring, accomplish far less for their students than they should. Many students graduate without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers . . . reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems” Derek Bok, former president of Harvard

“The quality of student learning in U.S. colleges and universities is inadequate, and in some cases, declining” Secretary Commission on Higher Education: A Test of Leadership

It’s complex and may take years before any substantial inroads are made by colleges and universities and the government into solving core issues, if they come at all. Here is a quick look at why change is not forthcoming. The statements all come from “Where Will Innovation Begin?” by Jeff Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Mel Schiavelli, a former provost and interim president at the College of William and Mary, and a former provost at the University of Delaware, has recently come up with an innovate approach to higher education. He is the president at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

First, there are “No departments. Academic departments are silos built by faculty members to further their research and careers.” Second, no tenure. And finally, no frills to cut costs: no campus (a single building), sports teams or dormitories. When Seligo asked Schiavelli if any of these innovations or similar ideas could be used at other existing universities, he states “So much of the debate about higher education in this country is driven by R1 research universities and their research needs. It’s not about teaching, and it’s not about the needs of today’s students.”

Seligo also states that “innovation just can’t happen at new universities. The last thing this country needs is more universities.” But because many administrators are afraid of losing students or investors, change, if it does come, will come too slow and too late for many students.

But the problem is that students in college now, and those shortly to come, don’t have the luxury of waiting. And that is why I and others in the private sector are coming forth with solutions today. It is critical that students are, first, made aware of the core issues of education—defining what the govt. and colleges define it as, and then specifically matching the student’s basic talents, gifts, abilities to the student’s definition of education—discovering what employers needs are, and then matching the student to the particular career, industry, and specific environment she can thrive in while supplying her with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes for adaptability. Making students the center of understanding, creating greater awareness of the true nature of education, and setting them up as self-sustaining, self-educators not mostly reliant on institutions is critical to not only overcome current education issues, but to enable their ability to thrive in these complex, volatile world job market times.

What’s the effect of not enabling students NOW with the tools they need to succeed?

“Many students come to college poorly prepared for highly demanding academic tasks . . . But, more troubling still, they enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment” Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, Academically Adrift

It is critical that students have a razor sharp, focused plan based in a solid understanding of the current education and economic environment, so that they can obtain maximum motivation, stick to a plan and carry it out. In addition they must have extensive hands-on and book knowledge about their chosen occupation, the educational requirements, and future demands for chosen occupation, as limited as that foreknowledge may be.

But what also has to be instilled in students are a serious understanding of values, morals, and ethics. These things used to be taught, like what you saw in The Social Network, the Winklevoss’ treating Zuckerberg with kid gloves even though he is the offender. They felt it wasn’t like a “Harvard man” to attack another Harvard man.

Colleges and universities used to teach values but have not done so for some time. Therefore, we can look at an indicator of how this has affected students. Consider that from 1963 to 1993 admitted cheating of students went from 26 to 52%. Employers do not want those steeped in cheating, cutting corners, and dishonesty working for their organization. So it is critical that students learn necessary values for today and the future: honesty, accountability, appreciation, awareness, commitment, completion, consistency, cooperation, decisiveness, duty, efficiency, fairness, generosity, and so forth.

So what else is there regarding education that is wreaking havoc with today’s student? How about the financials of the here and now into work and retirement?

Considering that total college loan debt has gone up 25% from 2008 to 2011, $440 to $550 billion, should give you a clue. Today, like never before, the American Dream is not being fulfilled by college but destroying it in debt. More and more grads are running not only into insurmountable debt, but with the rise in the cost of living and tax rates, decrease in savings rates, and deflated salaries that experts say won’t recover until 2021, it is getting more and more difficult to get by on merely a job alone. How many students getting into a major have even a clue what their chosen career will provide for the short- and long term into retirement? Students should at least have some idea of the financial situation to come, as only a common courtesy to the student, of course.

But what do students know about achievement and success? Overcoming difficulties and trials in work and life that they will certainly have? What about setting goals and understanding how to overcome failures so as to not give up? Learning how to ask the right questions for greater problem solving in career and life? Overcoming poor, debilitating habits and weaknesses that will take down a career or life quicker than you can say, failed thinking? Learning proper attitudes needed to achieve and maintain success? How to be productive, accountable, pro-active, committed, persistent, present, self-sustaining, self-educated, motivated, focused, self-inquiring (the intuitive to greater, greatest achievement, happiness, and joy). And more.

What are the three key principles to greatest motivation and achievement?

According to motivational expert, Dan Pink, they are autonomy (ability to maximize self-choosing), mastery, and purpose, as mentioned previously. To obtain the later two you need the former. And as one looks to mastery and purpose, she will find her innate skills, abilities, talents, gifts, and desires and fulfill them in a purpose that will be discovered to greatest happiness and joy, to the tune of not only the family and self but all those she comes in contact with. And as she does so, she will discover the inert in her, character and passion, not previously seen but only learned of by taking risk in serving self-interest to the maximization of the individual and all those she comes in contact with. And as she does so, she begins to expand, exponentially if she learns to always challenger herself and grow in this power evolving universe to produce greatly for self and the hundreds, thousands, millions she comes in contact with as she grows as nature desires it, exponentially coming to the aid of self and society as best she can.

Most fail because they never prepared “themselves for the harsh lessons the Creator set for them on life’s path to strengthen their spirit and make them fit for life. Unlike the warrior who accepts harsh discipline as a privilege and honor, these people are like pieces of grain caught in a millstone, ground down by the wheel of life in agony and pain” Chin-ning Chu, author of Thick Face Black Heart

We all desire magic in our lives; it is an innate desire for all, yet few believe it can happen to them. It is always for someone else. But in those quite times, during the day or at night before sleep takes over, we know deep in our hearts that we all desire the greatest, deepest, most satisfying, life quenching fulfillment that we could ever imagine and more. It is out there for everyone. Belief in it must be practiced over and again, as Neo did in the Matrix. He is the One or savior, but upon asking the Oracle if he is she states, “You have the gift, but you seem to be waiting for something,” as most of us are. But we all must be brave and reach forth, to practice in our minds, as Neo does in virtual reality or the matrix, and then take it to the real world, as Neo does later in the trilogy taking down a machine with the wave of a hand.

It is all up to us and it is within us, so we must be to the greatest degree self-educating, self-sustaining and maintaining. We must look within to find our genius, our unique roadmap to success and greater, greatest achievement.

Don’t let life happen to you, let you happen to life. If you are selfish, lazy, hopeless, fearful, doubtful, anxious, shy, unproductive, irresponsible, immature . . . practice overcoming. I have. Growing up I was shy, introverted, hopeless, anxious, angry, depressed, suicidal, addictive, but I overcame through taking the hard road, the challenging road turning 180 degrees from fully unproductive to maximized productivity of unrelenting, razor sharp, focus, commitment, integrity, and honesty.

“Most commonly accepted standards of behavior are arbitrary, and the arbitrators themselves are often flawed individuals who, under the guise of virtue, have perpetuated their own weaknesses and fear” Chin-ning Chu

Be aware of truth in perspective and understanding. Become an empowered seer of truth and understanding so that you are able to do whatever you know you need to do to obtain your goals, righteously and honorably, without allowing what others do and say detract or hinder you in any way. YOU are in charge, for people will believe what you broadcast to the world, and what you broadcast, that which everyone sees first and foremost, is your inner value. Your character, intelligence, spirit, and soul. Create value in yourself and pass that value onto the world. Don’t take short cuts or any one else’s’ path. You are unique and put here for a reason. Discover it. Nurture it. Embrace it. And follow it to the greatest life imagined. But don’t focus on what makes you feel good but what will make you great, which often entails great sacrifice and doing the unlikeable and unwanted to greater character, empowerment, and strength.

Good luck. Good education and career. And god bless.

If I can help with anything, please don’t hesitate to call.

Peace!

Do you lack energy, enthusiasm, desire? Do you have difficulty sleeping? Getting up for work? Lack desire to be with family, spouse, friends? Now some of these symptoms may be related to disease. And there is a belief that depression can result in physical disease, but this is not my area of expertise. But if you are relatively healthy, you’ve gone to regular doctor visits and you check out OK, but you still have symptoms of depression, lack of energy and enthusiasm, it is more than likely that your problems are motivational. Tony Robbins says that there are no lazy people, they simply have impotent goals. Put more simply, they are not doing what excites them. If boredom reigns in you life, get busy. But maybe you’ve been suppressing your desires for so long it is going to take some work to pull out the answer.

What is the best technique to use? Simple and short. Writing. You need a journal. If you are not used to self-examination, then you need to get a journal and practice opening up to the intuitive / creative voice within you. It is the subconscious voice or the subconscious you that has your answers. Major point here is that you are going to find out for yourself what it is that you want to do.

Here’s a case in point. I had a student come to me one day complaining that no matter how hard she tried to be objective in her writing she always found herself putting in her ten cents, so to speak. She just couldn’t keep herself from putting her subjective stories in to support what she was saying. The assignment called for a more objective approach but no matter what she just couldn’t maintain her objectivity.

I asked her if she kept a journal. She said no. I said, well, for your mental health, I suggest that you do. There is obviously something that you have to work out. If you have a continual desire to express yourself, you either have a problem to work out or you’re a writer incognito.

She confessed that she used to write all the time and loves to write but found it impractical. I told her that she better get writing. It is your core genius. If you are that motivated to write, that obsessed with writing, you are a writer. Exactly what you are going to do with it, I don’t know. But I do know that you have to write and as you do so on a consistent basis, you will discover what it is that you need to do with your writing.

I had a similar experience. After working in the computer field for several years, and then the entertainment field, I knew that I was at an impasse. But after a fashion, I knew through brainstorming or free-writing what my plan was: I would get my BA and MA in English, teach for six years or so, learn, gain extensive experience speaking, and then move into a private entity as an info-preneur. And as I sit and write this article, something that I had gotten away from for some time (writing that is), I find my energy increasing, my focus and sharpness of mind excelling. Mental sharpness is a key feature of those who are following their path. Interesting that I read today on the AP wire that elderly people who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease than people who are less conscientious. Why? Universal law. You were put here to do certain things. You were also put here to get off the sofa and do things, period-and, may I add, mostly for other people. There are rewards just for doing something, even those things that don’t promote your core genius, so imagine the physical, emotional, intellectual, psychological, spiritual benefits of doing that which you came here to do. And everybody, everybody, has their talent.

You know mine. My wife’s is interior decorating. She’ll see something in the store and instantly knows where it will fit into the house. She spotted a painting one time and when we got it home I put it on the wall and it amazed me how the colors in the painting matched with the surroundings. My older son is a mechanical genius. My daughter is a bookworm like her father. Our youngest Michael, who barely speaks, is going to be a politician or a lawyer. During activities at our church everyone young and old is asking, where’s Michael? Where’s Michael? One day we went to Universal Studios and my wife and I were waiting for the kids to get soaked on the Jurassic Park ride as Michael introduced himself to the people around him, just going up to tables sitting down next to whoever and socializing. He can’t talk yet, but that didn’t stop him from holding a young ladies hand for ten minutes. Quite the flirt.

But getting back to the issue at hand, you do have a talent. And some people complain that they’ve looked and they’ve looked and they’ve looked but to no avail. Well, I say, you are probably looking past, over, below or around it. It is there, you just need to think more simply. What do you like to do? How do you find this out? Let’s look into it.

Journaling

One of the best ways to discover or uncover is to journal. Unfortunately, most people have gotten away form writing. Years ago, before the glut on the market of entertainment related devices (Xbox, Game Cube, Internet, iPod, PCs, MP3 players, cell phones, email), people actually sat down and wrote each other. In junior high, I remember writing to a friend who had moved to the next state. I also wrote funny stories to entertain my friends. I wrote ideas and notes down of things I needed to do, wanted to remember, and was looking forward to. But writing is a lost art. I have seen major evidence of this over the seven-plus years I taught at the college / university level. But let’s get to what journaling can do for you.

One of the major features of journaling is its ability to pull from you information, wisdom, thoughts you never knew you had or had forgotten that are recalled just at the right time to help solve an issue.

I have yet to pin down why writing is so important to self-understanding or why it is the best way to problem solve or discover insight. It may have to do with our limitations more than anything else. Since we are such forgetful beings and have a difficult time retaining, processing, and recalling information, the best thing for us is to simply write it down. Write it down so we don’t forget what we’ve just discovered, and write it down so that we can go back and look at where our problems lie, enabling us to compare and contrast to fix ongoing issues.

But one of the greatest attributes of writing is that it enables us to create a direct path to that intuitive voice, the subconscious mind, the sixth sense, the divine, if you will. Here is where we find oftentimes priceless gems of knowledge and understanding that would probably stay hidden if we didn’t write.

It stays hidden because people are looking at life with myopic eyeglasses. They aren’t seeing the forest for the trees. The major reason being that they don’t study enough of what is going on around them. In order to truly see what’s going on, you have to read, study, think, contemplate, write or journal, just generally keep the mind active and nimble. Like your belly, it gets soft with inactivity. One of the best things you can do is write on a daily basis. Writing enables one to call forth hidden wisdom, forgotten facts that create insights that are powerful and priceless. Let me give you a few examples of what this journaling can do for you.

I know of a man who was having a normal life working as a computer programmer, going to work, raising a family, enjoying his work and leisure time. However, one day his life was turned upside down, as often happens to us humans (It happens so often that it should not be a surprise to us-maybe add this to our early education as well). He contracted MS. He did the usual in attempting to work with the mental / emotional aspect of the disease. He spoke to doctors. He spoke to family and friends. This helped to a degree but he needed more help than they could provide. So where did he go? To paper and pen. He realized that only by examining his thoughts on his own could he reach needed understanding. As he wrote, he began to have insights and understandings that were specific to his plight. Understandings others and even he could not have come up with.

“What?” You ask. “Not even him? But isn’t he writing here?”

Yes, but as I’ve stated before, it is the subconscious, intuitive / creative voice that taps into submerged solutions, understandings, forgotten facts and connections that only come forth when we allow ourselves to think freely and intuitively. Subsequent chapters will help you free yourself up, let go of counterproductive thoughts and habits locking up great personal discovery. Not sure if you’ve ever heard the old sixties saying, “Free you mind and your ass will follow.” Well, hopefully we’ll get a lot more than rear end feed up. Let’s get back to the example.

This man began to discover ways of dealing with his disease that no one else was coming up with, solutions that worked specifically for him-his unique situation. He began recording how he was feeling at his worst times. For instance, at one point, he began writing down how often he was waking up at night, and what he was feeling, and passed that information on to his doctor who was able to tailor preventative solutions based on this information. The man even went back to writing poetry, something that he hadn’t done in years, to discover insight and calm that he said would have never happened if he hadn’t gotten sick-the sickness forcing him to write again.

I know from personal experience that it has been the times I’ve spent alone, feeling down and desperate, sad and destitute, that have not only motivated me to seek out a better life but has helped me to see the significance of this better life and to appreciate it for all the joy and reward it brings. The result? Greater insight, understanding, compassion for others who suffer the same plight, and strength, coming from overcoming such difficulties and tragedies.

People often complain about their difficulties, curse God for their bad luck, but they never look to the light at the underbelly of tragedy and failure. Without these downtimes, how do we ever know success? There is no one who has ever succeeded who hasn’t known failure. And that is good, for how can you succeed without it? If failure did not exist, and you only knew success, how would you know your were successful? If you were always healthy and never got sick, how could you know health?

This is old news, philosophy that has been around for ages. The Taoist speaks of it in the ying / yang: hot / cold, light / darkness, health / sickness, pleasure / pain. If we didn’t have these pairs then we would not know the good or the bad. It is the way this world is set up. For our benefit.

By keeping our minds open, we are able to see things we would not normally be able to see. Important things.

Here’s another example. A woman was concerned about a defect in her child’s head. She had gone to a couple of experts who said that everything was fine, that the child would grow out of it. Nevertheless, she continued to worry and seek out experts. She just knew something was wrong.

Point of note: good example here of not listening to others or blindly following the crowd. How many less informed mothers or mothers with weaker intuition would have accepted these expert’s opinions?

She decided that in order to work out this problem she would journal. She, like the man with MS, had gone to experts, family and friends for advice but she knew that she hadn’t found what she was looking for. So she began to write.

In writing, she discovered an un-opinionated, neutral partner in her pen and paper. But she was not alone. She knew that there was another presence working with her. She could feel it as she came to greater understanding of what she should do. Seek out additional experts. She did.

Some time later she came upon a doctor who was working on a new disease of the bone, specifically related to children. She brought her child in. After the doctor examined the child, he suggested that they not delay and operate as soon as possible.

After the operation both the doctor and mother were satisfied with the result, the doctor telling the mother that if she had delayed the child might not have survived. The mother was also satisfied with the information and insight that she received from her journal, not only because she had saved her child but she had come to a great understanding through writing how to best deal with a highly charged emotional situation-a situation no one else was able to remedy to the mother’s satisfaction.

Journaling, writing, keeping a diary, any form of jotting down one’s ideas in a quiet place on a regular basis is fundamental to tapping into and maximizing one’s ability to be successful in most if not all areas of life.

Jeff Brown has been writing for over thirty years. He is an astute observer of the human condition and has overcome many personal development challengs by applying the principles he speaks of to his own life. His current novel Black Body Radiation and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe can be found at Amazon.com His newest book, Give and Grow Yourself Rich will be out in early 2008.

Values Clarification Exercise

Values are who we are. Not who we would like to be, not who we think we should be, but who we are in our lives, right now. Another way to put it is that values represent our unique and individual essence, our ultimate and most fulfilling form of expressing and relating. Our values serve as a compass pointing out what it means to be true to oneself. When we honor our values on a regular and consistent basis, life is good and fulfilling.

With knowing values important life decisions are easier to make and outcomes are more fulfilling when the decisions are viewed through a matrix of well-understood personal values. However, the process of clarifying values is often difficult. It frequently makes people intellectualize and fantasize, whereas the preference is look into one’s life and uncover the values that are already there, the day-to-day actions and interactions. That’s one of the reasons selecting values from a list seldom works: the list becomes an opportunity to vote on the most desirable or socially acceptable values, rather than serving as a mechanism to identify who we are. Selecting values from a list reinforces the intellectual urge to figure it out and get the words right. Values are observable; they live in the world. Thus, people don’t benefit from picking their values from a list. The task is to view one’s life in such a way that values are revealed.

Sometimes people can’t seem to get a perspective on their values. Here coaching works well in such cases because the coach can ask questions and provide scenarios that take clients into their lives rather than into their heads. Values clarification coaching allows clients to examine and articulate their values in a safe yet courageous environment. The exact wording will matter to the client in the long run, but what is most important in the short run is that the approximate label for the value resonates with the client. As a practical matter for coaches, values clarification is enormously helpful in learning to know clients, and in helping clients know themselves. Coaches and clients use values to help facilitate fulfilling choices, to strategize appropriate actions, and to recognize situations in which values are an issue.

Many clients nevertheless struggle with finding the right words. They are constrained because they feel they have to find the perfect word and the value has much more emotional meaning than the definition of a single word allows. In fact, each individual has his or her own unique meaning for each value. We may have different meanings even though we use the same word. Earlier techniques were mentioned that can minimize vocabulary anxiety. The first tip is to use a pencil with an eraser. Clients often experience a sense of reluctance when values have to be written in ink. The coach can emphasize the advantages of using a pencil so the client realizes that it is not important to get it right the first time. The second tip when doing values clarification is to use several words together to form a string describing the value. Separating the words with slash marks makes the string easier to read. For example:

Integrity/Honesty/Walk-the-talk

Integrity/Whole/Congruent

Leadership/Empower/Collaborative

Leadership/Decisive/Powerful

When creating the values string, ask the client to place the most significant term at the beginning, such as “Integrity” and “Leadership” in the examples above. Point out that it may take several months to come up with a fairly complete list of values. Since values show up over time in our lives, it is unlikely that we will be able to capture them accurately and completely in one sitting. Values that are fully defined and elaborated on become a powerful tool in pointing clients toward fulfilling choices as they approach a major crossroads or get off track. The coach facilitates the process of identifying values by proposing various scenarios to the client. The following scenarios will give you a place to start. Experiment with these and continue to explore other methods for allowing clients to see their values.

A Peak Moment in Time

Ask the client to identify special, peak moments when life was especially rewarding or poignant. It’s important that the time frame be quite limited—a “moment”—or there will be too much in the experience to allow the client to pinpoint specific values. When the client has a specific moment in mind, start probing: “What was happening?” “Who was present and what was going on?” “What were the values that were being honored in that moment?” Acknowledge what you are hearing and keep probing, periodically testing words to see what values resonate for this client. “That sounds important.” “Is there a value of accomplishment or achievement in that experience?” or “You light up when you describe that day. It sounds like you were honoring a value around nature and a value of connection. Does that sound right?” There will be a stronger response when the words ring true. Ask the client to expand on the first word. “What does ‘accomplishment’ mean to you?” “What words elaborate on your value of connection?” Keep looking at peak moments, seeking experiences the client found particularly rich and fulfilling.

Suppressed Values

Another way to isolate values is to go to the opposite extreme, looking at times when a client was angry, frustrated, or upset. This will often lead to identification of a value that was being suppressed. First, have the client name the feelings and circumstances around the upset; then flip it over and look for the opposite of those feelings. For example, the client might say, “I felt trapped, backed into a corner. I had no choices.” The coach might then say, “Trapped, cornered, without choice. If we flip that over, it sounds like there might be a value around freedom or options or choice. Does that sound right?” For the coach, it’s not so important that the vocabulary be right—it’s important that the words feel right to the client. To further illustrate, the coach might say, “So you felt frustrated when they kept spinning their wheels, doing the same thing over and over again? Is the other side of that a value for creativity or innovation?”

Many of us have created our lives in such a way that we automatically and easily honor many of our values without even being aware that we are doing so. Therefore we may not recognize them as values until something gets in the way. The key here is to point out to the client that every upset or moment of distress is likely to signal that a value is being suppressed.

Must-Haves

Another way for clients to identify their values is to look at what they must have in their lives. Try it yourself. Beyond the physical requirements of food, shelter, and community, what must you have in your life in order to be fulfilled? Must you have a form of creative self-expression? Must you have adventure and excitement in your life? Must you have partnership and collaboration? Must you be moving toward a sense of accomplishment or success or be surrounded with natural beauty? An underlying question for the process is What are the values you absolutely must honor—or part of you dies?

Obsessive Expression

We are all capable of obsessive behavior—insisting on honoring a value, inflating it into a demand rather than a form of self-expression. You’ve probably had an experience like this in your own life, such as when your roommate’s value of orderliness became an obsessive demand for perfection. Our friends and families often do us a service by pointing out the obsessive expression of our values: “You are so controlling!” “All you think about is your students.” “You want all the attention.” These statements might point toward a value of personal power/leadership, of learning/ growth, and of recognition/acknowledgment. Have your clients examine those times when they take certain values to the extreme. “What is it that people say about you? What do you say about yourself?” “What is it that people tease you about or that drives them crazy?” There are important values here that have mutated for some reason. Look for the value, and don’t focus on the mutation.

The Values-Based Decision Matrix

One of the most potent tools for making fulfilling life choices is the Values-Based Decision Matrix. This matrix is launched during the initial values clarification process. (Please note that the listing of values may take several months to complete.) After you and the client have brainstormed a list of values, ask the client to rank the top ten values in priority order. Then ask the client to score his or her sense of satisfaction—the degree to which he or she is honoring each value—using a scale of 0 to 10. Most clients find this exercise very revealing, and they are often shocked at what they learn about themselves. Generally, the coach pays particular attention when a client indicates that a score is below 7. This is a likely place for coaching, since low scores mean the client might be putting up with an intolerable situation.

The coach may want to revisit this process from time to time to keep the client grounded in his or her sense of self. Over the years, we have noted that when things are going particularly well in a client’s life, the scores typically are high. When the client is struggling or is at a low point, the values matrix can help determine where corrective action is needed. When a client is facing a major decision, such as whether to make a job change or start a new business, or even to have a child, the Values-Based Decision Matrix can be particularly revealing. Ask the client to score his or her values today. Next, ask the client to project out two months, a year, or sometime in the future: “Imagine that you did make the change. Anticipate and write down what your scores would be if you did. Next, imagine that you did not make the change and record those scores.” This exercise will provide the client with useful insight about making a fulfilling choice.

So what should be done at the outset so that there are not so many career changes or career transitions for the majority?

To get things right, you need an impartial coach who works at pulling from within you your answers, not a family member, mom or dad, or educational counselor. Why none of the above? They are either too close to you or have an agenda. Also, if you are getting advice from the public sector just consider the difference in service between the DMV and Blockbusters (or choose any business in which customer satisfaction is critical to success). Institutions that are not-for-profit are not competitive and therefore rarely gage their success based on consumer success or satisfaction outcomes. Those for-profit institutions better be successful, using the best products and services, or they go out of business.

By having a person who is impartial, experienced, and understands that the answers lie within the student or person seeking a career or career change, and to have that coach work with the individual for as long as it takes to reach a definitive understanding as to what he or she was put on this planet to do is critical to your success.

Whether you believe it or not, we all have a certain sub-set of innate talents, abilities, and gifts that when exploited bring not only financial success but also great fulfillment, or as Abraham Maslow would have said, actualization. And it frequently amazes me the number of people who compromise and never achieve complete and utter happiness in their career. Since this is a free country, the freest on earth, why some would choose to spend one third of their life working in a field they don’t love with all their heart is puzzling to me. Certainly, it takes work and time to change, but as far as I know once we’re dead we aren’t coming back, so do we have a choice?

There are always excuses, but if you only have one mortal life to live, and by living that life fulfilled it helps you to reach your potential, and by doing so it fills you with so much passion that you want to reach out with great joy to hundreds, thousands, millions to give them some of the same . . . Well, you see my point. There are few like this, but so many more can be so. How do I know? I’ve lived both lives, and living what you love to do so much that it’s no longer work but something you desire to be doing twenty-four seven . . . Well, once again, you see my point.

I have personally headed down the wrong career path, working a job that was so “not me” that I suffered depression at times to the point of immobility. And since I’ve changed my perspective some twenty-plus years ago, not only has my joy and purpose exploded, but I’ve become much more sensitive to those around me who are living the half-life, the life of the living dead, and shudder at their misery, their frowns, pessimism, and discontent with themselves and their infecting of others with the same. It is neither a pretty picture nor a good way for anyone to spend their short life on this earth.

But back to the greater issue at hand.

What happens in the early days of choosing a career-in college career training or when “experts” help college students career brainstorm-is that the horse is almost always put before the cart. Meaning that a career is all too frequently chosen based on little consideration outside of what the family or society says or where the money or prestige can be found.

Few examples to support based on what I’ve heard from clients and students:

“Hey, my dad is an accountant, and he tells me that once he’s done with his work he can do whatever he wants. He says he usually has a couple hours a day free. I can just play video games. That’s great.”

“Doctors and lawyers get respect. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“I went into law because I want to go back to the South and nail all the rednecks.”

“I was an engineer major, but I changed to architecture.” When asked why? “Sounds better.”

The majority of decisions pertaining to how people are going to spend one third of their lives is based on such sloppy, shallow thinking it’s no wonder that within five to ten years after graduation 70% of grads no longer work in a field related to their major.

Seventy percent! Who says education is the end-all and cure-all?

So to get something right that is so important, you must begin to see that it should take time and effort to discover where you need to be in order to maximize your potential for not only monetary success but for general life happiness.

So how’s it done?

Here I will just summarize, for the way is complex and involves considerable effort, thought, and time.

First, you must look at all important areas of your life. Some examples are health, family, physical environment, money, career, friends and family, romance / significant other, fun and recreation. If you don’t look at your life as a whole in deciding a career, you will more than likely career change and career transition until the cows come home.

But there’s more.

Now you must research your talents, abilities, gifts to determine where and how you will make your money. You will not know specifically up front, but that’s OK. As the successful say, shoot and then aim. You will have a general understanding of where you’ll be going but only by following the path on a daily, monthly, yearly bases, even, will a specific understanding of ultimate achievement come to fruition or reveal itself. In most cases, there is no other way.

Next, you must look at character. We all have character flaws that need to be addressed. Remember that success can come because of your talents and gifts, but just look at the news headlines of the mighty-successful who have fallen and fallen hard and you’ll see why character is critical. As a matter of fact, no amount of talent, ability, knowledge, or gifts can compensate for the self-sabotaging of poor character.

Finally, you must study and know inside and out all the critical success principles: how to work well with others, tolerance of others and ideas, creativity, honor and self-accountability, self-control, succeeding through failure, and so on. Without a thorough understanding here, you are limited . . . in the extreme.

There are other intangibles that vary from individual to individual, but the above is general that which needs to be addressed by the majority if not all in making solid career decisions for the greatest of happiness and fulfillment.

Well, I’m excited. I hope you are too. I always get excited or passionate about what I love. And I love giving people the truth related to life success and fulfillment. Having lived so many years down and out, depressed, hopeless, lonely, unhappy, unfulfilled, I am more than enthused to help people avoid the same. The one thing that I discovered through the school of hard knocks is that there is no need for it.

I’m excited to help you on your path to joy. In time, you’ll get excited too. We all need a passion-career. Let me help you build yours.

Here’s to your success.

Now this is not an education reform article, but rather a focus on career and, more specifically, career change. But in choosing a career or choosing a new career, in most cases the person has not had the extensive prelim work done to ensure the best career to client match. Rarely has the person seeking a career or career change been asked the proper questions letting existing personal knowledge and understanding do the talking. Usually a counselor, adviser, or consultant will use his or her knowledge and experience to basically tell the person where he needs to be.

It’s kind of like those career placement tests that tell you, you should be a social worker while inside you’ve been dreaming for years of being a movie director. And what often happens is that in our youth we are swayed by those we perceive to be “more experienced,” only to find out five or ten years down the road after developing a greater sense of self that we should have gone with our original desire in the first place and spend years getting back to where we should have been from the start.

But there are other distractions. Unfortunately, the majority of people get waylaid by exclusive focus on money, prestige, satisfying parental desires, and so forth. It takes a brave and dedicated individual to follow her true desires, to take an honest, hard, cold look in the mirror to discover best how to use her abilities, talents, and gifts. There has even been many a successful person who in the midst of great success feels empty and desires change all because of being more true to the ideals of others or the general ideals perpetuated by society.

The cause? Not enough work on discovering the many tangibles and intangibles of self that will aid the individual in not only being successful monetarily but to discover fulfillment and joy emotionally and spiritually even.

So how is this done?

Well, few know because even though it is that which should be done early and often it’s usually not until years later-five to ten years, or in some cases even more-before the money, prestige and keeping parents happy can no longer hold one back from a dire need to fulfill dreams.

In actuality, it’s a rather straight forward process, and I am often surprised to discover the number of intelligent, well-educated individuals who’ve never discovered their sole purpose. And if you don’t think you have one, think again.

Of course for many there are those immature desires. I can remember desiring to be a basketball or sports star and then a famous actor, but they didn’t happen. And it’s not that I couldn’t have excelled at either, for I was always one of the best on the court and my ability to entertain was a strength too (as a matter of fact, I performed for over five years doing standup in Boston and Los Angeles). However, I knew that my real calling in life lie elsewhere. And when I found it, it was like coming home. It will be the same for you. You may not recognize it right away or feel like home right away, but with the proper prompting and work and encouragement it eventually will.

So what needs to be done to discover that career that life’s calling that’s been there from the beginning? Because the process is rather involved, I will only give a brief summary here.

First, you must look at all important areas of your life. Some examples are health, family, physical environment, money, career, friends and family, romance / significant other, fun and recreation. If you don’t look at your life as a whole in deciding career, you will more than likely career change and career transition until the cows come home.

But there’s more.

Now you must research your talents, abilities, gifts to determine where and how you will make your money. You will not know specifically up front, but that’s OK. As the successful say, shoot and then aim. You will have a general understanding of where you’ll be going but only by following the path on a daily, monthly, yearly bases, even, will a specific understanding of ultimate achievement come to fruition or reveal itself. There is no other way.

Next, you must look at character. We all have character flaws that need to be addressed. Remember that success can come because of your talents and gifts, but just look at the news headlines of the many mighty successful who have fallen and fallen hard and you’ll see why character is critical. As a matter of fact, no amount of talent, ability, knowledge, or gifts can compensate for the self-sabotaging of poor character.

Finally, you must study and know inside and out all the critical success principles: how to work well with others, tolerance of others and ideas, creativity, honor and self-accountability, self-control, succeeding through failure, and so on. Without a thorough understanding here, you are limited . . . in the extreme.

Well, I’m excited. I hope you are too. I always get excited or passionate about what I love. You will too. We all need a passion career. Let me help you build yours.

Here’s to your success.

But what’s interesting here is that so many leave it up to chance or a whim as to what they’ll do with the rest of their life to not only bring in the money to survive but to select a career that will bring fulfillment. And it’s not entirely the fault of the individual. There are few and far between systems that are objective, thorough and well thought out enough to help people in the long run.

So how can you make a decision that you will know is the right one beyond a shadow of a doubt?

Well, the answer has to come from the source, doesn’t it? It needs to come from within. However, the problem is that the majority of people don’t know how to do this or feel it’s not possible so they go to supposed “experts” to find the answer. But what’s this like? Well, in most cases, you sit there and listen as a counselor or therapist dispenses the “correct knowledge.” Then, you take it in, go home and apply their “decision” with little or insufficient self-reflection. Or, worse yet, you take a test that tells you what you should be doing for the rest of your life. If you’re comfortable with a piece of paper telling you what to do in this regards, so be it. However, most are not if they ponder thruthfully over a long enough period of time.

So, what’s a poor person trying to discover how to choose a career or one who’s working hard at finding the right career supposed to do?

You go to someone who knows how to work the answers out of you.

What’s that you say? Yes, there’s no job personality test or employment personality test that can get to the answers like a real human being can. But this person, or coach, is not there to “tell” but rather to “listen.” The career coach, success coach, or life coach is one who works as an equal in a co-active environment using open-ended questions (those that do not lead or judge in any way) to pull from the client deep ceded answers that may have been lying dormant for years if not decades.

It is the coach’s responsibility to listen intuitively to the answers given not to judge or even necessarily to guide but to determine where to go next as the client discovers for himself / herself answers that appear quite familiar but have lied dormant for many a year.Or they have been buried by doubt or need to appease those who tell them that their dreams and desires are not “sufficient.”

For example, a former student of mine (I also teach composition / writing) approached me one day and said, “You know, when I try to write this assignment, I can’t do it with an objective voice. For some reason, my writing always comes out subjective or personal. Why’s that?” I said, “Well, either you’ve got a problem you want to solve or you’re a writer.” She looked up in amazement saying, “You know, that’s always been my first love, writing. But I’ve put it on the back burner and I think I’ve suffered because of it.” We talked a little bit more and she soon came to the conclusion for herself that she better get back to writing or the consequences may get worse.

This is the key. The answers lie within. No one’s going to tell you better than you what you need to do with your life. However, it’s more complex than that. It takes some focused effort and assistance to pull out the answers. You need to go into detail the various areas of your life (career, family, health, finances, etc.) and discover what’s important to you and then match this with your specific talents, abilities, desires, and gifts.

But the work is not done. Once you discover what it is that you want to do with your life, that which is going to set your life on fire, then you need to develop a plan and stick to it. And in the process you will have to overcome character flaws that we all have that can sabotage a career quicker than you can say “success” while at the same time learning critical success principles that will help you pull it all together.

If you’re ready and are serious about making the most of your life and finding that path that is truly you, one that you can get excited to wake up to every morning, then you owe it to yourself to set sail on that path today.

Here’s to your success.

And even though that may mean a lot of work and struggle, we owe it to those who sacrificed their lives to the maintaining of this freest of countries to not only seek the greatest for ourselves but that which translates into doing the greatest for the greatest number we may touch in our lifetimes. But back to the topic at hand.

Time and time and time and time again, I see students picking a major with about as much thought as they put into choosing a flavor for their ice cream cone. Often they go from one flavor to the next before during and, unfortunately, even after college (choosing a major), or that which they’ll be doing HALF their lifetime waking hours, like it’s about as important as what they’ll put into a cone for a simple treat.

So what exactly is this SuccessType Learning Style Type stuff all about? Before we get into the specifics, let’s take a look at a beak down of the various types:

Extravert (E): “How do you recharge your battery?” People in this category pay attention to people and things around them. As learners they:

Learn best when actively involved.

Like to learn with others

Like background noise while working / studying

Desire to discuss things with others to problem solve

Introvert (I): These people pay attention to the world inside their heads. They pay close attention to their thoughts, feelings and ideas. They draw energy from these inner experiences. As learners they:

Learn best by pausing to think

Like to work or study alone

Believe they aren’t good public speakers

Need to think in quiet

Need to be given clear instruction to work on assignment / task

Sensing (S): What kind of information do you rely on? People who are sensors become aware of things that are real through their senses: sound, touch, taste, feel, and smell. They are focused on the here and now. As learners they:

Look for specific information

Memorize facts

Follow instructions

Like hand-on experience

Desire to be given clear instructions on assignments / tasks

Intuition (N): People who trust their intuition or sixth sense, look for patterns, possibilities, and the big picture. As learners they:

Look for quick insights

Like theories and abstract thinking

Read between the lines

Create their own directions

Desire to be encouraged to think independently

Thinking (T): People who like to make decisions objectively using logic, principles, and analysis. They weigh evidence in a detached manner. As learners they: :

Use logic to guide their learning

Like to critique ideas

Learn through challenge and debate

Can find flaws in an argument

Want material / info. presented logically

Feeling (F): People who value harmony and focus on what is important to them or others when they make decisions. As learners they:

Want information to apply to them personally

Like to please their teachers

Find value or good in things

Learn when they are supported or appreciated

Want to establish report with others

Judging (J): People who are judgers like to make quick decisions, settle things, and organize their worlds. As learners they:

Like more formal class structure

Plan their work in advance

Work steadily toward their goals

Like to be in school

Desire people they work with to be organized

Perceiving (P): People woo are perceiving want to adapt to the world around them. They don’t like to close off options; instead they’d rather experience whatever comes up. As learners, they:

Like informal learning situations

Enjoy spontaneity

Stay open to new information

Work in energy bursts

Want learning situations to be entertaining and inspiring

If you’d like to know your LearningStyle Type, go here SuccessTypes Learning Style Type Test Go ahead, I’ll wait ;o)

So you’re back, did you discover your four letter profile? Are you an ESFP? An ESTP? An INTJ?

Keep in mind that this test is not scientifically reliable. The test illustrates a type; it doesn’t prove it. The type is a place to begin, and as you progress, your type can be altered. But it all begins with awareness of what you had as strengths when you came into this world or at least have developed as strengths to this point in your life. More about the test.

The test makes you choose between opposites. This is because theoretically you can’t simultaneously prefer two opposite things at once. This does not mean that you’ll never choose the other under varying circumstances; it means this is your preference most of the time.

Any Myers-Briggs type instrument (Yes, like the SuccessTypes Learning Style Type) answers four basic questions about you:

1. What energizes you and where do you direct energy? E or I

2. How do you gather information and what kind of information do you trust? S or N

3. How do you make decisions, arrive at conclusions, and make judgments? T or F

4. How do you relate to the outer world? J or P

It all begins with awareness. Most students have little clue as to who they are in regards to where they should spend one-third of their lives. And as you become aware of preference, you can then choose to add to your tool box those attributes you desire or need to improve your chance of success in many areas of life.

All success in life begins with awareness. Who are you? Why do you do what you do? Why do you think what you think when you think it? And so on. But a point to remember is that you may have a preference for something but that doesn’t mean you can’t add or subtract to your preferences. Or just plain old change who you are, really. Back to the issue at hand.

You may by nature have a propensity toward EITJ or Extravert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging learner. However, you may find that in order to accomplish a particular job or task you need certain skills that a Sensor has: memorize facts, follow instructions. Or maybe what a Feeler has: find value or good in things. Or possibly a Perceiver: spontaneity, openness to new information.

You certainly want to work the majority of time in a field or job that utilizes your natural learning style, but in order to achieve you may just have to learn certain skills, attitudes, or knowledge that don’t come naturally to you. After all, we are human and prone to adaptability. But at the same time you don’t want to begin with adapting but rather what’s natural and go to adapting.

Bottom line, the more you know about you and how you operate, the more you’ll have a chance of achieving something great in your life. And here great doesn’t necessarily mean power, fame, and fortune, but find that which optimizes your strengths, abilities, gifts, talents, and desires. And to the end of being greater, greatest use to those you love and come in touch with every day.

But really, you’re choice. You don’t have to find the greatest joy and satisfaction you could imagine in your life. Yes, it’s all up to you.

Here’s to your success.

The real problem lies in the economy. What with a marked rise in the cost of living, an alarming increase in divorce creating the need for dual-household income, outsourcing, multinationals that are richer than most countries creating CEOs that earn 1500% more than their generational predecessors, and so on. It’s just gotten downright ugly.

It used to be that with one job you could buy a house, a couple cars, and provide the essentials for your family. Now with both parents working in 70% of U.S. homes, it still doesn’t provide financial security. Like the get-a-college-degree-job-security myth that many still feed in to, even with both parents working the safety-in-numbers myth provides little security as well.

Why?

Consider this, the top three reasons why there are over two million foreclosures in the U.S. are divorce, job loss, and illness. Regardless that it was a 40-year low in interest rates that got most there, outside of this there lies another, more deep-seeded problem. One income cannot do it anymore. Even two are struggling to get by. Here’s a sobering report from Elizabeth Warren, author of “The Middle Class on the Precipice” (Harvard Magazine, Jan. / Feb 2006).

“By 2004, the family budget looks very different. As noted earlier, although a man is making nearly $800 less than his counterpart a generation ago, his wife’s paycheck brings the family to a combined income that is $73,770-a 75 percent increase. But higher expenses have more than eroded that apparent financial advantage. Their annual mortgage payments are more than $10,500. If they have a child in elementary school who goes to daycare after school and in the summers, the family will spend $5,660. If their second child is a preschooler, the cost is even higher-$6,920 a year. With both people in the workforce, the family spends more than $8,000 a year on its two vehicles. Health insurance costs the family $1,970, and taxes now take 30 percent [ it's actually 42 to 50%] of its money. The bottom line: today’s median-earning, median-spending middle-class family sends two people into the workforce, but at the end of the day they have about $1,500 less for discretionary spending than their one-income counterparts of a generation ago.”

More and more middle-class citizens are falling into the lower class, many by way of foreclosure. I was watching the news last night with my wife at a friend’s house. A man and woman had just lost their home and were sitting outside their new trailer home with transplanted lawn jockey, pots, and planters. Through teared-up sobs, the man explained how disheartening it was to work so hard for a dream only to see it lost with little chance of recovery.

What is the solution? Well, instead of going to a job factory (university / college) to learn a craft or skill only to end up working for the government (40 to 50% taken in taxes), banks, and credit card companies (average American owes $10,000) our students should be learning about finances, more specifically, how to own a business and invest.

Time and time and time again, I have gone to wealth seminars and heard former mortgage brokers, insurance agents, Kentucky Fried Chicken managers, teachers, the homeless (sometime the same–I know!), talk about dire times, skimming for nickels and dimes in the change jar to pay for groceries. It is a sad state of affairs, and some, like Hillary, feel that the government needs to do something about it. Well, if you know how the government moves, I’m not waiting. So what do we do?

Instead of working for a company, one which tells you when to come, when to go, how much your worth, and whether or not you’ll be working; instead of never even seeing 45% of your income; instead of being caught in the education matrix; instead of relying on the pain of scrimp and save to no safe solution; the only alternative is to let your money and the government work for you. Here’s how.

Consider the following trend. Most micro-business owners represent:

99% of all employers

50% of all employees

44% of all payroll dollars

70% of all net new jobs

Today, one out of six people that you meet are taking matters into their own hands and have joined the ranks of the “better-off,” if not secure.

If you want to get your taxes down to single digits, start a business. It can even be a part-time online business selling knitting techniques. Really! The tax write offs alone are worth it. Here’s a few examples:

Home Office Deduction: You no longer have any non-deductible commute. All of your mileage is now business related.

Pay your child up to $5000 to help you run your business and pay no taxes (fica, fed., state) and get $2500 back from Uncle Sam.

Convert other medical expenses from itemized deductions to business expenses. Convert limited health insurance deductions into fully deductible business expenses. You save not only on federal income taxes but reduce self employment taxes as well. Save up to 45% by deducting payments that you are already making.

For retirement, up to $45,000 / year can be deferred. Invest in your future and the IRS will reward you with lower taxes.

Why let your Bad Uncle take your money when your Good Uncle is only a business idea away?

How else can you win the money game? Real estate . The government wants you to do two things: start a business to create jobs and feed the economy and to provide affordable housing. And you don’t have to be “The Don” when it comes to real estate. But keep in mind that 7 out of 10 millionaires own real estate. It’s the safest and most profitable way to make passive or leveraged income. And by the way, the government is dying to give away money, provide the down payment, even forgive loans (yes, there are forgivable loans that don’t have to be paid back; hell, they’re forgiven!).

Need a home? Here’s a possibility. Try the 203 (b). It’s the purchase of a four-plex, where you move in to manage for a year before selling or keeping as an investment. And the good part? You live for free as you build equity.

Bottom line, the government wants you to help out, and if you do, they’ll help you, in a big way . There’s many ways of getting ahead. The limit is only in your ability to imagine.

So even though there’s a lot of bad news out there (foreclosures, job loss, cost of living increase), if you keep your eyes open there’s always a way out. With a little shift in thinking, a willingness to change, you can not only get back on top but rise higher than before. Good luck and God bless.

Do you lack energy, enthusiasm, desire? Do you have difficulty sleeping? Getting up for work? Lack desire to be with family, spouse, friends? Now some of these symptoms may be related to disease. And there is a belief that depression can result in physical disease, but this is not my area of expertise. But if you are relatively healthy, you’ve gone to regular doctor visits and you check out OK, but you still have symptoms of depression, lack of energy and enthusiasm, it is more than likely that your problems are motivational. Tony Robbins says that there are no lazy people, they simply have impotent goals. Put more simply, they are not doing what excites them. If boredom reigns in you life, get busy. But maybe you’ve been suppressing your desires for so long it is going to take some work to pull out the answer.

What is the best technique to use? Simple and short. Writing. You need a journal. If you are not used to self-examination, then you need to get a journal and practice opening up to the intuitive / creative voice within you. It is the subconscious voice or the subconscious you that has your answers. Major point here is that you are going to find out for yourself what it is that you want to do.

Here’s a case in point. I had a student come to me one day complaining that no matter how hard she tried to be objective in her writing she always found herself putting in her ten cents, so to speak. She just couldn’t keep herself from putting her subjective stories in to support what she was saying. The assignment called for a more objective approach but no matter what she just couldn’t maintain her objectivity.

I asked her if she kept a journal. She said no. I said, well, for your mental health, I suggest that you do. There is obviously something that you have to work out. If you have a continual desire to express yourself, you either have a problem to work out or you’re a writer incognito.

She confessed that she used to write all the time and loves to write but found it impractical. I told her that she better get writing. It is your core genius. If you are that motivated to write, that obsessed with writing, you are a writer. Exactly what you are going to do with it, I don’t know. But I do know that you have to write and as you do so on a consistent basis, you will discover what it is that you need to do with your writing.

I had a similar experience. After working in the computer field for several years, and then the entertainment field, I knew that I was at an impasse. But after a fashion, I knew through brainstorming or free-writing what my plan was: I would get my BA and MA in English, teach for six years or so, learn, gain extensive experience speaking, and then move into a private entity as an info-preneur. And as I sit and write this article, something that I had gotten away from for some time (writing that is), I find my energy increasing, my focus and sharpness of mind excelling. Mental sharpness is a key feature of those who are following their path. Interesting that I read today on the AP wire that elderly people who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease than people who are less conscientious. Why? Universal law. You were put here to do certain things. You were also put here to get off the sofa and do things, period-and, may I add, mostly for other people. There are rewards just for doing something, even those things that don’t promote your core genius, so imagine the physical, emotional, intellectual, psychological, spiritual benefits of doing that which you came here to do. And everybody, everybody, has their talent.

You know mine. My wife’s is interior decorating. She’ll see something in the store and instantly knows where it will fit into the house. She spotted a painting one time and when we got it home I put it on the wall and it amazed me how the colors in the painting matched with the surroundings. My older son is a mechanical genius. My daughter is a bookworm like her father. Our youngest Michael, who barely speaks, is going to be a politician or a lawyer. During activities at our church everyone young and old is asking, where’s Michael? Where’s Michael? One day we went to Universal Studios and my wife and I were waiting for the kids to get soaked on the Jurassic Park ride as Michael introduced himself to the people around him, just going up to tables sitting down next to whoever and socializing. He can’t talk yet, but that didn’t stop him from holding a young ladies hand for ten minutes. Quite the flirt.

But getting back to the issue at hand, you do have a talent. And some people complain that they’ve looked and they’ve looked and they’ve looked but to no avail. Well, I say, you are probably looking past, over, below or around it. It is there, you just need to think more simply. What do you like to do? How do you find this out? Let’s look into it.

Journaling

One of the best ways to discover or uncover is to journal. Unfortunately, most people have gotten away form writing. Years ago, before the glut on the market of entertainment related devices (Xbox, Game Cube, Internet, iPod, PCs, MP3 players, cell phones, email), people actually sat down and wrote each other. In junior high, I remember writing to a friend who had moved to the next state. I also wrote funny stories to entertain my friends. I wrote ideas and notes down of things I needed to do, wanted to remember, and was looking forward to. But writing is a lost art. I have seen major evidence of this over the seven-plus years I taught at the college / university level. But let’s get to what journaling can do for you.

One of the major features of journaling is its ability to pull from you information, wisdom, thoughts you never knew you had or had forgotten that are recalled just at the right time to help solve an issue.

I have yet to pin down why writing is so important to self-understanding or why it is the best way to problem solve or discover insight. It may have to do with our limitations more than anything else. Since we are such forgetful beings and have a difficult time retaining, processing, and recalling information, the best thing for us is to simply write it down. Write it down so we don’t forget what we’ve just discovered, and write it down so that we can go back and look at where our problems lie, enabling us to compare and contrast to fix ongoing issues.

But one of the greatest attributes of writing is that it enables us to create a direct path to that intuitive voice, the subconscious mind, the sixth sense, the divine, if you will. Here is where we find oftentimes priceless gems of knowledge and understanding that would probably stay hidden if we didn’t write.

It stays hidden because people are looking at life with myopic eyeglasses. They aren’t seeing the forest for the trees. The major reason being that they don’t study enough of what is going on around them. In order to truly see what’s going on, you have to read, study, think, contemplate, write or journal, just generally keep the mind active and nimble. Like your belly, it gets soft with inactivity. One of the best things you can do is write on a daily basis. Writing enables one to call forth hidden wisdom, forgotten facts that create insights that are powerful and priceless. Let me give you a few examples of what this journaling can do for you.

I know of a man who was having a normal life working as a computer programmer, going to work, raising a family, enjoying his work and leisure time. However, one day his life was turned upside down, as often happens to us humans (It happens so often that it should not be a surprise to us-maybe add this to our early education as well). He contracted MS. He did the usual in attempting to work with the mental / emotional aspect of the disease. He spoke to doctors. He spoke to family and friends. This helped to a degree but he needed more help than they could provide. So where did he go? To paper and pen. He realized that only by examining his thoughts on his own could he reach needed understanding. As he wrote, he began to have insights and understandings that were specific to his plight. Understandings others and even he could not have come up with.

“What?” You ask. “Not even him? But isn’t he writing here?”

Yes, but as I’ve stated before, it is the subconscious, intuitive / creative voice that taps into submerged solutions, understandings, forgotten facts and connections that only come forth when we allow ourselves to think freely and intuitively. Subsequent chapters will help you free yourself up, let go of counterproductive thoughts and habits locking up great personal discovery. Not sure if you’ve ever heard the old sixties saying, “Free you mind and your ass will follow.” Well, hopefully we’ll get a lot more than rear end feed up. Let’s get back to the example.

This man began to discover ways of dealing with his disease that no one else was coming up with, solutions that worked specifically for him-his unique situation. He began recording how he was feeling at his worst times. For instance, at one point, he began writing down how often he was waking up at night, and what he was feeling, and passed that information on to his doctor who was able to tailor preventative solutions based on this information. The man even went back to writing poetry, something that he hadn’t done in years, to discover insight and calm that he said would have never happened if he hadn’t gotten sick-the sickness forcing him to write again.

I know from personal experience that it has been the times I’ve spent alone, feeling down and desperate, sad and destitute, that have not only motivated me to seek out a better life but has helped me to see the significance of this better life and to appreciate it for all the joy and reward it brings. The result? Greater insight, understanding, compassion for others who suffer the same plight, and strength, coming from overcoming such difficulties and tragedies.

People often complain about their difficulties, curse God for their bad luck, but they never look to the light at the underbelly of tragedy and failure. Without these downtimes, how do we ever know success? There is no one who has ever succeeded who hasn’t known failure. And that is good, for how can you succeed without it? If failure did not exist, and you only knew success, how would you know your were successful? If you were always healthy and never got sick, how could you know health?

This is old news, philosophy that has been around for ages. The Taoist speaks of it in the ying / yang: hot / cold, light / darkness, health / sickness, pleasure / pain. If we didn’t have these pairs then we would not know the good or the bad. It is the way this world is set up. For our benefit.

By keeping our minds open, we are able to see things we would not normally be able to see. Important things.

Here’s another example. A woman was concerned about a defect in her child’s head. She had gone to a couple of experts who said that everything was fine, that the child would grow out of it. Nevertheless, she continued to worry and seek out experts. She just knew something was wrong.

Point of note: good example here of not listening to others or blindly following the crowd. How many less informed mothers or mothers with weaker intuition would have accepted these expert’s opinions?

She decided that in order to work out this problem she would journal. She, like the man with MS, had gone to experts, family and friends for advice but she knew that she hadn’t found what she was looking for. So she began to write.

In writing, she discovered an un-opinionated, neutral partner in her pen and paper. But she was not alone. She knew that there was another presence working with her. She could feel it as she came to greater understanding of what she should do. Seek out additional experts. She did.

Some time later she came upon a doctor who was working on a new disease of the bone, specifically related to children. She brought her child in. After the doctor examined the child, he suggested that they not delay and operate as soon as possible.

After the operation both the doctor and mother were satisfied with the result, the doctor telling the mother that if she had delayed the child might not have survived. The mother was also satisfied with the information and insight that she received from her journal, not only because she had saved her child but she had come to a great understanding through writing how to best deal with a highly charged emotional situation-a situation no one else was able to remedy to the mother’s satisfaction.

Journaling, writing, keeping a diary, any form of jotting down one’s ideas in a quiet place on a regular basis is fundamental to tapping into and maximizing one’s ability to be successful in most if not all areas of life.

Jeff Brown has been writing for over thirty years. He is an astute observer of the human condition and has overcome many personal development challengs by applying the principles he speaks of to his own life. His current novel Black Body Radiation and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe can be found at Amazon.com His newest book, Give and Grow Yourself Rich will be out in early 2008.

First, to set the stage, let’s start by saying that most believe education to be critical. Education here meaning high school since it is compulsory and everyone is required to attend. But specifically the content of the “education” spoken to by the majority is quite different from what is essential to survive in today’s competitive world. (More on this later.) Nevertheless, the popular content of the general high school curriculum those in the media, political and public arenas speak of entails arithmetic, science, language, phys ed, history, and English.

And most have been conditioned to believe that this type of education is necessary or critical or that a child without a high school education and, in most cases today, a college education limits the average child’s chance for success in the job market. And this is true to a degree but less so than most believe. But to continue our definition, it should be pointed out here that education gained usually translates to “job,” meaning that the belief is that high school and / or college are preparing the student for her life’s work. But this is not true and our youth are being shortchanged. For after twelve maybe sixteen years of education, then what? Education stops because institutional education is complete?

Today such thinking is disastrous, for with the opening of the global job market and greater competition–therefore the greater creative destruction of capitalism–one needs to be on the ball and constantly updating skills, even deleting and re-learning new skills, a situation that requires less of educational standards and a greater understanding of the critical need for developing one’s self-education skills that readies one for the great changes ahead–not only numerous jobs but careers that are sure to come. Never before has it been more critical for students and workers to understand the need to keep one’s skills, attitudes, and knowledge in tip-top shape, up to date and forever expanding.

And of course, as I’ve mentioned before numerous times-but bears repeating-high school grads and even college grads are lacking fundamental skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are more critical today than ever before: self-educating skills (as mentioned), critical and intuitive thinking, financial IQ, honesty, integrity, work ethic, success principles (upwards of 64 of them!), ability to work well with others, public speaking / leadership skills, and so much more.

Why are these intangibles, these often over looked skills, knowledge, and attitudes so important? Well, it is just the foundation of these very intangibles-which are rarely addressed in education-that will keep the average graduate on solid footing in regards to the many career changes guaranteed to come. After all this is, as Allen Greenspan states, the age of turbulence. The new grad must be adaptive, focused, work ready, and basically a company of one, ready and able to adapt as change occurs on the job, in the world national and international, and in ever changing career shifts. How market ready are you? How valuable and adaptive are your insights, skills, and attitudes? No longer can one rely on just one degree, skill, or job to see them through to retirement and its pension (by the way, pensions will have nearly evaporated by the time those who are just entering the work force have retired if current trends continue–they already are weakened and dissappearing).

This now brings us to the current state of education and belief that a standard high school education is necessary. Let’s bear down on the point at hand.

We often hear that schools are doing poorly or doing well in regards to testing and grades in the standard disciplines mentioned above–math, science, English, etc.. And it is generally taken for granted that we need these courses and that our children will benefit by taking them. However, how do we know this? What tangible evidence, research and verification tells us that what our children study is benefiting them five, ten, twenty years down the road?

As far as I know, there is none. To ensure that an education is critical it first must have value for the consumer, for if it holds none its hold on the consumer will be short lived. If we looked at the truth, we will find that not only are most not using that which they’ve learned in school and even college but they have little to no desire to retain it in the first place. Here are a few direct quotes from current and former students of mine.

“Got labs today. Can’t wait to purge this junk once the test is over.”

“Dude, that class is a joke. Do what we all do. Get the grade, dump the junk, and get on with your life.”

“Whoever thought we needed half this crap [knowledge gained from classes taken] should be shot, run over, then shot again.”

Some of these statements I’ve overheard or seen posted on various social media. (I’ve left out  the numerous comments that have an “R” rating or higher.) The point being that there’s a lot of precious “knowledge” out there that has little value for many in high school and college.

Why is this allowed to happen in the first place?

Well, most education is not for profit, meaning that if it were there would be a lot of asking of the customer what she likes and doesn’t like, as well as what is useful and not useful to not only retain  customers but to encourage them to come back. There’s little if any of that concern in education at any level. For emphasis, just consider where you get optimum service, at the DMV, US Post Office, or INS? Or maybe more so at Blockbusters, Wells Fargo, or Vons Supermarket? Yes, where the customer is king, in the private sector.

Most education is run by states and, therefore, talked about by those governing the country–those with short-term agendas to get elected or re-elected–not with the long-term picture in mind. And this bears out the point that most have little interest in or concern for what happens to grads after they’re gone and whether or not what they’ve studied is needed or necessary. Even schools and colleges are guilty of this offense. Have you ever been approached by your school or college with a survey to discern your consumer satisfaction? Then my question is, how do they have any idea that what they are doing is right? Good? Of merit or quality? Of need, even?
On top of it all, students attending school and college and their parents just take it for granted that authorities and governing bodies (regional accreditors that are academically oriented and not tied into the realities of the private sector) have selected curriculum that is appropriate for ever child’s needs, a ridiculous proposal at best. Does anyone ever question what they or their child is taking in school and / or college and how it specifically applies to them, their abilities, talents, character, skills, and desires? Trusting so much in governing bodies that do little to no checking to see if that which they are requiring students in schools and college is beneficial years later? If private companies were run like this they’d be out of business quicker than you could say “failed thinking.”

It is critical today more than ever before that consumers-students-understand thoroughly not only what education means, and its limitations, but what they need to ensure success not only in the workforce, but in their families, society, and spiritual life. There is so much that so many are missing out on with the current state of the education nation. It is in a sad state indeed and only its privatization or the seeking of a proper, thorough and adequate education by individuals in the know of what is needed will truly reform education. As consumers of education, we certainly need to be better trained in what we are receiving, what we need, and how to go about getting it.