For a long time now, I have had the understanding that our world (or at least the US which I live in) needs to change the way that we “do business” because the current antiquated way is seriously failing our needs. I have been struggling to put together a complete understanding of where all the weaknesses are and what an ideal solution would look like. However it is becoming clearer in our collective consciousness every day.

We as a group are raising our consciousness. This should come as no surprise as we have been raising our consciousness for a long time now. This is the reason we have chosen to participate on this planet. We are however crossing a certain threshold which is very important for our advancement. In the terms of Wallace D. Wattles,  (The Science of Getting Rich), we are leaving the competitive plane and are entering the creative plane. In Gabriel Cousens terms, we are leaving the Culture of Death and entering the Culture of Life.

Life by its very nature increases life. From the moment life was created, it has started its upward path of creating from itself the advancement of life. We started with small single cell creatures which advanced into communities of single cell creatures, which advanced into multicellular organisms which are communities of different types of cells all working together for mutual benefit. Our body is very much comprised of beneficial organisms such as bacteria which many would not call “us.” A lot of our economic theory is based off of thoughts similar to Darwinism or evolution which paint a picture that the universe is brutish and cold. Only the strong survive and reproduce. The weak are eliminated. You must trust no one and dominate others to succeed. This is a very partial picture, to say the least. The symbiotic relationships found in so many ecological communities make it very clear that cooperation is the equal of competition if not more important. In the competitive plane, we advance at the expense of others be it other humans or the rest of the world. In the creative plane, our actions advance everyone together. Business benefits all stakeholders, not just one.

The current system is designed to reduce us to material consumerism. It was created by some of us in the competitive plane to make it easier for them to outcompete us. It obfuscates how the world works and inhibits us from learning how to do stuff ourselves and makes us dependent on them. It hides the sins of industry and politics while encouraging us to give our power to those who we may or may not trust or who may or may not have our best interests at heart.

The world we are creating is one in which everythings becomes transparent. All stakeholders are involved and responsible for their choices. Gone will be dirty deeds done under the cover of night. The internet removes the gatekeepers from the media and allows information to transfer instantaneously across the world. If someone decides to short change their employees it becomes available for all to see. If a politician sells out his populace, the world sees.

Our social structures by necessity will need to be recreated to reflect this change in consciousness. Similarly, correctly done, the structures will help progress advance the change in consciousness that is occurring and help to entrain bystanders ever upwards in the same way that our current structures are holding them down.

Dave Pollard conveniently released his blog post Imagining Post-Industrial Society.  He does a great job characterizing the differences between the Industrial Society and the Post-Industrial society.  Please spend the time to read it, as the rest of the post is influenced by his.

Of the characteristics of this new age which will be developed into our new structures are as follows. These I believe to be the most important ones.

• The advancement of all. Our structures must be designed for the advancement of all stakeholders.
• Reclaim your power.  Power must be centered as locally as is reasonable.  When it is being used faraway, it’s hard to ensure its being used justly.
• Transparency in all aspects. This empowers all of us to take full responsibility for our actions. Actions taken on behalf of us, must suit our conscious.

Dave stated that “it’s hard not to conclude ‘you can’t get there from here’.” I think that it’s inevitable that we are going to get there. It’s inevitable because it takes a tremendous amount of energy to fight against the natural ways of doing things. The amount of energy we expend to hold ourselves down is an amazingly large amount. As our consciousness grows to allow us to create more natural structures, that tremendous amount of energy will be free for constructive use. The increased transparency of information is happening through the internet.  It’s an example of how technology and structures, and how we interact with those structures can change our perception and consciousness.  The internet has also connected us in ways that just weren’t possible before.  It has allowed us free access to information that has been traditionally expensive.  Information like, how do I start a business?

With every structure or relationship you are a part of, ask yourself, “Does this advance all the stakeholders involved?”  The design of our social structures is essential.  They must be consciously built to reinforce the ways that you want to interact with them, because they will alter your consciousness with respect to how they were created.  This is a topic I intend to more fully explore as it is deeply close to my heart.

For about a year now, I’ve had a loose desire to find a spring to get my water from, but I’ve never really acted upon it. My desire to increase the quality of my water has been growing as I’ve been listening to Daniel Vitalis, David Wolfe and others in the raw food community wax poetically about the benefits of spring water. Today, I stumbled into a podcast on We Like It Raw that featured Daniel Vitalis and he highlighted some ways to go about finding a spring near you. This was the first time that someone broke it down to such a beginners level that made it seem easy enough that I should just go do it. As a result, I feel compelled to make a short term plan to find at least one nearby spring.

I looked on www.findaspring.com which showed one that was relatively close to Minneapolis. It is 24 minutes from my house. I will try to find some more springs to add to the website.

Here’s my plan:

1. Contact the US Geological Survey.
2. Call the water district in my area.
3. Ask some of the local co-ops and health food stores.
4. I will then add any springs to www.findaspring.com
5. Finally, I will check out any of the springs.

We’re also going to my mothers house this weekend to do a little work on the greenhouse. I’ll keep you updated.

Thanks,

It seems to me that the most fitting subject for my first blog post on this site would be a small discussion on the goals I have for myself for 2010 and the short-term future beyond it. Traditionally, my goals have been less directed as I have been less consciously aware of the direction I have been headed. They have been more intuition based, as if I’ve been pulled in a certain direction. The more I roll around the possibilities of my future, the more concrete my vision of my future becomes. The main themes have been improving my health, figuring out my purpose in life, and developing my career. After almost 3 years, my career has taken its toll on my health. I’m constantly tired and the recent merger and ensuing corporateness has overwhelmed the positive aspects of my position. The workload is overbearing and it’s been wearing on me. That said, this job has had many benefits for me. It’s been a stable income that more than covers my needs, and it has allowed me the room to grow to where I am now. I have figured out my purpose in life and how I can contribute, and it now feels that the more time I spend at my work the less I’m able to spend working on my purpose. So without further ado, here are the most important of my goals for 2010.

The Goals

Doing What I Love and Financial Independence

The heart of my consciousness is focused on establishing the groundwork for financial independence. In figuring out how I can maximize my contribution to the world and how I can get paid for doing what I’m supposed to do and to remove the financial obstacles towards doing so.

• The most important goal I have is in developing this blog and my competency in blogging. This is to be the base from which I will operate financially and the content on it will be a strong part of the value that I will offer to others. It will be my method of communicating with my tribe.
• I will complete construction of the winter greenhouse at my mother’s house. This will help build the skills I will use to provide value to the universe.  It will also allow her to reduce the amount of money she spends on food and eat dramatically healthier food in the winter, which is in dire shortage in the winter.
• I will settle down in the best property for me which will serve as my home and home base.
• I would like to make my spending more conscious following the techniques laid out in Your Money or your Life.

Health

In order to achieve my goals and fulfill my potential, I need to increase the energy available to me to complete the work which is necessitated of me. In order to help determine the root cause of my lack of energy and further improve my health I plan to:

• Develop a testing regimen to understand a deeper understanding of how my diet is affecting my health and determine what changes I could make to ensure that my body has all that it needs and that nothing goes missed. At the very minimum I want to start measuring the alkalinity/acidity of my body and perform some sort of mineral tests.
• Perform a 30 day trial where I adjust my diet to ensure adequate nutrient intake and pH levels as determined in the above goal.
• Receive a colonic. Many people have raved about its ability to assist the body in cleansing itself. I would like to experience this for myself and see how it works out for me.
• Experiment with how different foods affect me. I would like to determine if I’m allergic to any foods such as wheat or dairy and eliminate them from my diet.