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by Phil Laut

How to Make Yourself Broke, Depressed and Upset
by Phil Laut

If you wonder about what you are doing now that creates negative results, this week's eZine may help you in a way that positive guidance may not. In it I make some observations, not about what to do, but rather what to stop doing. Check it out; if the shoe fits wear it.

Most writing about personal development (mine included) describes methods for increasing wealth, happiness and satisfaction. I am probably not the only one who wonders why everyone does not follow those simple guidelines that lead to a more satisfying life. I suppose it is because we are rebellious, don't want to change and want to be right. In 1964, I graduated (with honors, no less) the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a military school where rebelliousness is not a prized quality. Yet, I still experience a rebellious streak in myself that those four years failed to suppress. Sometimes, I observe in others what seems to be a similar counterproductive rebelliousness.

It is likely that everyone experiences periods of lack, depression and upset. There is a definite strategy that produces these unfavorable results. This issue of the Emerging Entrepreneur Newsletter describes counterproductive strategy in general terms, so that you may choose a different course and different results. As pointed out in previous editions of this Newsletter, awareness of your personal unconscious negative thinking is an extremely valuable resource because you can change what you know about and cannot change what you don't know about.

Strategy
The strategy for poverty, depression and upset is easy to remember because each component begins with the letter "P".

1. Personally
Take everything that happens personally. At the extreme, conclude that everything happens as an indictment of you. Assume that people who reject you have it in for you. See the world and the people in it as hostile or at least uncaring. Blame your condition on external circumstances. Blame reliably puts you at effect and renders you helpless. Compare yourself to others frequently and unfavorably. Complain about the people around you to anyone who listens and to some who don't. Rely on this complaining as a temporary respite from misery and as an opportunity to justify unhappiness or lack of accomplishment. Stay at work you don't like and expect the money to make up for the dissatisfaction. Assume it is your responsibility to fix things that are beyond your control, including the feelings of others. Avoid asking for what you want.

2. Pervasive
Allow the negative attitude created in Part 1 to pervade other areas of your life. For example, allow setbacks at work to affect your close relationships and allow upsets in your family to detract from your performance at work. Increase the pervasiveness even more by listening to country western music or rap, if you prefer, so that your negative thinking gains rhyme and melody, thus becoming easier to remember. Then, seek re-inforcement of this thinking by associating with like-minded individuals who drain your energy and complain to you about their own plight.

3. Permanent
Make all of this permanent by thinking it will never change. Or perhaps by thinking you are too old to change or that you will change after you have more education, a better job, get married, get divorced, have children, move to California or the children grow up. In your relationships, refuse to give the other person what you know they want until you get what you want from them.

These three P's are an excellent strategy to follow, but only if you want to be broke, depressed and upset.

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