Broken Teachers, Broken Students

Reading Time. 1.5 minutes

• 345 words

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 "When teachers are confused and uninspired — they will contribute to the general failure and complacency rate."

I wrote an article dedicated to Your Environment last month. The aim of this article was to emphasize that ‘education’ in a destructive, stagnant environment can easily turn to dust and a badge of shame.

Think about this, our parents, to make a living, have to choose a career, and usually the most readily available careers are government-run, such as nursing, security, and teaching. A parent is fundamentally a human who’s either consciously decided to get a child or unconsciously brought one into the world through lack of awareness. Therefore a parent is also a child with great responsibility to raise another child. A parent is a child because they are still learning about life, making mistakes, fighting their fears, filled with uncertainty, and more.

A person who is turned into teacher because they’ve met the system requirements but has no love or inclination for teaching is an exceedingly harmful person to the youth and to the glory of mankind. I shivered when this dawned into my mind — that, some of my school teachers were actually parents at home. Parents who were failing at parenting. Parents who are overweight because they are greedy around food, parents who are in debt because they are frivolous with money, parents who are mean and bitter because they’ve been hurt and betrayed by their romantic partners. In other words, parents who contribute, rather than reduce, to the confusion and the trauma transferred onto the youth.

I cannot help but strongly believe that had I been educated in a closed-environment by one or two dedicated mentors I would have thrived during my teenage years compared to this shuffling exposure to many uninspired teachers.

Children and teenagers are faced with a lot of challenges; poor parenting, destructive environments, peer pressure, self-doubt — but what’s frequently ignored is the added confusion and bitterness they get from teachers who are utter failures in their personal lives!

Home school your child, is my conclusion.

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Rising Above Financial Struggles

Reading time: 2 minutes

• 350 words

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You shouldn’t have time to complain about life being hard. You should be busy getting physically stronger, mentally sharper, financially in a better place, building relationships with loyal friends who have your back, taking smart risks and investing in your future freedom. 

How to Improve Financially When It Feels Like You've Tried Everything

Many people feel stuck financially, convinced they've exhausted all options—school, job applications, even going door-to-door in search of work. When nothing seems to work, it's easy to believe that no one values your skills or what you can offer. But often, the biggest barrier isn't the lack of opportunities; it's a negative outlook and a pessimistic view of oneself and the world.

Before blaming external factors, reflect inwardly: Are you holding onto negativity and desperation? I've been there, and this mindset never worked. What did work was maintaining a positive attitude, having hope in myself, and committing to self-improvement.

Focus on Self-Improvement

1. Wellness: Exercise to combat stress and negativity caused by financial pressure. Meditation helps clear pessimistic thoughts, revives gratitude which creates space for resilience. 

2. Learning: Read to uplift your spirit and develop skills that open new doors, even if they start small.

3. Networking: Reach out, start conversations, ask questions, and offer support. Rejection is part of the process, but each connection brings new chances.

I once spent months applying to companies in distant cities, only to discover through a chance conversation that a company just 10 minutes away was hiring over 100 participants—and they needed someone like me. Had I been too afraid to speak to a stranger, I would have missed that chance entirely.

Rise Above Desperation

"If you find yourself filled with the anger and desperation of smothering poverty, you have to rise above it to communicate your hope. You have to reach inside yourself and find your sense of self-worth and your belief that you can and will do better. Then you have to reach out and communicate that belief." — Kent Nerburn, Simple Truths

Financial struggles can be overwhelming, but the key is to keep believing in yourself and taking action. Focus on what you can control: your mindset, skills, and interactions. With positivity and relentless effort, you'll be better positioned to seize opportunities that arise. 

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The Inner Duel

 Reading Time: 1 minute

• 223 words

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People get offended by many things when they are insecure: you are not poor because millionaires exist, you are not unpopular because good-looking people exist, you are not average because smart, talented people exist. You are the product of your training, efforts, risk-taking. — Orange Book

It’s You vs You. Truly, it is. You win the Gold medal not because you did better than everyone on the day of the performance, but because of your dedicated, deliberate preparation vs lousy, unguided training, because of your sincere commitment to small improvements of your strengths and weaknesses vs an indifferent attitude to either or both, because of your willingness to compete in the first place vs your resistance to challenge!

It is You vs You because you possess a Healthy Self and a Sick Self. For ages and ages it has always been that way. The two polarities you see around you: good vs evil, love vs hate, loss vs gain, tears vs laughter, etc. are all taking place within you also, and they compete for your attention.

The trick, therefore, to doing well is first accepting that you are both Sick and you are both Healthy. You are capable of being extremely sick if you choose to think so, and you are capable of being almost flawlessly healthy if you commit yourself to that also.

And secondly is it realizing that whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into — is largely dependent on which Self you feed minutely.

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Celebrating Our Similarities

• Reading Time: 2 minutes
  • 370 Words

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 I discovered people are alike in many more ways than they are different.

I was heavily influenced by Morgan Housel when he wrote, “The dead outnumber the living 14 to 1, and we ignore the accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril.”

In my early teenage years, I relocated to a more crowded environment, and in this large community, it seemed to me that people were convinced of how special they are—egotistical, indifferent, and insensitive to others. You see this in the levels of liquor and substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime, and the stagnation of adults. I strongly believe these individuals have willfully refused to study and learn about others. They’ve convinced themselves they know it all.

Worse, if they don’t know something, pointing it out only irritates them.

In such communities, where most believe themselves unique and special, you often find the most ordinary, wretched, and ignorant. They are ordinary because they follow what their friends or neighbors suggest; wretched because they lack the discipline to forge a new path, conforming instead and growing bitter; and ignorant because they repeat the same cowardly and selfish mistakes that shaped their upbringing.

Only when people begin to study humanity—the intricate, machine-like mind, the triumphs and failures of the past—do they become, not necessarily unique, but authentic, original, and daring. Only then do they appreciate the similarities between one another, not to lament over, but to celebrate strengths, alleviate weaknesses, and find a healthy balance between pleasure and purpose.

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The Heart's Path: Choosing Gratitude Over Negativity

 We internalize, not just what we do, but what we feel. — Dr. Brett

Having developed the habit of finding a problem in every idea, every new experience, every opportunity—the human heart develops the worst of all traits: the inability to be grateful. This fosters feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, and vulnerability in the face of positivity, sincerity, and grace.

Having made it a conscious and willful routine to pause and reflect on all the small and big advantages, gifts and wins — the human heart internalizes a deep sense of gratitude, a prevailing feeling of fulfillment, contentment, and inner tranquility.

Both these feelings stem from small, very tiny choices made daily—choices that grow, expand, and multiply until they become hard and dominant.

Meet an ungrateful person, and they may well shake your inner peace, make you doubt your heart’s purity, and influence a sense of inadequacy within you. It takes preparation and resolve to maintain one’s inner tranquility in such encounters.

Meet a grateful, sincere person, and you will feel a sense of freedom. For a time, you forget all your problems, your shortcomings, under their reassuring gaze. Your heart will expand. You will feel great indeed.

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Reading Time: 1 minute

• 229 Words

Knowledge vs. Environment

 Education is Key to Success, But So Is the Environment You Engage With Every Day

We tend to focus on education as the primary driver of success, often neglecting the environment in which we are situated. Yet, knowledge alone is not enough. It helps you discover principles, the ‘right way,’ and then convert those insights into daily choices guided by values. However, your values can easily intermingle with those of your circle or community.

In fact, it’s very easy for this to happen because your circle often includes your parents and the community that raised you. Naturally, you’ve adopted their worldview and preferences. With the acquisition of knowledge, you’re attempting to reverse, relearn, and unlearn unproductive preferences and habits. But reversing and unlearning is an exceedingly uncertain process—one that requires more than just intellectual effort. It’s crucial that you change your environment simultaneously.

Why? Because what you learn can easily be used against you if your environment doesn’t support your growth. Phrases like, “You’re mean,” “You’re too ambitious,” “You’re not realistic,” or “You’re too serious,” can quickly undermine your progress.

In my opinion, great knowledge will only thrive when you are in an environment that recognizes, appreciates, and honors that kind of knowledge. This often boils down to your character and choices, which are deeply influenced by your surroundings.

As Darren Hardy wisely observed:

“The people with whom we spend our time determine what conversations dominate our attention, and to which attitudes and opinions we are regularly exposed. Eventually, we start to eat what they eat, talk like they talk, read what they read, think like they think, watch what they watch, treat people how they treat them, even dress like they dress.”

In other words, the environment you engage with every day shapes who you become just as much as the knowledge you acquire. To truly succeed, it’s essential to not only focus on your education but also carefully curate the environment that nurtures your growth.

The Mental Sunlight -- Breathing

 

Henepola Gunaratana: Mindfulness In Plain English

Book Summary in 300 words, 1 minute reading time:

What you are now is a result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind—no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness and self-assurance.

This is why we sit down each day with eyes closed, listening to nature or soothing music — Meditation is intended to purify the mind. It cleanses the thought process of what can be called psychic irritants, things like greed. Hatred and jealousy, things that keep you snarled up in emotional bondage. It brings the mind to a state of tranquility and awareness, a state of concentration and insight. In this state of self-awareness, dark mental clouds are temporary. In the opposite state, our minds are always cloudy, never experiencing the warmth of sunlight and the clear blue sky of contentment.

The idea of meditation is to go in as one person and come out a different person altogether, by making one aware of one’s own thoughts and actions, reflecting on them as much as possible, and remaining in the moment.

Civilization changes man on the outside. Meditation softens him within, through and through. Meditation is called the Great Teacher.

Patience is key. Patience. If you learn nothing else from meditation, you will learn patience. And that is the most valuable lesson available.

"What stops us from saying that the happy life is to have a mind that is free, confident, fearless, and steady? A mind that is beyond the reach of fear and desire...

A person with such a mind will naturally be cheerful and deeply joyful, finding delight in their own resources and desiring no joys greater than their inner joys."

— Seneca, Letters From A Stoic

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Further Reading: 

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

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