From the moment of our painful birth (both for us and our mother), we quickly learn that we need things from the outside to survive – particularly warmth and food.  Not long thereafter, we realize how to manipulate our surroundings to get our needs met.  Oftentimes crying is an effective attention-getter. 

As we grow in age and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, thoughts of safety, health, friendship, and respect occupy our thoughts.  The methods by which we attempt to realize these are quite varied and countless – notwithstanding the enormous efforts we expend attempting to amass paper strips, metal disks, and bodies that pay attention to us.

All of this seems perfectly normal – what else would a person do to find happiness and fill lacks? Continue reading →

You may never have heard of this game, but the summer of 1983 saw the release of what would become one of the highest revenue grossing and popular arcade games of all time.  It is called Dragon’s Lair, in which a valiant knight attempts to rescue a princess from the clutches of an evil dragon.

I, along with many other young kids, was hooked – eagerly pouring in every quarter I had.  Some machines were generating $1000 per day!  Each game provided for three lives.  In other words, you had three tries to battle your way through the perilous obstacles of the castle to eventually reach the lair and combat the dragon. Continue reading →

Does fear hold you back?  Are there things you’d like to do – but don’t – because you are gripped by fear?

We all experience fear.  It’s part of how we made the world.

No one who follows the ego’s teaching is without fear. (T-15.I.4)

Whenever we choose the wrong-minded thought system of the ego as our guide, we will experience fear – and all its little cousins of doubt, insecurity, and anxiety.

But it need not be. Continue reading →

You have volunteered to be part of a research experiment.  You walk into a room and up to a counter where the coordinator greets you.  He hands you a brief consent form to read and sign.  After you sign, the coordinator ducks down behind the counter to file your form and retrieve an instruction booklet which he hands you.  He then directs you to head down the hallway to Door #2 where the experiment will begin.

However, the experiment has already concluded.

When the coordinator bent down behind the counter to file your consent form, a different person stood up and handed you the instruction package.  This new person had different hair color, eye color, and shirt color from the first person – and wasn’t even of similar height.

Virtually no one noticed. Continue reading →

I felt like a failure.  It was an awful, depressing feeling.

I was enrolled in a university class called Circuits & Systems II, and I hadn’t passed a single exam.  I needed to drop the class and take stock of my life – maybe I wasn’t smart enough to get an engineering degree.  A difficult assessment for any 17 year old.

But what subsequently transpired changed my life forever.

I dropped the class and added it the next semester.  But the second time, I had a different teacher.  This professor knew how to motivate students and was well-versed in pushing through learning blocks.  I totally got the material, aced every exam, and developed a lifelong love of engineering which opened many doors for me. Continue reading →