Posts Tagged ‘Avoid success & happiness’
How to avoid success and happiness
We often learn by observing “what not to do”.
By studying the formula for failure we can discover the ingredients for our own success.
“The wise have more to learn from the fools, that the fools from the wise” Erasmus’s Apophthegmata
HOW TO AVOID SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS
1. Protect your mind from any valuable information
Make sure that your brain diet consists only of advertisements, soap operas, newspapers, gossip magazines and trash. This may sound difficult, but most of your daily intake can be achieved simply by turning on the television. We all know that fast-food is bad for our health, so most of us would never consider eating from the trough of free radicals on a regular basis, yet we deliberately poison our greatest asset with junk-food every day. Should your brain begin to surface or complain about the diet, alcohol or dugs will quickly get you back in the groove of stupidity.
The key to success in this area is to avoid thinking at any cost!
2. If it feels good, do it
I fear Sir Richard Branson’s famous philosophy of “Screw it, let’s do it” has been misunderstood. Richard is one of the world’s greatest thinkers and his decisions are based on facts, wisdom, courage, intuition and experience, not pure feelings. In the 1960’s people wanted love and peace at any price, and were prepared to take drugs, have sex with whoever/whenever they felt like it, and if necessary go to war and kill for it! Somehow we have all carried this ”governed by feeling” lifestyle into 2010, often with no real understanding of why the movement started, or how it is destroying our own life.
The key to success in this area is to always do what you feel, despite the consequences!
3. Hang around with like minded people
Motivational speakers and business mentors constantly talk about the importance of association, with “like minded people”. Napoleon Hill lists the “Mastermind Group” as one of the most powerful tools on the road to wealth in every area of your life. The same principle applies to misery and failure. Make sure you frequently associate with negative, critical, foolish people and your unhappiness is assured.
The key to success in this area is to blend in, even it means losing your soul and your dream!
4. Be stubborn
“To continue to do, what you have always done, and expect a different result” would be considered insane. Yet most people do exactly that, every day of their life! Barbara Tuchman defines stubbornness as “It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is action according to wish, while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts”. One of your greatest assets in this area is your association with like minded stubborn people. They will support you and help you to stay on your course of mental destruction.
The key to success in this area is to learn nothing new and always seek advice from uninformed people!
5. Criticise everybody for everything they do
It is so easy to find fault in everybody. Nobody is ever going to match your expectations, so be liberal in your criticism and sprinkle a little negativity on everyone, behind their back. Perhaps imagine yourself as a eunuch in a harem. You can see what everybody else is doing, you can criticise the technique, but you don’t have the balls to do it yourself. Be especially mindful of the “law of sowing and reaping” in this area of your life, because whatever comes out of your mouth is likely to come back full circle via one of your like minded friends.
The key to success in this area is to be consistent and ruthless in your flow of back stabbing remarks!
There you have it! Five simple lessons to stay spiritually, mentally, physically and financially bankrupt.
To achieve wisdom, happiness, purpose and peace … just “flip” the lessons and apply the principles in reverse.
“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us. But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern which shines only on the waves behind us.” Samuel Coleridge
Special thanks and acknowledgement to Philip Baker, the author of “Wiseheart, the forgotten factor of success” for his inspiration for this blog
