4.16.2009

What the Fish Can't See

I have spent the last few days reflecting on a conversation I had with my mom the other night who just returned from China. She came back with a renewed enthusiasm about the opportunity that surrounds us. She reported that with the recent lift of communism, the Chinese citizens are seeing opportunity everywhere. She commented on the positive energy and vibe in Beijing. They recognize the freedom they have to create the lives they desire. They control their own future.

It is easy to get complacent when we have had it so good for so long. Just as the fish can't see or appreciate the water he swims in, we can't see or appreciate the opportunity that we have. With freedom to work where we want to work, study what and where we want to study, and spend our money how we want to spend it, it is laughable that we whine about our circumstances when we only have ourselves to blame.

We are a sum of our thinking, decisions and actions.

Take that fish out of water for about 10 seconds and I can guarantee that water is all it will think about. Maybe it is time for us to take a quick trip to a third world country to enable us to see the opportunity we are swimming in.

Is it a coincidence that the Russian ancestry group ranks first in the highest percentage of millionaire households per capita? Although the Russian ancestry group accounts for only about 1.1 percent of all households in America, it accounts for 6.4 percent of all millionaire households. It is estimated that approximately 22 of every 100 households headed by someone of Russian ancestry has a net worth of $1 million or more. 

James Allen said it best in As a Man Thinketh, "As a being of Power, Intelligence and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which may make himself what he wills.”