#nextbigthing #technology #gamechangers #anthroposcene
Perhaps you wonder what your work life will be like in 10 years, or 20 years.
Perhaps you wonder what kind of business someone will invent that will change everything.
Well, there’s probably a group of well-funded thinkers that are wondering the same thing.
Elizabeth Preston, a correspondent for The Boston Globe, tackled this topic in an article published July 30, 2015.
Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, which makes electric cars, is among those funding studies that will help us prepare for the technology crises of the future.
Technology has changed many workplaces, and will continue to do so.
Uber has changed the way many people get around.
So what will be next?
“Real world scientists are thinking apocalyptically. Many believe that humans – sometime between inventing agriculture and reshaping the global climate –have created a new, global epoch,” Preston writes.
This age, informally called anthroposcene, will be the subject of a new section of the National Museum in Washington, D.C., Preston says.
We’ve already seen the world go from dinosaurs to robots, double-wings to drones. But what’s next?
You may be hearing things from investors that say they know what the next big thing is going to be, but they are only telling a few of their closest friends. To become such a friend, you have to pay money.
So what is it worth to you to have insight into a serious game-changer before everyone else does? As we all have seen, things we thought would be game-changers didn’t turn out as hyped. Some of the things have even become a pain to live with. For example, do you have a love-hate relationship with your smart phone, or computer? These devices have helped people do more things more quickly, but they also can, and have, complicated many lives.
The next big technology breakthrough may save lives, but may cost jobs.
The next big breakthrough could help us alter nature, but should we fool with nature like that? It may help us better prepare for bad weather, but bad weather is an everyday occurrence somewhere. Can we stop ALL such destruction?
So, are you, like these Musk-funded think tanks, obsessed with what technology will do in the future? Perhaps so, perhaps not.
If you want a simpler life, yet want to make more money than you are making now, without affecting what you are currently doing, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You see a way to put money in your pocket without having to invest in the next big thing.
Though we may reminisce about simpler times, few of us would care to go back there. In fact, it’s virtually impossible to go back there.
We merely take what is, adjust our lives accordingly and aim for something better. It’s certainly OK to dream, or think about, what can be. But it’s much safer to keep our thoughts in line with what we want for ourselves, and what we want for others. Finding ways to help others is perhaps the most virtuous of thoughts. Make that your next big thing.
Peter
Category Archives: Uncategorized
THE GREATEST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY
#dreamers #focus #BrianTracy
We are living in the greatest time in all of human history.
That’s how Brian Tracy, author of “Eat That Frog,” starts his other book, “Bulls-Eye: The Power of Focus.”
The phrase may give one pause, especially in light of fighting in the Middle East, an economy still unkind to many and the many signs of hatred rearing their ugly heads.
Tracy also says, “there is no reason for you not to be earning twice as much as you are today, or even five times as much.” It’s all about clarity, focus and concentration, he adds.
Some may wonder what Tracy has been smoking. After all, the trend in wages is stagnant, or heading downward. Some people had good jobs six or seven years ago, that are now gone. Some are working part time when they want to work full time.
But Tracy says if you are clear about what you want, you focus on your most important goals and activities and concentrate single-mindedly until you have completed your tasks and achieved your goals, there’s no stopping what you can do.
Certainly, as Tracy points out, those who succeed by and large work harder than most, stay committed to what they want to achieve and put most other things aside. But here’s the thing: most of those successful people started out with no special skills or talents. They learned necessary new skills and didn’t give up when others might have.
In short, these folks were no different from anyone else at the beginning.
The next logical step: anyone can be one of those successful people.
Some are dreamers. Your parents may have criticized people they believed were dreamers, equating them with, say, drifters. But really successful people have big dreams, and are confident enough in themselves to do what they need to do to realize those dreams.
Others, as Tracy points out, are merely wishers. They wish they had more money, better looks, more power, but don’t have the wherewithal inside them to go after it.
Wishers give up when the going gets tough. Usually, they follow with blaming someone else, or circumstances, for their lack of success.
Wishers bail on their dreams when others tell them they’ll never accomplish them.
Dreamers keep at their dreams, because those dreams are more powerful than anyone’s opinion of them.
Perhaps you have a powerful dream, the drive to achieve it but might lack a vehicle to get you to your destination. There are many great vehicles out there. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll find some big dreamers like you who’ve done what they needed to do to get where they want to go, from a place similar to yours right now.
It’s been said that there are those who watch things happen, those who make things happen and others who wonder what happened. When things happen, make other things happen that will get you back on track toward your dream.
As Tracy points out, one can start out with nothing. Dreamers will get what they want eventually by learning the skills they need. Wishers will give up along the way, complain of their fate and make fun of the dreamers. Dreamers never quit.
Peter
CHOOSE YOUR WAVES CAREFULLY
#surf #waves #financialplanning
If Jeff Hall could do one thing every day for the rest of his life, he would surf.
Hall, partner and senior financial adviser with Rather and Kittrell in Knoxville, Tenn., wrote a column about surfing and financial advice in the July 12, 2015, edition of the News Sentinel newspaper of Knoxville.
His main point: the ocean can be tricky. You have control over some things, but not others. But, you can control to whom you listen. Despite the financial crisis in Greece and other places, there is no substitute for setting realistic goals, making a plan and following it and, as he writes, learning from every wave.
Financial planning requires good advice from someone you trust, to be sure. But it also requires discipline. It requires watching where your money goes and resisting the temptation to put it in the wrong places, i.e. spending frivolously when you should be saving vigorously.
A good financial plan involves putting off some purchases until you’ve paid yourself through saving.
Simple? Of course. Easy? Not so, for some. Success comes from doing what isn’t so easy.
You might respond this way: But my job, or my income, doesn’t allow me to save.
There are many ways to overcome that problem. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Here’s another caution: emotion. Hall says that emotion sells. If you know what you are doing is right for you, don’t let others’ emotion get you off track. Don’t stray from a good plan for emotional reasons. Sometimes, news reports can enhance some bad emotions.
Know, too, that there will be ups and downs. Nothing goes up in a straight line. But good advice and careful planning can make the path a little less rough.
If you have children, it’s important to teach them about money. It’s also important to show them a good example of financial prudence in your behavior. Certainly, kids can be more focused on having fun at the moment, as opposed to postponing getting something they want now.
Still, if you can teach them that every decision has a consequence, ultimately they can set better priorities as they get older.
It’s OK to inject fun into your life. But be realistic in what you spend for “fun.” It could cost you later.
It takes a little effort and a lot of discipline to gain financial independence. It also can take time.
There is no greater satisfaction than retiring comfortably because of decisions you had made when you were younger.
Hall points out that oceans, as well as the financial world, contain sharks. You have to watch for them, for they won’t go away.
Some waves are worth riding. Others, not so much. If you choose your waves carefully, the ride will be less perilous and destination will be sweet.
Peter
DIFFER WITH YOUR SPOUSE ABOUT HOW TO RETIRE?
#retirement #retirementconflicts #retirementlifestyle
Most of the talk today is about whether a person, or couple, has enough money to retire.
That determination for a couple may ride on what they would like to do in retirement.
USA Today writer Nanci Hellmich discusses why couples should talk about each’s visions of retirement prior to retiring. She took on the subject in a June 26, 2015, article in The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville.
“Couples don’t always have the same dreams for retirement,” Hellmich writes. “It usually takes some negotiating to come to terms with what they’re going to do.”
Hellmich’s article illustrates the point: He imagines summers fly-fishing in a cold mountain lake and winters by the fire reading his favorite books. She envisions summers playing with the grandchildren in their back yard and winters volunteering for her favorite charities.
If we take it further, let’s presume they don’t have a place near a cold mountain lake. They would have to buy or rent one. Let’s also presume that their grandchildren already live near them. To satisfy her, they merely need to stay home – probably a less expensive alternative.
“For lack of a better word, couples need to do some horse trading… You really have to negotiate in good faith,” Hellmich quotes Pepper Schwartz, AARP’s love and relationship expert.
Hellmich’s article gives some talking points for couples: create a list of characteristics for retirement that each spouse wants; talk to family and friends who would have an interest in your decision. If your kids want to have you around, presumably not as just a free baby sitter, you have to talk about it with them. If you don’t live near your children, and they want you to move closer, you have to think about that, too.
Other talking points the article cites include prudently pruning your retirement dream list. Figure out areas in which you can compromise. If the man is a golfer, for example, and wants to play a lot, and the woman is not, make sure, before you move to that golf resort that you vacation there first. Perhaps the non-golfer will be miserable in a golfer’s paradise. The article points out that couples should carve time to listen to each other, and tell each other, after some discussion and compromise, how much one appreciates the other’s give and take.
Of course, it would be best all around if money were no object. He could fish or golf, she could volunteer for charities and hang with the grandkids. There are many ways out there to secure a good retirement income, one in which compromise may not be necessary. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
If you are young, it’s never too early to talk about these things. If you are able, take some types of vacations you might not otherwise take to see how you like them. Your doctors will probably tell you that staying active will be very important as you get older. Just lying on the beach with a book or tablet may not be as nice at 60 as it is at, say, 25. Besides, it may not be the best thing to do for your skin.
Don’t make retirement life a reason to fight. If you love your spouse, this is an issue that likely can be worked out with good, heartfelt conversation. Then again, if you are single, you have the ability to do whatever you want, wherever you want, in retirement. Make sure you have sufficient pennies put away, or coming in, to make whatever you want to happen, happen.
Peter
PURSUE HAPPINESS AND BE HAPPY IN THE PURSUIT
financial independence #takechargeofyourfinances
We’d all love financial independence.
But, what is it? Our parents taught us that financial SECURITY was the most important thing.
Security means a good job, with good benefits that will last you for as long as you want, or are able, to work.
Security is a fleeting proposition. Good jobs, those that might allow you to attain financial independence eventually, are hard to find and hard to keep. In other words, if you have a well-paying job, you will probably make so much money well before you retire that your company will want you gone, because it can hire someone younger and cheaper.
If you want financial independence, keep that good job for as long as it will have you.
There’s something else about today that is different from when your parents or grandparents were young. More people are losing track of their spending, and how much they have saved. So says Tom Coulter, president of Meridian Trust. Coulter wrote a column headlined, “The pursuit of happiness via finances,” that appeared in the News Sentinel newspaper in Knoxville, Tenn., July 5, 2015.
“While few people believe that money alone can make us happy, we do know that people who are confident about their abilities to realize their financial goals report higher levels of life satisfaction than those who aren’t,” Coulter writes.
In other words, to quote colleague Ronnie Paul Waldrep, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can sure help you work out your problems in style.”
Coulter suggests taking inventory of your finances and making a plan. Determine how to align your actions with your priorities. Buy books, surf the Web or hire a financial planner, if necessary, he says. Most of all, take charge of your life.
As you go through life working toward financial independence, which, for argument’s sake, we’ll define as being able to do what you want, when you want, enjoy the pursuit. For example, Chris Guillebeau reached his goal, or, as he calls it, his quest of visiting every country in the world before his 35th birthday. He discussed his travels and his book, “The Happiness of Pursuit,” in a 2015 interview with Success magazine publisher Darren Hardy. The interview was recorded on a CD included in Success magazine.
As you work toward your goal, or quest, for financial independence, find joy in the journey. Many successful people will tell you that achieving success was not as much of a delight as working toward it. Sure, everyone has ups and downs in whatever journey he pursues, but by keeping the finish line always in sight, the downs become less of a burden and the ups become more of a reward.
If you don’t believe your job alone will give you financial independence, or your best money management efforts won’t get you everything you want to be financially independent, there are many other ways to augment work and discipline. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll find ways to bolster your money management efforts as well as ways to provide an income that has nothing to do with a “job.”
With Independence Day 2015 now passed, create your own independence day. Make today the day you get hold of your finances, start pursuit of your financial quest and find ways to enjoy the pursuit every step of the way.
“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical,” says Yogi Berra. Financial independence is largely created by how you think, not what happens to you. Think good thoughts. Take charge of your life. Take enjoyment from your journey. Independence awaits.
Peter
SECRET OF SUCCESS? MAKING UP ONE’S MIND
Many of us look at people we deem successful and believe we cannot be like them.
Either we believe our circumstances are holding us down, or we believe we are not as smart as successful people are or that luck is not on our side.
Rory Vaden, co-founder of Southwest Consulting, spoke to one of the most successful people he knows, Spencer Hays, founder of Tom James fine clothing and executive chairman of The Southwestern Co. Vaden discussed that conversation in a column in the June 28, 2015, edition of The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
According to Vaden, Hays believes that success is simply a choice. It’s the choice to do whatever it takes – or not – to be successful.
To most of us, that’s a very simplistic answer. We all would choose success over failure. But it’s not a matter of wanting success in the abstract. It’s a matter of defining success in one’s own mind, and going out and getting it.
In other words, make up your mind to be successful and do what you need to do.
Vaden said the idea of making up one’s mind to be successful was the one thing that Hays said that struck him in his conversation.
It appears to many that making up one’s mind to be successful is very difficult. How many people do you know start something and give up without finishing it, especially when things got tough? These people wanted to be successful at the beginning, but later discovered that what they had to do to get there was not worth the effort or the sacrifice.
An idea has to travel from one’s head, to one’s heart, to one’s gut. When one finds what he wants to do, he does what he needs to do to accomplish it, no matter what happens.
Another scenario: how many people do you know who had a goal, but listened to those who told him he could never accomplish it? The naysayers believe they mean well, and some actually do. But the successful person believes more in what he wants to achieve than he does others’ opinions of him or his goal.
We can certainly find people who might tell the person who lost a job that it was his own fault. Most of us have circumstances we can’t control. Those are not important. What’s important is how we respond when those circumstances hit.
We can complain, and convince ourselves that the world is against us. Or, we can look for something that will give us the motivation we need to conquer our circumstances.
A third scenario: a person has the motivation, work ethic and has made up his mind to be successful. He just needs a vehicle to help him find success. If you are one of those, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It’s one of many, and one of the best, such vehicles for personal success and for helping others find success.
Choosing success is not like choosing from a restaurant menu. You can’t just say you want something and someone else is going to bring it to you. Choosing success is choosing to do what you need to do, regardless of whom or what surrounds you. It’s about believing in your goal, and pursuing it above all other things – except family and friends.
It’s having faith in what you know is good, regardless of what others think. If you choose success, you’ve chosen wisely.
Peter
IS YOUR BOSS WATCHING YOU FROM AFAR?
#employerspying #privacy #spyingonemployees
Imagine your boss forcing you to download an app on your personal cell phone that would allow him or her to monitor everything you do, everywhere you go, both at work and at home.
Would that bother you? What if deleting that app from your phone got you fired?
Heather G. Anderson, a lawyer with the Miller Anderson Law Group, discussed this in a column in the June 21, 2015, edition of The News Sentinel newspaper in Knoxville, Tenn.
Many employers equip their company vehicles with GPS systems to monitor their whereabouts at all times, Anderson says.
Now, a California company has opted to require employees to download an app on their personal cell phones, so they can monitor what the employees are doing at all times, she says.
Certainly, employers can have legitimate reasons to monitor people. They certainly don’t want their employees goofing off, or dealing with other personal issues on work time. Employers may even want to track employees and vehicles in search of better and quicker responses to problems, more efficient use of company property and employees’ time etc.
The big question becomes, what about an employee’s privacy? Anderson says employees expected privacy in the workplace by locking desks, password-protecting documents etc. But employers have discovered that some employees abuse the latitude they are offered in the workplace.
So, Anderson says, if you are an employer, and you don’t want to offer your employees any privacy while on the job, including Internet and cell phone use, you need to spell that out.
But what about monitoring an employee outside of work? Anderson says many states have laws regarding employee monitoring, and some require permission in advance from the employee to do so. Others make it illegal to fire an employee based on lawful activity outside of work, unless specific exceptions apply. Tennessee does not have any off-duty conduct laws, she adds.
Anderson recommends, as one might expect, that employers check with an attorney to determine the rights and risks involved in setting up a monitoring policy.
Many employers will try to get away with anything to learn as much as they can about someone who works for them. They delve into a person’s social media activities, do background checks etc. A rule of thumb here for an employee or prospective employee: if you have something you don’t want your employer or prospective employer to know, don’t put it where it can easily be found. Better yet, keep it to yourself.
The bigger questions, besides the legal ones, become: what limits do employers have? What expectation of privacy should employees have when they go to work someplace? An employer’s curiosity may not stop with the interview question: what are your hobbies?
Of course, you can eliminate the possibility of an employer snooping on you by becoming an independent business person. How? For one of the best ways, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You can work for yourself, not by yourself, and create the freedom to do what you like, without anyone watching. Of course, it’s always best to do good things, even when no one is watching.
As employers look for tighter leashes for their employees ostensibly to improve their bottom lines, they risk sending great, or potentially great, employees out the door. If you are one of those great, or potentially great, employees, your options may not be as limited as you might believe.
Peter
MORE JOBS, LESS SECURITY
#jobs #security #parttimejobs
The United States is gaining jobs, but more of them are part time, pay less than the ones lost and employees haven’t had raises in years.
Sure, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart and other companies have announced employee raises with great fanfare recently, but many of those who work there can’t make a decent living on what they earn.
Associated Press reporters Josh Boak and Christopher S. Rugaber tackled this issue in an article published June 14, 2015 in the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. In that same Tennessean edition, Paul Davidson of USA Today said many who are working part time are doing so reluctantly.
If you grew up in the 1950s or 1960s, you are at or near retirement. Hopefully, you retired, or will retire, on your own terms. Many have not. If you are currently in your 20s, looking for steady work, perhaps you are cobbling together an income, however inadequate, with one or more part-time jobs. If you are doing that, what are the prospects of you getting the full-time job you need? Are you still living at home with Mom and Dad, and don’t really want to, but can’t afford not to?
The Associated Press article quotes Lena Allison, 54, of Los Angeles. She lost her job as a kindergarten teacher and has worked temporary jobs since. “More people may be working jobs, but they’re like these serial part-time jobs,” the article quotes her.
The AP reporters also point out that hiring has surged in the health care, retail, construction and hospitality and leisure industries. Rick Rieder, a Black Rock investment officer quoted in the AP article, says the country is beginning to see the start of broad-based wage growth. That opinion would surprise many Americans, the reporters say.
But here’s what could trigger wage growth: lower productivity. In the first three months of 2015, productivity dropped 3.1 percent after a 2.3 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2014, the AP reporters say. Productivity had expanded 2.1 percent annually, on average, since 2000, they add. Companies have been slow to invest in equipment and other assets that might make their workers produce more. Therefore, hiring more workers in the short run could combat that, the AP reporters say.
Still, most workers are collecting no benefits or vacation time with their jobs.
Let’s face it. For most people who have lost jobs in the last few years, the ones they’ve gotten to replace them, if they’ve been so lucky, pay less than the jobs they lost. For those fortunate enough to survive the downsizings, most are working harder and probably haven’t had a raise in quite some time. Fortunately for those employers, these employees probably have no better place to go.
What’s an employee to do in these situations? First, if you have a job you like that pays well, don’t let it go. But, don’t presume it will always be there. Most people are one reorganization, or one bad manager, away from an untenable employment situation. Look for a Plan B that can help you make an extra income while you work, so, if the worst case happens, you can leave your job with a smile.
If you are in need of something to relieve an immediate income problem, the same solution could apply. There are lots of great ways to make extra income outside the traditional employment arena. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Don’t let the numbers fool you. Things may appear to be getting better as far as economic numbers go, but little has trickled down to the average person. With very few ways to get meaningful help from this situation, decide today to help yourself. Save more. Spend less. Look for a Plan B. Don’t waste energy complaining about what is. Use that energy to look for, and find, what can be.
Peter
WHAT IS THE ‘RIGHT THING?’
#knownunknowns #unknownunknowns #outthere #therightthing
Doing the right thing can be hard.
This is not just about honesty. It’s about making the right decisions in complicated and difficult situations.
Philip Mudd, a former CIA analyst, talks about this in his book, “The HEAD Game.” HEAD is an acronym for High Efficiency Analytic Decision-making. The book was reviewed by Michael Shermer in the May 27, 2015, edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Shermer’s review discusses decisions made by government, particularly presidents. He says Mudd used his experience as a young CIA analyst in the 1990s, trying to predict terrorist attacks. He sorted through the experiences of Somali extremists in America, and how they might be raising funds in America for terror activities abroad. But by raising questions only associated with fund-raising, the analysts, including Mudd, failed to imagine a more acute problem: recruiting young fighters to become terrorists, Shermer writes.
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is famous for using the phrase, “known unknowns.” A known unknown, for example, is that one knows terrorists will strike again, he just doesn’t know where. The question then becomes, how does one get to know “unknown unknowns?”
The book talks about finding people who would ask questions that are totally far afield of current thinking, and actually exploring those questions, Shermer writes.
The idea brings to mind the Charles Schwab commercials in which a child asks a parent questions about the parent’s relationship with his investment adviser. The parent, then, has a difficult time coming up with suitable answers. The point of the ads: “are you asking enough questions about how your wealth is managed?”
Sometimes, we may have to get advice from someone we think might be totally “out there” in their thinking. Sometimes, accepting things the way they are is just not the right thing to do. It may be difficult to stray from the knowns, or the known unknowns. But sometimes, it’s necessary.
Take a look at your life now. Are you just accepting what is, just because? You may think you know what you don’t know, but do you really?
Shermer writes that Mudd’s book suggests using “left-to-right thinking,” asking completely different questions about a particular problem, in search of the unknown unknowns.
One question you might ask about your own problem, such as not having a job or income that you need, is: if I don’t have a job, or I have a job that is inadequate for me, is getting another job the only solution?
If you are in or near retirement, and you haven’t saved enough, one question you might ask yourself is: is there something I can do to make up for the bad circumstances or bad personal decisions I’ve endured all these years, so that I can have a relatively comfortable retirement?
One of the best answers to both those questions may appear at www.bign.com/pbilodeau. For many, this may be an unknown unknown. For others, it may be something that someone “out there” would find. Yet, the answer you’ve been looking for could be in there, if you choose to find it.
So, what do you know that you don’t know? What don’t you know that you don’t know? The key to finding the answers may be to ask a question you might never have thought to ask. Or, it may be to find someone “out there” who will ask it for you. If you choose the latter, as Mudd’s book says, you have to give those “out there” the chance to be heard.
So release the parameters in your thinking. Go “out there.” Explore what might be “out there.” Try to know what you don’t know you don’t know.
Peter
MORALITY AND LAWS: HOW DIFFERENT ARE THEY?
#morality #legal #morals #laws
What is morally right, and what is legally right?
By definition, laws are secular. They are created by governments and, in the United States, by the will of the people, at least in theory.
Morality is something we believe in wholeheartedly. It’s a personal endeavor. We use it as part of self-definition, whether we get it from teachings, scripture etc.
Bishop Joseph Walker III, pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Nashville, took on these questions in a May 24, 2015, column in the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
Walker says both law and morality are matters of interpretation. As a Christian pastor, he sees morality as founded in the Bible. There are other faiths which use other religious texts as their moral compasses, he says.
His task as a pastor is to lead people so that they discover what is moral and immoral, based on scripture and spiritual revelation, he writes.
For some with deep convictions, morality is concrete, inflexible and void of compromise. For others, morality is fluid, with the ability to change as new interpretations emerge, the pastor writes.
Because we cannot pass laws based on one set of religious or moral standards, one’s morality and what is legal may conflict.
Because, at least in the United States, there are people of varying religions, beliefs and moralities, laws have to determine right from wrong based on that context. As we see watching governments in action, it’s no easy task. Yet, it is necessary.
By definition, laws have to contain some compromise, yet define right from wrong as clearly as they can. That makes it possible, even likely, that people can be wronged by laws, while those same laws make things right to others.
When laws seek to define morality, it becomes a slippery slope, Walker writes. He then asks, “should our rights be protected by the law, whether they are deemed moral or not? Should the law protect any religious rites? The jury is still out.”
Laws do their best to seek justice for all, regardless of one’s beliefs or definition of morality. The Constitution of the United States allows one to worship as he pleases, as long as he hurts no others. So one’s rites and rights can be protected simultaneously. One’s morality could be offended by certain laws, but that should not stop one from believing personally in a certain morality.
Often, we are confronted with laws that allow certain behaviors we consider immoral. In reality, often these behaviors have little, or no, effect on us personally. So, we can privately condemn the law, and still live a life we consider moral.
As laws attempt to seek justice for all, we have to be careful not to judge. As we carry ourselves in our own morality, we do our best to portray that morality vividly, while not condemning others who do not believe as we do.
We must obey the laws, even as we may consider them immoral. We do so with clear conscience by acting within our own moral code, regardless of others’ actions.
As one ponders these questions, he should strive to be the best he can be, within his own belief system. He must also strive to help others, regardless of those others’ belief systems. For a great way to do that, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You could be sharing a great bounty while still following your own moral code.
Peter