Hello Full Potentialites. It’s a beautiful new Sunday here in Chirripo Costa Rica. I’m preparing to go to one of my favorite weekly events, Soccer at 9 AM. We started about 10 weeks ago and it’s become something to look forward to each week.

Last week I wasn’t able to attend because I cracked a rib and its taken a couple weeks to at least get to the point where I feel comfortable going out there. Its interesting though because I have two friends that also recently cracked ribs in exactly the same spot.. right at the heart. And now they also have a little indentation in the bone there.

When I start these posts I do so with the intention of just streaming what seems like the most positive thing to share. Starting with my own mind’s flow and moving into what might be most useful to you. Who are you and what is going to help bring you closer to your paradise?

So over this last week as I have been preparing to do a major update on the Full Potential website and my own personal brand and getting more clear on what exactly paradise is for people, I did a comparison on some of the top marketers that have probably got their finger on the pulse of what people want. The sites I visited were:

Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Tim Ferris and Brian Tracy. What I was looking for was what they were offering, what words they used to present those offers and ultimately what they think people want – because on some level, their success indicates an understanding of what people want to make their lives better. Whether their products actually do that as consistent as simply following the steps remains to be seen. I believe that true results (at least within the rigors of scientific testing) should be reproduced easily as long as everyone follows the steps.

So here are the main themes I saw across some of their marketing:
1. HEALTH: People want to be healthy, vital and alive.
2. LOVE: People want love, community and harmony
3. WEALTH: People want to be wealthy, secure and low risk.
4. HAPPINESS: People want happiness, growth and impact.
5. FREEDOM: People want as much freedom as possible with their time, energy and money: doing what they want, where they want with who they want.
6. LIFESTYLE: People want to live their ideal lifestyle.. this varies greatly depending on a person’s values.

BUSINESS: When it comes to business, which is a vehicle for freedom, most people want to be as free as possible while creating it. To work on it rather than in it. To create systems for it. To hire good people for it.

Some of the key words that came up for me in my research was:

BREAK THROUGH which is the main headline on both Tony Robbins and Brendon Burchard’s web sites at the time of this writing.

Some other key words or themes are: productivity, freedom, best you, success, achievement, goals.

Beyond just these web sites I’m seeing a big trend right now in discussions around having habits, systems, goals and plans. Essentially, the idea is that if you have the right habits, the right systems, the right goals and the right plans you can pretty much ACHIEVE anything you want right?

I actually love all of these teachers and much of their material.

The only issue I have with any of this is that it sort of mutes the point about how our financial system actually works when it comes to financial freedom. It makes it seem that as long as you follow their courses and programs that you’ll be rich, successful and living your ideal lifestyle. And lets face it – given the constraints of the financial system that’s simply not true for the majority. If they all followed the same formula AND took action on the material being sold to help them feel happy through the vehicles of business or financial success, they would all have very different results. And that’s because the financial system is a pyramid. With power going to a very small few who have concentrated the material assets that produce wealth, and those who actually control the money supply invisibly and invariably supplying those closest to the money supply with the means to acquire (through debt) the assets that enable the accumulation of wealth. And very few outlier entrepreneurs or founders actually make it from the bottom to millions or billions due to other factors beyond just their habits and systems, such as RIGHT TIMING to a new market and very often access to venture capital or once again, bank debt.

For every millionaire there’s a ratio of debit created that’s around 7 to 1. (Meaning for every $1 million in surplus, another $7 million in debt has been spread around the system)

This is not to say that we all shouldn’t value personal development and the success it can give us, but rather we should do our best to see things clearly and realize that many of the promises of marketing are simply to transfer wealth from one hand to another. I would like to think that everyone sharing valuable information simply loves us, but the back side of this is a business plan that seeks to extract money for the solution you seek. This is such a well entrenched paradigm now that we take for granted that it hasn’t always been this way.

The actual gift is to realize your own power and that much of what you need to know can be found for free these days online. Just do a search on Youtube for your questions first and watch the top videos on the subject of your interest before buying anything.

I see a great need for us to work together as a collective, organizing space ship Earth to be as optimum for human existence as possible. Rather than trying to climb the ladder of wealth for individual success, by climbing on the shoulders and heads of other humans.

There is such a huge focus of human consciousness on solving problems where only markets exist, that sometimes we miss the bigger picture of solving the bigger global problems where there is no ‘financial market’ but there’s a very real need for human consciousness to focus there.

Such as cleaning up our environment and detaching certain industries from profit motive such as healthcare or war, otherwise we’ll continue to have serious crisis / solution loops that may be caused by the same humans that benefit from them.

Success comes in all forms and its ultimately not the realization or accumulation of fake numbers that feed some bigger machine that is NOT moving Earth towards it’s more heavenly qualities, or people towards their highest and best selves. Our best talent and our highest faculties need to be mobilized towards the solving of challenges that most deserve of our time and attention – for the benefit of the greater whole. And market based capitalism simply doesn’t do this.

When we can move out of the paradigm of how do we profit the most from our brothers and sisters, a kind of cannibalistic financial paradigm, into how can we serve the most whether a market exists or not – we will have made a major shift in consciousness that will help us evolve towards the next major step in the human experience.

We collectively have the capability to make this planet a better place to live for all. We also have the individual capability to put our heads down and work hard to follow certain formulas that assure us of a certain percentage of the financial pie. But unless we expand our vision to see the bigger picture, we are participating as a cog in the wheel of a bigger machine that is not actually producing maximum benefit to society or this planet. It’s time we shift our focus from profiteering to a more purposeful and sustainable, collectively organized shift towards global solutions that optimize the human experience.

I would like to think it starts with the governments of nations, but in most cases the highest politicians received the most funding from the powers that seek to maintain the current world order. So the real change is going to come from people like you and me, as we organize ourselves in sustainable towns or villages, with hyper local currencies and an internal exchange that keeps the energy of our efforts inside our ‘club’ as much as possible.

I see networks of ecovillages, towns and eventually cities, working together to create a grass roots level of change. Creating hyper local sustainability so that even if larger financial system collapsed, there was already an independence from it that has been established.

And in the meantime while the larger global financial system still exists, we tap into the power that’s available there collectively, to bring in the resources we need to create our sustainability from it.

By shifting our focus from individual enrichment to a more collective enrichment with a very clear path towards cleaner, healthier and more sustainable living, we can spread resources out more intelligently. Not by force, but by design. A design we have all collectively decided upon and worked towards creating.

And that my friends is the most important thing to keep in mind as we move through all of this. The very design of the current financial system is extractive, this will only lead to exploitation of the ignorant or the powerless. This creates vacuums where the need is greatest, because in capitalism problems are only being worked on where the markets actually exist.

We can shift our focus together and see a new way of life. One where success is not defined by how much seed you’re hoarding, but by how much seed you’re planting and how much fruit you are sharing.

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Thank you for reading this today and giving it the time it deserves. May you continue to reflect on it as I share ideas in future posts for how we can make this idea a reality. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.