America is going downhill for one very simple reason: people seem to not be able to tell the difference between the disease and its symptoms. It almost seems to be common wisdom for people to think that treating a symptom of a disease is the same as treating a disease. In short, if the symptoms do not longer show up, the disease is gone. It’s a mental dis-ease, but nobody seems to think much of it. It almost seems like people are brainwashed into believing into the above truth.

It works so well because of one reason – convenience. America is obsessed with convenience and comfort. The more of it – the better. And for every obsession there are those that cater to it. Except there is one simple thing that is wrong with comfort – it makes you weak. One person at a time it makes a nation weak. We can already see the results of this destructive thinking.

PROBLEM: America is getting increasingly dumb. This is a tough one to swallow, but it is the truth. Instead of increasing the education standards and making students study and think, we lower those standards. Everybody seems to get higher GPAs, pass tests with highers scores and everybody seems to do better.

All of that at the cost of learning and knowing less.

More and more people are going to college with lower quality education. Educational institutions are more concerned about taking a dollar from you or the government than about admitting quality students, which are increasingly rear.In the process, the schools get paid, the private loan companies get paid and the students get screwed.

In the end, you have college graduates who know and do less than high school graduates in less developed countries than the USA. Everybody is so focused on satisfying people’s egos and avoiding hurting their feelings in the short term that they forget that they are hurting not only the individual, but the nation as whole in the long term.

SOLUTION: Increase the standards of education on all levels and let kids fail. We just have to understand that the purpose of an education system is to teach, and not to give passing grades for kids who don’t try. Only by failing you learn. In a sense, we need to deflate the educational system. So what if that students will be getting lower grades? That is not the purpose of education. Education is supposed to be challenging and difficult so that when we come out of school we are actually know a thing or two. Overtime, the students would get used to higher education standards and everybody would be fine. If you ask for more you get for more, if you ask for less then you get less.

PROBLEM: America is getting increasingly unhealthy. It is the results of people reaching out for the pill, falling prey to false advertising about quick weight loss diets and constantly looking for the easy way out. Instead of making the life long choices about their nutrition and exercise, people focus on the quick fix. Even in this day and age where information is abundant, advertising and the dream of the shortcuts seems to get the best of us.

It is convenient.

It is convenient for the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the fitness industry, the health-care industry, the insurance industry. Finally, it is convenient for the consumer. Yet, the consumers are the ones who end up complaining about increasing health-case costs. If you haven’t lived under a rock, then you should have heard about the health care reform that is trying to take place. Yet, it is all BS. Reforming the health care system for an unhealthy nation is the same as lowering taxes for the poor.

SOLUTION:Education. Teach people about nutrition and exercise from an early age. Make fitness classes mandatory and physically challenging. Teach people from young age about how to make the right choices about their nutrition and exercise. That is all there is needed to create a healthier and happier America.

That will automatically lower the cost of health-care.

The health care right now is expensive for a reason: there are tons of unhealthy people. That automatically raises the insurance costs because more and more people are falling in the increased risk group. The focus should on prevention of disease, rather than the superficial treatment of it later. It’s no rocket science, and it bothers me seeing people not solving the problem the right way.

In the end, it is all about making the right decisions. However, it is hard to learn how to make the right decisions when nobody around you is making the right decisions.

So in the end, it all comes down to education, experience and values.

The state where America is today is reflective of it’s education, experience and values. That is the real disease – lack of all three. If we were only focused on helping people make the right choices and showing them how to make the right choices, we would not have nearly as many problems as we do today. It is funny, how a nation with so many resources and so much potential can end up in state like this.

What about you? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you treating the disease instead of the symptoms? Answer that go ahead; you might be surprised with what you find. Remember, one person at a time, a nation can become stronger or weaker. It is up to you.

My post about definitions seems to be very true and I come to realize it more and more everyday. The most fundamental issues in various societies rise from the definitions. I am college student and right now I am taking advanced courses in accounting, a class about ancient philosophy and business law. Every single subject that is ever taught in school begins with definitions. I used to make fun of people who used to spend hours debating a meaning of a word, when in reality that’s what actually matters the most – conveying the meaning to other people. The way the meaning is actually carried out is just mechanics.

Purpose of Life

Well, what does all of that have to do with the purpose of life? Well, it has everything to do with the purpose of life and life itself because it determines how we carry out our life. Since I am business major, I will use many business metaphors and examples. So let us start with that and then I will relate everything back to the purpose of life.

Business

Let us assume you want to start a business because you ____ . Why would you start a business in the first place? It must have reason, you are doing for one purpose or the other. So you must define a purpose of your business. Is it going to a trucking business, is it going to be a food store, or a coffee shop or a financial service company? You must chose…but why is it that you choose one thing over the other? Is it because you just want to make money? Is it because you want to just help others and really don’t care about the money? Or is it because you just express yourself? I guess all of that depends on what type of person you are. I guess, you can start a business for others sake or for your own benefit. How big do you want your business to be? How many customers do you want? How many people do you want to help? And the questions keep on coming and coming and coming…and it is OK if you don’t know the answers to all of them. But you must think about all of them and have an idea. Not having an idea for the business is like not having a business at all. That idea is what is going to drive your behavior, the company size, they you manage, what resources you are going to need and what are you going to do to be successful. But how do you know if you are successful? In my opinion, it is when the business actually fulfills the purpose for which it has been created. If you wanted to make tons of money and you are making tons of it, then it is successful, if you wanted to help people with their problems and they are doing better – then it is a successful business.

And there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of companies in the world with different purposes, some are big, some are small, some of them are successful and some of them are not, but they all exist for a reason. Sometimes, they forget the reason for which they were created and that’s when they fail. Other business expect one thing from, but they deliver a different one. Changes happen and strategies MUST adapt and change, sometimes the business must change its purpose in order to survive and be successful. For example, you would never go Grocery store to buy tires? But what would happen if you went to get food and they did sell tires? Would you come back?

Your Life

Now let me take a look at people and the purpose of our lives. Of course, must of us did not really choose to be in this world, but we are here. All of us are different and unique and all of us should have different purposes in lives. That’s my own personal thought. The troubles start when people seek other people hapiness or success instead of pursuing their own. So take a look at yourself, examine yourself, ask yourself questions and why do you want to live this great life and be happy and successful in it? What is YOUR purpose in life? What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? Make this life your own, don’t look at others. Lock the doors, close your eyes and be silent with yourself and see yourself doing something great that makes you feel happy, blissful and really successful. That is your purpose. Everybody knows their purpose in life, but some people are scared to face it. If one does not choose a purpose in this life, then one will go on suffering, will be unsuccessful and sad. It will be like that grocery store trying to sell tires and wondering why it is not generating any money? Once again, if you are not sure of something, try it. There will be only two possibilities, you will either like it or you won’t. If you do then you’re done and can take the action necessary to carry out your dreams. If you don’t like it – AWESOME, try something else and I can guarantee you that somewhere along the way you will find your OWN purpose in life and then you will know what do. Inaction is the worst thing a person can do it ones life. Don’t be afraid to try, because you might fail just to discover your true calling in life. Working towards your goal in life is happiness in itself because you are going where you want to go, you are going to do what you will want to do and you will be successful at the same type. Yes you will have to have a strategy of how to achieve it and yes you might have to change it once in a while, but it’s OK, just keep on trying. Funny thing is, though, that the purpose of your life might change, but one has to be aware that it has change because other wise it will cause suffering and unhappiness. Finally, find that company that matches your values, your purpose, surround yourself with people who go the same direction as you are, do all that is necessary to carry out your dream, but be careful to not get caught up the mechanics of it, otherwise you will forget the purpose.

I never said I would give you an answer to what your purpose in life is, because you have to find your own, not anybody elses but your own. Keep on trying, try different things because if you don’t, you will regret for not living a life. Try to find your purpose, fail and possible succeed rather than not try and fail without any chance for success. In turn, the purpose of your life is to find your purpose of YOUR OWN life.