You’ve grown disgusted with lists of urgent tasks, and so have I. They promise to solve everything but waste your time instead.

That is why these five courageous steps are not more tasks but descriptions of a growth process that will help you focus on important issues, eliminate demands,develop decision-making clarity, reduce anxiety and confusion, and fortify your important values.

These steps provide a framework to help you embrace your truth, rather than buy someone else’s, and move forward in a simple, substantive, confident way. As you read, you can breathe, concentrate, and stop being distracted by all the fantasies and band-aids others are offering to make a buck off your desire for solutions.I’m going to provide something better than “the answer” or feel-good checklists. I am going to explain a simple process of getting real with any issue or question you face, so
the answers you come up with will not only be grounded in your authentic concerns but will address your reality.

I will briefly explain and then apply these steps to current economic issues, but you can apply them to any area in your life. There is no time to waste. Let’s get started. What are the five steps and how do you
apply them?

“Nail the issue/ pierce the fantasy”
“Get real about consequences/ anticipate the trends”
“Stop feeding the beast/ act on your deeper values and sense”
“Confront your habits/ transform your character”
“Liberate yourself/ get proactive”

STEP #1: “NAIL THE ISSUE/ PIERCE THE FANTASY”

This means asking, “What’s going on, really?” and
consciously pursuing the truth.

This is rarely easy, because first you must overcome your desire not to know. Additionally,information you receive, even from “experts,” often reflects their fantasies and interests and not the core underlying issues.
Sorting wish from fact, and reliable information from hype, is a key skill in this step. (Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities is built on this premise.)

Don’t get sucked in. Selective statistics, bobble-head “experts”, and relentlessly rosy government officials will almost always protect the status quo and hide fundamental problems. Expect it!
How many times did you hear, “The housing market has reached a bottom? Now is a good time to buy!” or “Economic indicators say the recession has ended” even while unemployment remains near record highs.Trust evidence over words. It’s not “just you” struggling financially. Why do statisticians, experts, and officials lie or tell only part of the story? Because their “success” comes from making things appear pleasant to your perception, not from being truthful about your reality.

Examine motive. Look at underlying factors. Don’t allow your need to be comforted get in the way of being fully responsible and informed. Are you going to bow to optimistic cheerleaders and your own insecurity or
heed your deeper know-how?

In this step, dedication to fundamentals must win out over fear and greed. For instance,when people said during the housing bubble, “If you don’t buy now, you won’t be able to afford it,” or, “Housing only goes up; you’re missing out!,” they were appealing to fear and greed. Look instead at the key financial factors:

When matched against the reality of people paying ten times their
salary for houses that actually added more money owed to their
mortgage principal (i.e. negative amortization), required no money
down, and set up “balloon payments,” large step-ups in payments
after a few years, there is no possible way borrowers could not default
in a predictable span of time.”
(Transforming Economy, pg. 43)

In other words, the only thing you are missing in a bubble-driven economic frenzy is financial heartache. Lesson from Step #1: Take fundamentals over fear and greed.

To Be Continued...come back to read all 5 steps! We would love to hear your thoughts on the first step below.

 Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D. is an economics blogger, futurist, and author of Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities. He has written regularly for top alternative economics blogs, including ZeroHedge.com and OfTwoMinds.com. He has appeared as a guest on “The Keiser Report” and “On the Edge with Max Keiser” on RT TV as well as the “Inside the Eye” radio program. Zeus is a “performance educator” with expertise in philosophy and cultural foundations of education. His own blog, Citizen Zeus (http://citizenzeus.com)

Pick up a copy of the Transforming Economy e-book here. Visit Citizen Zeus to engage other essays on transforming yourself and your society. Contact Zeus at [email protected] to engage his "learn to transform" consulting services.

Are you getting the bigger picture? Just about everything you’ve been told about what will make you a fulfilled person turns out to be false.

“Conventional wisdom” is essentially mindless: Buy,buy, buy, consume, consume, consume, waste, waste,waste, hurry, hurry, hurry.

Who does that benefit? Certainly not future generations. They will have to dig out of the environmental and social mess created by our unconscious living. One can claim it’s those corrupt capitalists who benefit. Aren’t they the ones exploiting labor, bending the rules, and concentrating wealth? This may be true financially, but if you look closer at these alleged capitalists you see people living disastrously unhealthy physical and moral lives— heart attacks in their 60’s and indictments for insider trading.

The truth is that no one really benefits from our present status quo. It’s a lose-lose proposition. We all benefit from liberating ourselves from the current state of things. Win-win is possible.

There are actions you can take: Become aware of your situation. Understand what and how you can transform. Create the connected communities and practices you need to become a conscious, fulfilled person on a healthy, growing planet. This is what the book, Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities, is dedicated toward developing. It goes through the history of our present situation, demystifying and clarifying what we face. It looks at our present challenges and opportunities from a practical and powerful learning standpoint. Transforming Economy also assembles, provides, and summarizes in one place the proactive alternatives you can personally use in this exciting transition between a system that has lost its meaning and a new society of real hope, promise, and collaborative,
democratic action. In Transforming Economy you will find a more in-depth explanation of Steps #1-4, as well as abundant frameworks, examples, and resources for Step #5 to:

• Elect people with integrity, courage, and collaborative ability to government.

• Promote pro-social giving and expose the false war between personal and social interest.

• Invest for long-term benefit.

• Create “service swaps” and develop local currencies.

• Support peer-to-peer lending, crowd funding and other forms of financing that eliminate middlemen and fees.

• Create competitive alternatives to high-priced school lending and low-delivery higher education.

• Forgive debt and align debt repayment with economic realities.

• Rebel against the consumerist “American Dream” and strengthen, simplify, and de-expense your life.

• Pool your money, resources, and time.

• Incorporate youth leadership and representation in high-level decision-making.

• Develop networked, resource-minded, creativity and entrepreneurialism.

I encourage you to pick up Transforming Economy and share its ideas and practices with others. Start a discussion or book group. This is one small, powerful, grass-roots way you can influence the direction of our collective future. As interest grows, why not start a community meet-up through Meetup.com around the ideas and conversation you generate. Step #6 is building the future together.

For now, take the initial step. Please purchase Transforming Economy and start the awareness and change you wish to see.

You can contact me, Zeus Yiamouyiannis (Citizen Zeus), with any questions or comments at [email protected]

Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D. is an economics blogger, futurist, and author of Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities. He has written regularly for top alternative economics blogs, including ZeroHedge.com and OfTwoMinds.com. He has appeared as a guest on “The Keiser Report” and “On the Edge with Max Keiser” on RT TV as well as the “Inside the Eye” radio program. Zeus is a “performance educator” with expertise in philosophy and cultural foundations of education. His own blog, Citizen Zeus (http://citizenzeus.com)

Pick up a copy of the Transforming Economy e-book here. Visit Citizen Zeus to engage other essays on transforming yourself and your society. Contact Zeus at [email protected] to engage his "learn to transform" consulting services.