John Iduh Blog

  After reading this text, join Ransford Education Online to get more Here’s a simple little maxim: You get treated the way you teach people to treat you. So if you don’t like the way you’re being treated by someone in your life, look at how you’ve taught them to treat you.   Self-defeating people see reality for what it is, but they don’t want to accept it. They wish it were different, and they complain about it: “If only you were more like me, then I wouldn’t have to be upset at you right now. If only you were something different from what you are, I could be happier in my life.    If only oil prices hadn’t gone up, if only unemployment weren’t the way it is, if only, if only . . .” They look at the world and come to the conclusion that they should blame somebody else. You can tell by the vocabulary they use, by the very words that come out of their mouths. They say things like, “Please don’t bother me. I can’t—I’m having an anxiety attack.” Now, there is no creat...

After reading this text, join Ransford to get more Think for a minute about an orange. When you squeeze it as hard as you can, what comes out? Orange juice, of course. But the question is, why does juice come out when an orange is squeezed? The answer is, because that is what’s inside.   Now, does it matter who does the squeezing? Does it matter how you do it, what instrument you use, or what time of the day you do it? No. When you squeeze an orange, what always comes out is what’s inside. Similarly, when you squeeze a person—that is, put pressure on them of any kind—and anger and hatred and stress and depression come out, it isn’t because of who is doing the squeezing or when they do it or how they choose to do it. It’s because that is what’s inside that person. If you don’t have it inside, it can never come out, no matter what your circumstances are. When somebody cuts you off on the freeway and you’re mad as hell, it isn’t because they cut you off that you’re so upset; it’s bec...

 Having a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing sounds easy until you think about how much conditioning has taken place in your life, and how many of your current thoughts were influenced by geography, the religious beliefs of your ancestors, the color of your skin, the shape of your eyes, the political orientation of your parents, your size, your gender, the schools that were selected for you, and the vocation of your great-grandparents, to list only some possibilities.  You showed up here as a tiny infant capable of an infinite number of potentialities. Many of your choices remain unexplored because of a hopefully well-intentioned conditioning program designed to make you fit the culture of your caretakers. You probably had next to no opportunity to disagree with the cultural and societal arrangements made for your life. There may have been some adults who encouraged you to have an open mind, but if you’re honest with yourself, you know that your philosophy...