Subscribe to the Blog


Enter your details below to receive Dean’s FREE Investing Newsletter

Archive for meaning of life

I am sitting looking outside at the rain and wind and thinking, it is February, we haven’t had a summer in NZ and it is going to be autumn in 4 days, what the $)@!&$(_&$_ is up with our weather.

Well we can be sure it isn’t global warming. In fact I think it is very “funny” that the GW theorists have had to rename it climate change because people are freezing to death on several continents right now.

Anyway I wasn’t going to talk about the weather but the fact that our lives, like our weather, can and will change.

The Bible talks about there being a time for every purpose under heaven.  Now our actions will impact our experience no doubt but we do need to understand that our life will be a series of cycles.

I have been from zero to hero and back again several times in my life and I am not 50 yet.  I am learning that sometimes you just have to hang on for the ride, knowing that this valley will eventually turn into another mountain.

And you know sometimes IN SPITE of our efforts and starategising and goal setting and hard work, life just comes along and says “Suck on this for a while”.  And that’s because sometimes life knows better than we do.

The only people I could never learn anything from were those people who had led charmed lives.  They had 1 years life experience repeated 20, 30 or 50 times.  They knew nothing much about anything except having a good time.

As I grow older I find myself drawn to those with more scars.  There is something comforting about someone who walks with a limp, because you get to learn what they discovered in the process of that failure and how they recovered.

In it after all has been my favourite song for nearly 30 years.  It sums up the above perfectly.

Enjoy………….

YouTube Preview Image

 

PS: Don’t forget our next USA CASHFLOW Webinar next week!

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)
Dec
21

Life as it used to be

Posted by: Dean Letfus | Comments (0)

My computer charger died on the 13th December. By the 14th I was powerless and internetless (?) till yesterday.

After panicking about how life would continue without being online I discovered that life did indeed go on.  And in fact life was a lot less busy and I had time to think, connect with people and be creative in ways that I hadn’t remembered doing since my teens.

It was quite revelatory how different I felt and thought.  We really have become slaves to the machine with our laptops, ipads and smart phones.

My Xmas newsletter will now have to be my new years newsletter as I have been unable to prepare anything meaningful due to my power outage and now that I am back online I simply have too many people to talk to this week and too many “real” things to do.

I pray that you find yourself able to unplug from the tyranny of the urgent and plug into something important this week and over the Christmas period.

There really is life outside the blinking lights and glowing screens :-) .

 

Remember the three “L”‘s, find Love, live Life and leave a Legacy! ~ Dean

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)
Nov
28

Simplicity

Posted by: Dean Letfus | Comments (0)

I realised yesterday just how complex our lives have become in modern society.  I was sitting in a church in mid service when the towns power went out.

Now if this had been in a typical NZ church basically everything would have ground to a halt.  You couldn’t hear the speaker without a PA system as our venues are both large and poorly designed acoustically.  You couldn’t sing because the band are all electrified and enhanced and nobody would be able to see the words without powerpoint and screens.

And then when the power did come back on it would be anything from 3 to 10 minutes checking that all the expensive equipment and computers had reset properly and everything could be “restored”.

But what happened yesterday was………….

We carried on regardless.  Everybody knew the songs and just sung “a cappella”.  The speaker spoke a bit louder to be heard and everybody could engage him no problem.  When the power came back on the fans started again, which was nice in 32 degree heat with 99% humidity, but other than that nothing changed.

It is hard to convey how powerful a lesson this was without you being there but I suddenly saw all the things we clamour for; all the toys, all the gadgets, all the latest things, as distractions that often keep us from what is really important.

Something to think about on a Monday!

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus


 

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)

If that line means nothing to you then you are simply too young.  It is a Burt Bacharach song effectively asking what life is all abotu and what is important.

I was thinking about it as I look out the window at so many people working/walking and living here.  The average wage is around $15 a day and 90% of the town in unemployed so their idea of what “it” is all about revolves around anything from food to grog to sex or somewhere to sleep.  They are certainly not worried about their investments, politics or a new television.

Yet you can’t sit here for more than 30 seconds without noticing the laughter, the smiles, the warm greetings in the street.  These people are a lot more happier than anybody I know in New Zealand or Asia.  They have found their “it”.  And it is to enjoy today, because there may be no tomorrow and tomorrow will have enough problems.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we should all adopt this, far from it.  Cultures come with their own blessings and curses.  But what we can, should, MUST do is find OUR “IT”.

What will make you smile today, what will make you feel fulfilled about your life right now, today.

Sometimes you have to look at those least able to offer us anything to see what we most need!

And to hear one of the worlds finest voices singing Alfie……..

YouTube Preview Image

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)
Jun
14

Nothing to do with Property….

Posted by: Dean Letfus | Comments (0)

Feeling Truly Loved

This may sound like a strange question but…..

“Have you ever felt truly loved?”

I ask because I would have answered yes to that question for many years.  I knew God loved me and that was to me a fact.

However on Sunday in Phoenix I attended a black Baptist Church, something I had wanted to do for years, and was amazed to discover during that service an incredible encounter of knowing I was truly loved.  I’ve never cried so much in my life and it was a life transforming moment in my life. I am “different” today and it is so wonderful I am sharing it with you :-) .

Nothing else to say other than you can know love deeper than you thought possible.  The decision is to put our own biases aside and be willing to seek it out.

If you’re in Phoenix I found it HERE

Get  Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus


 

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)
Apr
01

At the risk of sounding maudlin.

Posted by: Dean Letfus | Comments (0)

Death always impacts me.  The reminder of our mortality, the fact that the end of life on earth is so, well final.

I will never ever see my father again on this planet, or my brother, or Pat who went home yesterday.

And for me it makes me look at how I fill a day and what I do with my life and wonder why some things are so apparently important.

I mean life is putting one foot in front of another, eating, working etc.  But do we actually stop and look at our lives and wish things were different?? And is the wish ever strong enough to bring change??

Imagine someone you love, or work with, (or even dislike), and picture them vanishing over night.  You never ever have another second to see them, talk to them, nothing.

Isn’t that scary??  The things you wish you’d said or not said.  The sense of “unfinishedness”.  The things we thought were important often become pretty weird and: “Did I really have to behave like that because they borrowed my calculator?” moments.

I am fairly certain that Pat won’t have that in her life because she lived her life for her God whom she loved and removed many of her “unfinishedness” moments.

I hope I/we learn to do the same.

Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus


 

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)
Mar
14

Pain and Sadness

Posted by: Dean Letfus | Comments (0)

I can’t believe that while I was away there was not only Christchurch but also Japan being hit with such violence.  It is difficult to process such carnage when it is so “optional” if you know what I mean.

It is one thing to hear of a drunk driver causing a death or a climber falling to his death but to see thousands killed for no “good reason” causes most of us to go into overload.  There is just no way to be OK about such things is there?

I am not going to try and justify anything here.  This is part of a great unanswerable question:  “Why do bad things happen to good people?”.

What I did discover as part of my own coming to terms with such multiple tragedies is that this sort of thing is more “common” than we think.  Since recorded time we have been suffering loss at the hands of our planet.

Year           Country                                   Deaths

A.D. 532
Syria
130,000
678
Syria
170,000
856
Iran: Qumis Damghan
200,000
893
India: Daipul
180,000
893
Iran: Ardabil
150,000
1138
Egypt, Syria
230,000
1139
Iran: Gansana
100,000
1201
Upper Egypt, Syria
1,100,000
1290
China: Chihli
100,000
1556
China
830,000
1641
Iran: Dehkwargan, Tabriz
300,000
1662
China
300,000
1669
Sicily (Etna eruption)
100,000
1693
Sicily: Catania and Naples
100,000
1703
Japan (tsunami)
100,000
1721
Iran: Tabriz
100,000
1730
China: Chihli
100,000
1730
Japan: Hokkaido
137,000
1731
China: Peking
100,000
1737
India: Calcutta
300,000
1780
Iran: Tabriz
100,000
1850
China
300-400,000
1876
Bay of Bengal (tsunami)
215,000
1908
Italy: Messina/Reggio
110,000

This fact in isolation provides neither comfort nor appeasement for our pain but may help us accept to some degree that the world is full of uncertainty and life can be lost in a moment regardless of our position, bank balance or “niceness”:-).

So I guess the important question to consider is:

“What will happen to me when I die?”

There’s something to think about on a Monday :-)

Get Going and Stay Safe ~Dean Letfus

Categories : Dean's Blog
Comments (0)