The Viable Alternative

Back in the 2000s, I was a huge proponent of positive thinking, and I bought scores of books all for the purpose to cultivate positive thoughts so I can be a successful person who lived an extraordinary life.

However, after about six years on my path of self improvement, I wasn’t any better at being a positive thinker than when I first started. I logically knew that it was good to think positive because positive thinking improved your overall well being by making you happier, it helped cause good things to happen in your life, and it had positive effects on those around you. Read more…

It’s the New Year, 2012 and just like every other New Year, people are running around making New Year’s resolutions.

Many people are skeptical of New Year’s Resolutions because most people are more than willing to make them but rarely ever keep them. An example is that swaths of people make promises to lose weight or get in shape at the beginning of the year and gym memberships soar, with the subsequent effect of gyms across America becoming more crowded. Yet, come early February, the number of people at the gym dwindle down to the size it was in December, before the New Year started. Read more…

Wow, over four months since I’ve put something on here. Shame on me!

I’m sorry, I was actually trying to produce at least one blog entry a month on this site, but with my trip to Miami over the summer and all the “fanfare” involved with preparing for my one month trip, including putting together a sponsorship event, I got sidetracked. Then, coming back, I’ve been in some sort of strange transition where my perception of the world around me is shifting, so I decided to hold off on writing anything until I had a grasp of what’s going on.

It’s been well over three months since I’ve gotten back from Miami, but it’s now starting to dawn on me the effect that this trip has had on me. I see that it’s starting to change me in many ways. Read more…

I’ve been wanting for a long time to blow the lid off a major misconception that people have, so here goes.

I find it funny that when we talk about low self esteem, we often talk about obvious examples such as:

• The morbidly obese woman who eats as an emotional escape.
• The person who has slit his wrists several times in attempt to end his life because he feels he has nothing to live for.
• The woman who continuously attracts abusive men because she feels she’s not worthy of a man who treats her right.
• The guy who has no friends and hides in his basement because he thinks nobody likes him.
• The guy who’s on depression meds because he feels there’s nothing good about his life.

Read more…

I’ve always thought this was a problem, but after reading some of the comments from my last blog about marriage, it became glaringly evident that there is a widespread misunderstanding about the concept of putting yourself first. Read more…

You know, as I’ve gotten older I’ve been getting questions from all corners as to when I’m going to get married.

I’m not only getting it from my parents, but also from friends, friends of family, relatives, friends’ parents, friends’ relatives, ministers, acquaintances, etc, the list goes on.

They all want to know why I’m not married yet. Read more…

As I’ve decided that this year, 2011, being an incredible breakthrough year for me isn’t an option, I’ve come to realize in my path of self discovery that to make this declaration into a reality, I need to adopt an attitude of entitlement. Read more…

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It was the year 2008 and a good friend of mine invited me to come to a birthday party of one of his friends.

When I got to the birthday party, I met up with my friend who invited me and he introduced me to the “birthday girl.”

It turned out that the birthday girl and I had been a part of the same business organization some years back.  I began to tease her about not reaching a certain, “coveted” level in the organization, knowing full well in the forefront of my mind that I had not only not reached the said level of the organization, but I also had quit and was no longer a part of it.

Read more…

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You know, when I first completed this site, I considered this a milestone in my life.  After years of writing about The Viable Alternative, I finally was able to compile it all into one neat little site.  I beamed with pride at what I considered an intellectual masterpiece of all the insights that helped me on my path of personal development.

Well, after my “crowing achievement”, when I realized all was “done”, I excitedly email several trusted friends of mine who’ve been what I’ve considered confidants on my path of self-discovery and tell them to check out my site.

One of my friends, who has been a trusted mentor of mine, gave me what my ego considered to be some damning feedback about my site.  Now, I always welcome constructive criticism from trusted and well meaning people, because it helps me to grow and work on my blindspots.  However, due to fact that I am a sensitive person by nature, (a quality that I have always loathed about myself), the feedback was quite stinging.

Read more…

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Welcome to The Viable Alternative.  My goal is for you to be inspired through this concept to express your own unique greatness to the world in a way that only you can, using whatever resources and treasures that you uniquely possess.  This site provides several tools and resources listed below that will help you remove the obstacles that stand in the way of you breaking out of The Illusion and living The Viable Alternative.

1. Podcasts where I interview people whose lives are a reflection of The Viable Alternative;
2. A personal development blog that shares the insights and lessons that I’ve learned on my own path of self discovery and self actualization that I embarked on so that I may live The Viable Alternative.
3. Recommendations of different books, organizations, movies that have helped me in the past;