How to Live a Gem of a Life

By K. Shawn Gibson

In How to Live a Gem of a Life, K. Shawn Gibson has assembled an easy to read, understand and follow guide to a truly enlightened life. This book will help you identify and prioritize your life goals through easy to follow processes. It will help you to understand how your mind works and how to take control of your life. How to prioritize your goals, eliminate the negativity and fear, take control of your finances, and map a path to a truly successful life. A Gem of a Life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257551231

Book preview

Introduction

The two whys

First, why are we here? I have come up with one universal truth. We are here to learn! Most Western religions tell us that we are here to learn to stay within the confines of the rules so that we can advance to heaven and be rewarded for our obedience. Eastern philosophy says we are here to learn so that we will be able to advance to the next level. Man by nature is a learner and a doer. We want to advance, to learn more about where we are going and where we have come from. This is an inherent part of our being. To ask questions and be curious is an innate part of us. Whether by design or an accidental gift of nature this curiosity is a very basic part of who and what the human species is. I was taught that all of nature is either in ascendance or decline. I have come to realize that curiosity is a part of our ascendance. As soon as we stop asking, we will have reached our pinnacle and therefore we will start our decline. Since all things are either growing or dieing. I would rather be growing by asking and learning. I would rather be growing until I have no other choice.

Second, why did I write this book? The truth is I think that I did not have a choice. I know that sounds contrary to the basic tenet that I will teach you as we go further along that we all choose our path. I never considered myself a writer. I have always been a student of life. I have always wanted to learn, to understand and never thought of myself as a teacher (beyond my own children that is). Yet, one day I knew that I had to put it all down. To share what I had learned with whoever would listen (or read). It felt like it was a mandate from my soul. So I started the journey that became this book. I will tell you now Don’t believe a word I have written here. The truths I have written in this book are my truths. This is what I have learned in my lifetime. Take what I say and believe that portion which resonates in your heart or soul and forget the rest. I am not saying that what I have written is right or wrong….just that it is right for me. If this information does resonate in your heart or soul I hope you will continue searching. For those of you who do resonate with these words I hope this information helps you find the happiness and fulfillment in this life that I have found.

I would love to say that this book contains pages upon pages of great ideas that I have come up with off the top of my head. Sorry it doesn’t. Like many before me, I stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us. My book actually contains great ideas that a plethora of great people before me have shown to be true. I am just relating them from my personal experiences and my personal viewpoint in the hope that perhaps I can help some people see a different perspective. That maybe this information will help them to live happier lives. I have been a student of life for almost five decades and yet it wasn’t until a few months ago that I ever considered writing a book. I was content learning and trying to live the best life I could live. Why worry about teaching others? Who would want me to teach them? This was the point I had reached when I went to a seminar and was presented with two things that I knew, but saw from a different perspective that day. The first being that information will be learned when you are ready to accept it and when it is explained in the right fashion for you to understand it. My unique way of presenting this information might be the perfect (and only) way some people are going to get it. So what reason could I possibly have not to share it? The second, and probably more important, was how a laser works. A laser excites 1/10 of 1% of its target molecules and that small percentage change the rest. It is an amazing transformation. My personal opinion is that the world is undergoing a major moral and philosophical change right now. I want to make sure it changes for the better as opposed to any other possibilities. So if I want the world to change for the better I have to be part of the solution. I can not just fix myself and hope everything and everyone else changes for the better. I have to share what I know. The amazing thing about this sort of change is that I don’t have to make a big difference to make a big difference.

Chapter 1

A Gem of a Life?

A gem cannot be polished without friction,

nor a man perfected without trials

– Lucius Annaeus Seneca

As I have lived to this point of my life I have sought an understanding of why we are here. What have we been put on this earth for? I have been lucky enough to meet certain persons who really seem to understand what this life we are living is all about. They seem to be few and far between, and so I have chosen to learn as much as I can from these very special people. Now, I hope to teach you some of the extraordinary lessons that I have learned about them and their lives. Some of the people I will talk about are well known. Others are content to live their lives in veritable obscurity and yet they live lives that are truly extraordinary. They somehow instinctively understand that a truly wonderful life must be lived on many levels. Being the richest or the most fit, while both amazing feats, are very one-dimensional lives. You must put so much effort into that one aspect of your life that often many other areas falter. Do not misunderstand what I am saying here. You can have an abundance of all the things