One of the things most lacking in today’s world is taking full, honest responsibility for ourselves and for the consequences of our actions. I am continually amazed at the elaborate- and often unconscious- ways people devise to avoid being responsible for the results of their own decisions.

In our 2X+1 Mastermind, we focus on the importance of taking responsibility for ourselves, not looking to others to give us handouts, or rewards we have not earned, and for understanding that if we want something in our lives, it’s up to us to consciously create it.

We call this Living As A Trader.

To summarize what this means in life, we have created The 2X+1 Code Of The Trader and I am sharing it with you below. It is intended not as a set of rules to live by, but rather a basis for thinking about your own life and whether you are consciously creating, unconsciously accepting, or violently resisting. Use it as a guide to help you determine your OWN ideas about these kinds of principles and have fun with the process. Now, here it is…

The 2X+1 Code Of The Trader

I am a trader.

I have consciously chosen to live my life as a trader and to follow The Code Of The Trader… my code… a code built upon four simple values:

Strength

Integrity

Pride

Love

As a trader, I consciously create value and I trade this value for the rewards that I desire. I do this proudly and without guilt.

I do not ask, nor do I desire, rewards that I have not earned.

And I choose to deal only with others who live by this same code.

I trade only with equals, by mutual consent, and for mutual advantage.

Many times I choose to walk alone- but when I come together, I join with equals in a non-sacrificial, non-compulsory,co-existence, co-operation, and co-creation which results in greater wealth and progress than any of us would be capable of on our own.

But I do so with the realization that in reality, all Wealth is created by individuals- and the only true and lasting Wealth is that Wealth created through the celebration of individuals acting as individuals, not submitting their individuality to the beast called “society” or “the common good.”

Everything I do, I do with pride, refusing to accept guilt for my greatness, refusing to diffuse this greatness to “be like all the others”, refusing to be less than I can be so as not to show up others who refuse to be all that they can be.

I accept full responsibility for the consequences of my theories and my actions.

I am willing to bear the penalties for my mistakes, never blaming others for the results of my own life.

I expect rewards for my achievements.

And having earned them fully, I am free to enjoy them fully.

I am an artist…

…But my real art is not in paintings or sculptures or other material creations.

My art is in the way I live my life, in the purity, the clarity and the simplicity of my every thought and my every action.

I realize that my healthy selfishness is in reality a virtue, not a vice, for it allows me to give the gift of the best that is in me, effortlessly and without limit.

And to this end…

I am an Integrated One – combining my thoughts with purposeful action, leading the world forward with body, mind, AND heart…

I am a Balanced One – celebrating my Light and my Darkness, comfortable in the realization that I cannot have one without the other.

I am a Strong One.

My body is a reflection of the state of my life- and as such, it glows with the brilliance of health, physical strength, and vitality.

I am a Wise One. My intellect is sharp, but I have developed my intuition and the wisdom of my heart, so that intellect is no longer the master, but a brother in life to my body and my heart.

And I am a Builder. I do not merely see things as they are and ask “Why?”- I dream things as they never were, and ask “Why not?”

Each day, I balance my heart, mind, and body- acknowledging the power of each alone- but reveling in the strength of the three together.

I take the initiative and the responsibility to identify my OWN convictions, integrate my OWN ideas into a coherence and consistency…

….And to then offer to the world a view of existence to which the wise and the honest can believe, not by forcing them to believe as I do, but by serving as an example of what is possible when life is lived in unyielding integrity with an ideal that is consciously chosen.

Because I walk this path with unerring integrity, I am free to enjoy the Greatest Love Of All-the love that begins with me and inside of me. I know it is only when I truly love myself that I am free to choose to love others; and it is only when I truly love myself that I can earn the right to be truly loved by others.

To this end, I have learned to value myself, which means to fight for my own happiness and my own ideals and, when achieved, to enjoy them FULLY, without guilt.

It is by these principles that I call myself a Trader.

And it is by these principles that I consciously choose life, created in MY own ideal.