I would like to take a minute to share with you one of the most important lessons I have learned in my life to date. The day was July 3rd, 2003 at approximately 3pm and I was working as a shift supervisor, freshly graduated with my bachelor degree in business management and confident that I knew all I needed to know to be a fantastic manager. But it was on that day when Dan Ellis cared about me enough to direct attention to my attitude and reveal a major flaw that I didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t even know I had. It was one of the lowest times of my life as Dan was being respectfully honest with me it hurt to hear what he said, but I knew in my heart that he was right. It was that day that I learned about an attitude, like a disease, that has infected many in my generation and become an acceptable social norm; July 3rd, 2003 I learned that I suffered from Entitlement.

Entitlement is a frame of mind, an emotional position, that a person takes which excuses them to a myriad of behaviors. Entitlement is one of the most crippling issues facing America today. Entitlement is demanding something for nothing and permitting laziness. Entitlement tells you that you deserve what others have because you ¢â‚¬â„¢re just as important. Entitlement lies to you, distracting you with greed and feelings of jealousy. Entitlement anchors you to failure and prohibits you from realizing true potential and success. Entitlement can hide behind the guise of Equality yet they hold nothing in common. Entitlement brings dissention.

But Entitlement can be defeated and overcome. There is a healthy frame of mind and attitude that fits perfectly in place of Entitlement. The answer to overcoming Entitlement is Humility.

Humility is finding peace with who you are, what you can do and then doing it with perseverance. Humility is accepting that others are more important than you. Humility is based out of love and care for others. Humility believes that you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t deserve what you have, but you are grateful for all of it. Humility honors others, rejoices in their success and creates unity around you when you embrace it fully. Humility breeds perseverance in the face of adversity because it is rooted in truth.

At some point Entitlement became an acceptable frame of mind, poisoning the entrepreneurial spirit of America. The repercussion of Entitlement can be seen in legal policy and social behavior from ballot Measures that want to tax the wealthy so they pay their  ¢â‚¬Å“fair share, ¢â‚¬  to the employee who demands a promotion on the basis of seniority. Without unveiling Entitlement for what it is, a disease that is keeping America week in times of economic unease, we cannot join together and pull out of this local and national crisis.

Salem ¢â‚¬â„¢s Young Professionals please hear this: No one owes us anything. Our country, our state and our city were built with hard work and perseverance. Ingenuity and a desire for profitability lead to great changes that have shaped our world. Capital markets, net profit, fiscal success are all great goals to pursue and are not evil as Entitlement would allow you to believe. The leaders that you admire in our city achieved their positions by working hard and persevering through difficult times. If you are reading this and are feeling upset by what I say then I ¢â‚¬â„¢m encouraged. I know from personal experience that the immediate anger is the first step in realizing there might be an issue. I speak the truth; Entitlement is not the root cause or result of any one issue or policy, but the summation of a nation that has slowly become lazy and over consumptive of everything around it.

It is time we remember what it is to persevere, accept the fact that only by working together and suffering together can we overcome our current situation, and humble our hearts to care about our neighbors as much as we care about ourselves. Entitlement says let others that have more take care of the problem but Humility gladly shares the burden equally and succeeds in unity.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=260465347908

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Shift your life from Entitlement to Humility, from Control to Trust, and finally from Attachment to Letting Go.
Dr. Wayne Dyer

More… http://www.amatterofrespect.com/2010/07/a-few-more-thoughts-on-entitlement-humility/

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=182408

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John Ryder, Ph.D.

 ¢â‚¬Å“The Mental Fitness Guru ¢â‚¬ 

What ¢â‚¬â„¢s crazy about entitlement?

There is a growing trend in our society to feel deserving of more and more. When this attitude begins to interfere with normal life,
psychologists refer to this as part of a narcissistic personality disorder, especially when it becomes grandiose and exaggerated. What
exactly are the borders, where do you leave normal self preoccupation and when does it become an unreasonable sense of entitlement?

From the day you were born you have constantly measured what you get against what you have put in. Your mind is designed to be
sensitive to this energy economy, whether the exchange you are making is fair or not. This question applies to anything like money,
attention, love, or work. I am sure that you have encountered plenty of people with a ridiculous sense of entitlement,  ¢â‚¬Å“I deserve, give
me! ¢â‚¬  With no appreciation.

Well, I say  ¢â‚¬Ëœno thank-you ¢â‚¬â„¢ and make it my intention to remind people about what is fair and reasonable or what is not. Blame who you
want, but entitlement is on the rise. What should we do about it? The polar opposite of entitlement is humility, being humble and
modest.

The question to pose a modesty challenged person is  ¢â‚¬Å“what have you done to deserve ___? ¢â‚¬  These people usually need to feel
important, to encourage them to embrace the positive side you can ask  ¢â‚¬Å“do you realize how powerful it appears to others to be
generous and modest? ¢â‚¬  When you encourage a person to strive for a more noble attitude the right way, they may actually be grateful
to you.

The key is to remind people what is the opposite of entitlement, what is the value and advantage of a positive attitude. The more self
absorbed a person is, the less they will want to go in that direction, however every bit helps.

Keep going in Positive Directions!

http://www.thenewyorkoptimist.com/johnryderthementalfitnessguru.html

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Excerpt: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning by Wayne W Dyer – (brilliant) –

The ego’s habitual thought-pattern is to say we’re *entitled*. The fact is, we’re entitled to nothing… Ego’s me-first mentality provokes generalized anger at the world and many of the people within it.

The entitlement mind-set appears uncaring, conceited, and only concerned with self. President John F Kennedy’s famous call to ‘ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’ is a stirring reminder to collectively shift away from a sense of entitlement and in the direction of humility. Here we’re living from a place of God-realization rather than self-centredness.

The Shift: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning (Wayne Dyer) p. 105

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0-eLkwgkzcEC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=entitlement+and+humility&source=bl&ots=oRVkqCedE_&sig=iUaN8KpcFXrST0-uKecToFUF7Mg&hl=en&ei=A_6CTMP5BYHOvQPboYCuCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=entitlement%20and%20humility&f=false