Smokescreens and distractions are all around us. Look past them to see what is really happening.

Recently, I was reminded of something rather important by my 18 month grandson - (funny where insiration comes from)!

My wife and I were blessed with the joy of having our eldest son, his wife and our 18 month old grandson over to visit and stay with us for about 3 weeks.

I had the fun of feeding my grandson on numerous occassions, and at times, he was a "fussy" eater. He would often get bored and want to play, or go to his mum or dad rather than eat. He would get upset when things didn't go his way.

In true grandfather form, I had purchased a couple of small toys that he could play with in his high chair while I tried feeding him. The distraction of the toys worked quite well, as did some other distractions that were added along the way - such as our dog!

In fact, whenever our grandson got upset and inconsolable, in would come our dog to the rescue! We would give our grandson some small biscuit treats to give our dog, which made our dog happy, and our grandson happy also, as it was a distraction from what was upsetting him!

The human race is easily distracted, even from a young age, as shown by my grandson.

Politicians have known this since at least the Roman Empire.

Social and behavioural sciences have known and studied this for decades.

If we go back in history, back to the days where the Roman Empire was starting to show cracks with civil wars, political upheaval and factions forming, Vespasian (the newest Emperor of Rome after Nero's suicide in 68AD), needed to create a distraction for the citizens of Rome so the would not see what was really happening. To achieve this, Vespasian commissioned the contruction of the Colosseum - a means of providing a venue for entertainment for the masses and hence win political favour. Rome was hungry for entertainment and distraction, and the Colosseum provided the necessary distraction of the masses that was the primary aim of the politicians of the time and hence after.

Click HERE if you would like to know more about how the Colosseum was used as a political tool.

Have you ever noticed that trends come and go? Fashion comes and goes? Political agendas come and go? Food trends come and go? Diet fads come and go? Financial advice is often incorrect and always subject to change over time (meaning that it was incorrect to start)?

Recessions, wars, climate change agendas, "organic" farming, the bias of media, false news, over exaggerated and sensationalised news, the "discovery" that we have (apparently) more than just two genders - in fact, you can "identify" as whatever you choose, are all just smokescreens and diversions from what really is happening in the world.

Have you noticed that when it comes to "climate change", everybody makes the claim that the "science" is absolutely correct and cannot be denied or argued with?

Have you also noticed that when it comes to gender determination, science is no longer relevant or referred to in this matter, as people now can choose to identify as male or female - or even "non-binary" regardless of one's genitalia or proven and documented biological science?

Where is the consistency?

Either a government and it's people follow the science, or not. You cannot pick and choose.

Have you noticed that from children we are taught to go out and earn money in order to become independent? We spend anywhere from 13 to 20+ years at school in order to get the qualifications to earn "good" money, but we are NEVER taught how to manage that money once we earned it? Almost 2 decades of schooling and not one subject ever covers the management of one's money and how to make it work for them. Why is that?

Why is it that politicians continue to make promises they cannot keep, and yet the masses keep believing them and voting them in, and rarely holding them accountable for their lies?

Have you ever noticed that politicians and political parties will divert your attention from their own inadequacies by pointing out the inadequacies of their opponents?

Politicians and political parties are excellent at creating diversions and distractions.

• People love drama - that's why soap operas keep running decade after decade.

• People love gossip - that's how rumours get around and panics start.

• People love to be the centre of attention, they like to feel important, they like to feel that others percieve them to be better than they really are - hence the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook etc

• People love to think they are "up-to-date" and in-tune with today's trends - hence they follow "influencers" via social media.

• People love to be entertained as a diversion from their day-to-day reality and misery. As such, organisations such as Netflix, Youtube, football and other sports, reality TV, and so many other things have become s prevalent in our society.

• People love the idea of a "get rich quick" scheme - but no truly wealthy person I ever met (and I have met a few) have ever made an overnight fortune. Yet, people love the idea that something for nothing is possible.

• People have a fear of missing out - whether it be buying a home at the worst time, "investing" in NFT's and cryptocurrencies, diving into the stock market with zero knowledge only because it is going up, etc - and then blame others, or blame the economy etc, any other reason rather than themselves - let's face it if YOU make a decision and your timing or execution is wrong, then maybe you didn't do enought homework to understand what you were committing to.

Now, don't misunderstand, I am not against distractions - whether it be for entertainment, passing the time, or whatever the reason. I sometimes watch TV, I sometimes watch a mindless Youtube video, but I know that these are distractions, so I limit my exposure to them rather than get caught up for hours every week.

I know that diversions are sometimes necessary - but only those that I deem I need in order to help reset my mind or rest my body. I control the time I spend on diversions, and I refuse to let diversions take control my time.

Time is my most precious asset. I don't want to waste it.

Time is what allows me to achieve my goals in life - whether it is spent educating myself in areas that will improve my life and that of my family (increasing my financial education and investing skills), improving certain abilities that I posess (such as playing a musical instrument), playing a sport or exercising (in order to improve/maintain fitness) etc. These are all planned diversions where I am in control..

When it comes to your family, your business and investing, there are MANY smokescreens and distractions that will challenge your judgement. Do NOT let distractions impair your focus. REMEMBER.... you control you.... in essence, YOU MUST get all the facts you can about any situation or distraction and NOT just believe what others say.

Question EVERYTHING.

You MUST do your own due diligence.

You must look through the lies, the smokescreens, the BS that the world will throw at you. The government "policies" and "agendas" that will take your focus away from the important stuff.

World events, talks of war, recessions, starvation, climate change and the "greening" of our planet , multiple genders issues, the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic reaction etc and try to understand what is actually going on in the background.

Again, question everything!

If needs be, go back to the lessons of "Why, why, why..." and reread the lessons.

Simple examples of asking "why" and trying to understand what is going on behind the scenes.

Example 1

I invest in the property and share market.

Among other things in the sharemarket, I invest in coal companies as well as infrastructure facilities used to export coal. The media and political hype around coal for the last decade is that coal is being phased out. Climate change agenda articles claim coal sales are down, coal based power genertion is declining, etc - however, reality shows different. Australia's exports of coal have increased year on year for the last decade. Coal prices have been increasing. Coal companies are struggling to keep up with demand. Coal share prices have skyrocketed, and the annual dividend of the two coal stocks that I own have paid 21% and 9% on my investment - all the while people that fail to look through the smokescreens and agendas continue to miss out on such great returns.

We continually hear about "climate change". The governments around the world are telling us that if we do not reduce our CO2 emissions, that the world will come to an end as we know it. However, politicians are NOT scientists - so they do not know what that are actually talking about. A recent question-time session in the senate saw about 6-7 politicians that are pushing the CO2 emission reduction agenda, were asked a simple question - "What percentage of our atmosphere is actually CO2"? Their answers came in at between 5% and 8% - remember, that these politicians who are pushing this CO2 reduction agenda should know all the facts, but they do not..... all were wrong by a huge factor! These who are supposed to be "in the know", did not know that our atmospheric CO2 level is sitting at 0.04% - yep, that is all. Those that are "in the know" also did not know that if we halve our atmospheric CO2 to just 0.02%, then plants around the world will begin to die, which means starvation for people and also our atmospheric oxygen will begin to deplete (obviously not a good outcome). Finally, on this point, those that are supposed to be"in the know", did not know that the biggest "greenhouse" gas in the atmosphere is water vapour - yes WATER vapour (humidity)! And yet, those "in the know" are happy to replace fossil fuel energy with hydrogen fuel cell energy, which, when used, produces...... (yep, you guessed it) WATER VAPOUR!

So, do I believe fossil fuels will be phased out? Well, the answer to that, I think, is obvious.

However, it actually doesn't matter what I believe, what matters is what you believe, and whether you think it will make a difference in your life!

Example 2

If you do a Google search for the number of recognised genders, the answers are astounding. When I was a kid, you were a boy or a girl. If you were gay, you were still a boy or a girl but were attracted to the same sex. Life was simple - until people complicated it (as they normally do). Now, apparently, you can "identify" as a cat if you want to!

The fact that this is actually allowable and acceptable behaviour is not the question.

The questions I think that should be asked is why is there such a push by governments and lobby groups for recognition of such a tiny minority of the population, when we have bigger and more pressing issues such as health funding, housing affordability, cost of living issues, struggling pensioners etc?

I think, that the "gender thing", is a distraction that the government is allowing to happen in order to take the focus off the things that really matter, the real problems and issues that it cannot solve!

So, do I care if there are 2 genders or 200 genders? Not really. I see no sense in arguing scientific facts with non-scientific people.

Do I think this is a problem that needs addressing? No, not really, I think it is just a diversion that could take MY focus off MY goals if I allowed it.

As such, I choose to ignore the topic because it is of little interest to me, just as the people that lobby for the rights to identify as a cat may choose to ignore financial education because it is of little interest to them.

Example 3

Not many sharemarket investors and traders understand that there are deliberate smokescreens and distractions in play in the market.

Recent times have seen the markets lose value. Not all stocks have dropped, there are certain market secors that have done well, and some that remained neutral, but overall the market has dropped substantially.

Yet, there are those free "advisory" services making recommendations to people to buy certain stocks. Why would they do this? Could there be an alterior motive? Could it be that they may be holding these stocks, and if they talk them up, they may create buying interest which will allow the holders to sell them to unsuspecting retail investors before the stocks drop even further? You can bet that happens for sure!

By far, my best performing stocks are the ones I studied and picked. I understand what they do, how they do it and like the businesses I have invested in. It really isn't rocket science!

Question EVERYTHING. Look for alterior motives of those who make claims and recommendations. Do your own due diligence and research, that way you will be less likely to be duped.

Invest in what YOU believe is a good idea or a good deal. That way, you either win or you learn.

In the end......

• Stay focussed on what matters to you.

• Recognise distractions, diversions and smokescreens for what they are. Limit your exposure to them and use them sparingly.

• Avoid getting caught up with things that will not improve your life or the life of your family.

• Make no mistake, political parties have an agenda. A successful politician MUST follow that agenda or they are booted from the party. Hence, politicians will say what they need to in order to win votes. Their primary aim is selfish - to win power.

• Beware of people that make claims that seem too good to be true.

• Get rich quick schemes do not exist.

• Beware of those prophets of wealth that charge a regular fee for "advice" or a "proven system" - they may not be who they claim to be. Don't let their "claims" distract you from their real agenda and what their alterior motives may be. If you are going to part with money for something like this, then limit the amount of time spent - if the results are not forthcoming within a few months, re-evaluate and possible walk away - do not throw good money after bad by listening to their sales pitches.

• Learn to question EVERYTHING and EVERYONE.

• Remember that there are deliberate distractions out there to take the focus of the masses OFF what is important and on to unimportant nonsense. If you question everything, if you look for what is behind the distractions, you may see the truth, and the truth may help set you financially free!

Never try to disprove a belief or agenda of someone that believes the opposite to you. Convincing them they are wrong will likely be impossible - even if you can show them actual documented evidence, they will most likely reject it. Very few people have a truly open mind to make rational assessments and then change their viewpoint.

Finally....

When it comes to percieved "problems" in this world.... consider this:

If it does not benefit you or your family, if it does not help you with your goals, if it appears to be an illogical agenda or distraction from what is really important in the world, then consider leaving the "problem" alone.

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand?" - Captain Jack Sparrow.