When I was Younger (and NOW)

---

FORWARD: I initially posted this on Steemit.com when I was 33 years old. I am 34 years old now and I am publishing it here, on ChrisRice.xyz.

---

When I was younger, the things I believed were largely influenced by the things I read, and other people (or groups of people) who I thought were wiser, and more knowledgeable than me.

But after 33 years of existing, I have now tested a lot of different ideas & beliefs. My current beliefs are now mostly influenced by the results I got from testing those ideas & beliefs.

Ideas & Beliefs:

• Until a person has seriously tested the ideas they express, implemented them to a T, and accumulated a wealth of experience, the foundation for their beliefs, and insight, remains weak.

• Testing ideas and beliefs can help people understand themselves, others, and their environment (a.k.a. their surroundings).

• Some things can only be learned through experience, and over a course of many years.

• In general, there is an age requirement for someone to truly know what they believe, and for them to know why they believe it, without it being some sort of farce.

At 33 years old, I feel like I have already accumulated a wealth of experience. I acknowledge the fact that there are millions, and millions of people (impossible to estimate) who are older, wiser, and more knowledgable or experienced than me, but I still feel like I have some unique ideas that are experience-tested, and I want to bring them to the table.

Here are two of the things I learned, and wrote about, after 33 years of living:

1. The Pursuit of Happiness | Better than Happiness
2. Top 3 Investment Mistakes to Avoid

I didn't know much about life when I was younger, but NOW, I am fairly certain about the things I wrote in those posts. I published them as rough drafts on Steemit, edited them on Steemit, and then published the final drafts on my blog - I hope you enjoy reading some of my ideas.

Source(s):

• The rough draft of this post was initially published as a comment on one of @freedompoint's Steemit posts.

---

You can see the life that I live in the Philippines at Emafe.com, meet me at Steem.ph, or discuss philosophy with me at Humanist.xyz.
~ @chrisrice

Read More

The Nature of Form (a world without form)

Everything about me in terms of my form (i.e. my characteristics, experiences, thoughts, and feelings), changes over time.

---

That is the nature of form, it is constantly moving and changing over time - form is impermanent (temporary), and everchanging. 

---

But I have another side (YOU do too), a side of me that lacks characteristics, experiences, thoughts, and feelings - It is permanent (eternal), it doesn't change, and I consider it to be the actual ME, the me behind my self, the truth, the source, and THE absolute reality.

---

After all of existence ceases to exist, and after consciousness in the universe ends, my family, my loved ones, and everyone and everything that has ever existed (form), will return to our source, without characteristics, experiences, thoughts, or feelings, and we will remain as one forever, a world without form.

---

"Know thyself." ~ Socrates

---

Source(s): 

1. Photo in Header

Read More

The Tendencies of the Self (the Mind)

---

The tendencies of the Self (the Mind) are self-preservation and self-interest, and the mind (the Self) ultimately acts in it's own interests (consciously or unconsciously), including its own interest in experiencing Enjoyment (i.e. The Pursuit of Happiness or Desiring to experience Heaven) and its interest in considering ITSELF good, righteous or just better (or worse) than others in some way.

The only way to truly lose self-interest, and the suffering it causes, is through the removal of the Self (the Mind) and achieving this involves two things:

1. Self-realization:

• The complete & direct realization that one’s sense of self (sense of “I”, “I am” and “I exist”) also known as the mind (ego / self) is just a thought in consciousness (i.e. Humanist.xyz).

2. Enlightenment:

• Perceiving the insignificance & meaninglessness of every-thing (i.e. Humanist.xyz).

STEP 2 requires that a person realize enjoyment & hardship are essentially the same things - the Positive & Negative signs of imbalance.

It often takes either a lot of hardship, a lot of enjoyment or both before a person realizes that balance (Reality / Nothing) is not an experience (or Perspective), and for the enlightened, it is preferable to be outside the realm of thoughts, experiences (enjoyment & hardship) and consciousness.

This article was originally posted as a reply to one of @lordless.exile's posts and then it was posted and refined on Humanist.xyz. If you want to read more about our ideas, please visit Humanist.xyz where every human is a Humanist.

---

To Prevent, Reduce & Eliminate Suffering.

~ @chrisrice

---

About Me:

Good Evening from the Philippines

Money & Investing

1st Time - Invested in Steem

3 Mistakes to Avoid | Investing in Steem

The Bitcoin Bull Market to be continued.. AFTER THIS

Steemit / Dapps / Blockchain:

How to Make Money on Instagram (or YouTube / Twitter / Twitch / Medium)

Morality / Philosophy / Spirituality:

The Pursuit of Happiness | Better than Happiness

The Bitter-Sweet Nature of Life

---

Read More

How to Make the World a Better Place (3 Steps)

I believe everyone can make the world a better place in 3 Steps:

---

Discover Your Natural Tendencies

This can be done by taking a personality test but also requires some life experience.

Keep in mind that Personality Tests are most accurate for people who are 30 years old (and older).

---

Use Your Natural Tendencies to Benefit Yourself, Others & All of Mankind

This is easier said than done but if your goal is to benefit yourself, others and mankind (and you completed Step 1), I believe you are on the right track.

To achieve this over a lifetime is the epitome of success.

---

Prevent & Reduce Suffering (Minimize & Avoid Pleasures that Lead to Suffering)

A lot of the pleasures we seek actually create suffering. Things like eating consistent junk food, smoking cigarettes and making a living by taking advantage of others, are some of the things that give people pleasure, only to undermine their society, security and well-being over the long run.

Converting from pleasures that cause suffering to pleasures that prevent, reduce and lead to the elimination of suffering are the new good deeds of our modern world.

---

ANYONE THAT REDUCES GREATER AMOUNTS OF SUFFERING THAN THE SUFFERING THEY CREATE, IS MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

---

NOTE: All of us create suffering to an extent since all of us are consumers to an extent, and our consumption places a burden on the earth, on animals, wildlife and the rest of mankind.

---

You can comment your ideas below . . .

---

Source(s):

• You can find this answer on Musing.io
• Free Personality Test
• Photo of Children
• Photo of Guitarist
• Photo of Hands
• Photo of Question Mark

---

The prevention, reduction, and elimination of suffering makes the happiness we experience, more enjoyable, healthy and sustainable. 

~ @chrisrice

Read More

The Bitcoin Bull Market to be continued.. after this!

NOTE: This article was originally posted on March 3, 2019 via Steemit by @chrisrice.

Bitcoin technically entered a Bear Market in February of 2018 after dropping over 20% from it's All-Time High of around $20,000 USD (two months after the initial drop in price), but the overall trend spanning since 2010 may be bullish and might have remained bullish overall this entire time with the recent Bear Market being nothing more than an overly long correction before Bitcoin continues it's overall Bullish and upward trend toward $20,000 USD again and possibly higher.

If that is the case, the overall upward trend in Bitcoin might continue soon, and could cause the price of Steem to increase too (maybe even surge).

Furthermore, if the price of Bitcoin goes above the upper red line on that graph, it might be confirming this theory and could lead to a commencement in Bitcoin's current (or prior) uptrend. It might also lead to a surge in volume.

So the good times for Steemians may be near and right around the corner. This would be especially true for those of us with a stake (i.e. @kenmelendez @freedompoint @tarazkp @galenkp and @gadrian).

If you found this insight newsworthy, please Resteem, Upvote & Share this post. Some of my previous forecasts include predicting that Steem would fall to $0.25 cents before it did, based on a Head & Shoulders chart pattern, and predicting the possibility that Bitcoin could also crash.

In the case of this possible forecast, the chart is showing a Falling Wedge which could indicate that the prior and current overall trend is still up, with the commencement of the uptrend right around the corner and possibly at the door.

Nothing is guaranteed though. This isn't financial or profession advice of any kind. It is only an idea and a possibility, not necessarily true but time will tell.

P.S: @exyle also shared some technical analysis on his Steemit blog and this idea of Bitcoin being in an overall upward trend since 2010 could and possibly should be shared by people like  @aggroed @theycallmedan, @surpassinggoogle and @nathanmars.

Read More

The Pursuit of Happiness | Better than Happiness

Today I want to write about something that applies to almost everyone on Earth, and that is The Pursuit of Happiness. 

People are known to find happiness in different ways - some people acquire possessions, other people focus on relationships, and still others like to focus on health. There are also those who experience happiness through the giving of themselves, or by helping those in need. 

I am familiar with each one of these sources of happiness, and I have experienced sourcing happiness from all of them. But over time, as I aged and continued to pursue happiness, I realized that the pursuit of happiness can sometimes lead toward unneeded suffering.

I think the unneeded suffering that I am referring to, is caused when we create happiness in ways that simultaneously cause suffering (for others or ourselves), and I also think that over the long-run, this is what happens when people make happiness their ultimate objective - they create an equal, or even greater amount of suffering.

In order to ensure that our Happiness is not causing ourselves and/or others to suffer, I recommend making the prevention, reduction and long-term elimination of suffering our first priority, not happiness. 

The prevention, reduction and elimination of 
suffering makes the happiness we experience, 
more enjoyable, healthier and sustainable. 

 ~ @chrisrice

This article was originally posted on Steemit, and was written by Chris Rice.

Source(s):
- Photo of Happy Couple

- Photo of Hand Watch

Read More

Top 3 Investment Mistakes to Avoid

​All of us on Steemit have different investment backgrounds.

I personally started investing in my late teens at 18 years old. I started by investing in the stock market first and later invested in real estate, but I made mistakes. I made mistakes when I invested in stocks (late teens), and I made mistakes when I invested in real estate (mid 20's to Present).

Here are some of the mistakes I made since 2003 that you might want to avoid:

1. GOING 'ALL-IN'.

Contrary to what many believe in the crypto-currency space, it is not advisable to go All-in, in any particular investment, or even in an investment class.

Going All-in at any moment in time will prevent you from being able to average down if prices in that particular investment fall, and it can also place a burden on you mentally and emotionally - @exyle has mentioned this in his posts and it is something I am familiar with.

When a person's entire net-worth, or even anything close to it is tied to a single investment, the price swings create stress to such an extent that it becomes difficult to think about anything else, and a 10% to 50% loss can seriously harm a person, mentally, and emotionally.

In order to prevent this, I am only investing a minimal amount in Steem. It is still a good amount based on my income and savings but it isn't enough to make me feel or go crazy over a paper loss, even if the loss reaches 75% to 95%.

2. GOING ALL-IN, ALL AT ONCE.

This is another mistake I made in my late teens and I think a lot of amateurs and inexperienced investors (or speculators) make this mistake.

When you go All-in, All at Once, or even invest everything you are willing to invest all at once, you remove the ability to average down and buy lower if prices fall. This is especially true when you are investing in a stock or cypto-crytocurrency that is possibly bottoming out (i.e. Bitcoin), but could go lower.

One of the reasons why a 50% to 95% paper loss in Steem wouldn't affect me much is that I believe in the technology and I can continue to purchase a set amount AFTER prices fall 50% to 95%. I'm not saying that will happen but no one knows what will happen. I still have the temptation to invest more, and all at once, but @emaferice actually helps me with this since she is more risk-averse than I am. Sometimes having a financial adviser, or even a spouse to run ideas through can prevent us from falling into the hype that traders call FOMO (a.k.a. Fear of Missing Out).

3. UNDER-ESTIMATING THE MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENT. 

This mistake applies to the real estate I invested in while living in the Philippines. Real estate is different than stocks, since it requires maintenance - air conditioners, roofing and in the case of houses in the Philippines, even walls can break or crack and deteriorate.

I under-estimated the maintenance required for real estate and since I am poor at maintenance, I suffered the consequences.

In order to avoid maintenance, I have now chosen to avoid investments that require maintenance, excluding their tax requirements. Tax requirements is the one thing that we cannot avoid but aside from that, investing in Steem doesn't require maintenance. I hope @emaferice will remind me to avoid real estate since I love real estate but I lack the ability to maintain houses and/or condominiums.

​

Those are the Top​ 3 Investment Mistakes I made in the past, and I want to rectify those mistakes in the Present. If you have any other mistakes that you think should be listed here, comment below, and let me know if you agree with me or not!

DISCLAIMER: This is not intended as professional or financial advice of any kind. It is only my personal perspective. Do your own research and remain aware of the fact that it is easier to lose money than in is to make money when investing.

This article was posted by Chris Rice on Steemit in November of 2018.

Best of luck to you!

Source(s):
- Photo of Profit or Loss
- Photo of Clock

Read More