My wife and I watched a documentary called "Tent City" and engaged in a discussion about poverty and homelessness. It led us to agree that the problem is not exclusively the mental illness, addiction, or criminal history(because that is the visible part), but there is a particular mindset that causes them to first lose community, and then all else.

It's a mindset or paradigm that is the prison in one's thinking. Many Americans possess this, but it hasn't blossomed to it's full display yet. Consider this:

• Whether we are an "A-List" celebrity or the homeless panhandler, each of us has a certain cost to maintain our existing life.
• We all make decisions each day that either extend or exchange the life we lived yesterday.
• If those decisions are mostly defensive plays , then we live in scarcity.
• If those decisions are mostly offensive plays, then we live in abundance.
• Thus homelessness is a result of a reductionistic paradigm that has been fully expressed in a person's thinking.

I'm aware that the problem is so much more complex, but this lens allows us to see how close we may actually be to the homeless in our thinking. Hopefully it will allow us more compassion & solidarity.

I also hope it will cause us to consider that the amount of effort it takes keep our lives from that vortex, can be developed and strengthened so that greater thriving can take place in our lives.

As hard as it is for the homeless to break out, it's even harder to get to higher levels of thriving and personal performance.

If getting to the next level required twice as much from you, would you still want to grow? We all need a coach to get beyond ourselves. Better pick a good one.